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+Project Gutenberg's The Iron Trevet or Jocelyn the Champion, by Eugene Sue
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Iron Trevet or Jocelyn the Champion
+       A Tale of the Jacquerie
+
+Author: Eugene Sue
+
+Translator: Daniel De Leon
+
+Release Date: November 21, 2010 [EBook #34390]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE IRON TREVET ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images available at The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE IRON TREVET
+
+OR
+
+JOCELYN THE CHAMPION
+
+A Tale of the Jacquerie
+
+By EUGENE SUE
+
+TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL FRENCH BY
+DANIEL DE LEON
+
+NEW YORK LABOR NEWS COMPANY, 1906
+
+Copyright, 1906, by the
+NEW YORK LABOR NEWS CO.
+
+
+
+
+TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
+
+
+Etienne Marcel, John Maillart, William Caillet, Adam the Devil and
+Charles the Wicked, King of Navarre, are the five leading personages in
+this story. Their figures and actions, the virtues and foibles of the
+ones, the vices of the others, the errors of all, are drawn with strict
+historic accuracy, all the five being historic characters. Seeing the
+historic importance of the epoch in which they figured, and the types
+that these five men represent, the story of "The Iron Trevet; or,
+Jocelyn, the Champion" is more than an historic narrative, it is more
+than a treatise on the philosophy of history, it is a treatise on human
+nature, it is a compendium of lessons inestimable to whomsoever his or
+her good or evil genius throws into the clash of human currents, and to
+those who, though not themselves participants, still may wish to
+understand that which they are spectators of and which, some way or
+other, they are themselves affected by and, some way or other, are bound
+to either support or resist.
+
+In a way, "The Iron Trevet; or, Jocelyn the Champion" is the uniquest of
+the series of brilliant stories that the genius of Eugene Sue has
+enriched the world with under the collective title of "The Mysteries of
+the People"--we can recall no other instance in which so much profound
+and practical instruction is so skillfully clad in the pleasing drapery
+of fiction, and one within so small a compass.
+
+To America whose youthful years deprive her of historic perspective,
+this little story, or rather work, can not but be of service. To that
+vast English-speaking world at large, now throbbing with the pulse of
+awakening aspirations, this translation discloses another treasure
+trove, long and deliberately held closed to it in the wrappage of the
+foreign tongue in which the original appeared.
+
+DANIEL DE LEON.
+
+New York, April 13, 1904.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+Translator's Preface                                                 iii
+
+Part I.   The Seigniory of Nointel.
+
+    Chapter 1.   The Tavern of Alison the Huffy                       10
+
+    Chapter 2.   The Amende Honorable                                 26
+
+    Chapter 3.   The Tournament                                       34
+
+    Chapter 4.   The Judicial Combat                                  39
+
+    Chapter 5.   Sheet Lightenings                                    50
+
+    Chapter 6.   Prophecies and Premonitions                          58
+
+    Chapter 7.   Wrecked Hearts                                       65
+
+Part II.   The Regency of Normandy.
+
+    Chapter 1.   The States General                                   74
+
+    Chapter 2.   Etienne Marcel                                       77
+
+    Chapter 3.   The Man of the Furred Cap                            83
+
+    Chapter 4.   The Serpent Under the Grass                          97
+
+    Chapter 5.   Charles the Wicked                                  105
+
+    Chapter 6.   The Meeting at the Cordeliers                       118
+
+    Chapter 7.   Popular Justice                                     126
+
+    Chapter 8.   "The Hour Has Sounded!"                             143
+
+Part III.   The Jacquerie.
+
+    Chapter 1.    Captain Griffith and His Chaplain                  154
+
+    Chapter 2.    The Fox's Burrow                                   161
+
+    Chapter 3.   The Castle of Chivry                                175
+
+    Chapter 4.   Jacquerie! Jacquerie!                               180
+
+    Chapter 5.    The Orville Bridge                                 191
+
+    Chapter 6.   "On to Clermont!"                                   207
+
+    Chapter 7.    Clermont                                           211
+
+Part IV.   John Maillart.
+
+    Chapter 1.   The Wages of Envy                                   228
+
+    Chapter 2.   Last Day at Home                                    239
+
+    Chapter 3.   Darkening Shadows                                   247
+
+    Chapter 4.   Plotters Uncovered                                  258
+
+    Chapter 5.   The Gate of St. Antoine                             267
+
+Epilogue                                                             270
+
+
+
+
+PART I.
+
+THE SEIGNIORY OF NOINTEL.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE TAVERN OF ALISON THE HUFFY.
+
+
+On a Sunday, towards the end of the month of October of 1356, a great
+stir was noticeable since early morning in the little town of Nointel,
+situated a few leagues from the city of Beauvais, in the department of
+Beauvoisis. The tavern of Alison the Huffy--so nicknamed from her hot
+temper, although she was a good woman--was rapidly filling with
+artisans, villeins and serfs who came to wait for the hour of mass at
+the tavern, where, due to the prevailing poverty, little was drunk and
+much talked. Alison never complained. As talkative as huffy, dame Alison
+preferred to see her tavern full with chatterers than empty of tipplers.
+Still fresh and buxom, though on the shady side of thirty, she wore a
+short skirt and low bodice--probably because her bust was well rounded
+and her limbs well shaped. Black of hair, bright of eyes, white of
+teeth, and quick of hands, more than once since her widowhood, had
+Alison broken a bumper over the head of some customer, whom liquor had
+rendered too expressive in his admiration for her charms. Accordingly,
+like a prudent housekeeper, she had taken the precaution of replacing
+her earthenware bumpers with pewter ones. That morning the dame seemed
+to be in a particular huffy mood, judging by her rumpling brows, her
+brusque motions, and her sharp and cross words.
+
+Presently, the door of the tavern was darkened and in stepped a man of
+vigorous age, with an angular and sun-burnt face, whose only striking
+features were two little, piercing, crafty and savage eyes half hidden
+under his eyebrows thick and grizzly like his hair, that escaped in
+disorder from under his old woolen cap. He had traveled a long distance;
+his wooden shoes, shabby cloth leggings and patched smock-frock were
+covered with dust. He was noticeably tired; it was with difficulty that
+he moved his limbs with the support of a knotted stick. Hardly inside
+the tavern, the serf, whose name was William Caillet, let himself down
+heavily upon a bench, immediately placing his elbows on his knees and
+his head upon his hands. Alison the Huffy, already out of humor, as
+stated, called to him sharply:
+
+"What do you want here? I do not know you. If you want to drink, pay; if
+not, off with you!"
+
+"In order to drink, money is needed; I have none," answered William
+Caillet; "allow me to rest on this bench, good woman."
+
+"My tavern is no lazar-house," replied Alison; "be gone, you vagabond!"
+
+"Come now, hostess, we have never seen you in such a bad humor," put in
+one of the customers; "let the poor man rest; we invite him to a
+bumper."
+
+"Thank you," answered the serf with a somber gesture and shaking his
+head; "I'm not thirsty."
+
+"If you do not drink you have no business here," the buxom tavern-keeper
+was saying when a voice, hailing from without, called: "Where is the
+hostess ... where is she ... a thousand bundles of demons! Is there no
+one here to take my horse? Our throats are dry and our tongues hanging
+out. Ho, there, hostess, attend to us!"
+
+The arrival of a rider, always a good omen for a hostlery, drew Alison
+away from her anger. She called her maid servant while herself ran to
+the door to answer the impatient traveler, who, his horse's bridle in
+hand, continued finding fault, although good-naturedly. The new arrival
+was about twenty-four years of age; the visor of his somewhat rusty
+casque, wholly raised, exposed to view a pleasant face, the left cheek
+of which was furrowed with a deep scar. Thanks to his Herculean build,
+his heavy cuirass of tarnished iron, but still usable, seemed not to
+press him any more than a coat of cloth. His coat of mail, newly patched
+in several places, fell half over his thigh-armor, made, like his
+greaves, of iron, the latter of which were hidden within the large
+traveling boots. From his shoulder-strap hung a long sword, from his
+belt a sharp dagger of the class called "mercy". His mace, which
+consisted of a thick cudgel an arm long, terminating in three little
+iron chains riveted to a ball seven or eight pounds heavy, hung from the
+pommel of the rider's saddle, together with his steel-studded and ribbed
+buckler. Three reserve wooden lance shafts, tied together, and the
+points of which rested in a sort of leather bonnet, adjusted to the
+strap of one of his stirrups, were held up straight along the saddle,
+behind which a sheep-skin satchel was attached. The horse was large and
+vigorous. Its head, neck, chest and part of its crupper were protected
+by an iron caparison--a heavy armor that the robust animal carried as
+easily as its master wore his.
+
+Responding to the redoubled calls of the traveler, Alison the Huffy ran
+out with her maid and said in bitter-sweet voice: "Here I am, Sir. Hein!
+If ever you are canonized, it will not be, I very much fear, under the
+invocation of St. Patience!"
+
+"By the bowels of the Pope, my fair hostess, your pretty black eyes and
+pink cheeks could never be seen too soon. As sure as your garter could
+serve you for a belt, the prettiest girl of Paris, where I come from,
+could not be compared to you. By Venus and Cupid, you are the pearl of
+hostesses."
+
+"You come from Paris, Sir Knight!" said Alison with joyful surprise,
+being at once flattered by the compliments of the traveler, and proud of
+having a guest from Paris, the great city. "You really come from Paris?"
+
+"Yes, truly. But tell me, am I rightly informed? Is there to be a
+passage of arms to-day, here in the valley of Nointel?"
+
+"Yes, Sir; you arrive in time. The tourney is to begin soon; right after
+mass."
+
+"Well, then, my pretty hostess, while I take my horse to the stable to
+have him well fed, you will prepare a good repast for myself, and, to
+the end that it may taste all the better, you will share it with me
+while we chat together. There is much information that I need from you;"
+and raising his coat of mail to enable him to reach his leather purse,
+the rider took from it a piece of silver. Giving it to Alison, he said
+gaily: "Here is payment in advance for my score. I am none of your
+strollers, so frequent in these days, who pay their host with sword
+thrusts and by plundering his house;" but noticing that Alison examined
+the piece before putting it in her pocket, he added laughing: "Accept
+that coin as I did, with eyes shut. The devil take it, only King John
+and his minter know what the piece is worth, and whether it contains
+more lead than it does silver!"
+
+"Oh, Sir Knight, is it not terrible to think that our master, the King,
+is an inveterate false-coiner? What times these are! We are borne down
+with taxes, and we never know the value of what we have!"
+
+"True. But I wager, my pretty hostess, that your lover is in no such
+annoying ignorance.... Come, you will have overcome your modest blushes
+by the time your maid has shown me the way to the stable, after which
+you will make my breakfast ready. But you must share it with me; that's
+understood."
+
+"As you please, Sir Knight," answered Alison, more and more charmed with
+the jolly temper of the stranger. Accordingly, she hastened to busy
+herself with the preparations for the meal, and in a short time spread
+upon one of the tables of the tavern a toothsome dish of bacon in green
+fennel, flanked with fried eggs, cheese and a mug of foaming beer.
+
+The serf, William Caillet, now forgotten by the hostess, his forehead
+resting on both his hands, seemed lost to what went on around him, and
+kept his seat on a bench not far from the table at which presently
+Alison and the traveler took theirs. Back from the stable, the latter
+relieved himself of his casque, dagger and sword, laying them down near
+to himself, and proceeded to do honor to the repast.
+
+"Sir Knight," said Alison, "you come from Paris? What fine stories you
+will have to tell!"
+
+"Mercy, pretty hostess, do not call me 'Sir Knight.' I belong to the
+working class, not the nobility. My name is Jocelyn. My father is a
+book-seller, and I am a _champion_[1] as my battle-harness attests to
+you;--and here I am at your service."
+
+"Can it be!" exclaimed Alison, joining her hands in glad astonishment,
+"you are a fighting champion?"
+
+"Yes, and I have not yet lost a single case, as you may judge from my
+right hand not yet being cut off--a penalty reserved for all champions
+who are vanquished in a judicial duel. Although often wounded, I have at
+least always rendered a Roland for my adversary's Oliver. I learned in
+Paris that there was to be a tourney here and thinking that, as usual,
+it would be followed or preceded by some judicial combat, where I might
+represent the appellant or the appellee, I came to the place on a
+venture. Now, then, as a tavern-keeper, you are surely informed
+thereon."
+
+"Oh, Sir champion! It is heaven that sends you. There will surely be
+need of you."
+
+"Heaven, I am of the opinion, mixes but little in my concerns. Let us
+leave Gog and Magog to settle their affairs among themselves."
+
+"You should know that, unfortunately, I have a process. I admit that I
+am in great trouble."
+
+"You, my pretty hostess?"
+
+"It is now three months ago that I lent twelve florins to Simon the
+Hirsute. When I asked him for the money, the mean thief denied the debt.
+We went before the seneschal. I maintained what I said; Simon maintained
+his side. There were no witnesses either for or against us, and as the
+amount involved was above five sous, the seneschal ordered a judicial
+battle. But who would take my part?"
+
+"And you have found nobody to be your champion against Simon the
+Hirsute?"
+
+"Alas, no! By reason of his strength and his wickedness the fellow is
+feared all over this country. No one would venture to fight with him."
+
+"Well, my pretty hostess, you can count with me. I shall fight him as
+well for the sake of your pretty eyes as for the sake of your cause."
+
+"Oh, my cause is good, Sir champion. It is as true that I lent Simon the
+Hirsute those twelve florins as.... I'll tell you how it was--"
+
+"You need say no more. A pretty mouth like yours would not fib.
+Moreover, I'm in the habit of placing confidence in what my clients tell
+me. What is wanted is, not solid reasons, but rude blows with the sword,
+the lance or the mace. Thus, so long as this right fist is not cut off,
+it will offer arguments more conclusive than the subtlest ones of the
+most famous jurists."
+
+"I must not conceal from you the fact that that thief of a Simon has
+been an archer. He is a dangerous man. Everybody is afraid of him."
+
+"Pretty hostess, there is another custom I have when I am to plead a
+case. I never inquire how my adversary fights. In that way I never form
+in advance a plan of attack, frequently frustrated in practice. I have a
+quick and correct eye. Once on the arena, I size up my man, fall to, and
+decide on the spot whether to thrust or to cut. I have ever
+congratulated myself on this manner of pleading. You may rely upon me.
+The tourney does not open till noon; my arms are in good condition and
+my horse is eating his provender. Let's drink a glass: Long live joy, my
+pretty hostess! and good luck to the good cause!"
+
+"Oh, helpful champion! If you gain my process I shall give you three
+florins. It would not be paying too much for the pleasure of seeing the
+scamp of a Simon the Hirsute brought to grief!"
+
+"Agreed! If I gain your process you will give me three florins and a
+smacking kiss for good measure, if you like!... Agreed?"
+
+"Oh, Sir, such things are not said."
+
+"Well, then, I shall give you the smacking kiss, seeing the other plan
+embarrasses you. But by all the devils, your forehead remains troubled.
+Why so? You needed a champion, and heaven--as you said--sends you one
+who is impatient to sail into the thief, and yet your pretty forehead
+keeps its wrinkles!"
+
+"I should be satisfied, and yet my heart is heavy. I want to tell you
+all about it."
+
+"Have you, perchance, some other process, or some unfaithful lover? You
+may speak freely to me."
+
+Alison remained for a moment sad and silent, whereupon she resumed with
+painful voice.
+
+"Sir champion, you come from Paris; you must be very learned. Perhaps
+you may render a service to a poor lad who is much to be pitied, and who
+also must himself do battle to-day in a judicial duel, but under very
+sad circumstances."
+
+"Explain yourself. What is the matter?"
+
+"In this country of Nointel, when a female serf or bourgeois marries,
+the seigneur, if it please him, is entitled to ... the first night of
+his female vassal. They call it the 'right of first fruits.' ... At
+least do not laugh!"
+
+"Laugh! Not by the devil!" answered Jocelyn, whose face suddenly
+overspread with somberness. "Oh, you recall to my mind a melancholy
+affair. A short while ago I had to plead a case on the arena near
+Amiens. Crossing a village, I saw a gathering of serfs. Upon inquiry I
+learned that one of the peasants of the group, a butcher attached to the
+fief of the bishopric, had married that very morning a handsome girl of
+the parish. The bishop, in the exercise of his right, sent for the bride
+to take her to his bed. The serf answered the episcopal bailiff, charged
+with the mission: 'My wife is in my hut, I shall bring her out to you';
+and coming back a few instants later said to him: 'My wife is a little
+bashful, she does not like to come out, go in and bring her out
+yourself.' The bailiff went into the hut, and what does he find? The
+unhappy girl lying in a pool of blood; she was dead."
+
+"Good God! What a shocking story!"
+
+"In order to ransom her from dishonor, her husband had killed her with a
+blow of his axe."
+
+At these words, William Caillet, who until then had remained indifferent
+to the conversation between Alison and Jocelyn, shook convulsively,
+raised his savage face and listened, while, tears streaming from her
+eyes, Alison cried: "Oh, poor woman! To be thus killed! What a terrible
+resolution must not have seized her husband to resort to such a
+frightful extreme!"
+
+"Resolute men are rare."
+
+"Alas, Sir champion. Those who, degraded by serfdom, remain indifferent
+to such ignominy are perhaps less to be pitied than those who resent
+it."
+
+"But most of them do resent it," cried Jocelyn. "In vain do the
+seigneurs seek to reduce these ill-starred beings to the state of
+brutes. Are not even among wild beasts the males seen to defend their
+females unto death? Does not man, however coarse, however brutified,
+however craven he may be, fire up with jealousy the moment he loves? Is
+not love the only possession left to the serfs, the only solace in their
+misery? Blood and death! I grow savage at the mere thought of the rage
+and despair of a serf at the sight of the humble companion of his
+cheerless days sullied forever by a seigneur! By the navel of Satan, by
+the horns of Moses, the thought of it exasperates me!"
+
+"Oh, Sir," said Alison with tears in her eyes, "your words tell the
+story of that poor Mazurec, the young man I was about to tell you of."
+
+William Caillet again shook convulsively at the sound of the name of
+Mazurec, and leaped up, but controlling himself by dint of a violent
+effort, he resumed his seat, and lent increased attention to what was
+said by Alison and Jocelyn, who himself seemed greatly struck by the
+name of Mazurec, that his hostess had just pronounced.
+
+"The serf's name is Mazurec?" he inquired, visibly affected.
+
+"Yes, Sir. Why does the name surprise you?"
+
+"It is one of my own father's given names. Do you know the age of the
+young fellow?"
+
+"He can be no more than twenty years; his mother, who has long been
+dead, was not of this neighborhood."
+
+"Whence came she?"
+
+"I could not tell you that. She arrived here shortly before the birth of
+Mazurec. She begged her bread. Our neighbor the miller of the Gallion
+mill, took pity upon her. His own wife had died in childbed about two
+months before. The name of Mazurec's mother was Gervaise."
+
+"Gervaise?" repeated Jocelyn, seeming to interrogate his memory, "was
+her name Gervaise?"
+
+"Yes, Sir champion. She was so pleasing and sweet to the eyes of the
+miller that he said to himself: 'She must soon be brought to bed; if she
+is willing, she shall be nurse to both my child and her own.' And so it
+was. Gervaise brought up the two boys. She was so industrious and of so
+good a character that the miller kept her as a servant. Then a
+misfortune happened. The Count of Beaumont declared war to the Sire of
+Nointel. That is now five years ago. The miller was compelled to follow
+his seigneur to war. During that time the men of Beaumont raided the
+place, burning and sacking. They set fire to the mill where Gervaise was
+left with the two children. She perished in the flames, together with
+the miller's child. Mazurec alone escaped miraculously. Out of pity my
+husband and I took him in."
+
+"You are a worthy woman, my hostess. I shall have to cut the throat of
+Simon the Hirsute."
+
+"Do not praise me too much, Sir champion. The hardest heart would have
+taken an interest in Mazurec. He was the sweetest and best child in the
+world. His goodness and mildness won for him the name of Mazurec the
+Lambkin."
+
+"And did he make good the promise of his name?"
+
+"He was a real lamb. All night long he cried for his mother and his
+foster brother. By day he helped us, according to his strength, in
+whatever work we had in hand. When the war closed our neighbor the
+miller did not come back. He had been killed. The Sire of Nointel had
+the burnt-down mill rebuilt. God only knows what taxes he imposed upon
+us, his vassals, to indemnify himself for the expenses of his campaign
+against the seigneur of Beaumont. Mazurec took service under the new
+miller. Every Sunday, on his way to church, Mazurec stopped here to
+thank us for our kindness towards him. There is no more grateful heart
+than his. And now I'll tell you how his misfortune came about.
+Occasionally he was sent by the miller with bags of flour to the village
+of Cramoisy, about three leagues from here, where the Sire of Nointel
+has established a fortified post. In that village--poor Mazurec has made
+me his confidante--he often saw, seated at the door of her hut, a
+beautiful young girl, spinning at her wheel; other times he met her
+pasturing her cow along the green borders of the road. This young girl
+was known as Aveline-who-never-lied. She had a heart of gold."
+
+"And these two folks loved each other?"
+
+"Indeed! They loved each other passionately. And they were well
+matched."
+
+William Caillet listened to Alison's narrative with redoubled attention.
+Unable, to keep back a tear that rolled down his emaciated cheeks, he
+wiped it off with the back of his hand. The tavern-keeper proceeded:
+
+"Mazurec was a serf of the same seigniory with Aveline and her father.
+The latter consented to the marriage. The bailiff of the Sire of Nointel
+in the absence of his master, also gave his consent. Everything was
+moving smoothly along, and often did Mazurec say to me: 'Dame Alison,
+what a pity that my mother cannot witness our happiness!'"
+
+"But how came these happy hopes to be destroyed, my pretty hostess?"
+
+"You know, Sir, that, if the seigneur is willing, the vassals can ransom
+themselves of the infamous right that we spoke of a few minutes ago. So
+did my deceased husband, without which I would have remained single all
+my life. Aveline's father had a cow for only earthly possession. He sold
+that, preferring to forfeit the animal that furnished him with food,
+rather than to see his adored daughter dishonored by the Sire of
+Nointel. The day of the bethrothal Mazurec went to the castle to deliver
+to the bailiff the price of the bride's redemption. Unfortunately, the
+bailiff happened to be away. The bridegroom returned to Aveline, and her
+father decided that they should be married the next morning, and that
+immediately after the mass Mazurec should return to the castle to ransom
+his wife. The marriage took place, and, according to custom, the bride
+remained locked up at the vicarage until the husband could show his
+letter of redemption."
+
+"Yes," observed Jocelyn. "And it therefore often happens that, to escape
+the disgrace, brides yield themselves to their intended husbands before
+marriage. No more than just, under the circumstances."
+
+"But too true; and often also the men thereupon leave the poor girl and
+do not marry her. But neither Mazurec nor Aveline entertained such evil
+thoughts. In possession of the needed sum for the ransom, he only asked
+to acquit himself honestly. After the mass, Mazurec returned to the
+castle, carrying the money in a purse suspended from his belt. On the
+road he met a knight who inquired for the way to Nointel; and, would you
+believe it, Sir? while Mazurec was giving him the directions, the scamp
+of a knight stooped down in the saddle as if to adjust the strap of his
+stirrup, snatched the purse from poor Mazurec, and, spurring his horse,
+galloped off."
+
+"There are hundreds of such thefts committed. The knights look upon them
+as mere feats of knighthood. But they are infamous acts!"
+
+"Mazurec, left behind distracted, vainly ran after the thief. He lost
+sight of him. An hour later he arrived breathless at the castle, threw
+himself at the feet of the bailiff, told him of his mishap, and with
+tears in his eyes demanded justice against the thief. The Sire of
+Nointel, who had arrived at his manor that very morning from Paris,
+accompanied by several friends, happened to cross the corridor at the
+very time that Mazurec was imploring the bailiff's help. The Sire of
+Nointel, informed of the occurrence, asked, laughing, whether the bride
+was pretty. 'There is none prettier in your domain, Sire', answered the
+bailiff. Suddenly, his eyes falling upon one of the knights of the
+Sire's suite, Mazurec cried: 'It is he who robbed me of my purse, only
+an hour ago!' 'Miserable serf', thundered the seigneur, 'dare you charge
+one of my guests with robbery? You lie!'"
+
+"Without a doubt the thievish knight denied the robbery."
+
+"Yes, Sir, and Mazurec, on his side, still insisted. Thereupon, after a
+whispered conversation with the bailiff and the knight who was accused
+of the robbery, the Sire of Nointel gave this decision: 'One of my
+equerries, escorted by several men-at-arms, shall forthwith proceed to
+the vicarage and conduct the bride here. According to my right, I shall
+spend the night with her. To-morrow morning she may be returned to that
+vassal. As to the charge of robbery, that he has the effrontery to
+prefer against a noble knight, the knight demands the trial of arms, and
+if, although defeated, this vile varlet survives the battle, he shall
+be tied up in a bag and cast into the river as the defamer of a knight.
+Let justice take its course.'"
+
+"Oh!" cried Jocelyn, "the unhappy lad is lost. The knight is the
+appellant, as such he has the right to fight on horseback and in full
+armor, against the serf in a smock-frock and with a stick for only
+weapon."
+
+"Alas, Sir! As you see I had good reasons for being heavy at heart. Poor
+Mazurec thought less on the battle than on his bride. He threw himself
+sobbing at the feet of his seigneur, and beseeched him not to dishonor
+Aveline. And do you know what answer the Sire of Nointel made to him?
+'Jacques Bonhomme'[2]--that's the title of derision that the nobles give
+their serfs--'Jacques Bonhomme, my friend, I have two reasons for
+spending this night with your wife: first, because, as they say, she is
+quite comely; and second, because that will be the punishment for your
+insolence to charge one of my guests with larceny.' At these words
+Mazurec the Lambkin became Mazurec the Wolf. He threw himself furiously
+upon his seigneur, meaning to strangle him. But the knights who stood by
+felled the poor serf to the floor, pinioned him and thrust him into a
+dungeon. Can anything exceed such cruelty? Add to that that the Sire of
+Nointel is himself betrothed to be married; his bride, the noble damosel
+Gloriande of Chivry, is to be the queen of the tourney about to take
+place."
+
+"Shame!" cried Jocelyn, his cheeks aflame with indignation, and
+furiously striking the table with his Herculean fist. "An end must be
+put to these horrors! They cry for vengeance! They cry for blood!"
+
+"Oh! There will be blood!" whispered a hollow voice in the ear of
+Jocelyn. "Floods of blood! The torch and the axe will do their office";
+and feeling a strange hand pressing on his shoulder, the champion
+turned quickly around. Before him stood William Caillet.
+
+"What do you want?" asked the young man, struck by the sinister and
+desperate looks of the peasant. "What do you want of me? Who are you?"
+
+"I am the father of Mazurec's wife."
+
+"You, poor man?" cried the hostess with pity. "Oh! I regret to have been
+rude to you. Pardon me, poor father. Alas, what have you come here for?"
+
+"For my daughter," answered William; and he added with a frightful
+smile: "She will be now returned to me; the night is over; the infamous
+dues are paid."
+
+"My God! My God!" rejoined Alison, unable to repress her tears. "And
+when we think that poor Mazurec is a prisoner at the castle, and that
+this morning, before mass, he is to make the 'amende honorable' on his
+knees before the Sire of Nointel--"
+
+"He! Is he to be subjected to that further indignity?" cried Jocelyn,
+interrupting his hostess. "And what is he to apologize for?"
+
+"Alas, Sir champion!" answered Alison, "I have not yet told you the end
+of the adventure. While Mazurec was being taken to prison, the bailiff
+went for Aveline at the vicarage and brought her to the castle. She
+resisted her seigneur with all her strength. He then laughed in her face
+and said: 'Ho! you resist me! Very well. I shall now have the pleasure
+of exercising my right by judicial decree. It will be a good lesson to
+Jacques Bonhomme.' He thereupon had the bride taken to a cell, and
+lodged a complaint against her in the court of the seneschal at
+Beauvais. Seeing that the law recognizes the right of a seigneur over
+his female vassals, the court gave its decree accordingly. It is in the
+name of justice that the wretched Aveline was violated last night by our
+seigneur; it is in the name of justice that Mazurec is sentenced to beg
+the pardon of his seigneur for having intended to oppose him in the
+exercise of his seigniorial right; it is in the name of justice that,
+after this public expiation, Mazurec is to fight the thief of a knight."
+
+"Aye," put in William Caillet, clenching his fists; "Mazurec is to fight
+on foot and armed with a stick against his robber, covered with iron ...
+Mazurec will be vanquished and killed, or, if he survive, will be
+drowned. I shall try to fish out his body and bury him in some hole ...
+Then I shall take away my daughter ... She is to be returned to me this
+morning, and who knows but in nine months I may be the grandfather of a
+noble brat!" After a short pause the peasant resumed with a sinister and
+chilling smile: "Oh! If that child should live ... if it should
+live...." But he did not finish his sentence. For a moment he remained
+silent; then, laying his horny right hand upon the shoulder of Jocelyn,
+he approached the young man's ear and added in a low voice: "Shortly ago
+you said an end must be put to these horrors, they call for blood!"
+
+"Yes, and I say so again. These horrors cry for vengeance! They cry for
+the death and destruction of our oppressors!"
+
+"He who says that aloud is a man who will act," replied the serf
+fastening his small, savage and piercing eyes upon the champion. "If the
+time for action arrives, remember William Caillet ... of the village of
+Cramoisy, near Clermont."
+
+"I shall not forget your name," Jocelyn returned in a low voice to
+Caillet, and clasped his hand. "The hour of justice and vengeance may
+sound sooner than you think, especially if there are many serfs like
+you!"
+
+"There are," rejoined the peasant in the same low voice. "Jacques
+Bonhomme is on his feet. We are preparing a general uprising."
+
+"It was to assure myself regarding that that I rode into this region,"
+whispered Jocelyn in the ear of Caillet, without being heard by Alison.
+"Silence and courage! The day of reprisal is at hand."
+
+More and more agreeably surprised at meeting in Jocelyn an unexpected
+ally, the peasant did not remove his penetrating eyes from the young
+man. Habituated by servitude to mistrust, he feared to be deceived by
+the promises of an unknown person. Suddenly the chimes of the church of
+Nointel fell upon their ears. Alison shivered. "Oh!" said she, "I shall
+not have the courage to witness the ceremony!"
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Jocelyn, while the men who had gathered in the
+tavern trooped out precipitately, saying: "Let us hasten to the parvise
+of the church.... One should see everything there is to be seen...."
+
+"They are going to witness the 'amende honorable' of poor Mazurec,"
+answered Alison.
+
+"I shall have more courage than you, my good hostess," said Jocelyn
+taking up his sword and casque, and looking for William Caillet, who,
+however, had disappeared. "I shall witness that sad ceremony because,
+for more reasons than one, the fate of Mazurec interests me. The tourney
+will not begin until after mass; I shall have time to return for my
+horse so as to have myself forthwith entered by the judge-at-arms as
+your defender against Simon the Hirsute."
+
+"My God, Sir! Is there, then, no way to prevent the judicial duel of
+poor Mazurec?... It means death to him!"
+
+"If he declines the battle he will be drowned; such is the law of our
+feudal lords. But I hope I may be able to give Mazurec some good advice.
+I shall try and speak to him. Wait for me here, my pretty hostess, and
+do not lose hope."
+
+Saying this, Jocelyn wended his steps towards the parvise of the
+church.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE "AMENDE HONORABLE".
+
+
+The church of Nointel rose at one end of a spacious square, into which
+two tortuous streets ran out. The houses, most of which were constructed
+of wood, sculptured with no little art, were topped with slated roofs,
+pointed and deeply inclined. Some of these domiciles were ornamented
+with balconies, where on this morning numerous spectators stood crowded.
+Thanks to his athletic physique, Jocelyn succeeded without much trouble
+to reach the edge of the parvise, where, among a number of knights,
+stood the Sire of Nointel, a tall young man of haughty and scoffing
+mien, whose reddish blonde hair was curled like a woman's. He wore,
+according to the fashion of the time, a richly embroidered short velvet
+tunic, and silk hose of two different colors. The left side of his
+clothing was red, the other yellow. His shoes, made of tender cordwain,
+tapered upward like a gilded ram's horn. From his half red, half yellow
+velvet bonnet, ornamented with a chain of precious stones, waved a tuft
+of ostrich feathers--altogether a head-gear of exorbitant value. The
+friends of the Sire of Nointel were, like himself, dressed in
+parti-colored garb. Behind this brilliant company, stood the pages and
+equerries of the seigneur carrying his colors. One of them held his
+banner, emblazoned with three eagle's talons on a red background. At the
+sight of that device, the designation of the house of Neroweg, the
+hereditary enemy of his own family, Jocelyn shuddered, astonishment
+seized him, he became profoundly pensive. The rasping voice of a royal
+notary drew Jocelyn from his reverie. Stepping forward to the front of
+the parvise, the notary three times called for silence, and then, amidst
+the profound stillness of the crowd, he proceeded to read:
+
+     "Whereas the charter and statute on the right of first fruits vests
+     in the seigneur of the lands and seigniory of Nointel, Loury,
+     Berteville, Cramoisy, Saint-Leu and other places the privilege of
+     demanding the first wedded day of all the maids _who are not
+     noble_, and who shall marry in said seigniory, after which the said
+     seigneur shall no longer touch the said married woman, and shall
+     leave her to her husband;
+
+     "And whereas, on the eleventh day of this month,
+     Aveline-who-never-lied, a female serf of the parish of Cramoisy,
+     was married to Mazurec the Lambkin, a miller serf at the Gallion
+     mill;
+
+     "And whereas, our young, high, noble and puissant seigneur, Conrad
+     Neroweg, knight and seigneur of the said seigniory herein above
+     mentioned, having wished to exercise his right of first fruits on
+     the said Aveline-who-never-lied, and the said Mazurec the Lambkin,
+     her husband, having sought to oppose himself thereto by using
+     unseemly words towards the said seigneur, and the said married
+     woman having been required to submit to the said right and having
+     obstinately refused, the said seigneur, by reason of the
+     disobedience of the said married couple and their unseemly words,
+     caused them both to be separately imprisoned and filed a criminal
+     bill with his worship the seneschal of Beauvoisis notifying him of
+     the above occurrences;
+
+     "And whereas, an inquest was made in writing and by the summoning
+     of witnesses upon the ancient right and custom in order to
+     ascertain and establish that the said seigneur of Nointel has the
+     said right to the first fruits; and the information being gathered
+     and inquest made, a sentence was rendered by the court of the
+     seneschal of Beauvoisis, as follows, word by word:"
+
+Clenching his fists with rage, Jocelyn observed to himself: "Can law,
+can justice consecrate such infamy! To what human power can these
+wretched vassals appeal in their despair? Oh, the martyrs of so many
+centuries can not fail to demand heavy reprisals!"
+
+The royal notary proceeded to read:
+
+     "The case of the young, high, noble and puissant Conrad Neroweg,
+     seigneur of Nointel and other seigniories, reclaimer of the right
+     of first fruits upon all maids, not noble, who marry in the said
+     seigniory, the party of the one part, and Aveline-who-never-lied,
+     recently married to Mazurec the Lambkin, refuser of the said right,
+     the party of the other part; and the said seigneur of Nointel, also
+     claimant in reparation and chastisement for the unseemly words
+     pronounced by the said Mazurec the Lambkin. The court of the
+     seneschal of Beauvoisis, in view of the criminal charges of the
+     said seigneur and the information and inquests taken, rendering
+     justice to the parties concerned, says and declares that _the said
+     seigneur is well grounded in law and in reason in claiming the
+     first fruits from all maids, not noble, married in his seigniory;_
+     and by reason of that which is declared herein above, the said
+     court has sentenced and now condemns the said
+     Aveline-who-never-lied and the said Mazurec the Lambkin _to render
+     obedience to the said seigneur in what concerns his right of the
+     first fruits_; and concerning the unseemly words that the said
+     Mazurec the Lambkin pronounced against his seigneur, the _said
+     court has sentenced and now sentences him to apologise to said
+     seigneur and, with one knee on the ground, his head bare, and his
+     hands crossed over his breast, to pray his mercy in the presence of
+     all who were assembled at his wedding_. And, furthermore, the said
+     court orders that the present sentence shall be announced by a
+     royal notary or beadle in front of the church of the said
+     seigniory."
+
+The decree, which confirmed and consecrated through the organs of law
+and justice the most execrable of all the feudal laws, produced
+different emotions in the surrounding crowd. Some, stupefied with
+terror, misery and ignorance, cowardly resigned to a disgrace that their
+fathers had been subjected to and was reserved for their own children,
+seemed amazed at the resistance that Mazurec had offered; others, who,
+due to a sentiment, if not of love, yet of dignity, prized themselves
+happy that, thanks to their money, the ugliness of their wives, or the
+accidental absence of the seigneur, they had been able to escape the
+ignominy, imagined themselves in the place of the condemned man and were
+somewhat moved with pity for him; finally, the larger number, married or
+not, serfs, villeins or townsmen, felt violent indignation, hardly
+repressed by fear. Hollow murmurs ran through the crowd at the last
+words of the notary. But all these sentiments soon made place for those
+of anguish and compassion when, led by the seigneur's men-at-arms, the
+condemned man appeared at the portico of the church. Mazurec was about
+twenty years of age, and the benignity of his face and the mildness of
+his nature had earned him the name of Lambkin. On that day, however, he
+seemed transfigured by misfortune and despair. His physiognomy was
+savage and pinched, his clothes in tatters, his face livid, his eyes
+fixed and red with tears and sleeplessness, his hair tumbling--all
+imparted to him a frightful appearance. Two men-at-arms unbound the
+prisoner, and pressing heavily upon his shoulders forced him to drop
+upon his knees before the Sire of Nointel, who together with his
+friends, laughed outright at the abject submission of Jacques Bonhomme.
+Presently the royal notary said in a loud voice:
+
+"The reparation and amende honorable of the condemned man to his
+seigneur must have for witness those who assisted at the marriage of
+Mazurec. Let them come forward."
+
+At these words, Jocelyn the Champion saw William Caillet and another
+robust serf, called Adam the Devil, step from the front ranks of the
+crowd. To judge by the perspiration that bathed his bony and tired face,
+the latter had just run a long distance. Struck, at first, by the
+determined mien of Adam the Devil, Jocelyn saw him, as well as his
+friend William Caillet, suddenly metamorphose himself, so to speak.
+Affecting dullness and humble timidity, dropping their eyes, doubling
+their backs, and dragging their legs, both doffed their caps with a
+pitiful air as they approached the royal notary. Caillet saluted him by
+twice bowing to the earth with his arms across his breast and saying in
+a trembling voice:
+
+"Pardon ... excuse ... Sir, if we, I and my companion, come alone. The
+other witnesses of the wedding, Michael-kill-bread and Big Peter, they
+have just been laid up with the fever which they caught draining the
+swamp of our good seigneur. Their teeth are clattering and they are
+shaking on the straw. That's why they have not been able to come to
+town. I am William, the father of the bride; this is my companion, Adam,
+who witnessed the wedding."
+
+"These witnesses will suffice, I think, for the amende honorable, will
+they not, seigneur?" said the notary to the Sire of Nointel. The latter
+answered with an affirmative nod of the head, while continuing to laugh
+aloud with his friends at the stupid and timorous appearance of the two
+boors. All the while, on his knees a few paces from his seigneur,
+Mazurec could not repress his tears at the sight of Aveline's father;
+they rolled down slowly from his inflamed eyes while the notary
+addressed him, saying: "Cross your hands over your chest, and raise your
+eyes to heaven."
+
+The condemned man clenched his fists with rage and did not follow the
+notary's orders.
+
+"Ho! pshaw!" cried William Caillet, addressing Mazurec in a reproachful
+tone. "Don't you hear what this kind gentleman says? He told you to
+cross your two hands, in this way ... look ... this way ... look at me
+..."
+
+These last words, "look at me," were pronounced by the peasant with such
+force that Mazurec raised his head, and understood the meaning of the
+rapid glance that Caillet darted at him. Quickly obeying the orders of
+the notary, the condemned man crossed his arms on his breast.
+
+"Now," proceeded the scribe, "raise your head towards our seigneur and
+repeat my words: 'Seigneur, I humbly repent having had the audacity of
+using unseemly words towards you.'"
+
+The serf hesitated a moment, and then, overcoming his aversion with a
+violent effort, he repeated in a hollow voice: "Seigneur, I humbly
+repent having had the audacity of ... using ... unseemly words ...
+towards you."
+
+"Further," pursued the notary, "I repent no less humbly, my seigneur, of
+having wickedly wished to oppose your exercise of your right of the
+first fruits upon one of your female vassals, whom I took for my wife."
+
+Mazurec's resignation had reached the end of its tether. The notary's
+last words, recalled to the unhappy man's mind the infamous violence
+that the sweet maid whom he tenderly loved had been made a victim of; he
+uttered a heart-rending cry, hid his face in his hands and, convulsed
+with sobs, fell forward with his face on the ground. At that spectacle,
+Jocelyn, whose indignation threatened to overpower his prudence, was
+about to leap forward, when he again heard the cry of William Caillet.
+Stooping down to Mazurec as if to help him rise, he said two words in
+his ears so as to be heard by none others, and continued aloud: "Ho!
+Pshaw!... What ails you?... Why do you weep, my boy?... You are told
+that our good seigneur will pardon your fault when you shall have
+repeated the words that you are ordered to.... Go ahead.... Fling them
+out quickly, those words!"
+
+With his face bathed in tears and a smile of the damned, Mazurec
+repeated these words after the notary had told them over again: "I
+repent no less humbly, my seigneur, having wickedly wished to oppose
+your exercise of your right of the first fruits upon one of your female
+vassals, whom I took for my wife."
+
+"In repentance of which, my seigneur," pursued the notary, "I humbly
+place myself at your mercy."
+
+"In repentance of which, my seigneur," stammered Mazurec in a fainting
+voice, "I humbly place myself at your mercy."
+
+"Be it so," responded the Sire of Nointel with a haughty and flippant
+air. "I grant you mercy. But you shall not be set free until after
+having rendered satisfaction in a judicial duel, to which you are
+summoned by my guest Gerard of Chaumontel, a nobleman, whom you have
+outrageously defamed by accusing him of larceny." Turning thereupon to
+one of his equerries: "Let the peasant be guarded until the hour of the
+tourney, and let the daughter be delivered to her father;" and stepping
+away with his friends towards the door of the church, the young seigneur
+said to them, laughing: "The lesson will do Jacques Bonhomme good. Do
+you know, gentlemen, that that stupid pack has of late been pricking up
+its ears and commenced to bridle up against our rights? Although she was
+a comely lassie, I cared little for that peasant's wife; but it was
+necessary to prove to the vile rustic plebs that we own it body and
+soul; therefore, gentlemen, let us never forget the proverb: 'Smite a
+villein and he'll bless you; bless a villein and he'll smite you.'[3]
+Now, let us hear the sacred mass; you will tell me whether Gloriande de
+Chivry, my betrothed, whom you will see in my seigniorial pew, is not a
+superb beauty."
+
+"Happy Conrad!" said Gerard of Chaumontel, the robber knight, "for
+bride, a handsome and radiant beauty, who, besides, is the richest
+heiress of this region, seeing that after the death of the Count of
+Chivry, his seigniory, in default of male heirs, will fall from the
+lance to the distaff! Oh, Conrad! What beautiful days of gold and silk
+will you not spin, thanks to the opulent distaff of Gloriande of
+Chivry!"
+
+At the moment when thus chatting the noblemen entered the church,
+Mazurec, who was still kept a prisoner, vanished under the vault, and a
+man of the suite of the Sire of Nointel led out Aveline. She was not
+quite eighteen. Despite the pallor of her face and her deeply disturbed
+features, the girl preserved her surpassing beauty. She moved with
+faltering steps, still clad in her humble bride's apparel, of coarse
+white cloth. Her loose hair fell upon and half covered her shoulders.
+Her lacerated arms still bore the traces of tight hands, seeing that, in
+order to triumph over the desperate resistance of his victim, the Sire
+of Nointel had her bound fast. Crushed with shame at the thought of
+being thus exposed to the gaze of the crowd, the moment she stepped upon
+the parvise Aveline closed her eyes with an involuntary movement, and
+did not at first see Mazurec who was being taken back to prison.
+However, at the heart-rending cry that he uttered, a shudder went over
+her frame, she trembled at every limb, and her eyes met the gaze of her
+husband, a gaze of desolation, in which passionate love and yet painful
+repulsion mixed with ferocious jealousy, raised within his breast by the
+thought of the outrage that his wife had been subject to, were all
+depicted at once. The last of these feelings was betrayed by an
+involuntary movement, made by the wretched young man, who, avoiding the
+beseeching looks of Aveline, made a gesture of horror, covered his face
+with his hands, and rushed under the vault like one demented, followed
+by the men-at-arms who had him in charge.
+
+"He despises me," murmured the girl with fainting voice and following
+her husband with haggard eyes. "He now no longer loves me." Saying this,
+Aveline became livid, her knees yielded under her, she lost
+consciousness and would have rolled upon the ground without Caillet,
+who, hastening to meet her, received her in his arms, saying: "Your
+father remains to you." Then, helped by Adam the Devil, he raised her
+up, and both, carrying the swooning young bride in their arms,
+disappeared in the crowd.
+
+Jocelyn the Champion, a witness to this distressing scene, rushed into
+the vault that opened upon the parvise, overtook the keepers of Mazurec
+and said to one of them:
+
+"The serf they are taking away yonder has been summoned to a judicial
+combat, is it so comrade?"
+
+"Yes," answered the man-at-arms, "he is to combat with the knight Gerard
+of Chaumontel. Such is the sentence."
+
+"I must speak to that serf."
+
+"He is to communicate with nobody."
+
+"I am his judicial second in this combat, will you venture to keep me
+from seeing and speaking with my client? By Satan! I know the law. If
+you refuse--"
+
+"There is no need of bawling so loud. If you are Jacques Bonhomme's
+judicial second, come ... you have a sorry principal!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE TOURNAMENT.
+
+
+The tourney, a ruinous spectacle offered to the nobility of the
+neighborhood by the Sire of Nointel in celebration of his betrothal, was
+held on a large meadow that stretched before the gates of the town. The
+lists were according to the royal ordinance of the year 1306,
+twenty-four paces long by forty wide, and surrounded by a double row of
+fences four feet apart. In this latter space the horn and clarion
+blowers were posted; likewise the valets of the combatting knights were
+allowed in this latter enclosure, ready to carry their masters from the
+melee, or to run to their assistance when unhorsed, seeing that these
+valiant jousters were covered with such heavy and thick armor that they
+could move only with difficulty. Within these barriers were also seen
+the heralds and sergeants-at-arms, charged with preserving order at the
+tourney, and passing upon foul blows.
+
+The plebs of the town and neighboring fields, having hastened to witness
+the spectacle at the close of the mass, crowded on the outside. A more
+ragged, wan, miserable and worn-out mass could hardly be imagined than
+that presented by the crowd whose crushing labors supplied the
+prodigalities of their seigneurs. The only satisfaction enjoyed by these
+cowed and brutified people was that of being allowed to assist from a
+distance, as on this day, at the sumptuous displays that they paid for
+with their sweat and their marrow. The vassals, leaving their mud-huts,
+where, exhausted with hunger and broken by toil--at night they huddled
+pell-mell on the marshy ground like animals in their pens--contemplated
+with an astonishment that was sometimes mixed with savage hatred, the
+brilliant assemblage covered with silks and velvets, embroideries and
+precious stones, seated on a spacious amphitheater, that, decked with
+tapestries and rich hangings, rose along one of the sides of the lists,
+and was reserved for the noble dames, the seigneurs and the prelates of
+the vicinage. On either side of the amphitheater, which was sheltered by
+tent-cloths from the rays of the sun and from the rain, were two tents
+intended for the knights who participated in the jousts. There they don
+their heavy armors before the combat, and thither are they transported
+when hurt or unhorsed. Numerous banners emblazoned with the arms of the
+Sire of Nointel floated from the top of poles that surround the lists.
+The queen of the tournament is Gloriande, a noble young lady, the
+daughter of Raoul, count and seigneur of Chivry, and betrothed since the
+previous month to Conrad of Nointel. Magnificently bedizened in a
+scarlet robe embroidered with gold, her black hair braided with pearls,
+tall and of remarkable beauty but of a haughty and bold type, with
+disdainful lips and imperious mien, Gloriande was throned superbly under
+a species of canopy contrived in the center of the platform, whence she
+could command a view of the arena. Her father, proud of his daughter's
+beauty, stood behind her. The noblemen and ladies of all ages, were
+seated on benches flanking either side of the canopy where the young
+queen of the tournament paraded her wealth and her charms. Suddenly the
+clarions sound the opening of the passage of arms; and a herald, clad in
+red and yellow, the colors of Nointel, advances to the center of the
+arena and cries the formula:
+
+"Hear ye, hear ye, seigneurs and knights, and people of all
+estates:--our sovereign seigneur and master, by the grace of God, John,
+King of the French, forbids under penalty of life and of forfeiture of
+goods, all speaking, crying out, coughing, expectorating or uttering and
+giving of any signs during the combat."
+
+The profoundest silence ensues. One of the bars is lowered, and the Sire
+of Nointel, cased in a brilliant steel armor tipped with gold ornaments,
+rides into the arena. Mounted on a richly caparisoned charger that he
+causes to prance and caracole with ease, he reins in before the canopy
+of Gloriande, and the damosel, taking from her own neck the necklace of
+gold strands, ties it to the iron of the lance that her betrothed lowers
+before her. By that act he is accepted by the lady as her knight of
+honor, a quality by which he is to exercise sovereign surveillance over
+the combatants, and if the point of the weapon from which hangs the
+necklace touch any of the jousters, he must immediately withdraw from
+the combat. In giving her necklace to her knight, Gloriande's shoulders
+and bosom remain naked, and she receives without blushing the
+testimonies of admiration showered upon her by the knights in her
+vicinity, whose libertine praises savor strongly of the obscene
+crudities peculiar to the language of those days. After having made the
+tour of the field, during which he displays anew his skill in
+horsemanship, the Sire of Nointel returns to the foot of the platform
+where the queen of the tournament is seated, and raises his lance. The
+clarions forthwith resound, the bars are let down at the opposite sides
+of the arena, and each gives passage to a troop of knights armed
+cap-a-pie, visors down, recognizable only by their emblems or the color
+of their shields and the banners of their lances. The two sets, mounted
+on horses covered with iron, remain for an instant motionless like
+equestrian statues, at the extremities of the arena. The lances of these
+gallants, six feet long and stripped of their iron, are, in the parlance
+of tourneys, "courteous"; their thrust, no wise dangerous, can have for
+its only effect to roll the ill-mounted combatant off his horse. The
+Sire of Nointel consults the radiant Gloriande with the eye. With a
+majestic air she waves her embroidered handkerchief, and immediately her
+knight of honor utters three times the consecrated formula: "Let them
+go! Let them go! Let them go!"
+
+The two sets break loose; the horses are put to a gallop; and, lances in
+rest, they rush to the center of the lists, where they dash against one
+another, horses and riders, with an incredible clatter of hardware. In
+the shock the larger number of lances fly into splinters. The disarmed
+tilters thus declare themselves vanquished, and their armor and mounting
+belong by right to the vanquisher. Accordingly, these tourneys are as
+much a game of hazard as is a game of dice. Not a few renowned tilters,
+hankering after florins more than after a puerile glory, derive large
+revenues from their skill in these ridiculous jousts; almost always do
+the adversaries whom they have overcome ransom their arms and horses
+with considerable sums. At a signal of the Sire of Nointel, a few
+minutes' truce followed upon the disarming of two of the knights who
+rolled down upon the thick bed of sand that the ground is prudently
+covered with. There is nothing so pitifully grotesque as the appearance
+of these disarmed gallants. Their valets raise them up in almost one
+lump within their thick iron shell that impedes their movements, and
+with legs stiff and apart, they reach the barrier steaming in
+perspiration, seeing that, in order to soften the pressure, these noble
+combatants wear under their armor a skin shirt and hose thickly padded
+with horse's hair. The vanquished abandon the lists in disgrace, while
+the vanquishers, after prancing over the arena, approach the platform
+where the queen of the tournament is enthroned. There they lower their
+lances to her in token of gallant homage. The charmed Gloriande answers
+them with a condescending smile and they leave the lists in triumph. The
+remaining knights now continue the struggle on foot and with
+swords--swords no less "courteous" than their lances, without either
+point or edge, so that these valiant champions skirmish with steel bars
+three feet and a half long, and they carry themselves heroically in a
+combat that is all the less perilous, seeing that they are protected
+against all possible danger by their padded undergarments laid over by
+an impenetrable armor.
+
+At a fresh signal from the Sire of Nointel, a furious conflict is
+engaged in by the remaining combatants. One of them slips and falls over
+backward and remains motionless, as little able to rise as a tortoise
+laid on its back. Another of the Caesars has his sword broken in two in
+his own hands. Only two combatants now remain, and continue the struggle
+with rage. The one carries a green buckler emblazoned with an argent
+lion, the other a red buckler emblazoned with a gold dolphin. The knight
+of the argent lion deals with his sword such a hard blow upon his
+adversary's casque, that, dazed by the shock, the latter falls heavily
+upon his haunches on the sand. The great conqueror superbly enjoyed his
+triumph by proudly contemplating his vanquished adversary, ridiculously
+seated at his feet; and, responding to the enthusiastic acclamations of
+the assembled nobility, he approached the throne of the queen of the
+tourney, bent one knee, and raised his visor. After placing a rich
+collar around the conqueror's neck in token of his prowess, Gloriande
+stooped down, and, following the custom of the time, deposited a loud
+and long kiss upon his lips. This duty, attached to her distinguished
+office, Gloriande fulfilled without blushing, and with an off-handedness
+that denoted ample experience. Thanks to her beauty, the young lady of
+Chivry had been often before chosen queen of tournaments. The clarions
+announced the victory of the knight of the argent lion, who, strutting
+proudly with the trophy around his neck, placed his right hand on his
+hip, walked around the arena, and marched out at the barriers.
+
+These first passages of arms were followed by an interval during which
+the valets of the Sire of Nointel, carrying cups, plates, and flagons of
+gold and silver, that glistened in the dazzled eyes of the peasants,
+served the noble company on the platform with spiced wines, refreshments
+and choice pastries, ample honor being done by all to the munificence of
+the Sire of Nointel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE JUDICIAL COMBAT.
+
+
+The seigneurs, their wives and daughters on the platforms had just
+enjoyed the refection, while commenting upon the incidents of the
+tourney, when a shudder ran through the crowd of peasants and bourgeois
+massed outside of the barriers. Until then and while witnessing the
+jousts and the passages of arms they had been animated with curiosity
+only. In the combat, which it was murmured among them was to follow
+these harmless struggles, the populace felt themselves concerned. It was
+to be a combat to the death between a vassal and a knight, the latter on
+horseback and in full armor, the vassal on foot, dressed in his blouse
+and armed with a stick. Even the more timid and brutalized ones among
+the vassals revolted at the thought of so crassly unequal a conflict, in
+which one of their class was inevitably destined to death. It was,
+accordingly, amidst a silence laden with anxiety and suppressed anger
+that one of the heralds uttered three times from the center of the arena
+the consecrated formula: "Let the appellant enter!"
+
+The knight Gerard of Chaumontel, now summoned to the trial of a judicial
+combat against the accusation of theft made by Mazurec, issued from one
+of the contiguous tents and entered the arena on horseback, in full
+armor. His buckler hangs from his neck; his visor is up; in his hand he
+carries a little image of St. James, for whom the pious knight seemed to
+entertain a peculiar devotion. His two seconds, on horseback like
+himself, ride beside him. With him they make the round of the arena
+while the fair Gloriande says to her father disdainfully: "What a shame
+for the nobility to see a knight reduced, in order to prove his
+innocence, to do combat with a varlet!"
+
+"Oh, my daughter! What evil days these are that we live in!" answered
+the aged seigneur with a growl. "Those accursed king's jurists are
+crossing their pencils over all our rights under the impertinent pretext
+of legalizing them. Was not a decree of the court of the seneschal of
+Beauvoisis requisite in order to authorize our friend Conrad to exercise
+his seigniorial right over a miserable female serf in revolt?"
+Remembering, however, that his daughter was the betrothed of the Sire of
+Nointel, the Count of Chivry stopped short. Gloriande surmised the cause
+of her father's reticence and said to him with a haughtiness that verged
+on anger: "Do you think that I am jealous of such as her? Can I look
+upon these female serfs as rivals?"
+
+"No, no; I am not placing such an insult upon you, my daughter ... but
+after all, the rebellion of that female vassal is as novel as it is
+monstrous. Oh, the spirit of revolt among the populace, although partly
+broken to-day, has spread into our domains and has infested our peasants
+also; and that is taken by the crown for a pretext to add to our
+troubles by encroaching upon our rights, claiming that they must be
+first sanctioned by the jurists. A curse upon all reform kings!"
+
+"But, father, our rights remain."
+
+"Blood and thunder, my daughter! Do our privileges stand in need of
+confirmation by the men of the gown? Does not our class hold its rights
+by the right of our ancestors' swords? No, no, the crown aims at
+monopolizing all rights, and to be the sole exploiter of the plebs."
+
+"Have not the kings," observed another knight, "taken from us one of our
+best sources of revenue, the minting of money in our seigniories, under
+the pretext that we coined false money? The devil take kings who hold up
+law! May hell consume the gentry of the pen!"
+
+"Blood and thunder! It is enough to make one's blood boil in his veins,"
+cried the Count of Chivry. "Is there in the whole world any worse money
+than the king's. False coiners have been quartered who are less thievish
+than our King John and his predecessors."
+
+"Let that good prince look elsewhere than here for support," put in
+another knight. "The truce with England will soon expire. If war breaks
+out anew, King John will see neither a man nor a gold piece out of my
+domain. He may, for all I care, leave his carcass on the field of
+battle."
+
+"Oh, gentlemen," said Gloriande gulping down a yawn, "how uninteresting
+is your conversation! Let us rather talk about the Court of Love that is
+soon to hold its sessions in Clermont, and for which I shall order the
+most skillful hairdressers from Paris. I am also expecting a Lombard who
+is to bring me magnificent silks, woven with gold and silver, and which
+I shall wear during the solemnity."
+
+"And what do you expect to pay all those fine things with?" cried the
+Count of Chivry. "How are we to meet the expenses of brilliant tourneys
+and the sumptuous displays of the Court of Love if, on the one side, the
+King ruins us, and, on the other, Jacques Bonhomme refuses to work?"
+
+"Oh! Oh! Dear father!" replied the fair Gloriande, laughing aloud.
+"Jacques Bonhomme will meekly bend the neck. At the first crack of the
+whip of one of our hunters you will see those varlets lie down flat upon
+their faces. And mind you," added the young lady, redoubling her
+laughter, "just turn your eyes to that bugaboo of a Jacques Bonhomme,
+does he not look redoubtable?" and she pointed with her finger at
+Mazurec the Lambkin, who, at the second call of the herald, had stepped
+into the arena accompanied by his two seconds, Jocelyn the Champion and
+Adam the Devil. Mazurec, dressed in his "blaude," the ancient Gallic
+blouse, made of coarse cloth and of the same fabric as his hose, wore on
+his head a woolen cap while his wooden shoes partly hid his bare feet.
+Jocelyn, his second, held in his hand a stout stick of sorb, four feet
+long, and freshly cut by himself in a neighboring thicket, with an eye
+to the fact that, when fresh, the sorb wood is heavy and does not
+easily break. The appellee, as well as the appellant, in the judicial
+battle were required to make the round of the arena before engaging in
+combat. The serf filled the formality in slow and measured steps,
+accompanied by his two seconds.
+
+"My brave fellow," Jocelyn said to Mazurec, "do not forget my advice,
+and you stand a chance of worsting your noble robber, for all that he
+may be on horseback and armed cap-a-pie."
+
+"I'd as lief die," answered the serf, marching dejectedly between his
+two seconds with his head down and his eyes fixed: "When I saw Aveline
+this morning it was as if a knife had entered my heart," he added
+sobbing. "Oh, I am a lost man!"
+
+"By the navel of the Pope! No feebleness," replied Jocelyn with emphasis
+and alarmed at the despondent voice of his principal. "Where is your
+courage? This morning from a lambkin you became a wolf."
+
+"To now live with my poor wife would be a daily torture to me," murmured
+the serf. "I would rather the knight killed me outright."
+
+Thus conversing, half the field had been covered by Mazurec in company
+with his seconds. The latter, more and more alarmed at the unhappy young
+man's despondency, were at that moment passing at the foot of the
+amphitheater where the nobility of the neighborhood were seated with the
+fair Gloriande in their midst. Casting an expressive look at the
+champion, Adam the Devil nudged Mazurec with his elbow and said to him
+in a low voice: "Take a look at the betrothed of our seigneur.... I
+swear she's handsome!... That will make a pretty wedding! Hm!... Won't
+the two lovers be happy?" At these words, which fell like molten lead
+upon the bleeding wound in his heart, the vassal shook convulsively.
+"Take a good look at the handsome young lady," proceeded Adam the Devil.
+"See how happy she is in her rich clothes. Do you hear her laugh?... Go
+to! No doubt she's laughing at you and at your wife, who was violated
+last night by our seigneur.... But do take a look at the beauty! I wager
+she is jeering at you."
+
+Drawn from his dejection, and rage mounting to his heart, Mazurec
+brusquely raised his head. For an instant his eyes fiery and red with
+weeping, fastened on the betrothed of his seigneur, the haughty damosel,
+resplendent in attire and personal beauty, radiant with happiness, and
+surrounded by brilliant knights, who, courting her smiles, crowded near
+her.
+
+"At this hour," the caustic voice of Adam the Devil whispered to the ear
+of Mazurec, "your own bride is drinking her shame and her tears. What!
+In order to avenge Aveline and yourself would you not make an attempt to
+kill the nobleman who robbed you!... That thief is the cause of all your
+misfortune."
+
+"My stick!" cried the vassal leaping forward, transported with rage, at
+the same instant that one of the sergeants-at-arms hurried by to notify
+him that it was not allowed to stop on the arena and look at the ladies,
+but that he was to betake himself to one of the tents in order, before
+the combat, to take the customary oaths with the vicar of Nointel. Now
+inflamed with hatred and rage, Mazurec quickly followed the
+sergeant-at-arms, while, walking more slowly, Jocelyn said to Adam the
+Devil:
+
+"You must have suffered a great deal in your lifetime ... I overheard
+you a minute ago. You know how to fire hatred--"
+
+"Three years ago," broke in the serf with a wild look, "I killed my wife
+with an axe, and yet I loved her to distraction--"
+
+"Was that at Bourcy--near Senlis?"
+
+"Who told you of it? How come you to know it?"
+
+"I happened to ride through the village on the day of the murder. You
+preferred to see your wife dead rather than disgraced by your episcopal
+seigneur."
+
+"Exactly. That's the way I felt on the subject."
+
+"But how did you become a serf of this seigniory?"
+
+"After I killed my wife, I kept in hiding for a month in the forest of
+Senlis, where I lived on roots; thereupon I came to this country.
+Caillet gave me shelter. I offered my services as a butcher to the
+superintendent of the seigniory of Nointel. After the lapse of a year I
+was numbered among the vassals of the domain. I remained here out of
+friendship for Caillet."
+
+During this conversation between his two seconds Mazurec had arrived
+near the tent where he, as well as the Knight of Chaumontel, was to take
+the customary oath. Clad in his sacerdotal robes and holding a crucifix
+in his hands, the vicar addressed the serf and the knight.
+
+"Appellant and appellee, do not ye shut your eyes to the danger to which
+you expose your souls in combating for a bad cause. If either of you
+wishes to withdraw and place himself at the mercy of his seigneur and
+the King, it is still time. It will soon be too late. One of you is
+about to cross the gates of the other world. You will there find seated
+a God who is merciless to the perjurer. Appellant and appellee, think of
+that. All men are equally weak before the tribunal of divine justice.
+The eternal kingdom is not entered in armor. Is either of you willing to
+recede?"
+
+"I shall maintain unto death that this knight has robbed me; he has
+caused my misfortunes; if God is just, I shall kill this man," answered
+Mazurec in a voice of concentrated rage.
+
+"And I," cried the knight of Chaumontel, "swear to God that that vassal
+lies in his throat, and outrageously slanders me. I shall prove his
+imposture with the intercession of our Lord and all his saints,
+especially with the good help of St. James, my blessed patron."
+
+"Aye," put in Jocelyn, "and above all with the good help of your armor,
+your lance and your sword. Infamous man! To battle on horseback, helmet
+on head, cuirass on body, sword at your side, lance in your hand,
+against a poor man on foot and armed only with a stick. Aye, you behave
+like a coward. Cowards are thieves; consequently, you stole the purse
+of my principal!"
+
+"How dare you address me in such words!" cried the knight of Chaumontel.
+"Such a common fellow as you! Miserable vagabond! Intolerable criminal!"
+
+"Heavens be praised! He utters insults!" exclaimed Jocelyn with delight.
+"Oh, Sir thief, if you are not the most cowardly of two-legged hares,
+you will follow me on the spot behind yonder pavillion, or else I shall
+slap your ignoble scamp's face with the scabbard of my sword."
+
+Livid with rage, Gerard of Chaumontel was, to the extreme joy of
+Jocelyn, about to accept the latter's challenge, when one of his seconds
+said to him:
+
+"That bandit is trying to save his principal by provoking you to a
+fight. Fall not into the trap. Do not mind him, mind the vassal."
+
+Taking this prudent advice, Gerard of Chaumontel contemptuously answered
+Jocelyn: "When arms in hand I shall have convicted this other varlet of
+imposture, I shall then consider whether you deserve that I accept your
+insolent challenge."
+
+"You evidently desire to taste the scabbard of my sword," cried Jocelyn.
+"By heaven, I shall not deprive you of the dish; and if your hang-dog
+face does not redden with shame, it will redden under my slaps. Coward
+and felon--"
+
+"Not another word, or I shall order one of my men to expel you from the
+arena," said the herald-at-arms to Jocelyn; "a second has no right to
+insult the adversary of his own principal."
+
+Jocelyn realized that he would be compelled to yield to force, held his
+tongue, and cast a distracted look at Mazurec. The vicar of Nointel
+raised the crucifix and resumed in his nasal voice: "Appellant and
+appellee, do you and each of you still insist that your cause is just?
+Do you swear on the image of the Saviour of mankind?" and the vicar
+presented the crucifix to the knight, who took off his iron gauntlet
+and placing his hand upon the image of Christ, declared:
+
+"My cause is just, I swear to God!"
+
+"My cause is just," said in turn Mazurec; "and I take God for my
+witness; but let us combat quickly; oh, quickly!"
+
+"Do you swear," proceeded the vicar, "that neither of you carries about
+his person either stone, or herb, or any other magic charm, amulet or
+incantation of the enemy of man?"
+
+"I swear," said the knight.
+
+"I swear," said Mazurec panting with rage. "Oh, how much time is lost!"
+
+"And now, appellant and appellee," cried the herald-at-arms, "the lists
+are open to you. Do your duty."
+
+The knight of Chaumontel seized his long lance and jumped upon his
+horse, which one of his seconds held for him, while Jocelyn, pale and
+deeply moved, said to Mazurec, while giving him his stick: "Courage!...
+Follow my advice ... I expect you will kill that coward ... But one last
+word.... It regards your mother ... Did she never tell you the name of
+your father?"
+
+"Never ... as I told you this morning in prison. My mother always
+avoided speaking to me of my father."
+
+"And her name was Gervaise?" asked Jocelyn pensively. "What was the
+color of her hair and eyes?"
+
+"Her hair was blonde, her eyes black. Poor mother."
+
+"And had she no other mark?"
+
+"She had a small scar above her right eye-brow--"
+
+The clarions sounded at this point. It was the signal for the judicial
+duel. Unable to restrain his tears, Jocelyn pressed Mazurec in his arms
+and said to him: "I may not at a moment like this reveal to you the
+cause of the double interest that you inspire me ... My suspicions and
+hopes, perhaps, deceive me ... But courage ... Hit your enemy on the
+head."
+
+"Courage!" put in Adam the Devil in an undertone. "In order to keep
+your blood boiling, think of your wife ... remember the betrothed of
+your seigneur laughed at you.... Kill the thief, and patience.... It
+will some day be our turn to laugh at the noble damosel.... Think above
+all of your wife ... of her last nights shame and of your own....
+Remember that you have both been made forever unhappy, and fall to
+bravely upon that nobleman! Be brave.... You have a cane, nails and
+teeth!"
+
+Mazurec the Lambkin uttered a cry of rage and rushed into the lists at
+the moment when, in answer to a motion from the Sire of Nointel, the
+marshal of the tourney gave the signal for the combat to the appellant
+and appellee by calling three times the consecrated words: "Let them
+go!"
+
+The noble spectators on the platform laughed in advance at the sorry
+discomfiture of Jacques Bonhomme; but among the plebeian crowd all
+hearts stopped beating with anxiety at this decisive moment. The knight
+of Chaumontel, a vigorous man, armed in full panoply, mounted on a tall
+charger covered with iron, and his long lance in rest, occupied the
+center of the arena, while Mazurec dashed to the spot barefoot, clad in
+his blouse and holding his stick in his hands. At sight of the serf, the
+knight, who, out of contempt for such an adversary, had disdained to
+lower his visor, put the spurs to his horse, and lowering his pointed
+iron-headed lance, charged upon the serf certain of transfixing him then
+and there, and then trampling over him with his horse. But Mazurec,
+mindful of Jocelyn's recommendations, avoided the lance thrust by
+suddenly letting himself down flat upon his face; and then, partly
+rising up at the moment when the horse was about to grind him under its
+hoofs, he dealt the animal two such heavy blows with his stick on its
+forelegs that the courser, stung with pain, reared, slipped its footing
+and almost fell over, while its rider was shaken out of position on the
+saddle.
+
+"Felony!" cried the Sire of Nointel with indignation. "It is forbidden
+to strike a horse!"
+
+"Well done, my brave woolen cap!" cried the populace on the outside,
+palpitating with suspense and clapping their hands, despite the
+strictness and severity of the royal ordinances which commanded profound
+silence to the spectators at a tourney.
+
+"Fall to, Mazurec!" simultaneously cried Jocelyn and Adam the Devil.
+"Courage! Kill the nobleman! Kill him! Death to the thief!"
+
+Mazurec rose, and seeing the knight out of poise and holding to the bow
+of his saddle, dropped his stick, picked up a fistful of sand, leaped
+upon the horse behind Gerard of Chaumontel, while the latter was seeking
+to regain his equilibrium, lost no time in clutching the knight around
+the neck with one hand, turned him half over backward, and with the
+other rubbed his eyes with the sand he had just picked up. Almost
+half-blinded, the noble robber dropped his lance and reins and sought to
+carry his hands to his eyes. Mazurec seeing the movement, put his arms
+around the knight, and, after a short struggle, succeeded in making him
+wholly lose his balance and tumble down to the ground, where both fell
+rolling on the arena, while the crowd of serfs, now considering the serf
+the victor over the knight, clapped their hands, stamped on the ground
+with joy and cried: "Victory for the woolen cap!"
+
+Gerard of Chaumontel, however, although blinded by the sand and dazed by
+the fall, gathered fresh strength from the rage that took possession of
+him at finding himself unhorsed by a peasant, and with little difficulty
+regained the upper hand over his unskilled adversary. In the unequal
+struggle against the man clad in iron, the tight clasp of the virtually
+naked serf was in vain; his nails broke off against, or glided
+harmlessly over the polished armor of his adversary, while the latter,
+finally succeeding in planting his two knees upon the serf's chest,
+bruised his head and face with a shower of hammer blows dealt with his
+iron gauntlet. His face beaten to pulp and bleeding, Mazurec pronounced
+once more the name of Aveline and remained motionless. Gerard of
+Chaumontel, who was gradually regaining his sight, not satisfied with
+having almost beaten the serf's face out of shape, then drew his dagger
+to finish his victim. But quickly recalling himself, and animated by a
+feeling of refined cruelty, he replaced the dagger in his belt, rose
+upright, and placing one of his iron shod feet upon the chest of the
+prostrate and moaning Mazurec, cried in a stentorian voice: "Let this
+vile impostor be bound up, put in a bag and thrown into the river as he
+deserves. It is the law of the duel; let it be carried out!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+SHEET LIGHTNINGS.
+
+
+An oppressive silence followed the close of the judicial combat, as
+Gerard of Chaumontel, leaving the outstretched body of the serf on the
+sand, rejoined his seconds while rubbing his irritated eyelids, and
+jointly they quitted the arena. The sergeant-at-arms had proceeded to
+pick up the prostrate body of the vassal in order to carry it to the
+bridge that spanned the near-by river; and the vicar of Nointel had
+followed on the tracks of the mournful train, in order to administer the
+last sacraments to the condemned man so soon as he should recover
+consciousness, and before he was bundled into a bag, agreeable to the
+ordinance, and cast into the river. For a moment struck dumb with terror
+by the issue of the judicial combat, the plebs crowd was slowly
+recovering its voice, and, despite its habit of respect towards the
+seigneurs, had begun to murmur with rising indignation. Several voices
+were heard to say that the knight having been unhorsed by the vassal,
+the latter was to be considered the victor and should not be killed. The
+turmoil was on the increase, when an unexpected event suddenly drew to
+itself the attention of the crowd and cut short its criminations. A
+large troop of men-at-arms, covered with dust and one of whom bore a
+white flag emblazoned with the fleur-de-lis,[4] hove in sight at a
+distance over the field and rapidly approached the fenced-in arena.
+Mazurec was forgotten. Sharing the astonishment of the assembled
+nobility at the sight of the armed troop that had now reached the
+barriers, the Sire of Nointel applied both spurs to his horse, rode
+rapidly forward, and addressing himself to one of the new arrivals, a
+herald with the fleur-de-lis jacket, saluted him courteously and
+inquired:
+
+"Sir herald, what brings you hither?"
+
+"An order of the King, my master. I am charged with a message to all the
+seigneurs and noblemen of Beauvoisis. Having learned that a large number
+of them were gathered at this place, I came hither. Listen to the envoy
+of King John."
+
+"Enter the lists and read your message aloud," answered Conrad of
+Nointel to the herald, who, producing a parchment from a richly
+embroidered bag, rode to the center of the arena and prepared to read.
+
+"This extraordinary message augurs nothing good," said the seigneur of
+Chivry to his daughter Gloriande. "King John is going to demand some
+levy of men of us for his war against the English, unless it be some new
+edict on coinage, some fresh royal pillage."
+
+"Oh, father! If, like so many other seigneurs, you had only chosen to go
+to the court at Paris ... you would then have shared in the largesses of
+King John, who, we hear, is so magnificently prodigal towards the
+courtiers. You would then have gained on the one side what you lost on
+the other. And then also ... they say the court is such a charming place
+... continuous royal feasts and dances, enhanced by choicest gallantry.
+After our marriage Conrad must take me to Paris. I wish to shine at the
+royal court."
+
+"You are a giddy-headed girl," observed the aged seigneur shrugging his
+shoulders, and half closing his fist, which he applied to his ear for a
+trumpet, so as to be better able to hear the royal herald, he remarked
+to himself: "What devil of a song is he going to sing to us?"
+
+"John, by the grace of God, King of the French," said the herald reading
+from his parchment, "to his dear, beloved and faithful seigneurs of
+Beauvoisis; Greeting!"
+
+"Proceed, proceed; we can do very well without your politeness and
+greetings," grumbled the aged seigneur of Chivry. "They are gilding the
+pill for us to swallow."
+
+"Pray, father, let me hear the messenger," said Gloriande impatiently.
+"The royal language has a court perfume that ravishes me."
+
+The herald proceeded: "The mortal enemy of the French, the Prince of
+Wales, son of the King of England, has perfidiously broken the truce
+that was not to expire for some time longer. He is advancing at the head
+of a strong army."
+
+"There we are," cried the Count of Chivry, angrily stamping with his
+feet. "It is a levy of men that we are going to be asked for. Blood and
+massacre! To the devil with the King!"
+
+The herald continued reading: "After having set fire to everything on
+their route, the English are marching towards the heart of the country.
+In order to arrest this disastrous invasion, and in view of this great
+public danger, we impose upon our peoples and our beloved nobility a
+double tax for this year. Furthermore, we enjoin, order and command all
+our dear, beloved and faithful seigneurs of Beauvoisis to take up arms
+themselves, levy their men, and join us within eight days at Bourg,
+whence we shall take the field against the English, whom we shall
+vanquish with the aid of God and our valiant nobility. Let everyone be
+at his post of battle. Such is my will. JOHN."
+
+This appeal from the King of the French to his valiant nobility of
+Beauvoisis was received by the noble assemblage with a mute stupor, that
+speedily made place for murmurs of anger and rebellion.
+
+"We refuse to give men and money. To the devil with King John!" cried
+the Count of Chivry. "Already has he imposed subsidies upon us for the
+maintenance of his troops. Let him take them to war! We propose to
+remain at our manors!"
+
+"Well said!" exclaimed another seigneur. "The King evidently kept up no
+army. All our moneys have been squandered in pleasures and festivities.
+The court at Paris is an insatiable maw!"
+
+"What!" interjected a third; "we are to wear ourselves out making
+Jacques Bonhomme sweat all the wealth he can, and the cream thereof is
+to go into the King's coffers? Not by all the devils! Already have we
+given too much."
+
+"Let the King defend himself. His domains are more exposed than our own.
+Let him protect them!"
+
+"It is all we can do, we and our own armed forces, to protect our
+castles against the bands of marauders, of Navarrais and of the hired
+soldiery that ravages our lands! And are we to abandon our homes in
+order to march against the English? By the saints! Fine goslings would
+we be!"
+
+"And in our absence, Jacques Bonhomme, who seems to indulge in dreams of
+revolt, will put in fine strokes!"
+
+"By heavens, messieurs!" cried a young knight, "We, nevertheless, may
+not, to the shame of knighthood, remain barracked on our own manors
+while battles are being fought on the frontier."
+
+"Well! And who keeps you back, my dear fire-eater?" cried the Count of
+Chivry. "Are you curious to make acquaintance with war? Very well;
+depart quickly, and soon.... Each one disposes at his will of his own
+person and men."
+
+"As to me," loudly put in the radiant Gloriande with fiery indignation,
+"I shall not bestow my hand on Conrad of Nointel if he does not depart
+for the war, and return crowned with the laurels of victory, leading to
+my feet ten Englishmen in chains. Shame and disgrace! Gallant knights to
+stay at home when their King calls them to arms! I shall not acknowledge
+for my lord and husband any but a valiant knight!"
+
+Despite Gloriande's heroic words and a few other rare protests against
+the selfish and ignominious cowardice of the larger number of seigneurs,
+a general murmur of approval received the words of the aged seigneur of
+Chivry, who, encouraged by the almost unanimous support of the
+assembly, stepped upon his bench and answered the herald in a stentorian
+voice:
+
+"Sir, in the name of the nobility of Beauvoisis, I now answer you that
+we have our hands so full on our own domains, that it would be
+disastrous for us to take the field in distant regions. For the rest,
+the request of the King will be considered when the deputies of the
+nobility and the clergy shall be assembled in the States General of the
+Kingdom. Until then we shall remain at home."
+
+A sudden outburst of hisses from the crowd of peasants and bourgeois
+answered the words of the seigneur of Chivry; and Adam the Devil,
+leaving Jocelyn the Champion for a moment alone with Mazurec, who,
+having regained consciousness, was resignedly expecting the hour of his
+death, thrust himself among several groups of serfs saying:
+
+"Do you hear them? Fine seigneurs they are!... What are they good
+for?... Only to combat in tourneys with pointless lances and edgeless
+swords, or to indulge in bravados in combats, where they are fully
+armed, against Jacques Bonhomme, armed only with a stick!"
+
+"That's so!" answered several angry voices. "To the devil with the
+nobility!"
+
+"Poor Mazurec the Lambkin! It is enough to make one's heart ache to see
+his face bleeding under the iron gauntlet of the Knight."
+
+"And now they are to put him in a bag and throw him into the water!... I
+declare.... That's what they call justice...."
+
+"Ah! When, thanks to the cowardice of our seigneurs, the English will
+have penetrated to this region," resumed Adam the Devil, "what with our
+masters on one side and the English on the other, we shall be like iron
+beaten on the anvil by the hammer. Oppressed by these, pillaged and
+sacked by the others, our lot will be twice as hard. Woe is us!"
+
+"That's what happens now when bands of marauders descend upon our
+villages. We flee for safety to the woods, and when we return, we find
+our homes in flames or in ashes!"
+
+"O, God! What a lot is ours!"
+
+"And yet our vicar says that secures our salvation ... in heaven!
+Another fraud upon us!"
+
+"Woe is us if on top of all our ills we are to be ravaged and tortured
+by the English. That means our end."
+
+"Yes, and we are all to go down through the cowardice of our seigneurs,"
+put in Adam the Devil, "themselves, their families and retainers safely
+entrenched and provisioned in their fortified castles, they will allow
+us to be pillaged and massacred by the English! Oh! What a fate is in
+store for us!"
+
+"And when everything we have will have been devastated," replied another
+serf in despair, "our seigneur will then tell us, as he told us when the
+last gang of marauders passed over the region like a hurricane: 'Pay
+your taxes, Jacques Bonhomme,' 'But, Sire, the marauders have carried
+away everything; they have left us only our eyes to weep with, and we
+weep!' 'Oh, you rebel, Jacques Bonhomme! Give him quick a beating and
+put him to the torture!' Oh, it is too much ... too much!... That must
+end. Death to the nobles and their helpers, the clergy!"
+
+The murmurs among the rustic plebs, at first low and rumbling, presently
+broke out into loud hisses and imprecations, and these were so menacing
+and direct against the nobles, that the seigneurs, for a moment taken
+aback by the incredible audacity of Jacques Bonhomme, bridled up
+furiously, drew their swords, and, in the midst of alarmed cries of the
+elder and younger ladies, precipitately descended the steps of the
+platform to chastise the varlets at the head of the sergeants of the
+tourney, their own men-at-arms and also of those of the royal herald,
+who promptly sided with the noblemen against the plebs.
+
+"Friends," cried Adam the Devil, rushing from one group of the serfs to
+another to inflame their courage, "if the seigneurs are a hundred, we
+are a thousand. Have you not a minute ago seen Mazurec unhorse a knight
+all alone, with his stick and only a handful of sand? Let's prove those
+nobles that we are not afraid of them. Pick up stones and sticks! Let's
+deliver Mazurec the Lambkin! Death to the nobles!"
+
+"Yes! Take up stones and sticks! Let's deliver Mazurec!" responded the
+more daring ones. "The devil take the seigneurs who wish to leave us at
+the mercy of the English!"
+
+Under the pressure of this furious mob a portion of the barrier around
+the lists was soon torn up and a large number of vassals, arming
+themselves with the debris of the fence, redoubled their threats and
+imprecations against the seigneurs. Attracted by the tumult and catching
+a glimpse of Adam the Devil, who with glistening eyes was brandishing
+one of the posts of the barrier, Jocelyn left Mazurec and ran towards
+the serf to whom he cried out: "Those wretches will be mowed down ...
+you will lose everything.... The right time has not yet come!"
+
+"It is always in time to kill noblemen," answered Adam the Devil,
+grinding his teeth, saying which he redoubled his vociferations: "Stones
+and sticks! Let's deliver Mazurec!"
+
+"But you lose him by that!" cried Jocelyn in despair. "You will lose
+him! I hoped to save him!" and turning to the surrounding serfs he said:
+"Do not attack the seigneurs; you are in the open field, they on
+horseback; you will be trampled under foot. Come, now! Disperse!"
+
+The voice of Jocelyn was lost in the tumult, and his efforts remained
+fruitless in the midst of the exasperation of the mob. A reflux of the
+crowd separated him from Adam the Devil, and soon the foresight of the
+champion was but too well verified. For a moment taken by surprise and
+even frightened at the aggressive attitude of Jacques Bonhomme, a
+spectacle they had never before witnessed, the seigneurs presently
+recovered their composure. Headed by the Sire of Nointel and supported
+by about fifty men-at-arms, sergeants and knights who speedily mounted
+their horses, the armed nobility now advanced in good order, and
+charged upon the revolted serfs with swords and lances. The women and
+children who happened to be in the crowd, were thrown down and trampled
+over by the horses, and filled the air with their heart-rending cries.
+The peasants, without order and without leadership, and already
+frightened at their own audacity whose consequences they now dreaded,
+fled in all directions over the meadow. Some few of the more valorous
+and determined stood their ground and were either cut down by the
+knights or severely wounded and taken prisoners. In the heat of the
+fray, Adam the Devil, who had been thrown down by a sabre cut, was
+seeking to rise when he felt a Herculean hand seize him by the collar,
+raise him and despite his resistance, drag him far away from the field
+of carnage. The serf recognized Jocelyn who said to him while dragging
+him along: "You will be a precious man on the day of uprising ... but to
+allow yourself to be killed to-day is an act of folly.... Come, let us
+preserve ourselves for a later day."
+
+"Mazurec is lost!" cried the serf in the agony of despair and struggling
+against Jocelyn; but the latter, without making answer, compelled Adam
+the Devil, who was greatly enfeebled by the loss of blood, to take
+shelter behind a heap of lumber that had been brought thither for the
+construction of the barrier around the lists, but had been found
+unnecessary. Both lay themselves down flat upon the grass.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+PROPHECIES AND PREMONITIONS.
+
+
+The sun has gone down; night is drawing nigh. The noble dames,
+frightened by the recent popular commotion, have left the platform of
+the tourney and returned to their manors either on their palfreys or on
+the cruppers of their cavaliers' horses. At a short distance from the
+lists where lay the corpses of a considerable number of serfs, killed in
+their futile attempt at revolt, flows the Orville River. On one side its
+banks are precipitous, but on the other they slope gently, covered with
+reeds. The river is crossed by a wooden bridge. To the right of the
+bridge are a few old willows. Their branches have almost all been
+freshly lopped off with axes. The few remaining ones, strongly supported
+and spreading out, have been turned into gibbets. From them now hang the
+bodies of four of the vassals who had been captured in the revolt. The
+pendent bodies resemble shadows cast upon the clear sky of the dusk.
+Night approaches rapidly. Standing on the middle of the bridge
+surrounded by his friends, among whom is Gerard of Chaumontel, the Sire
+of Nointel makes a sign, and the last of the revolted and captured serfs
+is, despite his cries and entreaties, hanged like his companions from a
+branch of a willow on the bank of the river. A man then brings to the
+bridge a large bag of coarse grey material, of the kind used by the
+millers. A strong cord inserted at its mouth like a purse-string enables
+its being tied closely. Mazurec the Lambkin is led forward tightly
+pinioned. Up to then he had been seated at one end of the bridge near
+the vicar. The latter after having placed the crucifix to the mouths of
+the serfs that had been hanged, returned to the victim about to be
+drowned. Mazurec is no longer recognizable. His bruised face covered
+with clotted blood is hideous to behold. One of his eyes has been
+knocked out and his nose crushed under the fierce blows dealt him by the
+knight of Chaumontel with his iron gauntlet. The executioner opens the
+mouth of the bag while the bailiff of the seigniory approaches Mazurec
+and says: "Vassal, your felony is notorious; you have dared to charge
+Gerard, a nobleman of Chaumontel, with robbery; he appealed to a
+judicial duel where you were vanquished and convicted of calumny and
+defamation; in obedience to the royal ordinance, you are to be submerged
+until death does ensue. Such is the supreme and irrevocable sentence."
+
+Mazurec steps forward, and as he is about to be seized and thrust into
+the bag, he raises his head, and addressing the Sire of Nointel and
+Gerard, says to them as if inspired with prophetic exaltation:
+
+"It is said among our people that those about to perish become seers.
+Now, this is what I foretell: Gerard of Chaumontel, you robbed me and
+now you have me drowned ... you will die drowned. Sire of Nointel, you
+have done violence to my wife ... your wife will be done violence to.
+Mayhap my wife may bring to the world the child of a noble; ... your
+wife may bring to the world the child of a serf. May God take charge of
+my vengeance. The day of reprisals will come!"
+
+Mazurec the Lambkin had barely uttered these words when the executioner
+proceeded to tie him up in the bag. Conrad grew pale and shivered at the
+sinister prophecy of his vassal, and was unable to utter a word. Gerard,
+however, addressing the serf who was being "bagged" burst out laughing
+and pointed to the five hanged serfs who rocked in the evening breeze,
+and whose outlines were dimly perceptible like spectres in the twilight,
+said:
+
+"Look at the corpses of those villeins who dared to rebel against their
+seigneurs! Look at the water that runs under the bridge and that is
+about to swallow you up ... should Jacques Bonhomme still dare to kick,
+there are our long lances to pierce him through, wide branched trees to
+hang, and rivers to drown him."
+
+Mazurec was the while tied in the bag, and at the moment when the
+executioner was about to hurl him into the river, the vassal's voice was
+heard for the last time from within the canvas. "Gerard of Chaumontel,
+you will be drowned; Sire of Nointel, your wife will be violated...."
+
+A peal of contemptuous laughter from the knight answered the serf's
+prediction, and amidst the silence of night the splash was heard of
+Mazurec's body dropping into the deep waters of the river.
+
+"Come away, come away," said the Sire of Nointel to Gerard in a
+faltering voice; "let's return to the castle; this place frightens me.
+The prophecy of that miserable villein makes me shudder despite
+myself.... He mentioned reprisals."
+
+"What feebleness! Conrad, are you becoming weak-minded?"
+
+"Everything that happened to-day is of ill-omen. I tremble at the
+future."
+
+"What do you mean?" replied Gerard, following his friend who was walking
+away at a rapid pace. "What is that you said about ill-omen? Come,
+explain the cause of your terror."
+
+"This evening, before returning to Chivry, Gloriande said to me:
+'Conrad, to-morrow my father celebrates our betrothal in the chapel of
+his castle; I desire that you depart that same evening to join the
+forces of the King; and even then I shall not be your wife unless you
+lead back from battle and place at my feet, as a pledge of your bravery,
+ten Englishmen in chains and captured by yourself.'"
+
+"The devil take such folly!" cried Gerard. "The romances of knighthood
+have turned her head!"
+
+"'I wish,' added Gloriande, 'that my husband be illustrious by his
+prowesses. Therefore, Conrad, to-morrow I shall take the oath at the
+altar to finish my days in a monastery, if you are killed in battle, or
+if you fail in the promises that I have demanded of you!'"
+
+"By the saints! That girl is gone daft on her Englishmen in chains.
+There are only blows to be fetched in war, and your betrothed runs the
+chances of seeing you return without an eye, a leg or an arm ... if you
+do return.... The devil take her whims!"
+
+"I am bound to yield to Gloriande's wishes. There is no more stubborn
+head than hers. Besides, she loves me as I do her. Her wealth is
+considerable. I have dissipated a good part of my fortune at the court
+of King John. I cannot renounce the marriage. Whatever it may cost me, I
+must join the army with my men. Sad it is, but there is no choice!"
+
+"Be it so! But then fight ... prudently and moderately."
+
+"I am anxious to live so that I may marry Gloriande ... provided during
+my absence the prediction of that miserable vassal--"
+
+"Ho! Ho! Ho!" broke in the knight of Chaumontel, laughing out aloud.
+"You surely are not troubled with the fear that during your absence
+Jacques Bonhomme will violate your wife?"
+
+"These villeins, an unheard of thing, have dared to insult, to menace
+and to throw themselves upon us like the wild beasts that they are."
+
+"And you saw that rag-tag flee before our horses like a set of hares.
+The executions of this evening will complete the lesson, and Jacques
+Bonhomme will remain the Jacques Bonhomme of ever. Come! Make your mind
+easy! While I prefer a hundred times the hunt, the tourneys, wine, game
+and love to the stupid and dangerous feats of war, I shall accompany you
+to the army, so as to bring you back soon to the beautiful Gloriande. As
+to the English prisoners that you are to lead in chains to her feet as a
+pledge of your valor, we shall scrape together a few leagues from our
+lady's manor the first varlets that we can lay our hands on. We shall
+bind them and threaten them with hanging if they utter a single word;
+and they will do well enough for the ten English prisoners. Is not the
+idea a jolly one? But, Conrad, what are you brooding over?"
+
+"Perhaps I was wrong in exercising my right over that vassal's wife,"
+replied the Sire of Nointel with a somber and pensive mien. "It was a
+mere libertine caprice, because I love Gloriande. But the resistance of
+the scamp, who, besides, charged you with theft, irritated me." And
+resuming after a moment of silence, the Sire of Nointel addressed his
+friend: "Tell me the truth; here among ourselves; did you really rob the
+villein? It would have been an amusing trick.... I only would like to
+know if you really did it?"
+
+"Conrad, the suspicion is insulting--"
+
+"Oh, it is not in the interest of the dead serf that I put the question,
+but it is in my own."
+
+"How? Explain yourself more clearly."
+
+"If that vassal has been unjustly drowned ... his prophecy would have
+more weight."
+
+"By heavens! Are you quite losing your wits, Conrad? Do you see me
+saddened because Jacques Bonhomme has predicted to me that I was to be
+drowned?... The devil! It is I who mean to drown your sadness in a cup
+of good Burgundy wine.... Come, Conrad, to horse ... to horse!... Supper
+waits, and after the feast pretty female serfs! Long live joy and love!
+Let's reach the manor in a canter--"
+
+"Perhaps I did wrong in forcing the serf's wife," the Sire of Nointel
+repeated to himself. "I know not why, but a tradition, handed down from
+the elder branch of my family, located at Auvergne, comes back to me at
+this moment. The tradition has it that the hatred of the serfs has often
+been fatal to the Nerowegs!"
+
+"Hallo, Conrad, to horse! Your valet has been holding your stirrup for
+the last hour," broke in the cheerful voice of Gerard. "What are you
+thinking about?"
+
+"I should not have violated the vassal's wife," the Sire of Nointel
+still mumbled while swinging himself on his horse's back, and taking the
+route to his manor accompanied by Gerard of Chaumontel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+WRECKED HEARTS.
+
+
+The ground floor of the house of Alison the Huffy is closed. A lamp
+burns inside, but the door and windows are bolted within.
+Aveline-who-never-lied lies half stretched out upon a bench. Her hands
+lie across her breast, her head reclines on the knees of Alison. She
+would be thought asleep were it not for the tremors that periodically
+convulse her frame. Her discolored visage bears the traces of the tears,
+which, rarer now, still occasionally escape from her swollen eyelids.
+The tavern-keeper contemplates the unfortunate girl with an expression
+of profound pity. William Caillet, seated near by, with his elbows on
+his knees, his forehead in his hands, takes not his eyes from his
+daughter. He remembered Alison, and relying on her kind-heartedness, had
+taken Aveline to the tavern with the aid of Adam the Devil, who
+immediately had gone out again to the tourney to meet Jocelyn the
+Champion, by whom he was later snatched from the fray.
+
+Suddenly sitting up affrighted, Aveline cried semi-delirious: "They are
+drowning him.... I see it.... He is drowned!... Did you not hear the
+splash of his body dropping into the water?... My bridegroom is
+dead...."
+
+"Dear daughter," said Alison, breaking into tears, "calm yourself....
+Have confidence in God.... They may have had mercy upon him--"
+
+"She is right.... This is the hour," said William Caillet in a low
+hollow voice. "Mazurec was to be drowned at nightfall. Patience! Every
+night has its morn. The unfortunate man will be avenged."
+
+Hearing a rap at the door, Alison, who was holding Aveline in her arms,
+turned to William: "Who can it be at this hour?"
+
+The old peasant rose, approached the door and asked: "Who's that?"
+
+"I, Jocelyn the Champion," a voice answered.
+
+"Oh!" murmured Aveline's father, "he comes from the river"; saying which
+he opened.
+
+Jocelyn entered with quick steps. At the sight, however, of Mazurec's
+wife, held in a swooning condition in the arms of Alison, he stopped
+short, turned to Caillet, and whispered to him: "He is saved!"
+
+"He?" cried the serf stupefied. "Saved?"
+
+"Silence!" said Jocelyn, pointing to Aveline. "Such news may prove fatal
+if too suddenly conveyed."
+
+"Where is he? Where did he take refuge?"
+
+"Adam is bringing him hither.... He can hardly stand.... I came ahead of
+them.... He is weeping incessantly.... We came across the field.... The
+curfew has sounded. We met nobody. Poor Mazurec is saved--"
+
+"I shall go out to meet him," said Caillet, panting with emotion. "Poor
+Mazurec! Dear son! Dear child!"
+
+Jocelyn approached Aveline, who, with her arms around Alison's neck was
+sobbing bitterly. "Aveline," said Jocelyn to her, "listen to me, please.
+Have courage and confidence--"
+
+"He is dead," murmured Aveline moaning and not heeding Jocelyn. "They
+have drowned him."
+
+"No ... he is not dead," Jocelyn went on saying. "There is hope of
+saving him."
+
+"Good God!" cried Alison, now weeping with joy and embracing Aveline in
+a transport of happiness. "Do you hear, dear little one? He is not
+dead."
+
+Aveline joined her hands and essayed to speak, but the words died away
+on her lips that trembled convulsively.
+
+"This is what happened," explained Jocelyn. "Mazurec was put into a bag
+and he was thrown into the water. Fortunately, however," Jocelyn
+hastened to add, seeing Aveline utter a smothered cry, "Adam the Devil
+and myself, profiting by the darkness, had hidden ourselves among the
+reeds that border the bank of the river about a hundred paces from the
+bridge. The current was toward us. With the aid of a long pole we sought
+to drag towards us the bag in which Mazurec was tied up, and to pull him
+out in time."
+
+"Oh!" stammered the young girl. "Help came too late."
+
+"No, no! Calm yourself. We succeeded in drawing the bag to the bank.
+Adam cut it open with one rip of his knife, and we took Mazurec out of
+the canvas still breathing."
+
+"He lives!" exclaimed the girl in a delirium of joy. Her first movement
+was to precipitate herself towards the door, and there she fell in the
+arms of her father, who, having just returned, stood on the threshold.
+
+"Yes, he lives!" said Caillet to his daughter, closing her to his
+breast. "He lives ... and he is here!"
+
+That same instant Mazurec appeared at the threshold, pale, faint,
+dripping water, his face unrecognizable, and supported by Adam the
+Devil. Instead of running to the encounter of her husband, Aveline
+staggered back frightened and cried: "It is not he!"
+
+She did not recognize Mazurec. His crushed eye, encircled with black and
+blue concussions, his crushed nose, his lips split and swollen, so
+completely changed his once sweet and attractive features, that the
+hesitation of the vassal's wife lasted several seconds; but soon
+recovered from her painful surprise, she threw herself at the neck of
+Mazurec, and kissed his wounds with frantic excitement.
+
+Mazurec returned the embrace of his wife and murmured sadly: "Oh, poor
+wife ... although I still live, yet you are a widow."
+
+These words, reminding as they did the young couple that they were
+forever separated by the infamous outrage that Aveline had been the
+victim of and that might mean maternity to her, caused them both to
+break forth into a flood of tears that flowed while they remained
+closely locked in a gloomy and mute embrace.
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed William Caillet, even whose harsh features were now
+moistened with tears at the sight of the ill-starred couple, "to avenge
+them.... How much blood.... Oh! how much blood.... What conflagrations
+... what massacres ... the reprisals must be terrible."
+
+"That seigniorial race must be strangled out of existence," put in Adam
+the Devil, biting his nails with suppressed rage. "They must be
+extirpated ... they must be killed off ... all of them ... even the
+whelps in the cradle ... not a vestige of the seigniory must be left in
+existence." And turning to Jocelyn, the peasant added with savage
+reproach: "And you, you tell us to be patient--"
+
+"Yes," answered Jocelyn, interrupting him; "yes, patience, if you wish
+on one day to avenge the millions of slaves, serfs and villeins of our
+race, who for centuries have been dying, crushed down, tortured and
+massacred by the seigneurs. Yes, patience, if you desire that your
+vengeance be fruitful and accomplish the deliverance of your brothers!
+To that end I conjure you, and you, Caillet, also--no partial revolts!
+Let all the serfs of Gaul rise simultaneously, on one day, at the same
+signal. The seigniorial race will not see the morrow of that day."
+
+"To wait," replied Adam the Devil, scowling with impatience; "always to
+wait!"
+
+"And when will the signal of revolt come?" asked Caillet. "Whence is it
+to come? Answer me that!"
+
+"It will come from Paris, the city of revolts and of popular uprisings,"
+answered Jocelyn; "and that will be within shortly."
+
+"From Paris," exclaimed the two peasants in a voice expressive of
+astonishment and doubt. "What! Those Parisians ... will they be ready to
+revolt?"
+
+"Like you, the Parisians are tired of the outrages and exactions of the
+seigneurs; like you, the Parisians are tired of the thieveries of King
+John and his court, both of whom ruin and starve the country; like you,
+they are tired of the cowardice of the nobility, the only armed force in
+the country, and that, nevertheless, allows Gaul to be ravaged by the
+English; finally, the Parisians are tired of praying and remonstrating
+with the King to obtain from him the reform of execrable abuses. The
+Parisians are, therefore, decided to appeal to arms against the royalty.
+The rupture of the truce with the English, just announced by the royal
+messenger, will undoubtedly hasten the hour of revolt. However, until
+that solemn hour shall sound, patience, or all is lost."
+
+"And these Parisians," replied Caillet with redoubled attention, "who
+directs them? Have they a leader?"
+
+"Yes," answered Jocelyn with enthusiasm, "a most courageous, wise and
+good man. He is an honor to our country!"
+
+"And his name?"
+
+"Etienne Marcel, a bourgeois, a draper, and provost of the councilmen of
+Paris. The whole people are with him because he aims at the welfare and
+the enfranchisement of the people. A large number of the bourgeois of
+the communal towns, that have fallen back into the royal power and who
+are ready to rise, are in touch with Marcel. But he realizes that the
+bourgeois and artisans would be guilty of a wicked act if they did not
+offer their advice and help to the serfs of the country and aid them
+also to break the yoke of the seigneurs. By acting in concert--serfs,
+artisans and bourgeois--we could easily prevail over the seigneurs and
+the royal house. Count ourselves; count our oppressors. How many are
+they? A few thousand at the most, while we are millions!"
+
+"That's true," said Caillet, exchanging looks of approval with Adam.
+"The towns and the country combined, that's the world! The seigneurs and
+their clergy are insignificant."
+
+"I came to this place," proceeded Jocelyn, "by the advice of Etienne
+Marcel, calculating that, as a rule, tourneys attract a large number of
+vassals. I was to ascertain whether the sentiment of rebellion existed
+in this province as it did in others. I have no longer any doubt on the
+subject. I have met you, William and Adam, and no longer ago than this
+afternoon I have seen, much as I regretted the partial and hasty
+movement, that Jacques Bonhomme, tired of his burden of shame, misery
+and sufferings, is ripe for action. I shall now return to Paris with a
+heart full of hope. Therefore, patience! Friends, patience! Soon will be
+the hour of reprisals sound, the hour of inexorable justice. Then, death
+to our oppressors!"
+
+"Yes," answered Caillet; "we shall settle the accounts of our ancestors
+... and I shall settle the accounts of my daughter.... Do you see my
+child? Do you?" and the old peasant pointed to Aveline who sat near
+Mazurec. Overcome with sorrow, mute, their eyes fixed on the floor and
+holding each other's hands the smitten couple presented a picture of
+unutterable woe.
+
+"But coming to think of it," said Jocelyn. "Mazurec cannot remain in
+this territory."
+
+"I have thought of that," rejoined Caillet. "To-night I shall return to
+Cramoisy with my daughter and her husband. I know a grotto in the
+thickest part of the forest. The hiding-place was long of service to
+Adam. I shall take Mazurec thither. Every night my daughter will take to
+him a share of our pittance. The poor child feels so desolate that to
+separate her entirely from her husband would be to kill her. He shall
+remain in hiding until the day of vengeance shall have arrived. You may
+rely on me, upon Adam and upon many others."
+
+"But who will give the signal at which the towns and country folks are
+to rise?" asked Adam the Devil.
+
+"Paris," responded Jocelyn. "Before long I shall have moneys brought to
+you, or I may bring them myself, with which to purchase arms. Be careful
+not to awaken the suspicions of the seigneurs. Buy your arms one by one
+in town ... at fairs, and hide them at home. If you know any safe
+blacksmiths, get them to turn out pikes ... town money will furnish you
+with iron ... and with iron you will be able to purchase revenge and
+freedom. Who has iron has bread!"
+
+A prolonged neighing just outside the door interrupted the conversation.
+"It is Phoebus, my horse," cried Jocelyn, agreeably reminded that he had
+left the animal tied close to the tourney. "He must have grown tired of
+waiting for me, must have snapped the strap and returned to the tavern
+after me, where, however, he has been only once before. Brave Phoebus,"
+Jocelyn added, proceeding to the door. "This is not the first proof of
+intelligence that he has given me." Hardly had Jocelyn opened the upper
+part of the door than the head of Phoebus appeared; the animal neighed
+anew and licked the hands of his master, who said to him: "Good friend,
+you shall have a good supply of oats, and then we shall take the road."
+
+"What, Sir, you intend to depart this very night?" asked Alison the
+Huffy, drying her tears that had not ceased to flow since the return of
+Mazurec. "Do you mean to depart, despite the dark and the rain? Remain
+with us at least until to-morrow morning."
+
+"The royal messenger has brought tidings that hasten my return to Paris,
+my pretty hostess. Keep a corner for me in your heart, and ... we shall
+meet again. I expect to be soon back in Nointel."
+
+"Before leaving us, Sir champion," insisted Alison, rummaging in her
+pocket, "take these three franks. I owe them to you for having won my
+case."
+
+"Your case?... I have not yet pleaded it!"
+
+"You have gained my case without pleading it."
+
+"How is that?"
+
+"This forenoon, when you returned for your horse to ride to the tourney,
+Simon the Hirsute came out of his house as you passed by. 'Neighbor,'
+said I to him, 'I have not until now been able to find a champion. I now
+have one.' 'And where is that valiant champion?' answered Simon
+sneering. 'There,' said I, 'do you see him? It is that tall young man
+riding yonder on the bay horse.' Simon then ran after you, and after a
+careful inspection that took you in from head to foot, he came back
+crestfallen and said to me: 'Here, neighbor, I give you three florins,
+and let's be quits.' 'No, neighbor, you shall return to me my twelve
+florins, or you will have to settle with my champion, if not to-day,
+to-morrow.' A quarter of an hour later, Simon the Hirsute, who had now
+turned sweet as honey, brought me my twelve florins. Here are the three
+promised to you, Sir champion."
+
+"I have not pleaded, and have nothing coming to me from you, my pretty
+hostess, except a kiss which you will let me have when you hold my
+stirrup."
+
+"Oh, what a large heart you have, Sir champion!" cordially answered
+Alison. "One embraces his friends, and I am certain you now entertain
+some affection for me."
+
+After Phoebus had eaten his fill and Jocelyn had thrown a thick
+traveling cloak over his armor, he returned to the room. Approaching
+Mazurec he said to him with deep emotion: "Courage and patience ...
+embrace me ... I know not why, but I feel an interest in you beside that
+which your misfortunes awaken ... I shall ere long have clarified my
+doubts"; and, then addressing Aveline: "Good-bye, poor child; your hopes
+are shattered; but at least the companion of your sorrows has been saved
+to you. Often will your tears mingle with his and they will seem less
+bitter"; turning finally to Caillet and Adam the Devil, whose horny
+hands he pressed in his own: "Good-bye, brothers ... remember your
+promises; I shall not forget mine; let us know how to wait for the great
+day of reprisal."
+
+"To see that day and avenge my daughter, to exterminate the nobles and
+their tonsured helpers, is all I desire," answered Caillet; "after that
+I shall be ready to die."
+
+After planting a cordial kiss on the red lips of Alison, who was
+holding his stirrup, and two on her rosy cheeks, Jocelyn the Champion
+bounded on his horse, and despite the rain and the thick darkness,
+hastily resumed the road to Paris.
+
+"Happy trip and speedy return!" cried out Alison after him.
+
+
+
+
+PART II.
+
+THE REGENCY OF NORMANDY
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE STATES GENERAL.
+
+
+The Frankish conquerors of Gaul founded about a thousand years before
+the date of this narrative the first dynasty that reigned in the land.
+Clovis, the first of the kings, established and his successor followed
+the custom of almost yearly convoking their leudes, or chiefs of bands,
+to gatherings that they named Fields of May. At these assemblies, from
+which the Celtic or conquered people were wholly excluded and to which
+only the warrior ruler class was admitted, the Frankish chiefs or feudal
+lords deliberated with their supreme sovereign, the king, in their own
+or Germanic tongue upon new martial enterprises; or upon new imposts to
+be laid upon the subjected race. It was at these Fields of May that
+later, during the usurpatory dominion of the stewards of the palace, the
+do-nothing kings, those last scions of Clovis, unnerved and degenerate
+beings, appeared once a year with artificial beards as the grotesque and
+hollow effigies of royalty. These assemblies were continued under the
+reign of Charles the Great and the Carlovingian kings--the dynasty that
+in 752 succeeded that of Clovis. The bishops, accomplices of the
+conquerors, joined in these assemblies, where, accordingly, only the
+nobility, that is, the conquerors, and the clergy had seats. Under Hugh
+Capet and his descendants, the dynasty of the Capets, which succeeded
+that of the Carlovingians in 987, continued the practice of the Fields
+of May, but under a different name. At irregular intervals they held in
+their domains Courts or Parliaments--assemblies composed of seigneurs
+and prelates, but from which the newly shaping class of bourgeois or
+townsmen was excluded, along with the artisans and serfs, essentially as
+was the case under the previous dynasties. These assemblies represented
+exclusively the interests of the ruling class and its accomplices.
+
+Towards the close of 1290, the legists or lawyers, a new class of
+plebeian origin, began to enter the parliaments. The royal power, that
+had reared its head upon the ruins of the independence of the feudal
+lords, grew ever more oppressive and absolute, and the functions of the
+parliaments were by degrees restricted to servilely registering and
+promulgating the royal ordinances, instead of remaining what they
+originally were, free gatherings where kings, seigneurs and prelates
+deliberated as peers upon the affairs of the State--that is to say,
+their own private interests, to the exclusion of those of the people. In
+course of time, despite these registrations, neither law nor ordinance
+was carried out, and the government became wholly autocratic. Then came
+a turn. The spirit of liberty breathed over Gaul, and a species of
+general insurrection broke out against the crown. The townsmen,
+entrenched in their towns, the seigneurs in their castles, the bishops
+in their dioceses, reused to pay the imposts decreed at the royal
+pleasure. Thus Philip the Fair, in the early part of the eleventh
+century, was unable to enforce the ordinance that levied a fifth of all
+incomes. Although the decree was registered by parliament, the officers
+of the King were met with swords, sticks and showers of stones in Paris,
+Orleans and other places, and remained unable to fetch the money to the
+royal treasury. At that juncture Enguerrand de Marigny, an able
+minister, who was later hanged, said to Philip the Fair: "Fair Sire, you
+are not the strongest; therefore, instead of ordering, request, pray,
+entreat, if necessary. To that end convoke a national assembly, States
+General, composed of prelates, seigneurs and bourgeois or townsmen,
+jointly deputed. In our days, fair Sire, we must reckon with the
+townsmen, that bourgeois class that has succeeded in emancipating
+itself. To that national assembly submit gently, mildly and frankly the
+needs that press you. If you do, there is a good chance of your wishes
+being met."
+
+The advice was wise. Philip the Fair followed it. Thus it came about
+that for the first time since nine centuries, and thanks to the communal
+insurrections, the bourgeois--those plebeians who represented the
+subjugated class--took their seats in the national assembly beside the
+seigneurs, who represented the oppressors, and the bishops, their
+accomplices. Before these States General, that thus came into existence,
+the king now appeared in humble posture, affecting poverty and good
+will, and obtained the levies of men and subsidies that he needed. After
+Philip the Fair, his descendants, greedy, prodigal and needy, convoked a
+national assembly whenever they required a new levy of taxes or of men.
+The bourgeois deputies ever appeared at these assemblies in a defiant
+mood. They never were convoked except to exact gold and the blood of
+their race from them. To exact is the correct term. Vain it was for the
+bourgeois deputies to refuse, as they did, the levies of men and moneys
+that seemed to them unjust. Their refusal was annulled, and the method
+of annulment was this: The States General consisted of three
+estates--the nobility, the clergy and the bourgeoisie--each being
+represented by an equal number of deputies. Accordingly, the bourgeoisie
+was out-voted by the combined estates of the nobility and the clergy,
+both of which were ever found anxious to meet the royal wishes on the
+head of taxation.
+
+The reason was plain. The prelates and seigneurs, being exempt of
+taxation in virtue of the privileges of the nobility of the one and the
+alleged sanctity of the other, and sharing, thanks to the prodigalities
+of the kings, in the taxes levied on the bourgeoisie, granted with
+gladsome hearts all the levies for money that the crown ever requested.
+
+Thus stood things at the beginning of the reign of John II. Though the
+position of the people continued to be grievous, yet marked progress had
+been made.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+ETIENNE MARCEL.
+
+
+The hopeless minority in which the bourgeoisie found itself in the
+States General rendered its participation in government a fiction. It
+remained for a great man and the proper juncture in order to turn the
+fiction into a reality. The juncture set in during the year 1355, when
+King John II found his treasury empty through his ruinous prodigalities,
+and Gaul in flames through the pretensions of the King of England to the
+ownership of the country and his efforts to reconquer it, while in the
+south Charles the Wicked, King of Navarre, whom John II. had given his
+daughter in marriage, was arms in hand, capturing several provinces to
+which he laid claim as part of his wife's dower. The man of the occasion
+arose in Etienne Marcel.
+
+With the country torn up by war and his treasury bankrupt, John II
+convoked the States General. He needed stout levies of men and stouter
+levies of money. The Archbishop of Rouen, then the royal chancellor,
+haughtily presented the King's demands. But the imperious chancellor had
+counted without Etienne Marcel, one of the greatest men who ever added
+luster to the name of Gaul. The great commoner, deputed to the States
+General by the city of Paris and indignant at seeing the nobility and
+clergy disregard the just protests of the deputies of the bourgeoisie,
+thundered against the odious practice, and, sustained by the menacing
+attitude of the Parisians, he uttered the memorable declaration that
+_the alliance of the nobility and the clergy was no longer to be of
+controlling force upon the deputies of the bourgeoisie_, and that if,
+contrary to the vote of the bourgeoisie, the seigneurs and prelates
+granted levies of men and moneys to the King without any guarantee as to
+the proper employment of such forces and funds for the public welfare,
+the towns would have to refuse obedience to such decrees and furnish
+neither men nor moneys to the crown.
+
+These energetic and wise words, never heard before, imposed upon the
+States General. In the name of the deputies of the bourgeoisie, Marcel
+submits to the crown the conditions under which the third estate would
+consent to grant the men and subsidies asked for; and the crown accepts,
+knowing the people of Paris stood ready to sustain their spokesman.
+Unfortunately, and the experience was to be more than once made by
+Marcel, he soon realized the hollowness of royal promises. The moneys
+granted by the national assembly are insanely dissipated by the King and
+his courtiers. The levies of men, instead of being employed against the
+English, whose invasion spread over wider areas of the national
+territory, are turned to the private wars of the King against some of
+the seigneurs, and intended either to protect or enlarge his own
+domains. The audacity of the English redoubles; they break the truce and
+threaten the very heart of the land; and King John then hastily summons
+his faithful and well-beloved nobility to join him in the defence of the
+nation.
+
+The reception given to the royal herald by the valiant jousters, warm
+from the passage of arms at the tourney of Nointel, has been narrated.
+Nevertheless, with good or ill will, the majority of the gallants, all
+of whom were made to fear for their own estates by the foreign invasion,
+dragged their vassals after them, and joined John II near Poitiers. At
+the first charge of the English archers the brilliant gathering of
+knights turn their horses' heads, ply their spurs, cowardly take to
+flight, and leave the poor people that they had compelled to follow them
+at the mercy of the invader who falls upon them and ruthlessly puts them
+to the sword. King John himself remains a prisoner on the field, while
+his son Charles, Duke of Normandy, a stripling barely twenty years of
+age, escapes with his brothers the disgraceful defeat of his father only
+by riding full tilt to Paris, where, in his capacity of Regent, he
+convokes the States General for the purpose of obtaining fresh sums to
+ransom the seigneurs who remained in the hands of the enemy.
+
+Without Etienne Marcel, the draper, Gaul would have been lost; but the
+ascendancy of his genius and patriotism dominated the assembly. In
+answer to the chancellor, who conveyed the demands of the Regent, Marcel
+declared that before attending to the ransom of the King and knights,
+the nation's safety demanded attention. The nation's safety demanded
+urgent and radical reforms. He recited them. And, losing sight of
+nothing, but developing superhuman activity, he caused Paris to be
+protected with new fortifications in order to render the town safe from
+the English who had advanced as far as St. Cloud. He armed the people;
+organized the street police; made provisions for food by large
+importations of grains; calmed and reassured the alarmed spirits; by his
+example imparted a similar temper to the other towns; and, faithful in
+the midst of all other cares to the plan of reform that he had pursued
+and ripened during the long years of his obscure and industrious life,
+he caused the appointment of a committee of twenty-four bourgeois
+deputies charged with the drafting of the reforms that were to be
+demanded from the Regent. The deputies of the nobility and the clergy
+withdrew disdainfully from the national assembly, shocked at the
+audacity of the bourgeois legislators. These, however, masters of the
+situation and laboring under the high inspiration of Etienne Marcel,
+drew up a plan of reforms that in itself meant an immense revolution. It
+was the republican government of the ancient communes of Gaul, now
+extended beyond the confines of the town and made to cover the entire
+nation; it was the substitution of the power of deputies elected by the
+whole country for the absolute power of the crown. The King becomes
+merely the chief agent of the States General, and he has no power
+without their sovereign consent to dispose of a single man, or a single
+florin. These reforms, the fruit of many vigils on the part of Etienne
+Marcel, were accepted and solemnly sworn to by Charles, Duke of
+Normandy, in the capacity of Regent for his father, then a prisoner in
+the English camp, and they were promulgated in the principal towns of
+Gaul with the sound of trumpets, under the title of "Royal Ordinance of
+the 17th day of January, 1357." The ordinance was as follows:
+
+     The States General shall henceforth meet whenever they may think
+     fit and without requiring the consent of the King, to deliberate
+     upon the government of the kingdom, and the vote of the nobility
+     and clergy shall have no binding power over the deputies of the
+     communes.
+
+     The members of the States General shall be under the protection of
+     the king, the Duke of Normandy and their successors. And,
+     furthermore, members of the States General shall be free to travel
+     throughout the kingdom with an armed escort that shall be charged
+     with causing them to be respected.
+
+     The moneys proceeding from the subsidies granted by the States
+     General shall be levied and distributed, not by royal officers, but
+     by deputies elected by the States General; and they shall swear to
+     resist all orders of the King and his ministers, in case the King
+     or his ministers wish to turn the moneys to other expenses than
+     those provided for by the States General.
+
+     The King shall grant no pardon for murder, rape, abduction or
+     infringement of truce.
+
+     The offices of justice shall not be sold or farmed out.
+
+     The costs of processes, inquests and administration in the chambers
+     of parliament and of accounts shall be lowered, and the officials
+     of those departments who may refuse, shall be expelled as
+     extortionists of the public fund.
+
+     All seizures of food, clothing or money in the name and for the
+     service of the King or of his family shall be forbidden; and power
+     is given to the inhabitants to gather at the call of their town
+     bell and to pursue the seizers.
+
+     To the end of avoiding all monopoly and extortion, no officer of
+     the King shall be allowed to carry on any trade in merchandise or
+     money.
+
+     The expenses of the household of the King, the Dauphin and of the
+     princes shall be moderated and reduced to reasonable bounds by the
+     States General; and the stewards of the royal households shall be
+     obliged to pay for what they buy.
+
+     Finally, the King, the Dauphin, the princes, the nobility, the
+     prelates of whatever rank, shall bear the burden of taxation the
+     same as all other citizens, as justice requires.
+
+Compared with the Fields of May of olden days, where the conquering
+Franks and their bishops disposed of the people of Gaul like cattle,
+the national assemblies, held under the ordinance that Etienne Marcel
+had wrung from the crown--assemblies dominated by the industrious class
+which by its labor, commerce, trades and arts enriched the country while
+the royalty, nobility and clergy devoured it--the progress was gigantic.
+
+No less distinguished were the services of Etienne Marcel at this
+juncture against the foreign invader, who was advancing with rapid
+marches upon the capital of the land. Paris, originally circumscribed to
+the island that is washed by the two arms of the Seine, extended itself
+from century to century beyond its original cradle to the right and to
+the left, until under the reign of John II it had grown to a town of
+large proportions. The old part of the city, that which is bounded by
+the two arms of the river, continued at this time to be called the Cite
+and served as the headquarters of the clergy, whose houses seemed to
+cuddle under the shadow of the high towers of the tall church of Notre
+Dame. The Bishop of Paris had almost the entire Cite for his
+jurisdiction. On the right bank of the Seine and at the place where rose
+the thick tower of the gate of the Louvre, began the fortified premises
+of what was generally called the town. It was peopled with merchants,
+artisans and bourgeois, and it contained the square at one end of which
+stood the pillory, where malefactors were exposed or executed before
+taking their corpses to the gibbets of Montfaucon. The girdle of
+fortresses that surround Paris to the north extends from the thick tower
+of the Louvre to the gate of S. Honore. From there, the wall winding
+towards the Coquiller gate, reaches the gate of Mont Martre, makes a
+curve near St. Denis street, continues in the direction of the gate of
+St. Antoine, and arrives at the Barbette gate, which is flanked by the
+large tower of Billy, built on the borders of the Seine opposite Notre
+Dame and the isle of Cows. The girdle of the ramparts, interrupted at
+this spot by the river, is resumed on the left bank. It skirts the
+quarter of the University, which is inhabited by the students and which
+has for its issues the gates of St. Vincent, St. Marcel, St. Genevieve,
+St. James and St. Germain. Thence it flanks the palace of Nesle and runs
+out into the tower of Philip-Hamelin, built on the left bank opposite
+the tower of the Louvre, which rises on the right bank. This vast
+enclosure which insured the defense of Paris was completed by arduous
+labors of fortification due to the genius and the prodigious activity of
+Etienne Marcel. He caused the ramparts to be equipped with numerous
+engines of war of the new kind that then began to come in vogue named
+_cannons_--tubes made of bars of iron held fast by rings of the same
+metal. By means of a powder recently invented by a German monk, these
+cannons expelled stone and iron balls with what was then considered
+marvelous velocity, force and noise, and to a then equally marvelous
+distance. Without those immense works, all of which were executed within
+three months, the capital of Gaul would have inevitably fallen into the
+hands of the English.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE MAN OF THE FURRED CAP.
+
+
+Many weeks had elapsed since the night when Jocelyn the Champion rode
+back to Paris from the little village of Nointel. A man wearing a woolen
+cap, clad in an old blouse of grey material, carrying a knapsack on his
+back and a heavy stick in his hand entered Paris by the gate of St.
+Denis. It was William Caillet, the father of Aveline-who-never-lied. The
+old peasant looked even somberer than when last seen at Nointel. His
+hollow and fiery eyes, his sunken cheeks, his bitter smile--all
+betokened a profound and concentrated sorrow. This, however, yielded
+presently to astonishment at the tumultuous aspect of the streets of
+Paris, where he now found himself for the first time in his life. The
+multitude of busy people wearing different costumes, the horses,
+carriages, litters that crossed in all directions, gave the rustic a
+feeling akin to vertigo, while his ears rung with the deafening cries
+incessantly uttered by the merchants and their apprentices, who,
+standing at the doors of their shops solicited customers. "Hot stoves!
+Hot baths!" cried the keepers of bathing houses; "Fresh and warm cakes!"
+cried the pastry venders; "Fresh wine, just arrived from Argenteuil and
+Suresne!" cried a tavern-keeper armed with a large pewter tumbler, and
+with looks and gestures inviting the topers to drink; "Whose coat needs
+mending?" asked the tailor; "The oven is warm, who wants to have his
+bread baked?" vociferated a baker; further off a royal edict was being
+proclaimed, announced by drum and trumpet; in among the crowd several
+monks, collectors for a brotherhood, held out their purses and cried:
+"Give for the ransom of the souls in purgatory!" while beggars,
+exhibiting their real or assumed deformities exclaimed: "Give to the
+poor, for the love of God!" Before venturing further into Paris, William
+Caillet sat down on a stone step placed near a door meaning both to rest
+himself and to accustom his eyes and ears to a noise that was so utterly
+new to him.
+
+Presently a distant rumbling, proceeding from Mauconseil street, almost
+drowned the cross-fire of cries. At intervals the roll of drums and
+mournful clarion notes mingled with the approaching and rumbling din,
+and soon Caillet heard repeated from mouth to mouth in accents at once
+sorrowful and angry: "That's the funeral of the poor Perrin Mace." All
+the passers-by started, and a great number of merchants and apprentices
+left their shops in charge of the women behind the counters, and ran
+towards Mauconseil and Oysters-are-fried-here streets, where the funeral
+procession was to pass after traversing St. Denis street.
+
+Struck by the eagerness of the Parisians to witness the funeral, which
+seemed to be a matter of public mourning, Caillet followed the crowd,
+whose confluence from several other streets soon became considerable.
+Accident threw him near a student of the University of Paris. The young
+man, about twenty years of age, was named Rufin the Tankard-smasher, a
+nickname that was borne out by the jovial and convivial mien of the
+strapping youngster. He had on his head a crazy felt hat that age had
+rendered yellow, and he wore a black coat no less patched up than his
+hose. He looked as threadbare as ever did a Paris student. Held back by
+his rustic timidity, Caillet did not venture to open a conversation with
+Rufin the Tankard-smasher, notwithstanding several remarks dropped by
+the crowd around him and by the student himself increased the rustic's
+curiosity in the young man.
+
+"Poor Perrin Mace!" said a Parisian, "To have his hand cut off and then
+be hanged without trial! And all because it so pleased the Regent and
+his courtiers!"
+
+"That's the way the court respects the famous ordinance of our Marcel!"
+
+"Oh, this nobility!... It is the pest and ruination of the country!...
+It and its clergy!"
+
+"The nobles!" cried Rufin the Tankard-smasher; "they are merely
+caparisoned and plumed parade horses; good to prance and not to carry or
+draw. The moment they are called to do work, they rear and kick!"
+
+"And yet, master student," ventured a large sized man with a furred cap,
+"the noble knighthood deserves our respect."
+
+"The knighthood!" cried Rufin, laughing contemptuously, "the knighthood
+is good only to figure in tourneys, attracted by the lure of profit. The
+horse and arms of the vanquished belong to the vanquisher. By Jupiter!
+Those doughty chaps seek to throw down their adversaries just as we
+students seek to knock down the nine-pins at a bowling game on the
+college grounds. But so soon as their skins are in danger in battle,
+where there is no profit to be fetched other than blows, that same
+nobility shamefully takes to flight, as happened at the battle of
+Poitiers, where it gave the signal for run-who-run-can to an army of
+forty thousand men pitted against only eight thousand English archers!
+By the bowels of the Pope! Your nobles are not men, they are hares!"
+
+"Come, now, master student," laughingly put in another townsman; "let us
+not be too hard upon the nobility; did it not rid us of King John by
+leaving him a prisoner in the hands of the English?"
+
+"Yes!" exclaimed another, "but we shall have to pay the royal ransom,
+and in the meantime must submit to the government of the Regent, a
+stripling of twenty years, who orders people to be hanged when they
+demand the moneys owing to them by the royal treasury, and object when
+we strike them, as did Perrin Mace."
+
+"With the aid of heaven, our friend Marcel will soon put a stop to that
+sort of thing."
+
+"Marcel is the providence of Paris."
+
+"Friends," resumed the man of the furred cap, smiling disdainfully,
+"you seem to have nothing but the name of Marcel in your mouths.
+Although Master Marcel is a provost and president of the town council,
+yet he is not everything on earth. The other councilmen are his
+superiors in trade. Take, for instance, John Maillart, there you have a
+worthy townsman--"
+
+"Who is it dare compare others with the great Marcel!" cried Rufin the
+Tankard-smasher. "By Jupiter, whoever utters such foolishness quacks
+like a goose!"
+
+"Hm! Hm!" grumbled the man of the furred cap; "I said so!"
+
+"Then it is you who quack like a goose!" promptly replied the
+Tankard-smasher. "What! You dare maintain that Marcel is not the
+foremost townsman! He, the friend of the people!"
+
+"Aye, aye!" came from the crowd. "Marcel is our saviour. Without him
+Paris would by this time have been taken and sacked by the English!"
+
+"Marcel," resumed the Tankard-smasher with increasing enthusiasm, "he
+who restored economy in our finances, order and security in the city! By
+the bowels of the Pope! I know something about that! Only a fortnight
+ago, towards midnight, I with my chum Nicolas the Thin-skinned were
+beating at the door of a public house on Trace-Pute street. The woman of
+the house refused us admission, pretending that the girls we were
+looking for were not in. Thereat I and my friend came near breaking in
+the door. At that a platoon of cross-bowmen, organized by Marcel to
+maintain order in the streets, happens to go by, and they arrest and
+lodge both of us at the Chatelet, despite our privileges as students of
+the Paris University!... Now dare say that Marcel does not keep order in
+town!"
+
+"That may all be," answered the man of the furred cap; "but any other
+councilman would have done as much; and Master John Maillart--"
+
+"John Maillart!" exclaimed Rufin. "By the bowels of the Pope! Had he or
+any other, the King himself, dared to encroach upon the franchises of
+the University, the students, rising en masse, would have poured, arms
+in hands, out of their quarter of St. Germain and there would have been
+a battle in Paris. But what is allowed to Marcel, the idol of Paris, is
+not allowed to any other."
+
+"The student is right!" went up from the crowd. "Marcel is our idol
+because he is just, because he protects the interests of the bourgeois
+against the court people, of the weak against the strong. Long live
+Etienne Marcel!"
+
+"Without the activity of Marcel, his courage and his foresight, Paris
+would have been burned down and deluged in blood by the English."
+
+"Did not Marcel also keep our town from starvation, when he went himself
+at the head of the militia as far as Corbeil to protect a cargo of grain
+that the Navarrais meant to pillage?"
+
+"I don't deny that," calmly observed the man of the furred cap with
+envious insistence. "All I maintain is that, put in the place of Marcel,
+Maillart would have done as well."
+
+"Surely, provided the councilman had the genius of Marcel. If he had, he
+surely would have done as well as Marcel!" rejoined the Tankard-smasher.
+"If my sweetheart wore a beard, she would be the lover and somebody else
+the sweetheart!"
+
+This sally of the student was received with a universal laughter of
+approval. The immense majority of the Parisians entertained for Marcel
+as much attachment as admiration.
+
+Wrapt in his somber silence, William Caillet had listened attentively to
+the altercation, and he saw confirmed that which Jocelyn the Champion
+had stated to him a short time ago at Nointel concerning the influence
+of Marcel upon the Parisian people. By that time, the roll of drums, the
+notes of the clarions and the din of a large multitude had drawn nearer.
+The procession turned into Mauconseil in order to cross St. Denis
+street. A company of the town's cross-bowmen, commanded by a captain,
+marched at the head and opened the way, preceded by the drummers and
+clarion blowers, who alternately struck up funeral bars. Behind the
+cross-bowmen came the town's heralds, dressed in the town colors, half
+red and half blue. From time to time the heralds recited solemnly the
+following mournful psalmody:
+
+     "Pray for the soul of Perrin Mace, a bourgeois of Paris, unjustly
+     executed!
+
+     "John Baillet, the treasurer of the Regent, had borrowed in the
+     name of the King a sum of money from Perrin Mace.
+
+     "Mace demanded his money in virtue of the new edict that orders the
+     royal officers to pay for what they buy and return what they borrow
+     for the King, under penalty of being brought to law by their
+     creditors.
+
+     "John Baillet refused to pay, and furthermore insulted, threatened
+     and struck Perrin Mace.
+
+     "In the exercise of his right of legitimate defence, granted him by
+     the new edict, Perrin Mace returned blow for blow, killed John
+     Baillet and betook himself to the church of St. Mery, a place of
+     asylum, from where he demanded an inquest and trial.
+
+     "The Duke of Normandy, now Regent, immediately sent one of his
+     courtiers, the marshal of Normandy, to the church of St. Mery,
+     accompanied with an escort of soldiers and the executioner.
+
+     "The marshal of Normandy dragged Perrin Mace from the church, and
+     without trial Mace's right hand was cut off and he was immediately
+     hanged.
+
+     "Pray for the soul of Perrin Mace, a bourgeois of Paris, unjustly
+     executed."
+
+Regularly after these sentences, that were alternately recited by the
+heralds in a solemn voice, the muffled roll of drums and plaintive
+clarion notes resounded, but they hardly served to hush the imprecations
+from the crowd, indignant at the Regent and his court. Behind the
+heralds followed priests with their crucifixes and banners, and then,
+draped in a long black cloth embroidered in silver, came the coffin of
+the executed bourgeois, carried by twelve notables, clad in their long
+robes and wearing the two-colored hats of red and blue, such as were
+worn by almost all the partisans of the popular cause. The collars of
+their gowns were held by silver brooches, likewise enameled in red and
+blue, and bearing the inscription "To a happy issue," a device or
+rallying cry given by Marcel. Behind the coffin marched the councilmen
+of Paris with Etienne Marcel at their head. The obscure bourgeois, who
+had stepped out of his draper's shop to become one of the most
+illustrious citizens of Gaul, was then in the full maturity of his age.
+Of middle height and robust, Etienne Marcel somewhat stooped from his
+fatigues, seeing that his prodigious activity of a man of both thought
+and action left him no repose. His open, manly and characterful face
+bore at the chin a thick tuft of brown beard, leaving his cheeks and
+lips clean shaven. The feverish agitation of the man and the incessant
+cares of public affairs had furrowed his forehead and left their marks
+on his features without, however, in any way affecting the august
+serenity that an irreproachable conscience imparts to the physiognomy of
+an honorable man. There was nothing benigner or more affectionate than
+his smile when under the influence of the tender sentiments so familiar
+to his heart. There was nothing more imposing than his bearing, or more
+threatening than his looks when, as powerful an orator as he was a great
+citizen, Etienne Marcel thundered with the indignation of an honest and
+brave soul against the acts of cowardice and treason and the crimes of
+the feudal nobility and the despotic crown. The provost wore the red and
+blue head-gear together with the emblazoned brooch that distinguished
+the other councilmen. Among these, John Maillart often during the
+procession gave his arm to Marcel, who, fatigued by the long march
+through the streets of Paris, cordially accepted the support of one of
+his oldest friends. Since youth Marcel had lived in close intimacy with
+Maillart, but the latter, ever keeping concealed the enviousness that
+the glory of Marcel inspired him with, could not now wholly repress a
+bitter smile at the enthusiastic acclaim that saluted Marcel along the
+route.
+
+A woman clad in long mourning robes and whose presence seemed out of
+place at such a ceremony marched beside Maillart. It was his wife,
+Petronille, still young and passing handsome, but of atrabilious and
+harsh mien. Each time that the heralds finished the mournful psalmody
+and before they began it anew, Petronille Maillart would break out into
+sobs and moans, and raising and wringing her arms in despair cried out:
+"Unhappy Perrin Mace! Vengeance upon his ashes! Vengeance!" The
+plaintive outcries and the contortions of Madam Maillart seemed,
+however, to excite more surprise than interest with the crowd.
+
+"By Jupiter!" cried Rufin the Tankard-smasher, "what brings that
+bellowing woman to this funeral? What makes her demean herself like
+that, as if she were possessed? She is neither the widow nor any
+relative of Perrin Mace."
+
+"For that reason her presence is all the more admirable," observed the
+man of the furred cap addressing the crowd. "Behold her, friends! Do you
+see how her despair testifies the extent to which she, as well as her
+husband, share in the terrible fate of poor Perrin Mace?... You are
+witnesses, friends, that Dame Petronille is the only councilman's wife
+who assists at the ceremony!"
+
+"That's true!" said several voices. "Poor, dear woman! She must feel
+sadly distracted."
+
+"Yes, indeed. And surely that is not the case with the wife of Marcel,
+our first magistrate. She and the others remain calmly at home, without
+at all concerning themselves about this public sorrow," put in the man
+of the furred cap. "Fail not to take notice!"
+
+"By the bowels of the Pope!" cried the Tankard-smasher. "Marcel's wife
+acts like a sensible body. She is right not to come out and exhibit
+herself and utter shrieks fit to deafen Beelzebub just when the drums
+are silent.... The affliction of that bellowing woman looks to me like a
+sheet of music, marked on time. That woman is playing a comedy."
+
+"You vainly try to pass the matter off as a joke, master student,"
+rejoined the man of the furred cap. "It will, nevertheless, be noted
+that the wife of Maillart assisted at the funeral of Perrin Mace, and
+that the wife of Marcel did not. Hm! Hm! My friends, that gives room for
+many suspicions; or, rather, it confirms certain rumors."
+
+"What suspicions?" asked Rufin; "What rumors? Explain yourself."
+
+But without answering the student the man of the furred cap was lost in
+the crowd, while continuing to whisper to those that he came in contact
+with. During this slight incident, the funeral procession had continued
+to file by. Notable townsmen, carrying funeral torches, marched behind
+the councilmen; they were followed by the trade guilds, each headed by
+its banner; finally the rear was brought up by a long line of people of
+all conditions uttering imprecations against the Regent and his court,
+and acclaiming Marcel with ever increasing enthusiasm. Marcel, the crowd
+declared, would know how to avenge the fresh and sanguinary court
+iniquity.
+
+From mouth to mouth the announcement was carried that, after the
+ceremony, Marcel would address the people in the large hall of the
+Convent of the Cordeliers. William Caillet silently assisted at this
+scene which seemed to impress him deeply. After a few moments'
+reflections he overcame his rustic timidity and drew Rufin the
+Tankard-smasher aside by the arm just as the latter was about to walk
+away. The student turned around, and yielding to the joviality of his
+nature as well as purposing to haze the rustic after the time-honored
+practice of the University of Paris, said to him banteringly: "I wager,
+dear rustic, that you overheard me speaking of one of my sweethearts!
+Hein! I see through you, my sylvan swain! You would like to admire the
+town beauties. By the bowels of the Pope! You shall have your pick--"
+
+Hurt by the student's banter, William Caillet answered him gruffly: "I
+am a stranger in Paris; I come from a great distance--"
+
+"Oh! You would like to enter the University, would you?" Rufin
+interrupted him with redoubled hilarity. "You are somewhat too bearded
+for a bachelor; but that does not matter; what faculty would you choose?
+theology or medicine? arts, letters or canonical law?"
+
+"Oh, these townsmen!" exclaimed the old peasant with pungent bitterness.
+"They are no better than the people of the castles. Go, Jacques
+Bonhomme, you have enemies everywhere and nowhere a friend."
+
+Saying this, Caillet started to walk away. But touched by the sad accent
+of the peasant, Rufin held him back: "Friend, if I have hurt your
+feelings, excuse me. We townsmen are not the enemies of Jacques Bonhomme
+for the reason that our enemies are common to us both."
+
+Ever suspicious, Caillet remained silent and sought to discover from the
+face of the student whether his words did not conceal a trap or implied
+some fresh ridicule. Rufin surmised the apprehensions of the serf,
+examined him once more attentively, and now struck by the lines of
+sorrow on his face, said to him: "May I die like a dog if I am not
+speaking sincerely to you. Friend, you seem to have suffered much; you
+are a stranger; I am at your disposal! I do not offer you my purse
+because it is empty; but I offer you half of the pallet on which I sleep
+in a student's room with a chum from my province, and a part of our
+meager pittance."
+
+Now convinced by the frankness of the townsman, the peasant answered: "I
+have no time to stay in Paris; I only wish to speak with Jocelyn the
+Champion and Marcel; could you help me to that?"
+
+"You know Jocelyn the Champion?" Rufin asked with deep interest, while a
+cloud of sadness darkened his countenance.
+
+"Did any misfortune befall him?"
+
+"He left here to assist at a tourney in Beauvoisis some time ago, and
+the poor fellow never returned.... His aged and infirm father died of
+grief at the disappearance of his son. Brave Jocelyn! I entered the
+University the year before he left it. He was the best and most
+courageous lad in the world.... He must have been killed at the tourney,
+or assassinated on his return to Paris. Highwaymen infest the roads."
+
+"No; he was not killed at the tourney of Nointel. The night after the
+passage of arms I saw him take his horse to return to Paris."
+
+"Are you from Beauvoisis?"
+
+"Yes," answered Caillet; and he added with a sigh: "Well, that young
+man is dead! Great pity! There are few like him who love Jacques
+Bonhomme." After a moment's silence the peasant resumed: "How can I
+manage to meet Marcel?"
+
+"By following me to the convent of the Cordeliers where he is to address
+the people after the funeral of Perrin Mace. Come with me."
+
+"Go ahead," said Caillet; "I shall follow you."
+
+"Come, we shall go out by the Coquiller gate; that's the shortest
+route."
+
+The old peasant walked in silence by the side of Rufin who sought to
+draw from him some words on the subject of his trip. But the serf
+remained impenetrable. Going out by the gate of St. Denis and following
+the streets of the suburbs, that were much less crowded than those of
+the city, Caillet and his guide had just left Traversine to enter
+Montmartre street when they heard the distant funeral chant of priests
+interspersed from time to time with plaintive clarion notes. The peasant
+noticed with surprise that as the chant drew nearer the residents along
+the streets closed and bolted their doors.
+
+"By the bowels of the Pope!" exclaimed the student. "Accident is serving
+us well. You have seen honors paid to the remains of Perrin Mace by the
+officials and the people; you will now see the honors paid to John
+Baillet, the cause of the iniquity that Paris is feeling indignant
+about. Yes, Baillet's remains are honored by the Regent and his court.
+Come quick; the procession is probably going to the convent of the
+Augustian monks." Hastening his steps and followed by the peasant, the
+student reached the corner of Montmartre and Quoque-Heron streets,
+opposite which stood the convent, whose doors opened to receive the
+coffin. "Look," said the student turning to Caillet. "How significant is
+not the contrast presented by these two funerals. At Perrin Mace's a
+large concourse of people were present, serious and moved with just
+indignation; at John Baillet's nobody assists but the Regent, the
+princes, his brothers, the courtiers and the officers of the royal
+household--not one representative of the people! The townsmen leave a
+deep void around this royal demonstration which is indulged in as a sort
+of challenge to the popular one. Tell me, friend, does not the very
+aspect of the two processions appeal to the eye. At the funeral of
+Perrin Mace we saw a great mass composed of bourgeois and artisans
+plainly or even poorly dressed; at the funeral of John Baillet we see
+only a handful of courtiers and officers brilliantly attired in gold and
+silk and velvet, and decked in magnificent uniforms."
+
+William Caillet listened to the student, seeking to bore through him
+with his eyes, and shaking his head answered pensively: "Jocelyn did not
+deceive me," and after a pause he proceeded: "But what are the Parisians
+still waiting for? We are ready, and have long been!"
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Rufin.
+
+Immediately relapsing into his former close-mouthedness, the peasant
+made no answer. The procession just turned into the street. The coffin
+of John Baillet, heavily inlaid with gold and preceded by royal heralds
+and sergeants-at-arms was borne by twelve menials of the Regent in
+costly livery. The young prince and his brothers, accompanied by the
+seigneurs of the court, alone followed the coffin. Charles, the Duke of
+Normandy and now Regent of the French, as the eldest son of King John,
+at the time an English prisoner, had, like his brothers and the French
+nobility, fled ignominiously from the battlefield of Poitiers. The young
+man who now governed Gaul was barely twenty years of age. He was of
+frail physique and pale complexion. His sickly face concealed under a
+kind and timid mien a large fund of obstinacy, of perfidy, of wile and
+of wickedness--odious vices usually rare in youths, except of royal
+lineage. Magnificently dressed in gold-embroidered green velvet, a black
+head-gear ornamented with a chain and brooch of costly stones on his
+head, the mean-spirited and languishing Regent marched slowly leaning on
+a cane. At a short distance behind him advanced his brothers, and then
+came the seigneurs of the court, among them the marshal of Normandy,
+who, ordered by the young prince, had superintended the mutilation and
+subsequent execution of Perrin Mace. The marshal, who was the Sire of
+Conflans, one of the Regent's favorites, superb and arrogant, cast upon
+the few and straggling spectators disdainful and threatening looks, and
+exchanged a few words with the Sire of Charny, a courtier no less loved
+by the prince than he was detested by the people. Suddenly Rufin the
+Tankard-smasher felt his arm rudely seized by the vigorous hand of
+Caillet, who with distended and flaming eyes, and his breast heaving
+with pain, gasped out:
+
+"Look!... There they are!... There are the two! The Sire of Nointel and
+that other, the knight of Chaumontel!... Oh, do you see them both with
+their scarlet hats, down there with the tall man in an ermine cloak?"
+cried out Caillet despite himself.
+
+"Yes, yes; I see the two seigneurs," answered the student, astonished at
+the emotion manifested by the peasant. "But what makes you tremble so?"
+
+"Down in the country they are thought dead or prisoners of the English,"
+exclaimed Caillet. "Fortunately it is not so.... There they are ...
+there they are ... I have seen them with my own eyes!" and contracting
+his lips with a frightful smile the serf added raising his two fists to
+heaven: "Oh, Mazurec!... Oh, my daughter!... Here I see the two men at
+last!... They will return home for the marriage of the handsome
+Gloriande.... We've got them!... We've got them!"
+
+"The looks of this man make me shiver," thought the student to himself,
+gazing at the peasant with stupor, and he proceeded aloud: "Who are
+those two seigneurs that you are speaking of?"
+
+Without heeding Rufin, Caillet proceeded to say: "Oh, now more than ever
+am I anxious to see Marcel without delay. I must speak with the
+provost!"
+
+"In that case," the student said to him, "come and rest at my lodging.
+In the evening we shall wait upon the provost at the convent of the
+Cordeliers. He is to address the people there this evening. But, once
+more, what is the reason of your excitement at the sight of those two
+seigneurs in the Regent's suite?"
+
+The peasant cast a suspicious side-glance at the student, remained
+silent and his face assumed a somberer hue.
+
+"By the bowels of the Pope!" thought Rufin the Tankard-smasher, "I have
+run up against an odd customer; he alternates between dumbness and
+riddles. He saddens even me who am not given to melancholy! He
+positively frightens even me who am no poltroon!"
+
+And accompanied by William Caillet, the student wended his steps towards
+the quarter of the University.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE SERPENT UNDER THE GRASS.
+
+
+Etienne Marcel's house was located near the church of St. Eustace in the
+quarter of the market. His shop, filled with rolls of cloth that were
+exposed on the shelves, communicated with a dining room. A staircase ran
+into this room, leading to the chambers on the floor above.
+
+It being night and the shop closed, Marguerite, Marcel's wife, and
+Denise her niece, had gone upstairs into one of the chambers where they
+took up some sewing which they were busily at by the light of the lamp.
+Marguerite was about forty-five years. She must have been handsome in
+her younger days. Her face betokened kindness and was now pensive and
+grave. Denise was close to eighteen. Her cheerful face, habitually
+serene and candid, seemed this evening profoundly sad. The two women
+remained long in silence, each engaged in her work. By degrees, however,
+and without raising her head Denise's needle relaxes, and presently,
+dropping her hands upon her lap, the tears roll out of her eyes.
+Marguerite, no less pre-occupied than her niece, mechanically raises her
+eyes towards the young girl, and noticing her tears, says tenderly:
+
+"Poor child! I know the cause of your sorrow because I know the bent of
+your mind. I would not have you share a hope that I myself hardly
+retain. But, after all, although the continued absence of Jocelyn
+justifies our fears, we should not despair.... He may yet return...."
+
+"No, no," answered Denise, now giving free course to her tears. "If
+Jocelyn still lived, he would not have left his aged father in the
+uncertainty that hastened his death. If Jocelyn still lived he would
+have communicated with my uncle Marcel, whom he loved and venerated
+like a father. No, no", she exclaimed amid sobs, "He is dead. I shall
+never see him again!"
+
+"My child, it is quite possible that carried away by his imprudent
+courage, Jocelyn went to the battle of Poitiers, where he may have
+remained in the hands of the English. Prisoners return. I conjure you,
+do not yield to despair. I suffer to see you weep."
+
+In lieu of answer the young girl rose and walked up to Marguerite, took
+her two hands, kissed them and said: "Dear, good aunt, you brush aside
+your own sorrows to think of mine, and you seek to console me.... I am
+ashamed not to know better and to repress my sorrow while you bear up so
+courageously before Master Marcel and your son!"
+
+"Truly, Denise, I do not understand you", remarked Marguerite slightly
+embarrassed. "My life is so happy, I need no special courage to bear
+it--"
+
+"Oh, oh! Do I not see you daily receive Master Marcel and your son Andre
+with a smile on your lips and a serene face, while your heart is in a
+storm of anxieties--"
+
+"You are mistaken, Denise!"
+
+"Oh, believe me; it is no indiscreet curiosity that guided me when I
+sought to penetrate your feelings. It was the desire to say nothing that
+might wound your secret thoughts whenever I am alone with you, as now so
+often happens good dear aunt."
+
+"You dear child!" exclaimed Marguerite embracing Denise with effusion
+and now making no effort to restrain her own tears. "How could I fail to
+be profoundly effected by so much delicacy and tenderness? How could I
+fail to respond with unreserved confidence?" Marguerite stopped but
+after a last few moments of hesitancy and making a supreme effort she
+proceeded: "'Tis true; you did not deceive yourself. Yes, my life is now
+spent amid anxieties and alarms. I thank you for having drawn the secret
+from me. I shall now, at least, be able to weep before you without
+reserve, and give a loose to my heart. Having paid that tribute to
+feebleness, I shall be able all the better to appear serene before my
+husband and my son! Oh ... I admit it; my only fear is to have them
+discover that I suffer! I know Marcel's love for me. It reciprocates
+mine. If he knew I was wretched I might cause his own calmness and
+fortitude to weaken that never yet have abandoned him and that he needs
+now more than ever in these perilous days."
+
+"Oh, the women who envy you would at this moment pity you, did they but
+see and hear you, dear aunt!"
+
+"Yes", replied Marguerite with bitterness; "the wife of Marcel, the idol
+of the people ... of Marcel, the real king of Paris, is envied. They
+envy the companion of that great citizen. Oh, they should rather pity
+her.... Tender indulgences ... sweet joys of the hearth, the happiness
+of the humblest ... since long I know you no more! The artisan, the
+merchant, their day's labors being done, at least enjoy in the bosom of
+their families some rest until the morrow. My poor husband, on the
+contrary, spends his nights at work ... while I, his wife, remain a prey
+to constant uneasiness night and day, ever fearing for his life or his
+son's!"
+
+"You have no reason to tremble for the life of Master Marcel, who can
+not take a step without he is surrounded by a crowd of devoted friends."
+
+"I fear the Regent's hatred, and that of the nobles and prelates."
+
+At that moment Agnes the Bigot, Marguerite's confidential servant,
+entered the room and said to her mistress: "Madam, the wife of Master
+Maillart, the councilman, has come to visit you."
+
+"So late! Did you tell her I was home?"
+
+"Yes, madam."
+
+Marguerite made a gesture of impatience and annoyance, dried her tears
+and said to Denise in an undertone: "You just mentioned envious
+women.... Petronille Maillart is of the number.... Hide your tears, I
+pray you, to avoid her drawing wrongful conclusions from our sadness.
+She is cruelly jealous of the popularity of Marcel; and Maillart, I
+believe, shares the feelings of his wife."
+
+"Can Maillart be jealous of my uncle, the friend of his childhood!"
+
+"Maillart is a weak man whom his wife dominates."
+
+"Maillart is always speaking about running to arms, and of massacring
+the nobles and priests."
+
+"Violence is not strength, Denise; the most excited natures usually are
+the least firm.... But silence! Here is Petronille.... What can be the
+purpose of a visit at this hour?"
+
+Petronille Maillart entered. She was still in her mourning garb. From
+the instant of her entrance she darted an inquisitive glance at the wife
+of Marcel and at Denise, and undoubtedly observed the traces of recent
+tears, seeing that a smile flitted over her lips. Affecting great
+sympathy she said:
+
+"Excuse me, Dame Marguerite, for coming to your house at so late an
+hour; but I wished to speak to you upon serious matters."
+
+"You are always welcome, Dame Petronille."
+
+"I fear not, at this moment. Sorrow loves solitude, and I notice with
+pain that your eyes and those of your dear niece are still red with
+tears. Just heaven! Do you entertain any fears for our excellent friend
+Marcel. Do the people, perhaps, incline to deny the value of the
+services he has rendered Paris? Ingratitude of the masses!"
+
+"Be at ease, Dame Petronille," answered Marguerite interrupting her.
+"Thanks to God, I entertain no fears on the score of my husband. It is
+true Denise and I feel sad. Shortly before you came in, we were speaking
+of a friend whose fate is making us uneasy. You have often seen him
+here. It is Jocelyn the Champion."
+
+"Surely; I remember him well. A veritable Hercules ... was the poor
+fellow killed?"
+
+"No; we are not ready to believe that such a misfortune has happened.
+But it is a long time we have not heard from him."
+
+"Nothing more natural, Dame Marguerite. I can now account for your
+tears.... But let me come to the purpose of my visit, which, seeing the
+lateness of the hour, must seem strange to you. The curfew has sounded
+long ago. You know how attached Maillart and I are to you and your
+husband."
+
+"I feel thankful for your friendship."
+
+"Now, then, the duty of good friends is to speak frankly."
+
+"Certainly, there is nothing more precious than sincere friends. Pray
+speak, Dame Petronille!"
+
+"Very well, dear Marguerite; your absence from the funeral of poor
+Perrin Mace has been noticed. I attended the ceremony; you see it on my
+clothes. In my quality of a councilman's wife I felt bound to render
+this last homage to the memory of the poor victim of an iniquity."
+
+"Madam ... I can only pity such a victim."
+
+"And do you not revolt at the fate of the unfortunate man?"
+
+"That great iniquity has revolted my husband. In his quality of the
+first magistrate of the town, he was bound to head the procession."
+
+"First magistrate of the town!" rejoined Dame Petronille with
+ill-suppressed bitterness. "Yes, until his successor is elected. Any one
+of the councilmen can be chosen provost. The election decides that."
+
+"Surely," answered Marguerite, exchanging looks with Denise who had
+resumed her sewing. "My husband's duty," continued Marcel's wife, "was
+first to protest against the crime of the Regent's courtiers by solemnly
+attending the funeral of Perrin Mace.... As to me, Dame Petronille,
+knowing that it is not the custom for women to assist at these sad
+ceremonies, I stayed at home."
+
+"But do people care for custom in such grave circumstances?" cried
+Maillart's wife. "One consults only his heart, as I did. Dressed in
+black from head to foot, I joined the funeral procession, moaning and
+weeping all the tears I had. I thought I would let you know it as a
+friend, my dear Dame Marguerite. It is much to be regretted that you
+did not follow my example."
+
+"Each is the judge of his own conduct, Madam."
+
+"No doubt, when none is concerned but ourselves. But in this matter,
+your husband, our excellent friend Marcel, was also concerned. I
+therefore fear that, under the circumstances, you have done him great
+harm in the popular esteem."
+
+"What is it you mean?"
+
+"Oh, my God! Poor dear dame! Do you think I would have made haste to
+come to you after curfew if my purpose were not to give you charitable
+advice?"
+
+"I do not question your good intentions. Marcel himself imparted to the
+funeral of Perrin Mace the solemn character that has been attached to
+it. He attended it at the head of the councilmen. In that he fulfilled
+his duty."
+
+"I know that my husband marched after yours, madam," spitefully rejoined
+the envious woman, "seeing that in his quality of provost, Master Marcel
+has precedence over all the councilmen.... He is acknowledged by all as
+the leader."
+
+"Oh, madam! There is no question of rank," cried Marguerite. "I only
+meant to say that Marcel attended the funeral."
+
+"Yes; but you did not, Dame Marguerite; and people said so. They
+remarked: 'See, the wife of Master Maillart, the councilman, follows the
+hearse of Perrin Mace! Oh! Oh! She does not care about custom, not she!
+She meant, like her husband, to protest with her presence and her tears
+against the iniquity of the court. How, then, does it happen that the
+wife of the first magistrate remains at home? Can it be that Master
+Marcel takes the action of the Regent and court less to heart than he
+pretends? Can it be that, as the proverb puts it, he is trying to run
+with the hares and hunt with the hounds? Is he secretly laying the pipes
+for a reconciliation between himself and the court? Can Master Marcel
+contemplate betraying the people?'"
+
+"Oh! That's infamous!" cried out Denise, unable to control her
+indignation. "To dare accuse Master Marcel of treason because his wife
+did not attend the funeral procession and parade an affected sorrow!"
+
+"Denise!" Marguerite quickly called out to the impetuous young girl,
+fearing the conversation, puerile in appearance, would take a still more
+acrid turn, and entail dangerous results for Marcel.
+
+It was too late. Rising, Dame Petronille addressed Denise in a bitter
+tone: "Listen, learn, my friend, that my pain, no less than my
+husband's, was not affectation!"
+
+"Dame Petronille," Marguerite interposed anxiously, "that was not
+Denise's meaning.... Listen to me ... I pray you."
+
+"Madam," dryly answered Maillart's wife, "I came here to warn you as a
+true friend of the thoughtless, no doubt, but nevertheless, dangerous
+rumors against Master Marcel's popularity. These rumors are at this very
+hour circulating in Paris.... So far from thanking me, I am received
+here with insult. The lesson is good. I shall profit by it."
+
+"Dame Petronille--"
+
+"Enough, Madam. Neither I nor my husband shall ever again set foot in
+your house. I meant, like a friend, to point out to you the danger that
+Master Marcel's good name is running. I have done my duty, let come what
+may!"
+
+"Dame Petronille," Marguerite answered with sad but severe dignity,
+"since Marcel consecrated his life to public affairs, there is not a
+word or action of his that he cannot answer for with head erect. He has
+done good for good's sake, without even expecting anything from the
+gratitude of men. He will remain indifferent to their ingratitude. If
+ever his services are not appreciated, he will take with him into his
+retirement the consciousness of ever having acted like an honorable man.
+As to me, I shall bless the day when my husband should quit public
+affairs so that we may resume our obscure lives and ordinary
+occupations."
+
+So obvious was the sincerity with which Marguerite expressed herself in
+speaking of her delight to return to obscurity, that Dame Petronille,
+furious at having been unable to wound the woman whom she envied, lost
+all control of herself. "You err," she declared, "in these days, it does
+not depend upon a man like Master Marcel to quietly bury himself in a
+retreat. No! No! When one has been the idol of Paris, you must either
+keep or lose the confidence of the people. If it is lost, you are looked
+upon as a traitor. And do you know what is dealt out to traitors?
+Death!"
+
+"Can the enemies of Marcel have the audacity of pointing at him as a
+traitor?" cried Marguerite with tears in her eyes. "Do they aim at his
+life? Come, Dame Petronille, your silence upsets me."
+
+Petronille was about to answer when the voice of Marcel was heard
+outside the chamber cheerfully announcing: "Marguerite! Denise! I have
+good news! Good news!" Dame Petronille remained silent, and stiffly
+bowing, rapidly took her departure without uttering a word.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+CHARLES THE WICKED.
+
+
+Marcel entered. The radiant joy that suffused his face upon entering the
+house now made room for amazement at the silent and brusque departure of
+Maillart's wife, who swept by him at the door. He looked at Marguerite
+and Denise inquiringly, and noticing the disquietude and even alarm
+depicted on their faces by the odious calumnies of Petronille, he
+hastened to ask: "What is the matter, Marguerite? Why did our friend's
+wife leave in that strange manner?"
+
+"Oh, uncle!" broke out the young girl with tears in her eyes. "There are
+very wicked people ... serpents and vipers."
+
+"They are to be pitied, my child. But I hope you do not refer to wicked
+people in connection with Maillart's wife?"
+
+"My friend," said Marguerite with embarrassment, "idle talk deserves
+contempt only. Nevertheless, in times like these idle talk may have
+serious consequences."
+
+"Well," observed Marcel dejectedly, "I have but an hour to spend with
+you. I am tired out. I hoped to enjoy some rest. I came full of joy with
+good news that was to make you happy as it made me. And here it is all
+spoiled. But these minutes of quiet and relaxation are sweet to me at
+your side, dear objects of my love."
+
+"These moments are quite rare," said Marguerite sighing, "and they are
+as precious to us as to you ... do not doubt, beloved Marcel!"
+
+"I know it. Fortunately, you are not one of those spiritless women,
+whose constant anxieties are a torment to their husbands, who love them
+and suffer through their uneasiness. No, you are brave. You accept with
+fortitude the conditions that circumstances raise around us, convinced
+that my conduct is upright. I see you ever serene, and a smile on your
+lips. I feel refreshed in your wise and sweet tranquility, and gather
+new strength for the struggle, for the present my life is one continuous
+struggle. It is a holy struggle, glorious, fruitful ... but it exhausts
+... nevertheless, thanks to you, dear Marguerite, I ever find at our
+hearth the happy quiet, the confident ease that are to the soul what a
+peaceful sleep is to the body--"
+
+"Dear Etienne, we shall speak later on the visit of Dame Petronille,"
+Marguerite broke in, fearing to disturb the rest her husband had come in
+search of in her company. "You have been announcing a good news.... We
+are waiting for it."
+
+"Yes, I prefer that," answered the provost with a sigh of relief, taking
+a seat between his wife and Denise, while the latter quietly removed his
+hat and cloak. "Coming upstairs I told Agnes to place an additional
+cover at supper."
+
+"Will our son return this evening from the Bastille of St. Antoine?"
+quickly inquired Marguerite. "Was that the good news you brought us? We
+shall be glad to see him."
+
+"No, no! Andre will not return before to-morrow morning. He is to keep
+watch over night at the Bastille with his company of cross-bowmen. My
+son must put the example of order in the service. He will neglect none
+of his duties."
+
+"And who is to take supper with us, uncle?"
+
+"Why, dear Denise?" answered Marcel smiling. "Who? One of our best
+friends. Guess, if you can."
+
+"Simon the Feather-dealer?... Peter Caillet?... Master Delille?...
+Philip Giffart?... John Goddard?... Josserand?... John Sorel?..."
+
+"No, Denise. Look not for our guest among my friends of the council. He
+is not yet old enough to figure in such serious functions. But, so as to
+help you guess, I shall add that our guest for this evening has just
+arrived from the country."
+
+"Can it be my old cousin who lives with his daughter at Vaucouleurs?
+Can he have left the quiet valley of the Meuse to come and see us?"
+
+"No, dear Denise. The friend whom we expect has been away from Paris
+only a short time. Cudgel your memory."
+
+"A short time?" Denise repeated mechanically, and struck by a sudden
+thought but hardly daring to indulge it, the poor child grew pale,
+joined her two trembling hands, and fixing upon her uncle a look at once
+full of anxiety and hope, she stammered: "Uncle, what is it you say? Can
+it be?..."
+
+"I shall add that the fate of that friend has recently made us feel
+uneasy."
+
+"It is he!" cried Denise throwing herself at Marcel's neck. "Can it
+be?... Jocelyn is back ... God be praised!"
+
+"Jocelyn!" exclaimed Marguerite joining in the surprise and joy of
+Denise. "Have you seen him? Is he in Paris?"
+
+"Yes; I saw the worthy fellow this morning at the town hall. He is in
+good health, although he has suffered a good deal during his travels."
+
+The emotion and tears of Denise must be left undescribed. After the
+first ebullition of joy was over, Marcel said to his wife: "I was
+presiding at the town hall over the council when one of our sergeants
+handed me a letter. I opened it and read that Jocelyn requested to speak
+with me. I ordered him to be taken upstairs to my room, and immediately
+after the session I hastened thither. Oh, my poor Denise! I confess it.
+I hardly recognized our friend, he was so changed! He has lost flesh ...
+his eyes are hollow ... his cheek-bones stick out."
+
+"What happened to him?" asked Denise. "Did he go to fight the English,
+as my aunt feared. Does he come from prison?"
+
+"He comes from prison, but did not go to war," answered Marcel. "This is
+what happened: As you know, he left for Nointel in Beauvoisis. After he
+left Nointel at night, and taking rest for an hour the next morning at
+Beaumont-sur-Oise, he resumed his journey. A short while after he heard
+the rapid gallop of a horse approaching behind him; turning he saw a
+man with a woman on his horse's crupper fleeing before three armed
+knights who followed at a distance. The couple drew in a few steps from
+Jocelyn, and the man, a lad of about twenty, said to our friend: 'We are
+fleeing from the castle of the Sire of Beaumont; he is the guardian of
+my sister who accompanies me, and he sought to violate her. He is riding
+after us with his men. You are armed. For pity's sake defend us; help me
+to protect my sister!..."
+
+"I know the heart and courage of Jocelyn," said Denise deeply moved. "He
+surely took the part of the unfortunate girl!"
+
+"Without hesitating, because, as he said to me, in his capacity of
+champion he could not refuse so good a case. The Sire of Beaumont
+arrived with his two equerries...."
+
+"And the combat started!" cried Denise joining her hands. "Poor Jocelyn!
+Alone against three!"
+
+"He was strong enough to overcome them. Unfortunately, however, at the
+very start of the action one of the combatants dealt him such a furious
+blow from behind with a mace on the head that Jocelyn's casque was
+broken. He fell from his horse unconscious ... and when he awoke he
+found himself half naked lying on straw, and aching at every limb at the
+bottom of a dungeon."
+
+"Poor Jocelyn!" said Marguerite. "That dungeon, no doubt, was some
+prison cell in the castle of Beaumont, whither our wounded friend was
+transported after the combat, stripped of his arms and in a dying
+condition?"
+
+"Yes, dear Marguerite; and Jocelyn remained in that cell, a prey to a
+devouring fever, until his recent release."
+
+"How he must have suffered! But, uncle, how did our poor friend manage
+to come out?"
+
+"A few days after taking Jocelyn prisoner, the Sire of Beaumont departed
+with his men to fight the English. Whether he was killed or captured at
+the rout of Poitiers is not known. But two days ago the Sire of
+Beaumont's castle was attacked and taken by the troop of a certain
+Captain Griffith."
+
+"That horrible adventurer, who pushed forward as far as St. Cloud and
+gave us such a fright?" asked Denise. "I remember you left the city at
+the head of the militia, ran against and forced him to retreat. Good
+God! In what hands did poor Jocelyn fall!"
+
+"Be not alarmed, dear child! By a singular accident our friend has had
+only cause to praise the adventurer. That savage and eccentric warrior
+seems sometimes to yield to generous impulses. After having, according
+to their wont, sacked the castle of Beaumont, massacred the men and
+violated the women, the band delved down into the subterranean passages
+in quest of booty. Thus they came to Jocelyn's dungeon, broke his chains
+and lead him to Captain Griffith, who on that day happily happened to be
+in a good humor. He cross-questioned our friend, and no doubt struck by
+his brave and robust appearance, despite all his sufferings, made him an
+offer to enlist in his company. Jocelyn declined. Griffith, who was half
+in his cups, then ordered Jocelyn to be furnished with clothes and two
+florins, and, alluding to our friend's thinness said to him: 'When you
+shall have regained some meat on your bones you will prove a rude
+customer; if I again run across you I should be pleased to break a lance
+with you. You are free. Go! And my patron saint, the Devil, be good to
+you!"
+
+"That Griffith is a dreadful bandit!" repeated Denise. "And yet I cannot
+but feel thankful to him for having liberated Jocelyn."
+
+"And then," put in Marguerite, "our friend proceeded straight back to
+Paris?"
+
+"Yes," answered Marcel sadly, "here another and unexpected sorrow
+awaited him."
+
+"Oh!" said Denise, "his father's death? It must have been a severe blow
+to him!"
+
+"Yes; the blow was severe. Picture to yourself what he must have felt.
+On his arrival, he hastened joyfully to the house of our old friend
+Lebrenn, the book-seller. There he first learned of his loss.... He
+spent the whole of yesterday and the night in solitude and mourning.
+This morning he came to see me at the town hall. This evening we shall
+be at least able to offer him the consolation of a tried friendship."
+
+Agnes the Bigot came in at this juncture and handed to Marcel a small
+gold medal enameled in green and bearing the letters "C" and "N,"
+surmounted by a crown. "A man," she announced, "wrapped up to the nose
+in a cloak and whose eyes are barely visible, is in the shop; he wishes
+to see Master Marcel without delay; he handed me the medal with orders
+to bring it to you."
+
+Marcel was visibly surprised at the sight of the medal, and said to his
+wife: "Dear Marguerite, I shall not be able to enjoy even the short hour
+of rest that I promised myself. Leave me alone now. Go down with Denise.
+Jocelyn cannot now be long coming. Do not stay supper for me"; and
+turning to Agnes the Bigot: "Lead the man upstairs."
+
+"Marcel," said Marguerite uneasily, while the servant withdrew to
+execute her master's orders, "you are fatigued, and will you not take
+even time enough for a meal?"
+
+"In a few minutes, when I go down again, I shall take a few mouthfuls
+before leaving."
+
+"What! Another night!"
+
+"I convoked a night meeting to the convent of the Cordeliers," explained
+Marcel, assuming a serious expression; "the funeral of Perrin Mace may
+be the signal for transcendent happenings. We must be ready for all
+eventualities--"
+
+The provost did not finish the sentence, seeing the closely cloaked man
+appear at the door led by Agnes. Marguerite left feeling all the more
+alarmed, the unfinished words of her husband having recalled to her mind
+the recent conversation with Petronille Maillart. After the departure of
+the two women, the stranger, first making certain that the door was
+closed, removed his cloak and threw it on a chair. The man, extremely
+small of stature, twenty-five years at the most, and dressed plainly in
+a buff jacket, was of distinguished and regular features; yet despite
+the gracefulness of his carriage, the affability of his manners and the
+almost caressing melody of his voice, there lingered a sardonic and
+insidious leer in his smile that betrayed the wickedness of his soul and
+the perversity of his heart. More and more concerned by the man's
+presence, Marcel seemed to accept his visit as one of those disagreeable
+duties that men in public life must frequently submit to; nevertheless
+his icy attitude and his look of suspicion fully revealed the aversion
+he entertained for his caller, to whom he said: "I did not expect to
+receive this evening the King of Navarre in my house."
+
+Charles the Wicked--that was the man's well deserved nickname--answered
+with a smile and with his insinuating voice, that most perfidious of all
+his charms: "Do not kings pay each other mutual visits? What is there
+surprising in that Charles, King of Navarre, should pay a visit to
+Marcel, King of the people of Paris? We are sovereigns, both of us."
+
+"Sire," answered Marcel impatiently, "please to state the purpose of
+your visit. What do you wish of me? No useless words!"
+
+"You are short of speech."
+
+"Shortness is the language of business. Moreover, it is well to measure
+the words one utters in your presence."
+
+"Do you, then, continue to mistrust me?"
+
+"Always, more than ever."
+
+"I love frankness."
+
+"Come, to the point, direct, and without mental reservation."
+
+For a moment Charles the Wicked remained silent; then boldly fixing his
+viper's eyes upon the provost, he answered, slowly weighing each word:
+
+"What do I wish, Marcel? I wish to be King of the French.... This
+astonishes you!"
+
+"No," answered the provost with a coolness that stupefied Charles the
+Wicked; "sooner or later you were bound to make the disclosure."
+
+"You foresaw things from a great distance.... How long is it since you
+foresaw it?"
+
+"Since I saw your creature Robert le Coq, Bishop of Laon, throw himself
+with ardor on the side of the popular party, and show himself one of the
+most violent enemies of King John, whose daughter you married--"
+
+"Nevertheless, if my memory does not fail me, you made good use of the
+influence of the Bishop of Laon in the States General to induce them to
+accept your famous ordinance of reforms."
+
+"I use any instrument that aids me in doing good."
+
+"And then you break it?"
+
+"If necessary. But Robert le Coq is too subtle to be broken.
+Nevertheless, despite his finesse, I have penetrated his secret
+motives."
+
+"And that is?"
+
+"The people of Paris have with their keen eyes and tongues surnamed the
+Bishop of Laon 'a two-edged dirk;' the people, Sire, are right. By
+showing himself so hostile to King John, your father-in-law, and
+afterwards so hostile to the Regent, your brother-in-law, the Bishop of
+Laon played a double game. He aimed, with the aid of the popular party,
+to first of all dethrone the reigning dynasty; and then ... to give the
+crown to you. That is the reason, Sire, why I am not taken by surprise
+at your admission that you wish to be King of the French."
+
+"What do you think of my pretensions?"
+
+"Your chances are fair of mounting the throne. I am ready to admit
+that."
+
+"With your help, Marcel?"
+
+"I might enter into your projects."
+
+"Is that true!" cried the King of Navarre, unable to conceal his joy;
+but after a short moment's reflection, and casting upon the provost a
+defiant look, he presently proceeded: "Marcel, you are laying a trap for
+me.... I know how and more than once you have expressed yourself
+regarding me. Your words were extremely severe."
+
+"Sire, you are called _Charles the Wicked_. I hold the name fits you.
+But you are active, subtle, venturesome; you command numerous armed
+bands; your partisans are powerful; your wealth considerable. You are a
+force, that, at a given moment, may be useful. For that reason I caused
+your release from prison where your father-in-law kept you locked up."
+
+"So that I, Charles, King of Navarre, am to be merely an instrument in
+the hands of Marcel, the cloth merchant."
+
+"Sire, you have your views; I have mine, and I shall express them to
+you. The Regent, hypocritic and stubborn, mocks at his oaths. He signed
+and promulgated the reform ordinances; he embraced me in tears, calling
+me his good father; he swore by God and all the saints that he desired
+the welfare of the people and that he would loyally adhere to the great
+measures decreed by the national assembly. The Regent has broken all his
+promises. His ruse, his well calculated indolence, his ill will, the
+increasing audacity of the court and the nobility, who rule supreme in
+their domains, either hamper or prevent the execution of the new edicts.
+The Regent is secretly inciting the jealousy of a large number of
+communal cities against Paris, that, as they put it, 'is seeking to
+govern Gaul'. The nobility in its deliberate inaction, and sheltered by
+its fortified castles, allows the English to extend their depredations
+to the very gates of Paris. The royal false money continues to ruin
+commerce and to destroy credit. Finally, only two days ago, the Regent's
+favorite caused a bourgeois of Paris to be mutilated and executed under
+our very eyes, thereby proclaiming the contempt of the court for the
+laws enacted by the States General. The plan of the court is simple: to
+tire out the country by disasters: to render impossible the good results
+that were justly expected from the national assembly, a popular
+government where the King is no longer master but servant: finally, the
+court expects that one of these days it can tell the people, whose
+sufferings will have become intolerable by these machinations: 'Ye
+people, behold the fruit of your rebellion. In lieu of having remained
+submissive, as in the past, to the sovereign authority of your kings,
+you have wished to reign, yourselves, by sending your deputies to the
+States General; you now pay the penalty of your audacity. May this rough
+lesson prove to you once more that princes are born to command and the
+people to obey. And now, pay your taxes and resume your secular yoke
+with humble repentance'!"
+
+"So help me God! You could not have been better instructed upon the
+projects of my brother-in-law and his councilors if you had attended
+their secret meetings! And if they triumph, would you despair?"
+
+"Despair?--For the present, Sire; but I would remain full of hope in the
+future. The conquest of freedom is as assured as it is slow, laborious
+and painful.... I do not even now despair of the present. I propose to
+make a last attempt with the Regent."
+
+"And if you fail, will you come to me?"
+
+"Between two evils, Sire, one is forced to choose the lesser."
+
+"In short, you believe you will find in me what the Regent lacks?"
+
+"You have an immense advantage over him. You wish to become King of the
+French, while the Regent is that by birth."
+
+"Do you forget my royalty of Navarre?"
+
+"To speak truly, I did forget it, Sire ... just as you forget it for the
+crown of France. As I was saying, a King by the right of birth looks
+upon all reform as an encroachment upon his power.... You, on the
+contrary, look upon the reforms as a means whereby to usurp power. Now,
+then, however perfidious, however wicked you, Charles the Wicked, may
+be, I dare you to fail to announce your access to the throne--and that
+in your own interest--by great and useful measures to the public
+welfare. That much would be gained ... later, we shall see...."
+
+"And throw me down?"
+
+"I shall work to that end, Sire, with all my powers, the moment you turn
+from the straight path. You are forewarned."
+
+"And, Master Marcel, you would destroy your own work without scruple?"
+
+"Without scruple! Moreover, better so than as it happened with the first
+and second dynasties when the stewards of the royal palace or the large
+feudal seigneurs dethroned the kings and changed dynasties."
+
+"And who would then accomplish the rough task? I would like to know the
+artisan."
+
+"The people, Sire!... That people, still in its infancy and credulous,
+must learn that at its breath it can waft away the sovereign masters who
+impose themselves upon it by force and cunning, and whom the church
+consecrated. Some day, this very century perhaps, that people will come
+of age; it will realize the ruinous and superfluousness of the royal
+power. But that day is not yet. In our days, the people, ignorant and
+enslaved to habit, would wish to crown a new master the moment they
+overthrow an old one. They rely on princes. You, Sire, are one of these
+predestined beings. You can even pretend to reign over Gaul by virtue of
+one of your ancestors, who was himself deprived of the crown for the
+benefit of his cousin Philip of Valois, the father of King John. It is,
+accordingly, not impossible that you may some day reign over France ...
+a deplorable possibility ... yet tangible enough!"
+
+"You must have courage to speak that wise to me."
+
+"Instead of telling you the truth, I would otherwise be basely
+flattering you, whose first thought, if to-morrow you are King, would be
+to rid yourself of me. I indulge in no illusions on that head."
+
+"Rid myself of you, who would have served me!"
+
+"For that very reason! My presence would be a constant reminder of your
+debt. But that matters not. Whether I die to-day or to-morrow, whether
+you be king or not, whether or not my last effort with the Regent fail,
+whether the court party triumph or is now vanquished--whatever may
+happen, the future belongs to the popular party even if the present may
+slip. Yes; whatever people may do, the ordinance of the reforms of 1356
+and the sovereign act of the national assembly in this generation will
+leave imperishable traces behind them. I have sowed too hastily, some
+say, and they add, 'a slow crop follows a hasty planting.' Be it so! But
+I have sowed. The seed is in the earth. Sooner or later the future will
+gather the crop. My task is done. I can die. And now, Sire, I sum up: If
+I fail in my last attempt with the Regent, I shall take recourse with
+you. You will be first appointed captain-general of Paris ... it will be
+your first step towards the throne.... We shall then take measures to
+lead things to a happy issue, according to our device."
+
+"My first words on coming in were: 'Marcel, I wish to be King of the
+French.' I had my project. I renounce it to join yours," said Charles
+the Wicked resuming his cloak. "You are one of those inflexible men who
+can not be convinced any more than they can be corrupted. I shall not
+seek to change your views concerning me, nor yet to purchase your
+alliance. However dangerous it may be to me, I accept it as you offer
+it. I return to St. Denis to await the event. In case my presence shall
+be necessary in Paris, write to me and I shall come. I only demand of
+you absolute secrecy on this interview."
+
+"Our common interests demand secrecy."
+
+"Adieu, Marcel! May God prosper you."
+
+"Adieu, Sire!"
+
+Enveloping himself anew up to his eyes, the King of Navarre left the
+provost. The latter followed him with his eyes, and after the departure
+of Charles the Wicked said to himself: "Fatal necessity! To have to aid
+in the elevation of this man! And yet it may be necessary! The change of
+dynasty may help me to save Gaul, should the Regent wreck to-morrow my
+last hope.... Yes, Charles the Wicked, with the view of usurping and
+keeping the crown, will be compelled to enter the wide path of the
+reforms that alone can lighten the weight now crushing the townsmen and
+above all the peasantry. Oh, poor rustic plebs, so patient in your
+secular martyrdom! Oh, poor Jacques Bonhomme, as the nobility in its
+insolent haughtiness loves to call you, your day of deliverance is
+approaching! For the first time united in a common cause with the
+bourgeoisie, the people of the towns, when you will stand erect, Jacques
+Bonhomme, in arms as your brothers of the towns, we shall see whether
+this Charles the Wicked, however execrable a man he may be, will dare to
+deviate from the path that he is ordered to march!"
+
+A bell rang and recalled Marcel from his reverie. "I shall have barely
+time to reach the convent of the Cordeliers, in order to prepare our
+friends for to-morrow's measures ... terrible measures!... yet as
+legitimate as the law of retaliation ... supreme and unavoidable law in
+such gloomy days as these, when violence can be opposed and overcome
+with violence only! Oh! Let the blood fall upon the heads of those who,
+having driven the people to extremities, have by their conduct provoked
+these impious struggles!"
+
+Saying this, Marcel descended the stairs to take his leave from his
+wife, his niece and Jocelyn the Champion, who, at the invitation of the
+provost was then taking supper with his family, and, gathered around the
+table, presented a charming picture of peace and good will.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+AT THE CORDELIERS.
+
+
+After taking some rest at Rufin's lodging, William Caillet accompanied
+his host to the convent of the Cordeliers, where a large crowd was
+gathering, greedy to hear Marcel's address. The Cordeliers, a poor
+monastic order that aroused the profound enviousness of the high and
+splendidly endowed clergy, had ranked themselves on the side of the
+people against the court. The large hall of their convent was the
+habitual place for the holding of large popular mass meetings.
+Acquainted with the brother who attended the gate, Rufin received from
+him permission to speak with Marcel in the refectory which he would have
+to cross on the way to the hall where he was to address the people. The
+spacious hall, walled and vaulted with stone, and lighted only by the
+lamps that burned on a sort of tribune situated at one of its
+extremities, was packed with a dense and impatient crowd, on the front
+ranks alone of which fell the light of the lamps; the deeper ranks, and
+in the measure that they stood further and further away from the lighted
+platform, remained in a semi-obscurity, that deepened into complete
+darkness at the other end of the hall. The audience consisted of
+bourgeois and artisans, a large number of whom wore head covers of red
+and blue, the colors adopted by the popular party, and brooches with the
+device "To a happy issue."
+
+The two funerals that had taken place during the day, and both the
+contrast and significance of which were so obvious, formed the subject
+of conversation with the seething mass. The least clear-sighted among
+them foresaw a decisive crisis and an inevitable conflict between the
+court and the people, represented respectively by the Regent and Marcel.
+Accordingly, the arrival of the latter was awaited with as much
+impatience as anxiety. A few minutes later Marcel entered by a door near
+the platform, accompanied by several councilmen, John Maillart among
+them. Jocelyn the Champion, Rufin the Tankard-smasher and William
+Caillet brought up the rear. The last of these had just enjoyed a long
+conversation with Marcel and Jocelyn. Enthusiastic cheers greeted Marcel
+and the councilmen. The former mounted the platform followed by all the
+councilmen, except Maillart who remained below, and took seats behind
+the speaker. In the midst of profound silence, Marcel said:
+
+"My friends, the hour is critical. Let us indulge neither in
+faint-heartedness nor in illusions. The regent and the court have
+dropped the mask. This morning, to our solemn protest against the
+iniquitous and sanguinary act that in defiance of law smote Perrin Mace,
+the court answered by following the hearse of John Baillet. This is a
+challenge.... Let us take up the gauge! Let us make ready for battle."
+
+"Aye! Aye!" came the thundering response from the audience. "The Regent
+and his courtiers shall not make us retreat."
+
+"For a moment frightened by the firmness of the national assembly",
+Marcel proceeded, "the Regent granted the reforms and swore to carry
+them out. The deputies of the towns of Gaul, gathered at Paris in the
+States General, were, with the loyal aid of the Regent, to rule the
+whole country wisely and paternally, as the magistrates of the communes
+rule the towns. Thus there would no longer be any royal and feudal
+tyranny; no more ruinous prodigalities; no more false money; no more
+venal justice; no more excessive taxes; no more arbitrary imposts; no
+more pillaging in the name of the King and princes; no more odious
+privileges for church and nobility; in short, there would be an end of
+the infamous and horrible seigniorial rights that cause the heart to
+rise, and reason to revolt. That is what we wanted; and that is just
+what the Regent and the court resist energetically."
+
+"Blood and death!" cried Maillart in a loud voice, rising from his seat
+with violent gesticulation. "They will have to submit; if not we shall
+massacre every one of them from the Regent down to the last courtier!
+Death to the traitors! To arms! Let's set fire to the palace and the
+castles."
+
+A large number applauded the excited words of Maillart; and the man of
+the furred cap, who insinuated himself into this meeting as he had done
+in the morning among the crowds that witnessed the funeral procession of
+Perrin Mace, moved about saying: "Hein, my friends, what an intrepid man
+is this Master Maillart! He speaks only of blood and massacre! Master
+Marcel, on the contrary, seems always afraid to compromise himself. It
+does not surprise me; it is said he has secretly embraced the side of
+the court."
+
+"Marcel ... betray the people of Paris!" answered several men. "You are
+raving, good man! Go on your way!"
+
+"All the same," insisted the man of the furred cap, "Marcel keeps quiet
+and does not respond to the appeal to arms so bravely made by Master
+Maillart."
+
+"How do you expect Marcel to speak in the midst of all this noise? But,
+silence! Quiet is being restored. Marcel is about to resume. Let's
+listen!"
+
+"No criminal weakness," proceeded Marcel; "but neither let there be any
+blind revenge. Soon perhaps the cry 'To arms!' will resound from one
+confine of Gaul to the other, both in towns and country!"
+
+"Eh! What do we care about the country?" cried Maillart. "Let's mind our
+own business. Let's roll up our sleeves and strike without mercy!"
+
+"My friend, your courage carries you away," Marcel answered Maillart in
+an accent of cordial reproach. "Shall the boon of freedom be the
+privilege of some only? Are we, the bourgeois and artisans of the towns,
+the whole people? Are there not millions of serfs, vassals and villeins
+given up to the mercy of feudal power? Who cares for these unfortunate
+people? Nobody! Who represents their interests in the States General?
+Nobody!" And turning to William Caillet, who, standing aside and under
+the shadow was attentively listening to the provost, he pointed to the
+poor peasant and added: "No, I was mistaken. On this day the serfs are
+here represented. Contemplate this old man and listen to me!"
+
+All eyes turned to Caillet, who in his rustic timidity lowered his head.
+Marcel continued:
+
+"Listen to me, and your hearts, like mine, will boil with indignation.
+With me you will cry: 'Justice and vengeance! War upon the castles,
+peace to the cottages!' The history of this vassal is that of all of our
+brothers of the country. This man had a daughter, the only solace to his
+sorrows. The name of that child, who was as beautiful as wise, will
+indicate her candor to you. It is Aveline-who-never-lied. She was
+affianced to a miller lad, a vassal like herself. By reason of the
+goodness of his disposition he was called Mazurec the Lambkin. The day
+of their marriage is set.... But in these days the wife's first night
+belongs to her seigneur.... The nobles call it the right of first
+fruits."
+
+"Shame!" cried the audience in furious indignation. "Execrable shame!"
+
+"And this execrable shame are we not the accomplices of by allowing our
+brothers to remain subject to it?" cried Marcel in a voice that
+dominated the thrill of anger which ran through the audience. Silence
+being again restored, Marcel proceeded: "If the bride is homely, or if
+it so happen that the seigneur is unable to violate her, he puts on the
+mien of a good prince; he receives money from the bridegroom, and the
+latter escapes the ignominy. William Caillet, that is the name of the
+bride's father, that man yonder, wished to ransom his daughter from such
+shame; in the absence of the seigneur, the bailiff consented to a money
+indemnity. Caillet sells his only property, a milch-cow, and gives the
+money to Mazurec, who, with bounding joy, proceeds to the castle to
+redeem the honor of his wife. A knight happens to cross his path and
+robs the vassal. The latter reaches the manor in tears and recognizes
+the robber among the guests of his seigneur, who had just arrived. The
+vassal prays for mercy for his wife, and for justice against the robber.
+'O, your bride, I am told is beautiful and you charge one of my noble
+guests with theft,' said the seigneur to him, 'I shall take your bride
+into my bed, and you shall be punished with death for defaming a
+knight.' That's not all!" cried Marcel suppressing with a gesture a
+fresh explosion from the audience whose indignation was rising to
+highest pitch. "Driven to despair, the vassal assaults his seigneur; he
+is thrown into prison; the bride is dragged to the castle; she resists
+her seigneur ... he has the right to have her pinioned. Does he do so?
+No! He meant to give Jacques Bonhomme a striking lesson. He meant to
+show that he could take the vassal's wife not only by the right of the
+strongest but also in the name of the law, of justice and even of that
+which is most sacred in the world, of God himself! The seigneur indulges
+this savage pleasure. He files a complaint with the seneschal of
+Beauvoisis 'against the resistance of the vassal!' The judges meet, and
+a decision is rendered in the name of right, justice and law in these
+terms: 'Whereas, the seigneur has the right of first fruits over the
+bride of his vassal, he shall exercise his right over her; whereas, the
+bridegroom has dared to revolt against the legitimate exercise of that
+right, he shall make the amende honorable to his seigneur with arms
+crossed and upon his knees! Furthermore, whereas the said vassal has
+charged a knight with robbery, and the latter has demanded to prove his
+innocence by arms, we decree a judicial combat. According to law, the
+knight shall combat in full armor and on horseback, the serf on foot and
+armed with a stick; and if the vassal is vanquished and survives, he
+shall be drowned as the defamer of a knight.'"
+
+At these last words of Marcel's an explosion of fury broke forth from
+the audience. Caillet hid his pale and somber face in his hands. Marcel
+restored quiet and proceeded:
+
+"Justice has spoken; the decree is enforced. The bride is bound and
+carried to the bed of the seigneur; he dishonors her and then returns
+her to her husband. The latter makes the amende honorable on his knees
+before his seigneur; he is thereupon taken to the arena to fight half
+naked the iron-cased knight.... You may guess the issue of the duel....
+The vassal being vanquished, he is put into a bag and thrown into the
+river.... Such is feudal justice!"
+
+"And to-day," now cried out William Caillet stepping forward, a
+frightful picture of hate and rage, "my daughter carries in her bosom
+the child of her seigneur! What shall be done to that child, townsmen of
+Paris, if born alive? You have wives and daughters and sisters! Answer,
+what would you do? Is that child of shame to be loved? Is it to be hated
+as the child of Aveline's executioner? Should I at the whelp's birth
+break in his head lest he grow into a wolf? What to do?"
+
+An oppressive silence followed upon the words of William Caillet. None
+dared answer. Marcel continued:
+
+"This, then, is what is going on at the very gates of our town. The
+country people are pitilessly left to the mercy of the seigneurs! The
+women are violated, and the men put to death! We have been the
+accomplices of the executioners of so many victims; we have been so by
+our criminal indifference, and to-day we pay the penalty of our
+selfishness. We, the townspeople, believed we would be strong enough to
+overcome the seigneurs and the crown; we imagined we could compel them
+to reform the execrable abuses that oppress us. To-day we should admit
+that we have thought too highly of our own power. The Regent and his
+partisans violate their own sworn oaths, and shatter our hopes. Vainly
+have I, in the name of the States General, again and again requested an
+audience from the Regent to remind him of his sacred promises. The gates
+of Louvre remained shut in my face. The audacity of our enemies
+proceeds from the circumstance that our power ends outside of the gates
+of our towns. Let us join hands with the serfs of the country; let us
+cease separating our cause from theirs, and matters will take on a
+different aspect. We never shall obtain lasting and fruitful reforms
+without a close alliance with the country folks. If to-morrow at a given
+signal the serfs should rise in arms against their seigneurs, and the
+towns against the officers, then no human power would be able to
+overcome such a mass-uprising. The Regent, the seigneurs and their
+troops would be swept aside and annihilated by the storm. Then would the
+peoples of Gaul, resuming possession of their country's soil and
+re-entering upon their freedom, see before them a future of peace, of
+grandeur and of prosperity without end.... Do you desire to realize that
+future by joining hands with our brothers the peasants?"
+
+"Aye! Aye! We will!" cried the councilmen.
+
+"Aye! Aye! We will!" re-echoed from thousands of voices with boundless
+enthusiasm. "Let's join our brothers of the country. Let our device be
+theirs also--'To a happy issue,' for townsmen and peasants!"
+
+"Come, poor martyr!" cried Marcel with tears in his eyes and embracing
+Caillet, who was not less moved than the provost. "I take heaven and the
+cries that escape from so many generous hearts, moved by the recital of
+the sufferings of your family, as witnesses to the indissoluble alliance
+concluded this day between all the children of our mother country! Let
+us stand united against our common enemy! Artisans, bourgeois and
+peasants--_each for all, and all for each_, and to a happy issue the
+good cause! War upon the castles!"
+
+Sublime was the sensation, holy the enthusiasm of the crowd at the sight
+of the provost, dressed in his magisterial robe, closing in his arms the
+horny-handed serf dressed in rags.
+
+Profoundly moved and even surprised by what he saw and heard, Caillet,
+despite his rugged nature, almost fainted. Tears streamed down his
+face. He leaned against the wall to avoid dropping to the floor, while
+Marcel cried out:
+
+"Let all who desire to lead the good cause to a happy issue meet
+to-morrow morning arms in hand upon the square of St. Eloi church."
+
+"Count upon us, Marcel," came from the crowd; "we shall all be there! We
+shall follow you with closed eyes! Long live Marcel! Long live the
+peasants! To a happy issue! To a happy issue! War on the castles, peace
+to the huts!" Amid these exclamations the crowd tumultuously evacuated
+the hall of the Cordeliers.
+
+"Do you see, friends, how far this Marcel goes in his defiance of the
+people of Paris?" remarked the man of the furred cap to several townsmen
+near him as they were leaving the hall. "Did you hear him?"
+
+"What did he say that was so bad? Come, now, my good man, you are losing
+your wits!"
+
+"What did he say? Why, he calls for help to the vagabonds and strollers
+in the country! Are we not brave enough to do our own work without the
+support of Jacques Bonhomme? Verily, never before did Master Marcel show
+so completely the contempt he entertains for us! John Maillart is quite
+another friend of the people! Long live John Maillart!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+POPULAR JUSTICE.
+
+
+It is some time since sunrise. The Regent, who has recently and for good
+cause moved to the tower of the Louvre, has just risen from his bed,
+which is located in the rear of a vast chamber, roofed with gilded
+rafters and magnificently furnished. Rich carpets hang from the walls. A
+few favorites are accorded the august honor of assisting the treacherous
+and wily youth, who is reigning over Gaul, in his morning toilet. One of
+the courtiers, the seigneur of Norville, jealous of his servitude to the
+prince, is kneeling at his feet in the act of adjusting his long
+tapering shoes, while, seated on the edge of his bed, his head down,
+careworn, pensive and twirling his thumbs as was his habit, the Regent
+mechanically allows himself to be shod. Hugh, the Sire of Conflans and
+marshal of Normandy, he who presided at the mutilation and execution of
+Perrin Mace, is conversing in a low voice with Robert, marshal of
+Champagne, another councilor of the Regent, in the embrasure of a window
+at the other end of the chamber. After a long time watching his thumbs
+twirl, the Regent raised his head, called the marshal of Normandy in his
+shrill voice and asked: "Hugh, at what hour is the barrier of the Seine
+closed, below the postern that opens on the river bank?"
+
+"Sire, the barrier is closed at nightfall"; and the marshal added
+sardonically. "Such are the orders of Marcel."
+
+"After nightfall, no vessel can leave Paris?"
+
+"No, Sire. After nightfall no one can leave Paris either by land or
+water. Such, again, are the orders of Marcel."
+
+"In that case," the Regent replied without looking up and after a
+moment's reflection, "you will procure a vessel this morning, have it
+moored outside of the barrier at a little distance from the postern gate
+at the foot of the little staircase. You and Robert," proceeded the
+Regent pointing to the marshal of Champagne, "will hold yourselves ready
+to accompany me. Prudence and discretion."
+
+For a moment the two favorites remained mute with astonishment. The
+marshal of Normandy broke the silence with the question: "Do you
+contemplate leaving Paris by night and furtively, Sire? Would you not be
+leaving the field to that miserable Marcel? Why, by the saints! If that
+insolent bourgeois annoys you, Sire, follow the advice I have so often
+given you! Have Marcel and his councilmen hanged as I hanged Perrin
+Mace! Did his execution cause Paris to riot? No; not one of the
+good-for-nothings has dared to kick; they contented themselves with
+attending in mass the funeral of the hanged fellow. Charge me with
+relieving you of Marcel along with his gang. It is done quickly."
+
+"Among other scamps that should be hanged high and short," added the
+marshal of Champagne, "is one Maillart, who is profuse in violent
+denunciations of the court!"
+
+"Maillart! Allow not a hair on Maillart's head to be touched!" said the
+Regent with lively interest, while bestowing a sinister and false leer
+upon the courtiers.
+
+"It will be as you say, Sire," answered the marshal of Normandy, not a
+little astonished at the prince's words. "We shall spare Maillart. But
+by God! Order that the other insolent creatures be put to death, Marcel
+first of all! Your orders shall be executed."
+
+"Hugh," answered the prince, rising on his feet to put on his robe that
+the seigneur of Norville was pressing upon his master after having shod
+him, "let the vessel be ready this evening as I ordered. Be punctual.
+Prudence and discretion."
+
+"You do not then listen to my advice!" cried the marshal almost
+angrily. "Your clemency for those vile bourgeois will yet be the undoing
+of you! Your goodness misleads you!"
+
+"My clemency! My goodness!" repeated the prince, casting a sinister look
+upon the marshal.
+
+Understanding now the secret thoughts of his master, the courtier
+answered: "If you have decided to mete out prompt justice to that
+insolent bourgeoisie, why wait so long, Sire?"
+
+"Oh! Oh! Why!" said the young man shrugging his shoulders. He then
+relapsed into silence, and presently repeated: "Let the vessel be ready
+this evening."
+
+The Regent's favorites were too well acquainted with the youth's
+stubbornness and profound powers of dissimulation to endeavor to obtain
+from him any further light upon his plans. Nevertheless, the marshal of
+Normandy was about to return to the charge, when an officer of the
+palace entered and said: "Sire, the seigneur of Nointel and the knight
+of Chaumontel request admission to take leave from you, a favor that you
+have accorded them."
+
+At a sign of the Regent the officer left walking backward, and returned
+almost immediately accompanied by Conrad of Nointel and the knight of
+Chaumontel. The trials of war had no wise affected the health of the two
+seigneurs. The two had been among the first to turn tail at the battle
+of Poitiers. The groom of the beautiful Gloriande was not leading back
+to her feet the ten chained English prisoners that she had demanded as
+the pledge of her future husband's valor.
+
+"Well, Conrad of Nointel, you are leaving the court to return to your
+seigniory?" said the Regent. "We hope to see you again in more
+prosperous days. We ever love to number a Neroweg among our faithful
+vassals, seeing that it is said your family is as old as that of the
+first Frankish kings. Have you not an elder brother?"
+
+"Yes, Sire. The elder branch of my family inhabits Auvergne, where it
+owns estates that it owes to the sword of my ancestors, Clovis'
+companions of war. My father left his castle of Plournel, situated near
+Nantes, to come to Nointel which reverted to him upon my mother's death.
+He preferred the neighborhood of Paris and of the court to that of
+savage Brittany. I am of my father's opinion, and I do not expect ever
+to return to the domains that I own in that region and which are
+governed by my bailiffs."
+
+"I rely on your promise. The illustriousness of your house makes me
+anxious to keep it near my court."
+
+"Sire, I shall return for a double reason. First of all to please the
+Regent, and also to please my betrothed, the damosel of Chivry, who much
+desires to see the court. But I must hasten to leave Paris in order to
+collect the money for my own and my friend's ransom. It is a large sum
+that we have to pay."
+
+"Then you were both taken by the English?"
+
+"Yes, Sire," answered the knight of Chaumontel; "but seeing that my
+casque and sword are my only property, Conrad, as a loyal brother in
+arms, has taken it upon himself to pay for me--"
+
+"Did the English set you free on parole? They are generous enemies."
+
+"Yes, Sire," answered Conrad. "I was taken by the men of the Duke of
+Norfolk, and he placed our ransom at six thousand florins. But I said to
+him: 'If you retain me a prisoner, my bailiff will never be able to
+raise from my vassals so large a sum; the vigorous hand of their own
+seigneur is required to seize so much money from those villeins; let me,
+therefore, return to my domains, and on my faith as a Christian and a
+knight I shall speedily bring to you the six thousand florins for our
+ransom.'"
+
+"And the Englishman accepted?"
+
+"Without hesitation, Sire. Moreover, learning that my seigniory was in
+Beauvoisis, he said to me: 'You will run in that region across a certain
+bastard named Captain Griffith, who for some time has been raiding the
+region of Beauvoisis with his band.'"
+
+"That is so!" exclaimed one of the courtiers. "Fortunately, however, the
+fortified castles of the seigneurs are protected from the ravages of
+that chief of adventurers. He falls upon the plebs of the open fields,
+and his bands put everything to fire and to the sword. He is a savage
+warrior."
+
+"Well," resumed the Regent with a cruel smile, "let the bourgeois who
+presume to govern in our stead stop these disasters!" And turning to the
+Sire of Nointel: "But what has that adventurer of a captain to do with
+your ransom?"
+
+"It is to him I am to deliver our ransom, together with a letter that
+the Duke of Norfolk gave me for him."
+
+At this moment the marshal of Normandy, who had inclined his head toward
+the window, interrupted Conrad, saying: "What noise is that?... I hear
+near and approaching clamors."
+
+"Clamors!" cried the seigneur of Norville, "who would be so impudent as
+to clamor in the vicinity of the King's palace? Give the order, Sire, to
+punish the varlets."
+
+"It is not clamors merely, but threatening cries," put in the marshal of
+Champagne running to the door which he opened, and through which a wild
+outburst of furious imprecations penetrated into the royal chamber.
+Almost at the same time an officer of the palace ran in from the
+gallery. He was pale and frightened, and came screaming: "Flee, Sire!
+The people of Paris are invading the Louvre! They have disarmed your
+guards!"
+
+"Stand by, my friends!" cried the Regent, livid with terror and taking
+refuge in his bed, behind the curtains of which he sought to hide
+himself. "Defend me!... The felons mean to kill me!"
+
+At the first signal of danger, the marshals of Normandy and Champagne,
+the same as a few other courtiers, resolutely drew their swords. Conrad
+of Nointel and his friend the knight of Chaumontel, however, guided by a
+valor that was tempered by extreme prudence, searched with their eyes
+for some issue of escape, while the seigneur of Norville, jumping upon
+the bed, tried to hide himself behind the same curtain with the Regent.
+Suddenly another door, one facing that of the gallery, flew open, and a
+large number of palace officers, prelates and seigneurs, ran in
+helter-skelter, screaming: "The Louvre is invaded by the people! Marcel
+is heading a band of murderers.... Save the Regent!"
+
+These cries had hardly been uttered when the courtiers saw Marcel,
+followed by a compact troop armed with pikes, axes and cutlasses, appear
+at the other end of the gallery that communicated with the royal
+apartment. These men, bourgeois and artisans of Paris, uttered not a
+sound. Only their foot-falls were heard on the stone slabs. The silence
+of the armed crowd seemed more ominous than its previous clamors. At
+their head marched the provost, calm, grave and resolute. A few steps
+behind him came William Caillet armed with a pike, Rufin the
+Tankard-smasher with a battle mace, and Jocelyn the Champion with drawn
+sword. During the few seconds that it took Marcel to cross the gallery,
+the distracted courtiers held a sort of council in broken words. None of
+the confused and hasty views prevailed. The Regent remained hidden
+behind the curtains of his bed together with the seigneur of Norville.
+Trembling and pale but kept from fleeing by a sense of self-respect, the
+majority of the courtiers crowded back into the furthest corner of the
+apartment, while the less scrupulous Conrad of Nointel and his friend,
+having slid themselves near the second door that led to another
+apartment, prudently took themselves off.
+
+When he presented himself at the threshold of the royal chamber, Marcel
+met there none to defend it besides the two marshals who stood with
+drawn swords. Be it, however, that at that supreme moment they felt
+imposed by the aspect of the provost, or that they realized the
+uselessness of a struggle that meant inevitable death to themselves,
+both lowered their swords.
+
+"Where is the Regent?" inquired Marcel in a loud and firm voice. "I
+wish to speak with him. He has nothing to fear from the people."
+
+The accent of the provost was so sincere and the loyalty of his word was
+so generally acknowledged, even by his enemies, that yielding both to a
+sentiment of royal dignity and to the confidence inspired by Marcel's
+words, the Regent came out from behind the curtains, not a little
+encouraged at the same time by the presence of the court people and the
+quiet demeanor of the armed crowd that had invaded the Louvre.
+
+"Here I am," said the Regent taking a few steps toward Marcel yet
+unable, despite his powers of dissimulation, to wholly conceal the rage
+that had succeeded his fright. "What do you want of me? The Regent waits
+to hear you!"
+
+Marcel turned towards the armed men who had followed him and ordered
+them with a gesture to guard silence and not to cross the threshold of
+the royal chamber which he now entered alone. On the other hand, after a
+short and whispered consultation with his courtiers, the Regent
+gradually regained composure and addressed the provost in these words:
+"Your audacity is great!... To enter my palace in arms!"
+
+"Sire! I have long been requesting an interview from you by letters, and
+failed; I have been compelled to force open your doors in order to make
+you hear, in the name of the country, the language of sincere
+severity--"
+
+"To the point," broke in the Regent impatiently. "What do you want?
+Speak!"
+
+"Sire! The people demand, first of all the loyal enforcement of the
+reform ordinances which you have signed and promulgated."
+
+"You are called the King of Paris," answered the Regent with a caustic
+smile; "well, then, rule!... Save the country!"
+
+"Sire! The voice of the national assembly has been heard in Paris and in
+some other large towns. But your partisans and your officers, sovereign
+in their seigniories or in the domains which they govern in your name,
+have banded themselves to prevent the execution of the laws upon which
+the safety of Gaul depends. Such a state of things must promptly cease,
+Sire!... Aye, very promptly. The people so wills it."
+
+The Regent turned to the group of prelates and seigneurs at the head of
+whom stood the Marshal of Normandy; a hurried council was again held by
+the courtiers who hastened around their chief; and then returning to the
+provost, the Regent answered haughtily: "Is that your only grievance?
+Let's hear the rest!!"
+
+"We have imperative demands."
+
+"What else do you want?"
+
+"An act of justice and reparation, Sire! Perrin Mace, a bourgeois of
+Paris, has been mutilated and then put to death in defiance of right and
+of law by the order of some of your courtiers.... The seigneur who
+ordered the execution of an innocent man must be sentenced to death! It
+is the law of retaliation."
+
+"By the cross of the Saviour!" cried the Regent. "You dare come and
+demand of me the condemnation and execution of the marshal of Normandy,
+my best friend!"
+
+"That man is causing your ruin with his detestable advice. He shall
+expiate his crime."
+
+"Impudent scamp!" cried out the marshal of Normandy in a fit of rage,
+threatening Marcel with his sword. "You have the audacity to make
+charges against me!"
+
+"Not another word!" ordered the Regent interrupting his favorite and
+beckoning him to lower his sword. "It is for me to answer in this place.
+I order you, Master Marcel, to leave this place, and upon the spot!"
+
+"Sire!" answered the provost with patronizing commiseration, "you are
+young, my hairs are grey.... Your age is impetuous, mine is calm.... I
+therefore have the right and the duty to lecture to you. I beseech you
+in the name of the country, in the name of your crown, to loyally
+fulfill your promises, and, however painful it may seem to you, to
+grant the reparation that I demand in the name of justice. Prove in that
+manner that, when the law is audaciously violated, you punish the
+guilty, whatever his rank.... Sire! It is still time for you to listen
+to the voice of equity!--"
+
+"And I tell you, Master Marcel," yelled the Regent furiously, "that it
+is time, high time, to put an end to your insolent requests! Be gone,
+instantly!"
+
+"Away with this varlet in rebellion against his King," cried the
+courtiers, like the Regent re-assured and deceived by the attitude of
+Marcel's armed escort, that remained mute and motionless, and turning to
+them the marshal of Normandy called out: "As to you, good people of
+Paris, who now regret the criminal errand on which this bedeviled rebel
+has brought you despite yourselves, join us, the true friends of your
+King, in punishing the treason of this miserable Marcel.... Let his
+blood fall upon himself!"
+
+The provost smothered a sigh of regret, stepped back a few paces so as
+to place himself beyond the reach of the marshal's sword, turned to his
+people and said: "Carry out the orders that brought you here."
+
+These words were hardly uttered when Marcel's armed men, anxious to make
+amends for the silence and prolonged restraint imposed upon them by his
+orders, burst loose in an explosion of cries of indignation and of
+threats that struck the Regent and his courtiers with stupor and
+consternation. Rufin the Tankard-smasher bolted upon the marshal of
+Normandy, seized him by the collar and cried: "You had Perrin Mace
+mutilated and hanged; now you shall be hanged! The gibbet is ready!"
+
+"And this for you, caitiff," responded the marshal, quick as lightning
+transfixing the student's left arm with a thrust of his sword. "The cord
+that is to hang me is not yet twisted."
+
+"No, but the iron that will smash you to death is forged, my noble
+gentleman," answered the student dealing with his mace a furious blow
+upon the marshal's head. "I have been Rufin the Tankard-smasher; now I
+am Rufin the Head-smasher!"
+
+The student spoke true. The marshal's skull was crushed; he fell and
+expired at the Regent's feet bestaining with his blood the latter's
+robe. During the tumult that ensued, the marshal of Champagne rushed at
+Marcel dagger in hand. But William Caillet, who had all the while been
+seeking with burning eyes for the Sire of Nointel from among the
+brilliant bevy of courtiers, threw himself in front of the provost ahead
+of Jocelyn, who had darted forward with the same intention, and the old
+peasant thrust his pike into the bowels of the marshal. The corpse of
+the courtier rolled upon the floor. Popular vengeance was taken.
+
+The other seigneurs and prelates, who had run to the royal chamber, fled
+back distracted by the door that had admitted them. When the Regent,
+who, fainting with terror, had crouched back upon the bed with his face
+hidden in his hands, looked up again, he found himself alone with Marcel
+and not far from the prostrate corpses of his two councilors. Marcel's
+armed men had slowly departed through the gallery together with Caillet,
+while Jocelyn was engaged near a window in bandaging with his
+handkerchief the wound of the student.
+
+Finally, protruding under the drapery of the bed behind which he had
+held himself all the while motionless as a mouse, the feet were seen of
+the seigneur of Norville, who had lacked even the strength to flee.
+
+"Mercy, Master Marcel!" cried the Regent, trembling with fear and
+throwing himself at Marcel's feet with arms outstretched in supplication
+and his face in tears. "Do not kill me; have pity upon me, my good
+father! Mercy!"
+
+"We have no thought of killing you," Marcel answered, painfully touched
+by the suspicion; and stooping down to raise the Regent added: "May my
+name be accursed if such a crime ever entered my mind! Fear not, Sire!
+Rise! The people of Paris are good."
+
+"Oh, my good father! I beg your pardon on my knees for having ignored
+your wise counsels and listened to bad advisers." Breaking out into
+sobs, the young prince added, wringing his hands in despair: "Oh, good
+God! Alone and so young to be far away from my father, who is held a
+prisoner, is it any fault of mine if I placed confidence in the men
+around me?" The Regent's eyes fell upon the corpses of the two marshals.
+In heart-rending accents he proceeded: "There they are, the men who
+misled me! They loved me! They knew me since my cradle! But, like
+myself, they were blind in their error. Oh, good father! Reproach me not
+for weeping over the fate of these unfortunate men. It is my last adieu
+to them," and still on his knees, the Regent crouched lower, his face in
+his hands and continued sobbing--with rage, not repentance.
+
+Although long made acquainted by experience with the Regent's profound
+duplicity--a degree of duplicity almost incredible at so tender an
+age--Marcel was deceived by what seemed the sincerity of the young man's
+distressful accent. His touching prayer, his tears, the sorrow which he
+did not fear to express at the death of his two councilors--all combined
+to induce the belief that, frightened by the terrible reprisals that had
+taken place under his own eyes, the Regent was sincerely contrite at his
+errors, and that, convinced at last regarding his own interests, which
+commanded him to break with the evil past, he now really desired to
+march on the straight path. Marcel congratulated himself on the happy
+change, and said to Jocelyn in a low voice: "Order our people away from
+the gallery. Let them leave the palace and assemble under the large
+window of the Louvre. You and Rufin may stay with me. I shall take the
+Regent out of this chamber. The sight of the corpses is too painful to
+him."
+
+Jocelyn and the student executed the orders of Marcel. Crouching on the
+floor the Regent did not cease moaning and sobbing. The seigneur of
+Norville left his hiding place without being noticed by the prince, and
+approaching him on tip-toe whispered in his ear: "Sire, the most
+faithful of all your servitors is happy of having braved a thousand
+dangers and deaths sooner than to leave you alone with these bandits and
+rebels. Allow me, my noble and dear master, to help you to rise."
+
+The Regent obeyed mechanically, and noticing that Marcel, who was just
+giving his instructions to Jocelyn and Rufin, could neither see nor hear
+him, he whispered back to Norville: "Do not leave me. Watch for a moment
+when I can speak to you without being seen by anybody"; observing
+thereupon that Marcel was again approaching, while the champion and
+Rufin both left the room, he uttered a piteous moan, turned to the
+corpses of the two marshals and muttered in a smothered voice: "Adieu,
+oh, you who loved me and whose sad errors I shared. May God receive you
+in his Paradise!"
+
+"Come, Sire, come," said Marcel with kindness, leading the Regent to the
+gallery; "come, lean upon me!"
+
+The seigneur of Norville followed the prince from whom he did not take
+his eyes and said to the provost in an undertone: "Oh, Master Marcel! Be
+the protector, the tutor of my poor young master.... He always had a
+tender feeling for you!"
+
+"Now, Sire," Marcel said to the Regent after they had gone a little way,
+"I place confidence in your promise ... I believe in the salutary effect
+of the terrible example you witnessed. Oh, these painful extremes; but
+violence fatedly engenders violence!... It now depends upon you, Sire,
+to prevent the recurrence of similar acts of reprisal. Give the example
+of respect for the law. All will then look to the law instead of
+resorting to force, the last recourse of men when they have vainly
+invoked justice! The present moment is decisive. If you should still
+belie our hopes ... our new hopes; if unfortunately it should be shown
+to us that you are incapable or unworthy of ruling under the watchful
+and severe vigilance of the States General, elected by the nation
+herself, I tell you sincerely, Sire, the people, finding their patience
+exhausted, and impatient of further deceit, sufferings, disasters and
+misery, might respect your life, but they would then choose another King
+who shall be more thoughtful of the public weal.... You will then cease
+to reign."
+
+"Oh, good father! Why threaten me! I am a poor young man, and am at your
+mercy. Have pity upon me!"
+
+"Sire! I do not threaten you. Far from me be such cruelty! I only place
+things before you such as they are. It depends upon you to help towards
+the public safety."
+
+"Speak, speak, good father.... I shall obey you as a most respectful
+son, I swear to you upon my salvation.... Moreover, you shall be my only
+councilor.... Speak, what do you order?"
+
+"The people are assembled before the Louvre.... They are informed of the
+death of the marshal of Normandy.... Show yourself at the window.... Say
+a few good words to the crowd.... Announce plainly your good
+resolves.... Declare that the cause of the people is above all yours ...
+and here, Sire," added Marcel, taking off his hat and offering it to the
+Regent, "as a token of our alliance, good will and harmony, wear my hat
+with the popular colors. The inhabitants of Paris will be pleased at
+this first proof of condescension and agreement."
+
+"Give it to me.... Give it to me," the Regent said with avidity,
+hastening to don Marcel's hat of red and blue. "A friend like you, my
+good father ... only such a friend could give me such an advice.... Open
+the window; I wish to speak to my well beloved people of Paris," added
+the Regent addressing the seigneur of Norville, who having held himself
+at a distance during the conversation of Marcel and the prince, now
+again drew near as ordered. "Open the window wide," said the prince.
+
+"Jocelyn," observed Rufin in a low voice to the champion while the
+Regent, slowly moving towards the window that the seigneur of Norville
+hastened to open, seemed to be consulting Marcel, "what do you think of
+the good resolutions of that youngster?"
+
+"Like Master Marcel, I believe him sincere. Not that I trust in the
+heart of that royal stripling, but because it is to his interest to
+follow wise counsel."
+
+"Hm! Hm! To me it looks as if he is playing a comedy. A prince's word is
+poor guarantee."
+
+"Do you imagine the Regent is so double-faced or so foolish as to try to
+deceive Master Marcel?"
+
+"As true as Homer is the king of rhapsodists, never was my wench Margot
+about to play me some scurvy trick without she called me her 'musk-rat,'
+her 'beautiful king,' her 'gold canary,' and other names no less
+flattering than deceitful."
+
+"But what connection is there between Margot and the Regent? Quit your
+fooling!"
+
+"Listen to me to the end. I happen to have an assignment with her for
+this evening near the Louvre, on the river bank, because by what she
+says, her friend Jeannette does not want to see me at her house. Very
+well. I swear by Ovid, the poet beloved of Cupid, Margot acted the
+gentle puss and induced me to go and inhale the mists of the Seine
+simply because she had made up her mind to go elsewhere this evening."
+
+"Rufin, let's talk seriously!"
+
+"Seriously, Jocelyn. I fear that the promises of the Regent are like
+those of Margot! I can assure you, much as the sword thrust I received
+smarts me devilishly, I would have preferred having pocketed one more in
+return for having settled the accounts of that puling youngster as I did
+the accounts of the marshal of Normandy."
+
+"Come, now! Those are excesses worthy only of John Maillart.... But, by
+the way, did he accompany us hither?"
+
+"No. After he had, despite all your and Marcel's entreaties, driven a
+few miserable brutes to massacre Master Dubreuil when he crossed our
+march on his mule, Maillart disappeared. I place no reliance on him.
+Heaven and earth! That murder was deplorable! The marshals of Normandy
+and Champagne were enough----"
+
+"Listen!" cried Jocelyn interrupting his friend, and pointing to the
+Regent, who, having advanced to the balcony, was addressing the people
+gathered on the street.
+
+"Beloved inhabitants of my good city of Paris," the Regent was saying in
+a moved and tearful voice, "I appear before you firmly resolved to make
+amends for my wrongful conduct. I swear by these colors that are your
+own, and that henceforth will be mine," he added, carrying his hand to
+the red and blue hat he wore on his head. "The marshal of Normandy, one
+of my councilors, unjustly ordered the execution of Perrin Mace, an
+honest bourgeois of Paris. The marshal has just been put to death. May
+that reparation satisfy you, dear and good Parisians! Let us forget our
+dissensions; let us join in a common accord for the country's good....
+Let us love one another! Let us help one another! I admit my errors!
+Will you pardon them? Oh, I am so young! Evil councilors led me astray.
+But I shall henceforth have only one.... That councilor ... here he is!"
+and the Regent, turning towards Marcel, added: "Good inhabitants of
+Paris, receive this embrace which I now give you from the bottom of my
+heart in the person of the great citizen whom we all cherish, whom we
+all venerate." While pronouncing these last words, the young prince
+threw himself weeping into the arms of the provost and pressed him to
+his breast,--the embrace of rulers, a mortal caress!
+
+At the touching spectacle, the enthusiastic clamors of the mobile and
+credulous mass resounded loud, and prolonged cries of "Long live
+Marcel!" "Long live the Regent!" "To a happy issue!" greeted the
+reconciliation as a happy augury of the future.
+
+Profoundly moved himself, Marcel said to the Regent upon returning with
+him into the gallery: "Sire, full of hope and of confidence, the people
+acclaimed with their joyous cries an era of peace, of justice, of
+grandeur and of prosperity. Do not shatter so many hopes. Good is so
+easy for you to achieve! It is so beautiful to bequeath to posterity a
+glorious name, blessed by all."
+
+"My good father!" answered the Regent, panting for breath, "my eyes have
+been opened to the light; my heart expands.... I am reborn for a new
+life.... You shall not leave me to-day; only to-night if you must....
+Let's go to work.... Let us jointly take prompt, energetic measures....
+Oh! Your wishes shall be realized.... I shall bequeath to posterity a
+name blessed by all.... Come, my good father!" and passing his arm
+around the neck of Marcel with filial familiarity, the young man took a
+few steps with him in the gallery towards his cabinet. But suddenly
+stopping, he added in the most natural manner, as if struck by a
+thought: "Oh, I forgot!" He then left Marcel and stepped back towards
+the seigneur of Norville, whom he called. The latter hastened to respond
+and the Regent whispered to him: "This evening, at nightfall, let a
+vessel manned with two trusty sailors be ready for me just outside the
+barrier facing the postern gate of the Louvre.... Gather all my gold and
+precious stones in a coffer, and keep yourself ready to accompany me.
+Prudence and discretion!"
+
+"Sire, rely upon me!"
+
+"Well, Jocelyn," said Marcel to the champion during the secret
+conversation of the Regent and his courtier, "you see it.... My hopes
+have not been deceived.... The lesson was terrible and salutary. Return
+home and tell Marguerite that I do not expect to be back until late. I
+wish to profit on the spot by the young man's repentance. He and I will
+probably work together a part of the night."
+
+"Pardon me, my good father," said the Regent to the provost, returning
+to him; "we shall doubtlessly be up late together, and I wished to
+notify the Queen that I may not see her again to-day"; and again placing
+his arm around Marcel's neck he said to him while walking towards the
+cabinet: "Now, to work! Good father, to work! And quickly!"
+
+Thus, followed by the seigneur of Norville, the two quitted the gallery,
+from which also Jocelyn and Rufin took their departure together.
+
+"After what you have just heard," remarked the champion to the student,
+"can you still entertain any doubts concerning the Regent's sincerity?
+Do you still believe he plays a comedy?"
+
+"Do you remember, Jocelyn, that at the University we were in the habit
+of taking aim with a stone saying: 'If my stone hits, my first wish will
+be realized?'"
+
+"Rufin!" sadly answered the champion, "since on my arrival in Paris I
+learned of my father's death, I have lost my sense of humor. As I said
+to you before, I say now, let us talk seriously, my friend."
+
+"I would not, my worthy Jocelyn, seem to make light of your bereavement;
+and yet, out of place as my words may seem, they are, by Jupiter, to the
+point! All I shall say is this: Day before yesterday, my wench Margot
+gave me, with a good many monkey tricks and pussy purrings, an
+assignment at the river bank. If Margot is faithful to her promise, I
+shall then believe the Regent to be sincere in his good resolves; not
+before."
+
+"The devil take the fool!" said Jocelyn impatiently and he walked away
+ahead of Rufin, who pensively said to himself: "My friend Rufin the Head
+smasher, you are become as much of a fatalist as a Mohamedan! That's a
+shameful thing for a free thinker!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE HOUR HAS SOUNDED!
+
+
+Marcel had not yet arrived home although night was far advanced.
+Marguerite, Denise and William Caillet were seated together in one of
+the upper chambers of the house. The two women listened with wrapt and
+grief-stricken attention to the narrative of Jocelyn who had just
+finished the story of Aveline and Mazurec.
+
+"Delivered from the dungeon in the castle of Beaumont, thanks to the
+bizarre generosity of Captain Griffith," the champion was saying, "I
+hastened to Paris, and at my arrival," added the young man unable to
+contain his tears, "I learned of the death of my venerated father."
+
+"Ah! At least he loved you with his last breath," said Denise sharing
+the emotions of Jocelyn. "Your father came here almost every day, and we
+only spoke of you."
+
+"Let that thought console you, Jocelyn," observed Marguerite. "Your
+father considered you an exemplary son."
+
+"I know it, Dame Marguerite; and the thought does afford me some
+consolation in my bereavement. Before dying my father gave me a proof of
+the confidence he placed in my respect and affection. He made an
+important revelation."
+
+"On what?" asked Marguerite.
+
+"I told you of the profound interest that Mazurec inspired me with,
+Mazurec, the husband of Caillet's daughter," answered Jocelyn with deep
+emotion. "Well, then, after the last revelation made by my father, I can
+doubt no longer that Mazurec is my brother!"
+
+"Are you certain?" Marguerite and Denise cried in one voice. "That
+unfortunate lad, that martyr, your brother!"
+
+"Is it possible?" asked Caillet in turn and no less astonished. "How do
+you know it?"
+
+"When my mother died," explained Jocelyn, "I was a child and my father
+quite young. One evening, some four or five years later, as he was
+entering Paris, he found on the road a young peasant woman lying on the
+ground unconscious and bleeding of a wound. Moved by compassion, he
+raised and carried her to a neighboring inn. The young woman regained
+consciousness and informed him that she was a vassal of the Bishop of
+Paris, and that, having lost her mother since early childhood, she was
+then fleeing from a merciless step-mother who that same day came near
+killing her. The young woman was named Gervaise. Touched by her youth,
+her misfortune and her beauty, my father apprenticed her to a
+washerwoman who lived near us. He often visited his protege. Both loved
+each other, and one day Gervaise informed my father that she carried
+under her heart the fruit of their joint indiscretion. My father, as an
+honest man, realized his duty, but being at that season forced to leave
+Paris on a trip, promised Gervaise under oath to marry her upon his
+return. Several weeks, a month and two passed by and my father did not
+return--"
+
+"But he was a man incapable of violating a sacred promise," interjected
+Marguerite. "During the long years that we knew your father, we learned
+to appreciate the straightforwardness of his nature and the goodness of
+his heart. Undoubtedly some serious accident must have kept him away."
+
+"Almost at the end of his journey, my father was attacked by a band of
+highwaymen. He was robbed, wounded and left for dead on the road."
+
+"And that prevented him from communicating with Gervaise?"
+
+"He was picked up and for a long time he languished between life and
+death. The unhappy woman thought herself deserted. The consequences of
+her error began to betray her weakness. A prey to shame and despair she
+left Paris!"
+
+"Her condition should have earned the sympathy of people."
+
+"Barely convalescent, my father hastened to write to Gervaise announcing
+his speedy return. But when he arrived she had disappeared. Despite all
+the inquiries that he instituted, he never succeeded in finding her
+again. Her disappearance was a great sorrow to him, and remorse haunted
+him the rest of his days. Such was his confession in a letter that he
+wrote to me shortly before his death, and in which he conjured me, if by
+some accident, impossible to foresee, I should meet Gervaise or her
+child, to atone for the injury that he had involuntarily done to both."
+
+"And thus, thanks to a strange coincidence," observed Marguerite, "you
+now feel certain that the unhappy Mazurec, whose distressing story you
+have told us, is indeed your brother?"
+
+"I can have no doubt. After leaving Paris, Gervaise arrived in
+Beauvoisis begging for her bread, shortly before giving birth to
+Mazurec, and he himself told me that his mother's name was Gervaise;
+that she was blonde; that her eyes were black, and that she had a little
+scar above the left eye-brow. The description corresponds exactly with
+that which my father left me of the poor creature. The scar came from a
+blow that she received from her step-mother. Finally, by naming her son
+Mazurec, one of my father's names, the poor woman furnished the last
+link to the chain of evidence."
+
+"Your father was at least saved a bitter sorrow," remarked Denise sadly,
+"of never having learned the horrible fate of Gervaise's son."
+
+Steps were at that moment heard mounting the stairs. Marguerite listened
+attentively, and quickly rising and stepping to the door exclaimed: "It
+is Marcel! God be praised!" and turning in a low voice to Denise who had
+followed her: "I could hardly conceal my uneasiness; my husband's late
+absence was seriously alarming me. May God be praised for his return!"
+
+The provost entered, and after answering the tender caresses of his wife
+and niece, said to them: "I suppose you think I am tired of the night at
+work with the Regent, yet never have I felt so easy in mind and so light
+of heart. Happiness is such a sweet recreation! I was profoundly happy
+to see that young man return to the path of duty and equity as if by
+enchantment, and express regret at his errors, and promise to atone for
+them. Well was I in the right to say that we must never despair of
+youth."
+
+"Then, my friend," asked Marguerite, "the Regent did not deceive your
+last hopes?"
+
+"He went beyond them. We have just taken prompt and energetic measures
+looking to the realization of the just and fruitful reforms that were
+enacted last year by the national assembly. We shall now appeal to the
+nation's courage and devotion to put an end to the disastrous war with
+the English. We are to call, not upon the nobility only, but upon the
+whole people--peasants, townsmen and artisans--to take up arms in this
+holy war. That great triumph is to be the signal for the deliverance of
+our rustic brothers," added Marcel reaching out his hand to Caillet.
+"Yes, those who will have gloriously vanquished and chased away the
+enemy, having become free men by their victory, are for ever after to be
+free from the tyranny of the seigneurs who have not even known how to
+protect our native country. Oh, my friend, how many agonies and
+sufferings does not that hope wipe off from my heart and mind! The hope
+of seeing Gaul at last victorious and free, peaceful and prosperous!"
+
+"Master Marcel! Treason!... Treason!" suddenly resounded from a voice
+rushing up the stairs. The provost held his breath, all others in the
+chamber trembled with fear, and Rufin the Tankard-smasher rushed in
+breathless, repeating: "Treason!... Master Marcel, treason!"
+
+"Who betrays?" cried Jocelyn. "Speak!"
+
+"Do you remember this morning at the Louvre?" answered Rufin. "I told
+you then that if Margot, my wench, keeps the appointment she made with
+me, I shall then believe in the sincerity of the Regent, but not
+before!"
+
+"Young man," put in Marcel with severity, seeing his wife and niece
+blush at the amorous confidences of the student, "is it for the purpose
+of cracking bad jokes that you have come to alarm my household?"
+
+"The news I bring will be an apology, Master Marcel," respectfully
+answered Rufin mopping his forehead that streamed with perspiration;
+"the Regent has fled from Paris...."
+
+"The Regent has fled!" cried Marcel stupefied. "Impossible! It is hardly
+half an hour since I was with him."
+
+"And that is less time than he needed to descend from the Louvre, to go
+out by the postern gate that opens upon the river outside of the barrier
+and to jump upon a skiff that was waiting for him!"
+
+"You are dreaming!" replied Jocelyn, while Marcel seemed thunderstruck,
+unable to understand what he heard. "You are dreaming, my gay Rufin, or
+you have just left some tavern the fumes of whose wine have upset your
+mind."
+
+"By Bacchus, the god of wine, and by Morpheus, the god of slumbers!"
+cried the student, "I am as certain that I am wide awake as that I am
+not drunk! I saw the Regent with my two eyes step into the vessel, and
+with my two ears I heard the Regent say to the friend who accompanied
+him: 'I leave this accursed town, and I swear not to set foot in it
+again until Marcel, the councilmen and the other chiefs of rebels shall
+have paid with their heads for their insolent audacity and for the
+revolt of these accursed Parisians.' Is that clear enough? Moreover,
+would I dare come here and tell yarns to Master Marcel, whom I admire
+and respect as much as any one could? And above all when, in the teeth
+of the privileges of the University, he had me housed at the Chatelet,
+together with my chum Nicholas the Thin-skinned because of the racket we
+made one night on the street?" Noticing that despite certain irrelevant
+details of his report, the people in the chamber began to attach faith
+to his words, Rufin continued, while Marcel seemed racked with painful
+astonishment and a prey to overpowering indignation: "As I was telling
+you, I had an assignation with my wench Margot, on the river bank,
+outside the barriers. Tired of waiting in vain for this fallacious
+creature, I was about to leave when I perceived a lighted lantern on the
+other side of the barrier and just under the postern of the Louvre.
+Knowing as well as anybody that the vaulted corridor of that issue runs
+out on one of the stairs of the large tower, a suspicion flashed through
+my mind. The night was silent. At the risk of drowning and of going to
+Pluto to meet Margot, only this time on the borders of the Styx, I
+reached the stairs by clambering along the poles and the chain of the
+barriers. At that moment the bearer of the lantern, who must have meant
+to make sure that the vessel was there, re-entered the palace. I slid
+along the wall of the Louvre up to the postern and there, screened by
+the gate which was left open, I soon heard a voice saying: 'Come, come,
+Sire; the vessel and the two boats are near the shore.' At which the
+Regent answered in the way I have just stated to Master Marcel--'I leave
+the accursed town, and I swear not to set foot in it again until Marcel,
+the councilmen and the other chiefs of rebels shall have paid with their
+heads for their insolent audacity and for the revolt of these accursed
+Parisians.' The Regent and his companion marched quietly to the bank of
+the river, and soon the sound of oars told me that the boat was leaving
+rapidly. It vanished in the darkness of the night." Turning to Jocelyn
+with a triumphant air, the student remarked: "Well, what did I tell you
+this morning? You took me for a fool! And now you see the Regent has
+fled from Paris threatening the inhabitants with vengeance! By the
+bowels of the Pope! The belief in fatalism is a great thing!"
+
+Learning that Marcel was now running fresh dangers, Marguerite exchanged
+glances of anxiety with Denise, while seeking to conceal her alarm from
+her husband lest she increased his worries. On the other hand,
+foreseeing that the Regent's treason would hasten the uprising of the
+rustic serfs, Caillet shrugged his shoulders with sinister gladness.
+Finally, Marcel, with his arms crossed upon his breast, his head
+lowered, his lips contracted with a bitter smile, broke the silence with
+these words uttered deliberately: "When we parted the Regent said to me:
+'My good father, I beseech you, go and take a little rest; night is
+falling; I desire to-morrow early to renew our work with fresh ardor. Go
+and take rest, my good father, and you will enjoy as much as myself the
+restful sleep that will come to us from knowledge of having done right.'
+Such were the last words I had from that young man."
+
+"Oh, Marcel," said Marguerite, "how will you not regret the confidence
+you placed in him!"
+
+"Let us never regret having had faith in the repentance of a man. If we
+do, we shall become merciless. Moreover, there are treasons so black and
+monstrous that in order to suspect them one must be almost capable of
+committing them." After another short interval of contemplative silence
+Marcel resumed: "I hoped to save Gaul fresh bloodshed! Vain hope! That
+unhappy fool wants war! How much is he not to be pitied for being so
+ill-advised!"
+
+"You pity him!" cried Marguerite; "and yet his last words threatened you
+with death!"
+
+"Dear wife; if my head were all that was at stake, I would not enter
+into a terrible struggle to preserve it. I have achieved things that
+sooner or later will bear fruit. My share in this world has been
+handsome and large. I am ready to quit life. It is not my head that I
+would dispute to the Regent, it is the lives of our councilmen, it is
+the lives of a mass of our fellow townsmen, all of them menaced by the
+merciless revenge of the court! What I wish to defend is our freedom so
+dearly bought by our fathers; what I wish to secure is the
+enfranchisement of those millions of serfs who are driven to extremities
+by the tyranny of the seigneurs. Finally, what I aim at is the welfare
+of Gaul, to-day exhausted and moribund! The dice are cast. The Regent
+and seigneurs want war! They shall have war!... a terrible war!... Such
+a war as human memory does not recall!" Saying this, Marcel sat down at
+a table and rapidly wrote a few lines upon a parchment.
+
+"No!" replied William Caillet in a tremor of rage. "No; never will that
+have been seen that will be seen now! Up, Jacques Bonhomme!" cried the
+old peasant in savage exaltation. "Up! Seize the fagot! Fall to! Take in
+the harvest, Jacques Bonhomme, and be not dainty about it! Take up your
+scythe in your bare arms--the short and sharp scythe! Let not a blade be
+left to be gleaned after you!" and reaching out his trembling hand to
+Marcel, the serf added: "Adieu, I depart well satisfied. By to-morrow
+evening I shall be in the country. At dawn of the next day Jacques
+Bonhomme will be up and doing in Beauvoisis, in Picardy, in Laonnais and
+in many other districts!"
+
+"Postpone your departure just one hour," answered Marcel while sealing
+the letter he had just written. "I am going to the Louvre. You shall
+depart at my return."
+
+"My friend," exclaimed Marguerite in alarm, "what do you want at the
+Louvre?"
+
+"To make certain of the Regent's departure, although the account given
+by Rufin leaves me no doubt on that head. I wish, before resorting to
+terrible extremes, to be absolutely certain of the Regent's treason."
+
+As Marcel was uttering the last words, Agnes the Bigot entered
+precipitately and delivered to her master a letter that one of the town
+sergeants had just brought in great haste. Marcel took the letter, read
+it quickly and cried: "The councilmen have assembled at the town hall
+and expect me. One of them, instructed by a man connected with the
+palace on the flight of the Regent, ran to the Louvre, assured himself
+of the fact, and hastily convoked the council. No doubt now. The
+Regent's treason is confirmed." Delivering to Jocelyn the letter he had
+just written, Marcel said to him: "Take horse, and carry this letter to
+the King of Navarre at St. Denis. Wait for no answer."
+
+"I shall jump on your horse's crupper, Jocelyn," cried Caillet. "I shall
+that way reach the country a few hours sooner."
+
+"Done!" said the champion; and turning to Marcel: "After I shall have
+delivered your letter to the King of Navarre, I shall pursue my route
+with Caillet to join by brother Mazurec."
+
+"It is your duty, go!" answered Marcel stretching his arms out to
+Jocelyn. "Embrace me. Who knows whether we shall ever again meet!" And
+after having pressed the champion to his breast, he took the hand of
+Denise who turned away her head to hide her tears, and added: "Whatever
+may befall me, Denise shall be your wife upon your return; you could
+have no worthier mate, nor could she choose a worthier husband; may
+heaven grant that I assist at your wedding. If later any danger should
+threaten you, you will find a safe retreat in Lorraine at Vaucouleurs
+with the relatives of my niece."
+
+Breaking out into tears and almost fainting, but supported by
+Marguerite, Denise stretched out her hand to Jocelyn who covered it with
+kisses, while Marcel said to Caillet: "Now, the hour has sounded! To
+arms, Jacques Bonhomme! Peasants, artisans, townsmen, all for each! Each
+for all! To the happy issue of the good cause!"
+
+"To the happy issue of the good cause!" rejoined the serf shaking with
+impatience. "To an evil issue the cause of the seigneurs and their
+clergy! Up, Jacques Bonhomme! War upon the castles!"
+
+"And I," cried the student addressing Caillet while Marcel was giving
+his last instructions to Jocelyn, "I also will accompany you. I have
+shins of steel to tire out a horse. I shall ride ahead of Jocelyn's
+steed. To a happy issue the good cause! I represent the alliance of the
+University with the rustic folks. Rufin the Tankard-smasher was my name
+of peace; Rufin the Head-smasher becomes my name of war! And by the god
+Sylvanus, the genius of the fields and forests, I shall make havoc in
+this sylvan war! Forward! Forward!..."
+
+A few minutes later William Caillet departed from Marcel's domicile
+accompanied by the champion and the student, all three bound for
+Beauvoisis.
+
+
+
+
+PART III.
+
+THE JACQUERIE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+CAPTAIN GRIFFITH AND HIS CHAPLAIN.
+
+
+The morning after William Caillet, Jocelyn the Champion and Rufin the
+Tankard-smasher left Paris, a band of English adventurers, commanded by
+Captain Griffith, and who for some time had been raiding the region of
+Beauvoisis, was marching under a balmy May sun in the direction of the
+village of Cramoisy. The men, about a hundred all told, and armed with
+weapons of different descriptions, marched in disorder with the
+exception of about fifty archers who carried on their shoulders their
+six-feet-long ash bows, a favorite weapon with the English, and which
+they handled with such dexterity that at the battle of Poitiers ten
+thousand of them were enough to put to rout the army of King John,
+consisting of more than forty thousand men commanded by the elite of the
+French nobility.
+
+Several empty carts, hitched to horses and oxen and led by peasants who
+had been pressed into Captain Griffith's band under pain of death, were
+intended for the prospective booty. The English sold to the contiguous
+towns the proceeds of their thefts from the castles, as well as the
+droves of cattle that they took from the fields. In these towns the
+raiders were certain of purchasers for the sufficient reason that
+whoever refused was hanged on the spot. Captain Griffith affected a
+lordly generosity towards his customers in consenting to leave with them
+the spoils of his thieving exploits in exchange for moneys that it was
+in his power to rob them of. In his quality of the bastard of a great
+lord, the Duke of Norfolk, he prided himself of acting courteously, "as
+a true Englishman," according to his favorite phrase, and not scurvily
+like so many other leaders of mercenary bands.
+
+Captain Griffith--a man in the full vigor of his age, robust and
+corpulent, and with hair and beard of a reddish blonde--rode at the head
+of his archers, the elites of his troop. Although in full armor, he had
+hung his casque on the pommel of his saddle, and now wore on his head a
+bonnet of fox-skin. Boldness, incontinence and a sort of cruel joviality
+stood out from the features of the Englishman that wore a rubicund tint
+from the potations and meats that he was in the habit of swallowing in
+enormous quantities. The morning air having sharpened his appetite, if
+ever it can be said to have been satisfied, the bastard of Norfolk was
+picking a ham, and from time to time lovingly resorted to a wine pouch
+that also hung from the pommel of his saddle. At his side rode his
+lieutenant, whom with impious mockery he styled his "Chaplain." Guilty
+of all the crimes on the calendar, Captain Griffith took, like Rolf the
+Norman pirate before him, a diabolical delight in all manner of
+sacrilege.
+
+The Chaplain, a hulky scamp with a toper's face and as vigorous of bone
+as his Captain, wore under his iron coat of mail a monk's gown and on
+his head a steel helmet.
+
+"My son," said he to the bastard of Norfolk, "without meaning to offend
+you, I shall have to call your attention to the fact that this is the
+third time you put your wine pouch to your mouth without offering your
+brother in Beelzebub to quench his thirst."
+
+"What have you eaten, Chaplain, to make you so thirsty?"
+
+"By the devil! I have been eating with my eyes the ham that you have
+been devouring with your teeth."
+
+"Why, then, quench your thirst by seeing me drink! Your health, friend!"
+
+"Sacrilege! To refuse wine to a thirsty chaplain! I would prefer, for
+the sake of your salvation, to see you again journey a whole day on a
+stretch in a chariot drawn by St. Patrick, the abbot, and his
+'chapter.'"
+
+"Pshaw!" hissed Griffith; "there were relays."
+
+"True, several relays, each of twelve monks, and they were successively
+hitched. It was in your favor."
+
+"There, devil's Chaplain, drink! Drink to my amorous exploits!"
+
+After having kept for a seemingly interminable time his lips glued to
+the orifice of the pouch that the Captain had passed over to him, the
+Chaplain detached them for a moment, not so much for the purpose of
+answering his worthy chief as for the purpose of taking breath.
+Breathing heavily, he asked: "What amorous exploits? Sacred or profane
+ones?" and then proceeded to quaff.
+
+"I mean that winsome tavern-keeper, who escaped us at the pillage of the
+little town of Nointel. Since that day, the pretty ankles of the
+brunette have not ceased trotting in my brain. As sure as I am Norfolk's
+bastard," added the Captain while the Chaplain continued to drain the
+contents of the pouch at long draughts, "there are two things that I
+would sell my soul to Beelzebub for. First, to snatch up that luscious
+tavern-keeper, second to fight with that tall scamp whom we released
+from the dungeons of Beaumont. He was then but a bag of bones, but when
+he will have been fatted up, I would wager your neck, Chaplain, that
+there is not the likes of him in this whole poltroon country of Gaul. I
+am tired of seeing only puny knights at the point of my lance whom I run
+down as if they were nine-pins. What a set of cowards these French
+noblemen are!"
+
+At this point, the lieutenant, who had never ceased drinking, emitted a
+long gurgling sound, while with his free hand he pointed to a small
+troop of armed foot-men headed by a rider, and who pursued a route that
+somewhat led away from that of the English, but that ran out upon the
+same clearance at the top of a hill. The rider who led the foot-men,
+ordered a halt, and galloping over the meadow approached the English
+troop with his right hand up as a sign that he had no hostile
+intentions. Fearing, nevertheless, some ambuscade, Captain Griffith also
+ordered his troop to halt, but he placed his archers in line, donned
+his casque, took his long stout lance from the hands of one of his men,
+and seeing the Chaplain still clinging to the pouch of wine struck it
+from his lips with so dexterous a lance thrust that, slightly grazing
+the drinker's nose, the weapon hurled the pouch ten paces off. "You have
+watered quite enough!" he said with a gruff laugh.
+
+"Fortunately the pouch is now empty," said the Chaplain wiping his mouth
+with the back of his right hand; "not a drop has been lost."
+
+The unknown rider approached the while, but suddenly reined in seeing
+the archers, as was their wont before shooting their bolts, plant their
+left feet in the center of their bows in order to bend them.
+
+"I come as a friend!"
+
+"Who are you?" demanded the bastard of Norfolk. "What do you want?"
+
+"I am the bailiff of the Sire of Nointel, the seigneur of these domains.
+I wish to speak with the valiant Captain Griffith."
+
+"I am he.... What do you want?"
+
+"Sir, is it you who have just pillaged the burgs and villages of our
+seigneur, the Sire of Nointel?"
+
+"Would you, perchance, want to prevent me?"
+
+"On the contrary, Sir; I have come in the name of my seigneur to offer
+you the advice of my old experience in order to help you to collect
+ransom from these villeins. Jacques Bonhomme is a wily customer; he has
+hiding places where he keeps his coin under shelter, and even provisions
+and cattle."
+
+"Chaplain," the Captain broke in upon the bailiff, "we shall have to cut
+the ears of this fellow who comes here to mock us. Draw your cutlass and
+give him absolution for his sins."
+
+"Sir, listen to me, and you will be convinced that I am not joking!"
+cried the bailiff. "Are you the son of the Duke of Norfolk?"
+
+"A bastard son by my mother's virtue. But seeing she bestowed upon me a
+good fist, good eyes and good teeth I hold her quits. I remain noble
+from one side."
+
+"The Duke your father knows that you hold the field in this region, and
+he is charmed with your prowesses. He wrote so to my master."
+
+"A short time ago, on the occasion of one of my archers' return to
+Guyenne, I wrote to my father: 'My lord, in your life you gave me
+nothing but a kick with your left foot which I still feel; but I am none
+the less your affectionate bastard who is doing havoc in Gaul and who
+signs himself--Captain Griffith.'"
+
+"Sir," said the bailiff handing a letter to the Captain, "here is the
+answer of the noble Duke, your father."
+
+Greatly astonished, Captain Griffith broke the seal on the parchment and
+read: "One of the poltroon French knights whom I took prisoner at the
+battle of Poitiers will deliver this letter to you and also six thousand
+florins for his ransom. You are a fine scamp. Persevere in your
+exploits--Norfolk."
+
+"What a father!" exclaimed the Chaplain raising his hands to heaven.
+"What a son!"
+
+"Six thousand florins!" cried Captain Griffith. "Well! The good man must
+have remembered my worthy mother"; and addressing the bailiff he asked:
+"Where are the six thousand florins?"
+
+"In the purses of the vassals of my seigneur, the Sire of Nointel, who
+was taken prisoner at the battle of Poitiers by the noble Duke of
+Norfolk. But, oh! My master is ruined by the costs of war and not a
+florin in the castle. But he gave his word as a Christian and a knight
+to pay his ransom to your father or to you, Sir. He will keep his word.
+It is an established custom that the vassals must ransom their seigneurs
+when taken prisoner. I therefore come, Sir Captain, to offer to you, by
+order of my master what little service I can render to you to the end of
+aiding you in collecting the sum, a very difficult thing to do without
+our aid. If you want a proof, all you have to do is to follow me not far
+from here, and you will see something that will greatly astonish you."
+
+Captain Griffith, whose curiosity was now pricked, started his horse at
+the pace of the bailiff's, and resuming its march the troop descended
+the flank of the hill at whose foot lay the straggling village of
+Cramoisy, consisting of about three hundred cottages and houses. The
+silence of the tomb reigned in these homes. They were deserted, and the
+open doors showed their interiors to be empty and bare. Stupefied,
+Captain Griffith reined in his horse and said to the bailiff:
+
+"By the devil! Where are the inhabitants of these shanties?"
+
+"The other villages of this seigniory are as deserted as this one. You
+will find there, Sir, neither women, nor men, nor children, nor cattle,"
+answered the bailiff. "There are left, as you see, only the four walls
+of the houses. You will, therefore, find it difficult to collect here
+even the smallest fraction of your six thousand florins. Jacques
+Bonhomme is a sly fox; he had wind of your coming and has run into the
+earth to escape you. But, to a sly fox a sly limehound. I know the
+burrow of Jacques Bonhomme. Follow me, Sir."
+
+"Where to? Whither do you lead us?"
+
+"Only one league from here.... But we shall have to descend from our
+horses at the outskirts of the forest. You can leave there the gross of
+your troop. A dozen of your archers will be enough for the job I have in
+mind. The risk is slight."
+
+"Why would you have me descend from horseback, and leave behind the bulk
+of my troop?"
+
+"It will, in the first place, be impossible for us to ride on horseback
+over the quagmires, jungles and bogs that we shall have to cross in
+order to arrive at the hiding place of Jacques Bonhomme. In the second
+place, the fox has a sharp ear. The noise made by a large troop would
+give him the alarm."
+
+"Captain," suggested the Chaplain, "suppose this scamp were but leading
+us into an ambuscade?"
+
+"Chaplain, never did Griffith recoil before danger," was the Captain's
+answer; "moreover, if this bailiff with a marten's snout should deceive
+us, let him be forewarned. At the first suspicion of treachery we shall
+promptly hack him to pieces."
+
+"That's right," returned the Chaplain. "Let's march! His skin answers
+for our lives."
+
+"March!" ordered Captain Griffith, and guided by the bailiff, who had
+been rejoined by his men, the troop left the village of Cramoisy and
+wended its way towards a forest, the skirt of which drew its length
+along the horizon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE FOX'S BURROW.
+
+
+About two leagues from the village of Cramoisy, and in the thickest of
+the seigniorial forest of Nointel, is a vast subterranean grotto, cut
+into the chalky rock that offers little resistance to the pick and the
+mattock. The cavern dates from the far-back troubled days when the
+Norman pirates were in the habit of rowing up the Somme, the Seine and
+the Oise and raiding the surrounding lands. Such of the serfs whose dire
+misery did not reach the pitch of constraining them to join the Normans,
+and who sought to escape the flood of pillage and massacre, had dug the
+underground place of refuge. Carrying thither their little havings, and
+even cattle, they remained hidden until the pirates left the country.
+Similar places were in later years contrived in almost all parts of Gaul
+by the vassals of the nobility for the purpose of escaping the
+brigandage of the English, of the robber bands and of the bands of
+mercenaries who devastated the provinces, finally also to escape the
+extortions of the seigneurs that now became intolerable, seeing that
+Jacques Bonhomme was forced to pay the ransom of their masters who had
+been taken prisoners at the battle of Poitiers. In other regions of Gaul
+the peasants withdrew with their families upon rafts which they anchored
+midstreams of rivers, and which frequently were either submerged or
+carried away by the floods to be finally swamped with the wretched mass
+of humanity that they bore. Never before had desolation and panic
+reached such a pitch in the unfortunate country; the huts were almost
+all abandoned, the fields uncultivated and a famine was apprehended
+similar to that which desolated Gaul in the year 1000.
+
+The underground retreat whither the inhabitants of Cramoisy and several
+other villages of the seigniory of Nointel took refuge consists of a
+long vault, at the extremity and to the right and left of which are
+several other galleries in which cattle, goats and sheep are crowded. A
+well, used for a drinking trough, is dug in the center of the principal
+gallery. Above, an opening, partially masked with stones and underbrush,
+admits some light and air to the dark and icy asylum that oozes with the
+moisture of the earth. There, more than a thousand people crowded
+together--men, women and children who fled from their homes. The milk of
+the cattle, a few handfuls of rye or wheat pounded between two stones
+entertain rather than appease the tortures of hunger. A steaming,
+suffocating and nauseous heat, produced by the agglomeration of people
+and cattle, pervades the gloomy place. Now plaintive wails are heard,
+then the outbursts of violent quarrels, such as are certain to break out
+among semi-savages whom suffering exasperates. Wan and half naked
+children, who, however, preserve the carelessness of their age, played
+at this moment at the edge of the well which just happened to be lighted
+by a ray of sunlight that filtered through the rocks and underbrush
+which concealed the only air-hole of the vault. That sun ray also
+lighted a group of three persons, huddled together in a dug-out near the
+well. The three persons were Aveline, Alison and Mazurec.
+
+When the little village of Nointel was pillaged by the troupe of Captain
+Griffith, the handsome tavern-keeper succeeded in saving what moneys she
+had and fled to Cramoisy where she joined Aveline. Learning there that
+the English were still ravaging the neighborhood, she joined the
+peasants in their flight to the underground retreat.
+
+Aveline, now far advanced in pregnancy, expected every day to be
+delivered of the child of her disgrace and the fruit of the iniquity
+perpetrated upon her by her seigneur. Barely covered in a few rags, she
+lay on the cold and bare earth. Ever sympathetic, Alison held upon her
+knees the languishing and pale head of the young girl, whose thinness
+had now become shocking. Her hollow cheeks imparted monstrous size to
+her eyes, which she attached beseechingly upon Mazurec, engaged at the
+moment in sharpening upon a stone the teeth of a pitch-fork while
+muttering to himself: "William is long in returning from Paris; we are
+waiting for him so as to start the massacre ... sacred reprisals!"
+
+Thus muttering to himself, Mazurec continued sharpening his fork. He had
+become a hideous sight. Having lost his right eye since the judicial
+combat with the knight of Chaumontel, the now hollow, quivering and half
+closed eyelids on that side of his face exposed a blood-clotted cavity.
+His crushed nose is a mass of scars, purplish like his torn-up upper lip
+which exposes his broken teeth. His long matted hair falls upon the
+ragged goat-skin jacket which he wears and from which protrude his
+nervy, but now haggard arms. Attaching upon her husband a beseeching
+look, Aveline said to him in a weak and sad voice: "Mazurec, if I give
+birth to a child before dying ... promise me not to kill it!... Answer
+me ... I beseech you in God's name.... Have mercy on the innocent
+creature."
+
+"I promise nothing," answered the vassal in a hollow voice without
+stopping from his work; "we shall see what's to be done."
+
+"He will kill the innocent child, Dame Alison!" cried Aveline weeping
+and hiding her head.
+
+"Keep still!" replied Mazurec with the mien of a tiger that rendered his
+face still more frightful; "Keep still, or I may believe you are proud
+of having a child of your seigneur."
+
+Aveline answered with a hysterical sob, while Alison cried indignantly:
+"Wretch, you will yet be the cause of your wife's death!"
+
+"I had as lief she was dead as alive ... as to the child she now carries
+... he shall not live ... I shall smother the noble whelp."
+
+"Well, then, why don't you kill both mother and child. That would be
+less cruel than to kill Aveline by little and little as you are doing!"
+And looking at Mazurec with eyes of angry reproach, Alison added: "Oh,
+Mazurec the Lambkin, the unfortunate girl whose death you now wish, once
+made your heart bound with joy when you passed the door at which she
+used to spin!"
+
+At these words which recalled to Mazurec the spring-tide of his love,
+days that were sweet even to the wretched serf, the young man broke down
+in tears, threw the fork aside, and closely embracing his wife, whose
+pale face he covered with kisses, he said: "Pardon me, my poor
+Aveline!... Oh, my blood has turned to gall ... I have suffered so
+much.... I still suffer so much.... Pardon me, my dear wife!"
+
+Mazurec was uttering these words when suddenly the species of air-hole
+above the well was almost wholly obstructed with large stones that were
+being rolled about by the men of the bailiff of Nointel, and the bailiff
+himself, applying his mouth as closely as he could to the little opening
+that was left, shouted down into the cavity: "All of you, vassals of the
+parish of Cramoisy and neighboring villages, you are taxed, as your
+quota of the ransom of our very noble, very high, very dear and very
+powerful seigneur, the sum of one thousand florins; the other parishes
+of the seigniory shall be similarly taxed. Rummage around your purses
+quickly so that you meet the sum demanded. You have hiding places where
+you bury your valuables. Choose quickly between death and your money. If
+within the time it shall take me to utter a 'pater'[5] and an 'ave,'[6]
+one of you does not come out with the money, you will all be smoked to
+death like so many foxes in their burrow, after which the corpses will
+be rifled."
+
+The bailiff stopped; the air-hole was tightly closed with clods of
+earth; and the cavern was plunged into utter darkness.
+
+"Oh, my God! What's going to happen? Leave me not Mazurec," cried
+Aveline in a tremor and throwing her arms around her husband who jumped
+up the better to hear the announcement made by the bailiff, and which,
+repeated from mouth to mouth by the vassals, left them steeped in gloomy
+silence. The unhappy serfs clung all the more tightly to their little
+coin, their last resource, the only fruits left to them of their
+crushing labors and homicidal privations, seeing that they had succeeded
+in saving it from the rapacity of their seigneurs only by dint of untold
+privations and nameless devices, often struggling against the torture
+itself that was frequently inflicted upon them in the hope of wringing
+from them the disclosure of the hiding places where they kept their
+little treasure buried. The first shock being over, cries of indignation
+and revolt resounded in the cavern. The noise increased more and more.
+
+"We leave our homes to live in holes like wild beasts, and we are hunted
+down even here!"
+
+"To be pillaged by the English, and be forced besides to pay for the
+ransom of our seigneurs!"
+
+"No! No! Let them choke us with smoke, let them burn us, let them
+massacre us.... They shall get not one denier from us!"
+
+"We shall throw our few remaining sous into the well, sooner than
+deliver them to our butcher!"
+
+It did not take the bailiff long to say his "pater" and "ave." Seeing
+none of the serfs coming out of the cavern to bring him the sum
+demanded, he ordered the burrow of Jacques Bonhomme to be smoked. The
+work was easily done. The cavern was entered by a narrow and steep
+passage cut into the rock. The Englishmen of Captain Griffith and the
+retinue brought by the bailiff heaped up at the mouth of the entrance a
+mass of dry leaves and branches, set fire to the same, and with the aid
+of their long lances shoved on the brasier a heap of green branches the
+thick and acrid smoke of which soon filled the interior of the cavern,
+the only opening that could have allowed the smoke to escape having been
+tightly closed in advance.
+
+Ghastly was the scene that ensued. Suffocated and blinded by the black
+and pungent smoke, the vassals were a prey to distracting pain. The
+cattle, submitted to the identical trial, became furious, broke their
+ropes and rolled in the darkness amid the crowd whom they trampled under
+foot or gored with their horns. The wails of women and children, the
+imprecations of men, the lowing of the cattle made an infernal concert.
+Several of the serfs succeeded in groping their way to the well and
+threw themselves in to escape prolonged torture; others threw themselves
+headlong towards the mouth of the cavern, but smothered by the thick
+smoke and the flames that entered the passage and that now converted the
+entrance into a furnace, dropped down into the middle of the flames and
+were consumed; others again threw themselves down flat upon the ground,
+scratched the earth with their nails and, burying their faces in the
+earth imagined in their wild delirium they could thus take breath;
+lastly not a few were the mothers who, wishing to spare their children a
+long agony, strangled them quickly to death.
+
+Mazurec held Aveline tightly in his arms while he shuddered at the
+thought of the horrible death that awaited her. The tender sentiments of
+their happier days took possession of his heart and mind and he racked
+his brain for a means of escape. It was in vain. Long worn out by misery
+and sorrow, the young woman was not equal to so rude an additional
+strain. In her death agony she fastened her lips to Mazurec's as though,
+wishing to escape suffocation, she strove to inhale her husband's
+breath.
+
+By degrees her hold on him was relaxed, with one convulsive effort she
+embraced her husband and then her arms dropped by her side.
+
+"Dead!" shrieked the serf; "dead and unavenged, my dearly beloved
+Aveline!"
+
+"You can still revenge her and save us both and many more of these
+unfortunates," came panting from Alison, who still preserved her senses
+and energy. "Let us hasten!" continued the tavern-keeper with an ever
+more oppressed voice. "Let us endeavor to get out of here; ... I shall
+give the bailiff three hundred florins that I have sewn in my clothes;
+... he will allow us to escape; ... if he does not, kill him; ... take
+your pitch-fork; ... it lies there.... Let's flee!..."
+
+Mazurec emitted a cry of savage joy. The imminence of danger and the
+hope of revenge increased his strength tenfold. He seized the fork with
+his right hand, with his left he dragged Alison after him, and guided by
+the ruddy glow at the mouth of the cavern, the vassal plied his fork so
+as to clear a passage through the crowd that ran about delirious. Some
+he threw down, others he walked over. Finally he reached the approaches
+of the burning pile near which a number of corpses lay strewn. Dropping
+the hand of Alison and hitting upon a plan that had occurred to none
+during the general panic, Mazurec thrust his pitch-fork into the midst
+of the burning pile, scattered it, threw some of it behind him, opened a
+passage to himself, cleared the space which was covered with burning
+embers, and after a few bounds found himself at the issue of the cavern.
+For a moment Mazurec stood still inhaling the free air; his strength
+returned speedily; and making one last effort he rushed out. At the
+unexpected sight of Mazurec, foaming at the mouth with rage and
+brandishing his fork, both the Englishmen and the bailiff's men drew
+back in terror. Mazurec lost no time; he rushed upon the bailiff, buried
+the fork in the bowels of his seigneur's menial, threw him down, and,
+maddened with rage, trampled him under foot while he again and again
+thrust his pitch-fork into the bailiff's breast, his face and every part
+of his body that he could reach, uttering at every thrust: "This is for
+your having dragged Aveline to your master's bed!... This is for your
+having now smothered Aveline to death!"
+
+At the sight of the terrific spectacle Captain Griffith broke out in a
+loud guffaw saying: "I take this expert poker under my protection. I
+admire his dexterity in the use of his pitch-fork!" In the midst of
+these exclamations Captain Griffith suddenly remained silent, then
+clapping his hands he proceeded in new ecstacy: "By the devil! Here are
+my two beautiful black eyes and plump ankles! Oh, this time you will not
+escape me, my belle! Mine be your treasures!"
+
+The English captain uttered these cries at the sight of Alison, who now
+appeared at the entrance of the cavern, pale, with disheveled hair, her
+clothes half burnt, breathing fast and so feeble that she was unable to
+walk except supporting herself by the rocks that lay near by. Captain
+Griffith, without being moved at the lamentable aspect of the woman, and
+listening only to his own amorous suggestions, made one bound at his
+prey, took her in his arms and cried: "This time I hold you! Now you are
+mine!"
+
+"Mercy!" cried Alison, struggling to free herself. "I shall give you all
+the money I have.... Mercy!"
+
+"Love first, money afterwards!" was the answer of Norfolk's bastard
+carrying Alison off.
+
+"Help, Mazurec! Help!" cried the tavern-keeper as loudly as her weak
+voice allowed her. But Mazurec, exasperated with suffering and now drunk
+with bloodshed and the transports of revenge, continued to hack with his
+pitch-fork the corpse of the bailiff, and heard not the appeal of
+Alison.
+
+Suddenly, stepping out of a thick bush and appearing on the top of a
+rocky eminence, Jocelyn the Champion precipitated himself upon the
+ravisher, followed by Adam the Devil, William Caillet, Rufin the
+Tankard-smasher and several serfs armed with axes, forks and scythes.
+This small troop, attracted by the cries of Alison, had rushed forward
+ahead of a large number of revolted peasants, who, crossing a denser
+part of the forest, marched slowlier.
+
+"Here I am, my charming hostess!" cried Jocelyn, leaping from rock to
+rock, sword in hand; "here I am ... ready to defend you!"
+
+"My Hercules of the castle of Beaumont!" exclaimed Captain Griffith,
+drawing his sword at the sight of Jocelyn whom he immediately
+recognized; and relinquishing Alison he rushed, sword in hand, at
+Jocelyn, saying: "Only to-day I requested but two things from Satan: to
+embrace that belle and to find you again a little fattened, my sturdy
+boy! Let's commence with you; the belle shall have her turn!"
+
+"I have not yet gathered much meat on my bones," responded the champion,
+intrepidly attacking the bastard of Norfolk, "but you shall not be long
+in admitting that my wrist has not yet lost any of its strength."
+
+A mad combat was immediately engaged in between the champion and the
+Captain, while Caillet, Adam the Devil, Rufin and several of the serfs
+who accompanied them, threw themselves furiously upon Captain Griffith's
+Chaplain and the archers who had come with him when he left the gross of
+his troop near the skirt of the forest, as the bailiff had advised.
+
+"Kill, kill the English!... Death to the English!"
+
+Overpowered and crushed by numbers, cut to pieces with the scythes,
+disemboweled with the forks, knocked down with the hatchets, not one of
+Captain Griffith's men escaped the carnage. After heroically defending
+himself against Adam the Devil, who was armed with a short scythe and
+against Rufin who wielded a long sword, the Chaplain fell under their
+blows. His attention being now drawn again from his frenzy against the
+corpse of the bailiff by the arrival of the peasants who came with
+Caillet, Mazurec turned to them and brandishing his fork first joined
+their side of the combat; but struck with a sudden thought, he climbed
+the hillock where the air-hole had been contrived over the cavern, and
+which had recently been closed by the orders of the bailiff of Nointel.
+With the assistance of his fork he rolled off the stones from the
+aperture, and the smoke, now finding an issue, escaped therefrom in
+thick and black puffs. Climbing down, Mazurec disappeared within the
+cavern.
+
+At that moment, though wounded in the arm, Jocelyn was holding Captain
+Griffith to the ground with both his knees pressing on the Englishman's
+chest, and was looking for the dagger at his belt to bury it in his
+throat saying: "You shall die, English dog, who do not respect even
+dying women!"
+
+"As true as you are the best blade that I have yet met in this country,
+my only regret is that I leave that belle behind!"
+
+Such were the last words of the bastard of Norfolk. At the same moment
+Mazurec issued from the cavern with the corpse of Aveline in his arms,
+saying:
+
+"William Caillet, here is your daughter and my wife. All of you who have
+wives, children, parents or friends step into that cavern. Look for them
+among the dead and dying. Our seigneur, the Sire of Nointel, had us
+smoked in our refuge because we refused to contribute money towards his
+ransom!"
+
+At this announcement a large number of peasants ran into the cavern,
+while Caillet approached Mazurec, who still held his wife's body in his
+arms, and calmly said: "Lay her down on the grass.... We shall dig her
+grave." But the words were hardly uttered by the old man than throwing
+himself down beside the lifeless body of his daughter, he broke out in
+convulsive sobs while kissing her cold face.
+
+"I have cried so much that I have no tears left," said Mazurec
+contemplating the spectacle with a dry and fiery eye, while Adam the
+Devil silently dug Aveline's grave with the aid of his short scythe.
+
+A clump of roots and trees had until now concealed the sad spectacle
+from Jocelyn, who, not having noticed his brother in the heat of the
+combat, sat down on the grass supported by Rufin, and left his arm to be
+attended by Alison. Always brave and helpful, despite the different
+emotions that stormed through her heart, the tavern-keeper had ripped up
+her neck-cloth, and kneeling down beside Jocelyn, looked upon him with
+tenderness while staunching his wound.
+
+"When we first met, you won my case; to-day I owe to you life and honor.
+How can I ever repay such a debt. Oh, I know too well how you contemn
+money to offer you three hundred franks that I have sewed in my skirt."
+
+"Do you wish, dear and good hostess, to repay your debt? Go to Paris.
+When you arrive there, ask where Master Marcel lives. Everybody will
+show you the place. Tell his wife that I have been slightly wounded and
+that there is no danger. That will assure Dame Marcel and also her niece
+... my betrothed."
+
+"Oh, you are betrothed, Sir!" exclaimed Alison with some confusion, and
+gulping down a sigh, she added in an unsteady voice: "May God protect
+your love! I shall do as you say. I shall go to Paris ... I shall calm
+the anxieties of the girl you love. In her place I would be happy,
+indeed.... Oh, so happy to be reassured regarding him whom I love,"
+saying which Alison lowered her head to conceal a furtive tear that
+shone on her beautiful black eyes.
+
+"Oh, Jocelyn!" Rufin said in a low voice, charmed with the grace and
+kindness of Alison, "a comely and honest body like that is worth a
+hundred Margots."
+
+"Dear hostess!" resumed Jocelyn after a moment's reflection, "Will you
+allow me to give you advice? In times like these, a woman who travels
+alone runs great dangers. Take this friend of mine, Rufin, for your
+escort."
+
+"Jocelyn," said the student with a lively movement, "I wish to remain
+with you to fight the nobility."
+
+"You fought bravely despite the wound that you received only day before
+yesterday, and which still gives you much pain. You can render our cause
+a great service by returning and notifying Marcel that the peasants are
+in arms in this province and that William Caillet has given the signal
+for the uprising. Marcel awaits this news to act.... And if he has any
+confidential message for me, he will send it through you. You will then
+rejoin me in Beauvoisis. You will be easily able to learn the
+whereabouts of Caillet's troops, which I shall not leave"; and seeing
+that the student was about to yield, Jocelyn added in a low voice:
+"Despite the indiscretions of your youth, you are an upright fellow;
+promise me that you will guard Alison as you would your own sister."
+
+"I promise, Jocelyn; and you can trust my word! I shall be a good
+guardian to Alison."
+
+Suddenly a tremor ran over Jocelyn. He had just noticed Mazurec and
+Caillet carrying the body of Aveline. He understood what had happened,
+profound sorrow depicted itself upon his face, and kneeling down he
+said: "Kneel, Rufin ... kneel, my good hostess ... I shall have to wait
+till after this funeral to inform Mazurec that I am his brother."
+
+Adam the Devil had finished digging the grave of Aveline. Caillet and
+Mazurec, holding the body by the shoulders and feet, laid it down in the
+tomb. The peasants who witnessed the ceremony fell upon their knees. The
+funeral of the poor female serf piously performed under the vault of the
+forest in the midst of the heaped-up rocks at the mouth of the
+cavern--the immense tomb of so many other victims--was a spectacle of
+mournful grandeur. Everything contributed to render the scene terrible
+and imposing. There lay the mutilated and bloody members of the bailiff,
+the pitiless executer of the Sire of Nointel's orders; yonder were
+strewn the corpses of the English, no less execrated than the seigneurs
+by the people of the fields; further at a distance was the kneeling
+crowd of serfs, bare-headed, clad in rags, holding strange and
+murderous weapons in their hands, and hardly able to restrain their
+fury; finally there were the father and the husband laying with their
+own hands into her grave her who should have been the solace of the
+former's old age and the joy and love of the latter's youth!
+
+As soon as the body of the dead girl was laid in the fosse, Adam the
+Devil began filling it up with earth, while William Caillet standing at
+the head of his daughter's sepulchre and holding Mazurec to his breast
+cried out in a voice that pulled at the heart-strings of all present:
+
+"Adieu, my daughter! Adieu, my poor Aveline! You who never lied! You who
+never did wrong! Adieu! For evermore adieu!" and raising his trembling
+hands heavenward, the old peasant proceeded solemnly: "I swear here by
+the body of my child whom I have buried with my own hands! By the bones
+of our friends and our relatives whose grave is that cavern! By the
+sufferings that we endure! By the blood and the sweat of our
+forefathers! I shall revenge my daughter! I shall revenge our fathers! I
+shall revenge our race for the tortures it has endured! War upon the
+castles, without let or mercy!"
+
+Carried away by these words, the surrounding serfs rose to their feet,
+and brandishing their staves, their scythes, their forks and their axes,
+all responded in chorus with a voice that the echoes of the forest
+answered back: "Vengeance!" "Justice!"
+
+In the meantime the peasants who had run into the cavern were coming
+back with terror marked on their faces: "Dead.... They are all dead or
+dying! Women and children, old and young ... all are dead!"
+
+"All dead!" Caillet repeated in a terrific voice, "the little children!
+The women! The old men and the young! All dead! Up, Jacques Bonhomme!
+Up, my Jacques! Let the Jacquerie commence!"
+
+"It shall commence with the castle of Chivry," cried Adam the Devil.
+"Our seigneur is to be this very day at the castle of Chivry to wed the
+gorgeous Gloriande ... on the day of the tourney she laughed at
+Mazurec!... It will now be your turn to laugh at the haughty damosel....
+Up, my Jacques, let the Jacquerie commence!"
+
+"Ha! Ha! The belle Gloriande!" Mazurec repeated with a ferocious and
+semi-delirious laughter. "I shall appear before her with one eye knocked
+out and my nose crushed! Oh! The gorgeous Gloriande!... What a fright
+she'll have!... Her husband took my bride.... Up, up, my Jacques! The
+Jacquerie commences!... War upon the castles!"
+
+The revolted peasants tumultuously followed Caillet, Adam the Devil and
+Mazurec across the forest crying: "To Chivry.... Up, Jacques.... The
+Jacquerie commences!"
+
+"Good-bye, hostess!" said Jocelyn rising and preparing to follow
+Mazurec. "Good-bye, Rufin. Guard with the solicitude of a brother this
+worthy woman who confides herself to your protection."
+
+"I trust your friend," answered Alison, "because you told me to trust
+him."
+
+"I swear," put in the student deeply moved, "that you can trust me as
+fully as you would Jocelyn himself, pretty hostess."
+
+"Good-bye, Rufin; I shall join my brother, disclose to him the bonds
+that unite us, and battle at his side. Once more, good-bye, Alison. Say
+to Dame Marcel and to Denise, my betrothed, that if I do not see them
+again, my last thoughts will have been to them. As to you, Rufin, say to
+Marcel that the peasants of this province are at work exterminating the
+seigneurs."
+
+"Good-bye, Jocelyn," Rufin answered sadly, extending his hand to his
+friend. "If Master Marcel should have any message for you I shall ask
+him to commission me to bring it to you!"
+
+Once more the champion pressed his friend's hand and hastened to join
+the Jacques whose vociferations were heard in the distance. Before
+following the student, the good Alison knelt down at the grave of
+Aveline and amidst tears bade the last adieu to the ill-starred young
+woman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE CASTLE OF CHIVRY.
+
+
+The castle of Chivry, situated about three leagues from Nointel, and
+like almost all other feudal manors, built on the brow of a precipitous
+mountain, has nothing to fear from an attack from without. Defended both
+by a hundred men-at-arms and its own natural position, it can resist a
+long siege. For such an attack, artillery and other engines of war would
+have been requisite. The interior magnificence of this seigniorial
+edifice matches its defensive strength. Among its many sumptuous
+features is the throne hall, or hall of honor, which presents a dazzling
+sight. Its rafters, painted and gilded, glisten under the blue of the
+ceiling. Rich hanging carpets cover the walls, and enormous fire-places
+of sculptured stone, where whole trunks of trees are burned, rise at the
+two extremities of the vast apartment which is lighted by ten ogive
+windows of glass bearing armorial designs. The hall, virtually a
+gallery, is two hundred feet long, by one hundred wide--vast dimensions,
+indispensible to the state ceremonies which the stewards of the Sire of
+Chivry, as is the custom, attend mounted on horseback, entering by one
+of the doors of the hall, and solemnly carrying on the silver platters
+the "dishes of honor" such as peacocks and roasted pheasants, prepared
+with their own heads, and out-spread tails and wings, or gigantic
+pastries representing the seigniorial manor, ornamented with an
+escutcheon painted in lively colors--a glorious dish that the pages
+place on the table before the queen of the feast, and that must be cut
+by the equerry.
+
+On this day, a brilliant company--the nobles, seigneurs and dames,
+damosels and children of the neighboring estates--assembled in the
+throne hall of the castle of Chivry, and pressed around the beautiful
+Gloriande, who sat triumphant on the throne--a sort of raised seat
+covered and canopied with gold brocades. Never did the damosel seem more
+superb and brilliant in the eyes of her admirers. Her attire was
+dazzling. Her black hair, braided with a thread of pearls and
+carbuncles, is half hid under her virginal bride's veil. Her robe of
+white velvet, embroidered with silver, boldly exposes her breast and
+plump arms. A scarf of Oriental silk, fringed with pearls, girds her
+supple and well-shaped waist. With brilliant eyes, pink cheeks and
+smiling lips, Gloriande receives the compliments of the noble assemblage
+who congratulate her on her wedding, the celebration of which is soon to
+be announced by the bell of the castle's chapel. The aged Count of
+Chivry enjoys the happiness of his daughter and the homage she is the
+recipient of. Nevertheless, despite the gladness denoted by her face,
+from time to time Gloriande puckers up her black eyebrows, while
+throwing impatient looks towards the doors of the gallery. Noticing one
+of these looks of impatience, the Count of Chivry says to his daughter
+smiling: "Be at ease ... Conrad will soon be here.... There he is....
+Behold your bridegroom! What a noble presence!"
+
+At the moment when the noble seigneur was saying these words a
+triumphant procession entered the spacious hall. Clarion players opened
+the march with a bravoure, they were followed by the pages bearing the
+livery of Nointel who in turn were followed by the seigneur's equerries.
+These led ten hideous looking men in chains. Their faces and skulls,
+smoothly shaven, are of dark brown color. Sad and dejected, they hold
+their heads down. They are clad in new white and green blouses, the
+armorial colors of the house of Chivry. From time to time the captives
+noisily clank their chains and emit lamentable moanings. Behind them
+marches the Sire of Nointel, superbly astride of a charger, with visor
+down, lance in hand and accoutred in battle armor. At his side but on
+foot marches Gerard of Chaumontel, also in full armor and seeming to
+share his friend's glory. The cheers of the noble assemblage greet the
+procession, and the radiant Gloriande, whose cheeks are now red with
+pride, rises from her seat and waving her handkerchief cries:
+
+"Glory to the victor! Honor to the bravest gallant!"
+
+"Glory to the victor!" is echoed back by the noble assemblage. "Honor to
+the bravest gallant! Long live the seigneur of Nointel!"
+
+The Sire of Nointel descends from his horse, raises the visor of his
+casque and while his equerries beckon the captives to kneel down, he
+delivers himself of the following sentence:
+
+"My lady-love ordered me to go to war against the English and to bring
+ten prisoners to her feet. The duty of all gallant knights is to obey
+the queen of their thoughts. Here are the ten English soldiers that I
+took at the battle that we have fought. And I, a captive of the god of
+love, now lead these chained men to the feet of my lady-love."
+
+These chivalrous and gallant words threw the assemblage into transports
+of enthusiasm. The Sire of Nointel bows his head and proceeds:
+
+"These prisoners belong to my lady-love. Let her dispose of them at her
+sovereign will."
+
+"Seeing that my valiant knight requests me to decide over the fate of
+these prisoners," answered Gloriande, "I order that they be delivered of
+their chains ... and that they be set free! The day of my marriage shall
+be a day of joy for all"; and extending her hand to Conrad who drops on
+one knee before his bride, she proceeds: "Here is my hand, Sire of
+Nointel. I can give it to no more valorous a knight."
+
+"Happy day to the wedded couple!" cries the assemblage. "Glory and
+happiness to Gloriande of Chivry and Conrad of Nointel!"
+
+While the brilliant company was thus manifesting its share in the
+gladness of the young couple, the Count of Chivry approached the knight
+of Chaumontel and asked him in a low voice:
+
+"Gerard, what devil of Englishmen are these fellows.... Why, they are
+dark as moles!"
+
+"Sir Count," gravely answered the knight, "these scamps are of the
+English tribe of _Ratamorphrydich!_"
+
+"How do you call that tribe?" again inquired the aged seigneur stupefied
+at the barbarous name; "I never heard of it before."
+
+"The _Ratamorphrydich_," explained the knight, "are one of the most
+ferocious tribes of northern England. They are supposed to descend from
+a gypsy or Syrian colony that migrated from Moscovy to the shores of
+Albion upon the back of marine horses."
+
+"Well! Well!" rejoined the aged count enraptured at the geographic
+knowledge of the knight. "That is a very complete and clear
+explanation."
+
+The bell of the castle's chapel now sounded, and the seigneur of Chivry
+said to the knight: "This is the first peal of the wedding mass. Oh,
+Gerard, this is a beautiful day for my old years ... doubly beautiful
+because it shines in otherwise sad times."
+
+"But it seems, Sire, that you have no cause to complain of the events.
+Conrad returns to you covered with laurel. True enough, he is a paroled
+prisoner of the English, but at this very moment his vassals are
+emptying their purses for his ransom. He is beloved by your daughter,
+whom he adores. Your castle, well fortified and provisioned, and
+defended by a courageous garrison, has nothing to fear from either the
+English or the marauding bands. Jacques Bonhomme, still sore at every
+limb from the lesson he received last year at the tourney of Nointel,
+dare not raise his nose above the ditches where he is at work for you.
+You may live in peace and contentment. Long live love, and let the
+future take care of itself!"
+
+"Father," said Gloriande to the Count of Chivry, "the bell has sounded
+the second call for mass.... Let us start."
+
+"Very well, my impatient bride," the Count replied smiling upon his
+daughter, "give your hand to Conrad and we shall start for the altar."
+
+"Oh, father, do you know that Conrad spoke of me to the Regent, our
+Sire? The young and lovely prince wishes to see me at court.... We shall
+have time to order three dresses, one of brocade, the other of silver
+... the third laminated in flower work."
+
+"You may order ten dresses, twenty if you wish, and of the richest.
+Nothing is too beautiful for Gloriande of Chivry when she makes her
+appearance at court! It is well to show those kings, who seek to crowd
+the seigneurs, that we are as great seigneurs as themselves. You shall
+not lack for money. My bailiffs shall levy a double tax upon my vassals
+in honor of your wedding, as is customary. But here comes another
+impatient hot-blood who implores you to take pity on his martyrdom,"
+gaily added the Count pointing at Conrad who now approached. The Sire of
+Nointel lovingly took the hand of his bride, the procession formed and,
+followed by the pages and equerries, the noble assembly marched to the
+chapel of the manor.
+
+The English prisoners, who had been freed of their chains by the order
+of Gloriande, brought up the rear. While crossing the threshold of the
+gallery a large newly sharpened knife with a coarse wooden handle
+dropped from the blouse of one of the prisoners.
+
+"Adam the Devil," whispered another prisoner, "pick up your knife before
+it attracts the attention of the soldiers."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+"JACQUERIE! JACQUERIE!"
+
+
+The marriage of the damosel of Chivry with the seigneur of Nointel took
+place in the morning. In the afternoon, the large number of guests
+invited to the brilliant wedding were gathered in the large throne hall,
+now transformed into a banquet room. The banquet was continued deep into
+the evening, and was now nearing its end. For the last six hours the
+noble guests had been doing ample honor to the interminable meal. While
+Jacques Bonhomme barely preserves existence with decayed beans and
+water, the seigneurs eat fit to split their stomachs. It was so at the
+nuptials of the belle Gloriande. The first course, intended to open the
+appetite, consisted of citrons, fruit cooked in vinegar, sour cherries,
+salted dishes, salads and other toothsome preparations. The second
+course was of lobster patties, cream almonds, soups of meat, of rice, of
+oats, of wheat, of macaroni, of fricandelles, each served in the
+different colors that expert cooks impart to them and that please the
+eyes of the gourmands--soups in white, in blue, in yellow, in red, in
+green or of golden hue were spread in harmonious combinations. The third
+course had roasts with sauce, and what a variety of sauces!--cinnamon,
+nutmeg, raisin, jennet, rose, flower--all these sauces likewise colored
+differently. The fourth course consisted of pastries of all sorts, of
+boars, of deer, monstrous pastries that held, floating on goose fat, a
+whole stuffed lamb, finally tarts of rose leaves, of cherries, of
+chestnuts, and in the middle of all these a monumental fabric of pastry
+three feet high, representing the donjon-keep, the towers and the
+ramparts of the noble manor of Chivry. The long table loaded down with
+costly plate which reflected one another by the light of wax candles
+presented the aspect of gladsome disorder. The flagons and silver
+decanters, filled with spiced wines and circulating from hand to hand,
+redoubled the conviviality of the hour. Some of the guests grew unsteady
+in their seats, their heads swimming in the fumes of approaching
+drunkenness. The cheeks and eyes of several of the dames and their
+daughters, even without having celebrated Gloriande's nuptials to a
+Bacchic excess, had become purple and inflamed; their breasts heaved,
+and they laughed boisterously at the licentious stories told by the
+seigneurs who sat near and drank out of the same cup with them. Outside
+of the banquet table, the servants, and even the men-at-arms, were
+sharing the convivial joys of their masters, and celebrated the nuptials
+of their seigneur's daughter with deep potations of beer, cider, and
+even wine. Many were asleep in the profound slumbers of inebriety.
+
+Alone Gloriande and her bridegroom have remained free from the effects
+of the overfeeding and drinking. Their intoxication is sweeter. They
+love each other, and soon the hour would come for their retirement. From
+time to time they exchanged furtive glances of impatience. Ardent are
+the looks of Conrad; troubled those of Gloriande. Her beautiful bosom
+undulates attractively the necklace of pearls and diamonds that rests
+upon it. She even frowns and shrugs her white shoulders upon hearing her
+father, now in an advanced stage of intoxication, bellowing at the top
+of his voice for silence and announcing that he would sing an old
+drinking song of twenty-eight verses, and each couple, drinking from the
+same goblet, was to empty it at each couplet, after which the bride and
+bridegroom would be ceremoniously conducted by her maids of honor to the
+bridal chamber, whose door opened into the hall. At her father's
+proposition to sing twenty-eight verses, a proposition that was received
+with general acclaim, Gloriande cast a desolate look upon Conrad, and
+the latter, turning to his friend Chaumontel, whispered in his ear: "The
+devil take the drunken old man ... along with his song."
+
+"By the way," answered the half intoxicated knight, laughing loudly,
+"the old man asked me this morning how our English prisoners happened to
+be dark as moles;" and turning from the Count of Chivry the knight
+reflected a moment and then proceeded: "But, Conrad, were there not
+originally eleven rustics instead of ten that we picked up near the
+forest, from which they had just issued with forks, scythes and axes?
+They said they were hunting for a wolf that caused them much damage. Ah!
+Ah! I must still laugh when I think of our capture.... By the devil....
+It was eleven and not ten rustics that we caught.... How does it come
+that, being eleven, there should only be ten now?"
+
+"Do you forget that one of them ran away on the road?"
+
+"That's a ray of light!" cried Gerard, counting on his fingers with the
+gravity of a drunken man. "The rustics were eleven. Good.... One of them
+escapes.... Consequently there should be only ten left! Conrad, you are
+the brightest of mortals!"
+
+At that moment the seigneur of Chivry struck up the fourth couplet of
+his Bacchic song. No longer could the beautiful Gloriande endure her
+amorous martyrdom. She exchanged a few signs of intelligence with
+Conrad, and almost immediately uttered a slight cry, while seizing her
+father's arm, near whom she was seated. The old seigneur abruptly broke
+off his song and said to Gloriande, in blank amazement:
+
+"What is the matter, dear daughter? Are you not well?"
+
+"I feel giddy; I am not well; I shall withdraw to my room."
+
+"My dearly beloved Gloriande," said the Sire of Nointel, rising quickly,
+"allow me to accompany you."
+
+"Yes, I wish you would, Conrad.... I shall take some air at the window
+of my room.... I think that will do me good."
+
+"Come, my children," said the seigneur of Chivry, resignedly, "I shall
+start my song all over again at to-morrow's feast;" and then added:
+"Let the maids of honor kindly accompany the bride, according to custom,
+as far as the door of the nuptial chamber."
+
+At these words several of the young ladies regretfully quitted the
+knights near whom they sat and surrounded the bride, while Conrad walked
+around the immense table to join his wife, and two pages threw open the
+doors of the bridal chamber, brilliantly lighted by torches of perfumed
+wax. The nuptial couch was seen at the end of the chamber, surmounted
+with an armorial canopy, and half concealed behind curtains of tapestry
+that glistened with silver thread. Suddenly the voice of Gerard of
+Chaumontel, more and more intoxicated, was heard crying:
+
+"Noble dames and damosels, I request leave to prove to you that I am a
+man ... of singular powers of divination!"
+
+"Prove it! Prove it!" gayly came from the guests. "Prove it to us,
+to-night! We listen! Give us the proof!"
+
+"Last year," proceeded Gerard, "on the day of the tourney of Nointel,
+where all of you were present, and where Jacques Bonhomme kicked some
+capers, Conrad ordered several of the scamps to be hanged, and to drown
+the one whom I vanquished in a judicial combat, all according to usage
+and custom."
+
+"I very much would like to see a villein drown," cried a lad of eleven
+years, son of the Sire of Bourgeuil. "I have seen villeins whipped, I
+have seen their ears cropped, I have seen them hanged and quartered, but
+never have I seen any drowned. Father, ... will you not have a villein
+drowned ... for me to see?... I would like to see a villein drowned....
+I have taken the fancy."
+
+"My son," the Sire of Bourgeuil answered the child in a magisterial
+tone, "your interruption is unbecoming. You should have waited till the
+knight finished before expressing your wish to me."
+
+"Well," continued Gerard of Chaumontel, "the rustic whom I vanquished,
+at the moment of taking his first and last bath, cried out to me with
+the voice of a devil who has caught cold: 'You cause me to be drowned,
+you shall be drowned!' and to Conrad: 'You outraged my wife, your wife
+shall be outraged!'"
+
+"The knight of Chaumontel is tipsy," murmured several guests.
+
+"Such lugubrious stories about hanging and drowning are out of place at
+a wedding."
+
+"Enough, Sir knight! Enough!"
+
+"Drink your wine in peace, good Sir!"
+
+"Wait till I prove it to you ... how I am a man of singular powers of
+divination," continued Gerard. But the hisses drowned his voice, and the
+Sire of Nointel, shivering despite himself at the mournful recollection
+now evoked by his friend, took the hand of Gloriande whom the maids of
+honor surrounded and said to her while marching towards the nuptial
+chamber: "Listen not to the fool; he is tipsy.... Come, my beloved....
+Love awaits us."
+
+Suddenly an equerry appeared like a specter at the large door of the
+hall. His face was livid and his body streamed blood. He took two steps
+forward, swayed on his feet and dropped down upon the stone slabs which
+he reddened with his blood. With his last dying breath he uttered these
+words "My seigneur.... Oh, my seigneur.... Save yourself!"
+
+At the spectacle a cry of horror and fear leaped from every mouth. The
+belle Gloriande, seized with terror, threw herself into Conrad's arms.
+The guests, pale and stupefied, were for an instant struck silent, while
+from the distance a formidable noise seemed to approach. Another
+equerry, also pale as a ghost and bleeding, ran in screaming in a broken
+voice:
+
+"Treason!... Treason!... The English prisoners have cut the throats of
+the guards at the main gate of the castle.... They opened it to a
+furious multitude.... The assailants are here!"
+
+Immediately the cry of "Jacquerie! Jacquerie!" repeated from hundreds
+of throats, resounded outside the banquet hall, and the glasses of the
+windows, beaten in with axes and pitchforks, flew in all directions with
+a wild rush.
+
+A numerous band of Jacques, led by Adam the Devil and his blackened
+companions who had performed the role of English prisoners in that same
+hall that same morning, now rushed in through the doors and broken
+windows. Guided by an identical impulse, the terror-stricken noble
+assemblage crowded towards the principal door expecting to escape at
+that issue. Their exit was, however, intercepted by William Caillet and
+Mazurec, who appeared at the threshold at the head of still another band
+of Jacques armed with staves, scythes, forks and axes. Almost all these
+peasants in arms were vassals of the seigneurs of Chivry and Nointel. At
+the sight of the wan, savage, blood-stained, half-naked mob, bearing on
+their bodies the impress of serfdom, the dames and damosels uttered
+cries of terror and huddled together in wild panic into the extreme
+corner of the hall. The seigneurs, having according to usage doffed
+their armor to don their gala dress, seized the table knives and the
+flagons of glass and silver to defend themselves. The joyous fumes of
+wine that at first confused their minds were soon dissipated and they
+ranked themselves into an improvised barrier before the women.
+
+William Caillet swung his axe three times. At that signal the tumultuous
+clamors of the Jacques was hushed by little and little until the silence
+became profound, disturbed only by exclamations and moans from the
+affrighted noble women.
+
+"My Jacques!" cries Caillet. "You brought ropes along. First of all bind
+fast all the noblemen; kill on the spot whoever resists; but keep alive
+the father and the husband of the bride; also to keep alive the knight
+of Chaumontel. We have an account to settle with them."
+
+"I shall take charge of those three," said Adam the Devil. "Follow me,
+my alleged Englishmen. Get the ropes ready."
+
+The vassals flew upon the seigneurs. A few of them offered a desperate
+resistance and were killed, but the larger number of the knights,
+demoralized and terror-stricken by the suddenness of the attack allowed
+themselves to be bound. Among these were the aged seigneur of Chivry,
+Gerard of Chaumontel and the Sire of Nointel, the last of whom was torn
+from the arms of his bride. More furious than frightened, Gloriande gave
+a loose to imprecations and insults that she hurled at the revolted
+serfs. Adam the Devil seized and overpowered her, tearing in the attempt
+her wedding dress to shreds, and tied her hands behind her back, while
+with refined ferocity he observed:
+
+"To each his turn, my noble damosel.... Last year you laughed at us at
+the tourney of Nointel.... Now it is our turn to laugh at you, my
+amorous belle!"
+
+"This English prisoner knows me!" exclaimed Gloriande. "Is all this but
+a horrible dream? Conrad, revenge your wife!"
+
+"I am a vassal of the seigniory of Nointel, and not an Englishman, my
+belle," answered Adam the Devil. "The role of prisoner was imposed upon
+us by your noble husband, your valiant knight, the Sire of Nointel, too
+much of a coward to make real prisoners. He met us just outside of the
+forest and ordered us under pain of hanging to accompany him hither and
+be the accomplices of his trick upon you by figuring as the English
+prisoners that he was to lead to you from the battle that was fought. We
+consented to the masquerade. It helped us in our plan to enter your
+father's castle. One of us, managing to escape on the road, took to our
+companions the order to draw near the manor by nightfall. We cut the
+throats of the guards, lowered the bridge and let our Jacques in. Now we
+are going to laugh at you, my belle ... just as you laughed at us at the
+tourney of Nointel! It is now our turn to feast."
+
+Gloriande allowed Adam the Devil to speak without interrupting him. And
+shuddering with painful indignation she cried: "Conrad lied.... Conrad
+is a coward!"
+
+"Yes, your nobleman of a husband is a liar and a coward," rejoined Adam
+the Devil, dragging Gloriande towards the other extremity of the hall.
+"A beauty like you deserves a braver husband. I shall take you to the
+kind of lover you have been dreaming of."
+
+Gloriande of Chivry forgot for a moment the dangers that beset her and
+the terror that had begun to seize her mind. Overwhelmed by the idea,
+horrible to her pride, that Conrad of Nointel was a coward, she let
+herself be dragged without resistance towards the other end of the hall.
+
+In the center of the Jacques who had formed a circle stood William
+Caillet reclining on the handle of his heavy axe; near him were Jocelyn
+the Champion with his arms across his breast, and Mazurec the Lambkin,
+now the widower of Aveline-who-never-lied. Only partly clad in rough
+sheep-skin, his hair matted, his arms bare and blood-bespattered, with
+the cavity of one eye hollow, his nose crushed, his upper lip split--the
+serf presented a repulsive aspect. Adam the Devil pushed Gloriande
+towards Mazurec saying: "There is your new husband! Come, my pretty
+lass, embrace your lord and master!"
+
+At the sight of the disfigured serf Gloriande drew back and uttered a
+cry of fright; but terror palsied her brain when she saw Mazurec slowly
+advancing upon her with his one eye burning with hatred, and laying his
+callous hand upon her shoulder say in a hollow voice: "In the name of
+force ... you are mine ... the same as in the name of force my bride
+Aveline belonged to Conrad of Nointel...."
+
+"What is the monster saying?" muttered the distracted Gloriande drawing
+back and seeking to free herself from the grasp of the vassal.
+"Father!... Come to my help, father!"
+
+The noble seigneur of Chivry lay nearby bound hand and foot, the same as
+Gerard of Chaumontel and Conrad of Nointel, the last of whom, out of his
+senses with fright and crushed with remorse, neither heard nor saw
+aught, but was muttering between his teeth: "Have mercy upon me, my Lord
+God!... I am a great sinner.... I repent having outraged that vassal's
+bride...."
+
+"Help, father!" Gloriande continued to cry, ever seeking to escape the
+grip of Mazurec, whose nails, now long and bent like those of a bird of
+prey, dug deep into the flesh of the Sire of Nointel's bride and held
+her firmly while he exclaimed: "This noble damosel is mine!"
+
+"Vassal!" cried the seigneur of Chivry gasping for breath and addressing
+Caillet: "You are the chief of these bandits; save my daughter's life
+and honor and I promise to pardon you.... Be merciful.... I swear by the
+living God, I shall remit the punishment that your crimes deserve!"
+
+"Noble seigneur," replied the chief of the Jacques with ominously
+sinister calmness, "the wedding day of the child whom we love is a
+beautiful day! It is a beautiful day for the nobles--"
+
+"Oh, indeed I believed this morning that the wedding day of my daughter
+Gloriande would be a beautiful day for me."
+
+"So did I imagine on the morning of the day when my daughter
+Aveline-who-never-lied wedded.... A vassal has a father's heart.... I
+tenderly loved my daughter.... She was a sweet and pure girl, the pride
+of my miserable life.... Your son-in-law, the Sire of Nointel, had my
+daughter dragged to his bed ... the next day he returned her to me!"
+
+"The Sire of Nointel only exercised the right he has over all brides who
+are not noble!... It is his right of first fruits.... It is the feudal
+law!"
+
+"Conrad of Nointel exercised a right that he derived from force....
+To-day the Jacques are stronger, and they will, in turn, exercise their
+right," answered Caillet without abandoning his savage calmness.
+"Mazurec, my daughter's bridegroom sought to resist the ignomy she was
+threatened with.... In punishment for his rebellion he was compelled to
+make the amende honorable on his knees before his seigneur.... Yesterday
+my daughter, together with so many other victims, was smothered to death
+by the smoke that the bailiff of the Sire of Nointel ordered the cavern
+in which they had taken refuge to be filled with.... 'An eye for an eye,
+a tooth for a tooth!' ... So says Scripture.... The Sire of Nointel has
+outraged the bride of Mazurec the Lambkin.... Now the bride of the Sire
+of Nointel belongs to Mazurec."
+
+The Jacques greeted the sentence of their chief with triumphant acclaim,
+while with one kick Adam the Devil broke open the door of Gloriande's
+nuptial chamber, and by the light of the torches of perfumed wax that
+burned within from massive candlesticks of silver, the Jacques saw the
+dazzling interior of the apartment.
+
+Painting with terror Gloriande still struggled with Mazurec who dragged
+her to the nuptial couch. "Father! Deliver me!" cried the agonized
+belle.
+
+"Thus did Aveline call me to her help," said William Caillet with his
+foot on the Count of Chivry. "You shall drain the cup to the lees!"
+
+"Oh, death! rather than to witness such atrocities!" cried the Sire of
+Nointel. "Heaven and earth! To see that miserable vassal dare to lay
+hands upon Gloriande! The scamp is tearing down the curtains! He means
+to violate my bride!"
+
+"Oh! Oh! You are a rebel!" cried Adam the Devil laughing loudly. "We now
+sentence you to make the amende honorable on both knees before your
+master and seigneur, Jacques Bonhomme, in the person of Mazurec; and you
+shall beg his pardon for having insulted him ... for calling him scamp!"
+
+"Conrad, let us know how to die!" cried the knight of Chaumontel. "We
+shall soon be revenged upon these scamps; not one of them will escape
+the lances of the knights."
+
+Jocelyn the Champion, who had until then stood by an impassive witness,
+now stepped forward and heavily laying his iron gauntlet upon the
+knight's shoulder said to him: "You fought cased in iron against my
+brother Mazurec who was half naked and armed only with a stick. I have
+decided that you shall now fight him, yourself half naked and armed with
+a stick, he cased in iron. If you are vanquished you shall be thrown
+into a bag and drowned. To-day, from appellee, Jacques Bonhomme has
+become appellant."
+
+"But before the combat," cried Adam the Devil, "let us take supper, my
+Jacques; the table is set; plenty of wine is still left in the flagons;
+also meats on the dishes!... Let us feast before the eyes of these
+seigneurs, the fathers, brothers or husbands of yonder dames and
+damosels!... Fall to, my Jacques! Long live love and wine! After the
+feast we shall lock up this whole nobility, men, women and children, in
+the underground prisons of the castles! The ruins of the burnt-down
+manor shall be their fitting tombstone.... Fall to, Jacques Bonhomme....
+Long live love and wine, and ours be the dames and damosels of these
+nobles!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE ORVILLE BRIDGE.
+
+
+Night is about to yield to day; the moon is setting; the first
+glimmerings of dawn begin to crimson the eastern sky. The troop of
+Jacques, who fired the manor of Chivry after putting its noble tenants
+to the sword, is now marching towards the bridge that spans the Orville
+river, and from which, the year before, tied in a bag, Mazurec was
+thrown into the water. At the head of the troop march William, Mazurec,
+Jocelyn and Adam the Devil. Behind them follow the Jacques leading the
+Sire of Nointel and the knight of Chaumontel, half naked, unarmed and
+pinioned. His head covered with the casque, clad in the cuirass and coat
+of mail, and armed with the dagger and sword of the knight of
+Chaumontel, Mazurec marches between Jocelyn the Champion and Caillet.
+Halting at the crest of the hill they had just ascended, and which
+commanded a wide view of the surrounding country, the latter cried
+pointing in several directions of the horizon that was either lighted
+with flames or darkened with black clouds:
+
+"Do you see the castles of Chivry, of Bourgeuil, of Saint-Prix, of
+Montsorin, of Villiers, of Rochemur and so many others, aye, so many
+others, set this night on fire, sacked and their noble masters put to
+the sword by bands of revolted serfs?... Do you hear the village bells
+summoning the serfs to arms?... They sound still! They are summoning the
+Jacques to the hunt of the nobles!"
+
+Indeed, the hurried peals of the bells, loudly sounding from a large
+number of villages that lay scattered in the fields and forests, reached
+the hill, carried thither by the morning breeze. The horizon, reflecting
+the flames that were devouring so many feudal manors, itself seemed on
+fire. Hardly were the first rays of the sun able to penetrate the
+thickness of the somber mass of smoke.
+
+"The sight is worth the music!" remarked Adam the Devil listening to the
+sound of the bells. Crossing his arms behind him, spreading out his
+legs, and poising himself on his robust loins he swept with an eager eye
+the flaming curtain of the distant conflagrations. "There they are on
+fire and in ruins, those proud donjons cemented in the blood and the
+sweat of our people, and that for centuries have been the terror of our
+fathers! Ha! Ha! Ha!" and laughing boisterously the serf proceeded:
+"What mournful scenes must now be enacting at those manors!"
+
+"At this hour," observed Caillet, "in Beauvoisis, in Laonnais, in
+Picardy, in Vermandois, in Champagne, everywhere, in the Isle of France,
+Jacques Bonhomme is making similar bonfires! Everywhere the nobility and
+their supporting priests are being massacred!"
+
+"I wish I could see all the fires!" exclaimed Adam the Devil, raising
+his head. "I would like to hear all the cries uttered by these nobles!"
+
+"Oh!" observed Jocelyn, with profound sorrow, "if the cries of our
+fathers, the male and female serfs and vassals, who for so many hundreds
+of years have endured martyrdom, could reach us across the centuries!...
+Oh! if the cries of our mothers, borne down by serfdom, starved in
+misery, and outraged by the seigneurs, could now reach us across these
+many centuries.... If that could be, then the frightful concert of
+maledictions, of imprecations and of cries of pain that would reach us
+would drown that which now goes up from these feudal strongholds!... The
+hour of justice has come at last!"
+
+"Brother," said Mazurec, sad and dejected, while hastening his steps so
+as to leave Caillet and Adam the Devil behind and snatch a few moments
+of privacy with Jocelyn, "I have an admission to make to you ... and
+perhaps also to pray your indulgence for a weakness of my heart.... When
+I had dragged the bride of Conrad into her nuptial chamber ... and after
+the door was closed behind us, Gloriande threw herself at my feet, and
+with joined hands she implored mercy. I said to myself: 'My poor Aveline
+must have prayed for mercy ... she must have suffered terribly.' I wept
+at the thought of Aveline; I forgot my hatred and my vengeance. Seeing
+me weep, Gloriande redoubled her supplications. I then said to her: 'In
+my condition of serf I had but one joy in the world, the love of
+Aveline-who-never-lied.... She was outraged by my seigneur, your
+bridegroom.... After months of suffering and despair she died, smothered
+by smoke in the cavern of Nointel shortly before being delivered of the
+child of her shame.... It seems to me I see my poor Aveline, on her
+knees, like you now, asking for mercy.... It is her whom I pity.... You
+need not fear me!' And Gloriande took my hands in hers, kissed and
+moistened them with her tears.... She begged me to allow her to escape
+by a secret passage. I consented. I remained in the room, thinking of
+Aveline until they set fire to the castle. I did not wish to outrage my
+seigneur's bride.... Vengeance would not have restored to me my lost
+happiness."
+
+"Oh, my poor brother! Gentle soul! Generous heart!" answered Jocelyn,
+deeply moved. "You whom nature made Mazurec the Lambkin and whom your
+master's ferocity transformed into Mazurec the Wolf! You were born to
+love, not to hate! Oh, you speak truly! Vengeance does not return the
+lost happiness! Sublime martyr, you need no indulgence for your generous
+conduct! Your heart did not fail you; it inspired itself with the
+principle of mercy proclaimed by the young carpenter of Nazareth!" And
+seeing that Adam the Devil and Caillet were approaching, Jocelyn added,
+in a low voice: "Brother, let none know that you respected Gloriande;
+above all, Conrad must, for his punishment, believe that his bride was
+dishonored!" Turning then to Caillet, who had just joined the two,
+Jocelyn observed: "We shall soon be at the Orville bridge. Our friends
+are anxious we should reach the spot quickly. The work of punishment is
+not yet finished."
+
+The slanting rays of the sun now glisten in the rapid waters of the
+Orville that the previous year had swallowed up Mazurec pinioned and
+tied in a bag. On its banks still stand the trunks of the old willow
+trees from which were hanged the serfs caught in the riot of the
+tourney. The morning breeze agitates the reeds that concealed Adam the
+Devil and Jocelyn during the preparations for the death of Mazurec, and
+from behind which they had succeeded in rescuing him.
+
+The Jacques arrived at the bridge, crossed it and stepped upon the broad
+meadow in the middle of which the last year's tourney given by the
+seigneur of Nointel was held. They halted there. A large number of them
+had been spectators of the passage of arms, and had afterwards witnessed
+the judicial duel between Mazurec and the knight of Chaumontel. Obedient
+to the orders of Caillet, several peasants proceeded to cut it with
+their scythes young tree branches, that they stuck in the ground,
+forming an enclosure about thirty feet square, in imitation of the fence
+or barrier of tourneys. The enclosure being ready, the Jacques crowded
+in dense ranks around it.
+
+At a signal, William Caillet approached the men who led the pinioned
+Sire of Nointel and the knight of Chaumontel. The latter, though pale,
+still preserved his resoluteness; the former, however, looking dejected
+and discouraged, was now a prey to superstitious terror. He sees
+verified the sinister prophecy of his vassal, who the year before had
+said to him: "You have outraged my bride, your bride shall be outraged."
+
+Of all his attire, the Sire of Nointel has preserved only his jerkin and
+velvet shoes, now in shreds from the roughness of the road. Cold drops
+of perspiration gather at his temples. Caillet addresses him: "Last year
+my daughter was forcibly placed in your bed ... last night Mazurec, the
+wronged bridegroom whom we saved from the watery grave that you decreed
+to him, returned outrage for outrage.... My daughter and many other
+victims died an atrocious death in the cavern of the forest of Nointel,
+last night your bride and many other nobles died in the underground
+dungeons of the castle of Chivry that Jacques Bonhomme set on fire....
+But that is not yet enough. Mazurec was sentenced to make the amende
+honorable to you because he insulted you; seeing that you insulted
+Mazurec when he dragged away your wife, you shall now make the amende
+honorable on your knees before Mazurec. If you refuse," added Caillet,
+seeing the enraged seigneur stamp the ground with his feet, "if you
+refuse, I shall then sentence you to the same death that you have
+inflicted upon several of your vassals. Two young and strong trees shall
+be bent, you shall be tied by the feet to the one and by the arms to the
+other, the saplings will then be let free to straighten themselves up
+again.... You are forewarned, Sire of Nointel!"
+
+"I witnessed the death of my friend Toussaint the Heavy-bell, who was
+dismembered in that manner by your orders between two oak saplings!"
+interposed Adam the Devil. "I know exactly how it must be done in order
+to manage that torture successfully. Now choose between the amende
+honorable or the death we just described."
+
+"Submit, Conrad!" said the knight of Chaumontel, with bitter disdain.
+"Let us submit to the extreme limit of the excesses of these varlets. We
+will be revenged. Oh, soon again the casque will resume the upperhand
+over the woolen cap, and the lance over the fork."
+
+Shivering with dismay at the threatened torture, Conrad of Nointel
+answered his friend in a hoarse voice: "Gerard, do not leave me alone!"
+
+"I shall be your faithful companion to the end," answered the knight.
+"We have joyously emptied more than one cup together, we shall die
+together."
+
+Led by Jacques, the two nobles were placed in the center of the
+enclosure, around which stood the revolted vassals. Many of them had
+also witnessed the amende honorable of Mazurec, who, now armed in the
+armor of the knight of Chaumontel, is standing near the center of the
+lists, reclining on his long sword.
+
+"On your knees!" ordered Adam the Devil to the Sire of Nointel, and
+pressing down with his strong hands the seigneur's shoulders, he made
+him drop on his knees at the feet of Mazurec. "And now, noble seigneur,
+repeat my words:
+
+"Seigneur Jacques Bonhomme, I blame myself and humbly repent having used
+unseemly words against you when last night you dragged my noble
+bride...."
+
+Outbursts of laughter, jeers and cat-calls from the Jacques greeted
+these words, which recalled to the Sire of Nointel both the forfeiture
+of his happiness and the disgrace of his bride. He shrank together,
+emitted a roar of pain, and burning tears dropped from his eyes while
+grinding his teeth he muttered: "Death and massacre!"
+
+"That is quite painful, is it not, Sire of Nointel," suggested Caillet,
+"to be forced to beg pardon on one's knees for having wished to resist
+the outrage that is racking your mind? Poor Mazurec the Lambkin went
+through this shame only last year, as you are doing now!... It is
+justice!... Stay on your knees!"
+
+"Come, let's hurry!" resumed Adam the Devil, "make the amende honorable
+on your knees before Jacques Bonhomme, if not, you shall be dismembered
+on the spot, my noble Sire!"
+
+The Sire of Nointel answered only with a fresh roar of rage, writhing in
+his bonds: "Oh, my unhappy life!"
+
+"Conrad," said Gerard, "repeat the empty words, yield to these cowardly
+varlets. What can you do against force? There is nothing but to submit."
+
+"Never!" cried the Sire of Nointel, in a frenzy of rage. "Sooner a
+thousand deaths! To ask pardon of that miserable serf ... when before
+my own eyes he dragged away my bride ... my beautiful and proud
+Gloriande ...," and breaking out again in a cry of rage: "Blood and
+massacre! A minute ago I felt overwhelmed.... I now feel hell burning in
+my breast.... Oh, if only I were free ... I would tear these varlets to
+pieces with my nails and teeth! I would put them through a thousand
+deaths!"
+
+"Sire of Nointel, if upon your knees you make the amende honorable to
+Mazurec, I shall then put a sword in your hand," said Jocelyn the
+Champion slowly drawing near. "I promise to fight with you, and you will
+then at least die as a man. Come, on your knees!"
+
+"True?" mumbled Conrad, his mind wandering with despair and rage, "you
+will give me a sword?... I shall be able to die seeing the blood of one
+of you flow ... you miserable rebels!"
+
+Seizing the naked sword that his brother held in his hand, Jocelyn took
+it and threw it on the ground a few paces from Conrad, and planting his
+foot upon the blade said: "Make the amende honorable--you will then be
+unbound and you may take this sword ... then there shall be a combat to
+the death between us two, son of Neroweg!"
+
+"Come, my handsome Sir," resumed Adam the Devil addressing Conrad,
+"come, repeat after me--'Seigneur Jacques Bonhomme, I blame myself and
+humbly repent....'"
+
+"Seigneur Jacques Bonhomme," repeated Conrad of Nointel in a voice
+strangling with rage and casting a furtive look at the sword only the
+sight of which imparted to him the necessary strength to perform the
+revolting expiatory act. "Seigneur Jacques Bonhomme, I blame myself and
+humbly repent.... Shame and humiliation!"
+
+"Having used unseemly words against you, Seigneur Jacques Bonhomme,"
+proceeded Adam the Devil amidst new outbursts of laughter and jeers
+from the Jacques, "when last night you were about to outrage my bride on
+the nuptial bed ... my belle Gloriande of Chivry."
+
+"No, no, never," cried Conrad of Nointel, foaming at the mouth, "I never
+shall repeat those infamous words!"
+
+Jocelyn took off and threw his casque at a distance, unbuckled his steel
+corselet, threw away his armlets, pulled off his leather jerkin,
+preserving only that part of his armor that covered his thighs and lower
+extremities, removed his shirt, leaving his breast bare, and said to the
+Sire of Nointel: "Here is flesh to bore holes through, if you can.... I
+am wounded in the thigh ... that evens up your chances; moreover, I
+swear I shall strike only at your breast; yes, I swear it, as truly as,
+freeman or serfs, my ancestors have during the centuries that rolled
+over us crossed swords with yours!"
+
+"Oh, you dog whom my ancestors conquered.... I shall kill you!" cried
+Conrad of Nointel nearly delirious. Retaining his posture on his knees
+before Mazurec, he muttered, gasping for breath: "I repent, seigneur
+Jacques Bonhomme ... of having used unseemly words ... against you ...
+when you sought ... to outrage ... my bride in her nuptial bed...."
+
+"The belle Gloriande of Chivry, and pronounce the name distinctly," said
+Adam the Devil. "Now, hurry up!"
+
+"The ... belle ... Gloriande ... of ... Chivry ..." repeated Conrad, as
+if tearing the words from his breast.
+
+"High, puissant and redoubtable seigneur of Nointel, Jacques Bonhomme
+pardons you for the outrage he perpetrated upon you!" now put in Mazurec
+in the midst of a fresh explosion of triumphant laughter and
+contemptuous jeers uttered by the Jacques.
+
+"The sword! The sword!" cried Conrad rising livid and fearful with
+rage, but with his hands still pinioned behind him, and addressing
+Jocelyn. "You promised me blood ... yours ... or mine.... I wish to die
+seeing blood.... To the sword, to the sword!"
+
+"Remove his bonds," said the champion with his feet still on the sword
+that lay on the ground and drawing his own.
+
+While the Jacques were unfastening the bonds that held the arms of the
+seigneur of Nointel, the knight of Chaumontel took a step towards his
+friend and said to him: "Farewell, Conrad ... you are blinded with rage
+... you are weakened by the trials of last night ... you will be killed
+by that Hercules ... a champion by profession.... But we shall be
+revenged."
+
+"I killed!" cried the Sire of Nointel with a ghostly smile. "No, no; it
+is I who will kill the dog.... I will cut the vagabond's throat!"
+
+"Recommend your soul to St. James," said Gerard in a penetrating voice
+to Conrad; "an invocation to him is sovereign in cases of duels."
+
+"Oh, I shall invoke my hatred," replied Conrad twitching his arms that
+Adam the Devil was about to unloosen. But Jocelyn made a sign to his
+companion to wait a moment before untying the Sire of Nointel, and then
+turning to the revolted serfs he made to them this vigorous and terse
+address:
+
+"It is now eleven hundred years ago ... one of my ancestors, _Schavanoch
+the Soldier_--the foster brother of Victoria the Great, the emperor
+woman who predicted the enfranchisement of Gaul--fought against one of
+the chiefs of the Frankish hordes who then threatened to invade Gaul,
+our mother country; that Frankish chieftain was called _Neroweg the
+Terrible Eagle_, and he was the ancestor of the Sire of Nointel, whom
+you there see before you.... Two centuries later, the Franks, thanks to
+the complicity of the Bishop of Rome, had succeeded in conquering Gaul
+and in reducing her inhabitants to a condition of most cruel slavery;
+our land thereupon became a prey to our conquerors, and we moistened it
+with our sweat, our tears and our blood.... During the first years of
+the Frankish conquest, Karadeuk the Bagaude, the ancestor of both
+Mazurec and myself, a revolted slave, fought with Neroweg, Count of
+Auvergne, count by the right of rapine and murder. That Neroweg had
+subjected to a cruel torture Loysik the Working-Hermit and Ronan the
+Vagre, sons of Karadeuk the Bagaude. Bagaudie and Vagrerie were the
+Jacquerie of those days. Vagres and Bagaudes revenged themselves then as
+the Jacques do now for the oppression of the seigneurs. In that fight
+between Karadeuk the Bagaude and the Count Neroweg, Neroweg fell under
+the axe of Karadeuk.... Coming down to three centuries ago, another of
+my ancestors, Den-Brao the Mason was buried alive together with several
+other serfs, his fellow workmen, by Neroweg IV, Count of Plouernel in
+Brittany."
+
+"That noble thereby buried together with Den-Brao the secret of an
+underground passage that they had been made to construct, leading from
+the feudal manor into the forest. The grandson of Den-Brao, who remained
+a serf of the seigniory of Plouernel, was called Fergan the Quarryman.
+Neroweg VI kidnapped a son of Fergan for the purpose of applying the
+child to the bloody sorceries of a witch. Fergan succeeded in rescuing
+his child, but he witnessed the murder of his two relatives Bezenecq the
+Rich and Bezenecq's daughter Isoline. Unable to pay an enormous ransom
+imposed upon him by Neroweg VI, Bezenecq perished under the torture,
+while Isoline, the witness of her father's torment, became insane and
+died. Then came the days of the Crusades. Fergan and his seigneur met
+face to face and alone in the middle of the desert of Syria. Fergan
+could have killed him by surprise, but he fought him and vanquished....
+Finally, only a year ago, my brother Mazurec the Lambkin has seen his
+bride dishonored by the Sire of Nointel, the scion of the Nerowegs of
+old, he forced my brother to make him the amende honorable at his feet,
+and thereupon to fight half naked with the knight of Chaumontel in full
+armor. Vanquished in this unequal combat and sentenced to be drowned in
+a bag, Mazurec would have perished but for Adam the Devil and myself,
+who succeeded in drawing him out of the river betimes, but his wife,
+Aveline-who-never-lied, died an atrocious death only a few days ago. The
+history of my family's sufferings is the history of the families of us
+all, the enslaved and oppressed of your class, Sire of Nointel, during
+so many centuries! Aye, among the thousands upon thousands of revolted
+vassals, who at this hour are running to arms, there is not one whose
+family has not undergone what mine has! The narrative of Mazurec's
+family and mine is theirs also. Do you now understand the treasury of
+hatred and of vengeance that has been heaping up from century to century
+in the indignant breast of Jacques Bonhomme? Do you understand that from
+age to age the fathers bequeathed this hatred to their children as the
+only heritage left to them by servitude? Do you understand that the
+vassal has a frightful account to settle with his seigneur? Do you
+understand how, in his turn, Jacques Bonhomme has no mercy and no pity?
+Do you, finally, understand that if at this moment, instead of fighting
+you, I were to kill you like a wolf caught in a trap, the act would be
+just? You have but one life, but innumerable are the lives of the Gauls
+taken by you, and much larger yet those taken by your class!"
+
+An explosion of fury from the Jacques marked the close of these words.
+Sufficiently exasperated against the Sire of Nointel, they felt that the
+narrative of Jocelyn's family was that of the martyrdom on earth endured
+by Jacques Bonhomme.
+
+"Death to the seigneur!... Death without combat!" repeated the
+insurgents. "Death to him, like a wolf caught in a trap!"
+
+"Vassal, you promised to fight with me!" cried Conrad of Nointel. "Of
+what use are these ancient stories?"
+
+"Do you repudiate the acts of your ancestors? Do you repudiate your
+class?"
+
+"Even with your sword at my throat I shall to the very end pronounce
+myself proud of belonging to the warrior class that has held you under
+the whip and the stick, ye miserable serfs.... Even dying would I smite
+your faces!"
+
+With a wafture of his hand Jocelyn restrains a fresh explosion of fury
+from the Jacques, and says to Adam the Devil: "Deliver the seigneur of
+his bonds.... Once more in the course of the centuries a son of Joel and
+a son of Neroweg shall take each other's measure, sword in hand!"
+
+"And may my stock again meet yours to the undoing of your own!" answered
+Conrad of Nointel in a hollow voice. "The elder branch of my family
+still occupies its domains in Auvergne ... and my father's brother has
+sons! The race of the Nerowegs will reappear across the ages!"
+
+"Battle!... Battle!" said Jocelyn. "It shall be a battle to the death,
+without quarter or mercy.... Battle!"
+
+"And also I, brother, shall have neither pity nor mercy for that thief,
+the cause of all my misfortunes!" cried Mazurec, pointing at the knight
+of Chaumontel, and added: "Adam, untie also his hands. There is room
+enough here for a double combat. My brother shall have the seigneur....
+I shall take this thief of a knight. Give me a pitch-fork, the fork is
+the lance of Jacques Bonhomme."
+
+Freed of his bonds and clad only in his shirt and hose, Gerard of
+Chaumontel receives from William Caillet a stick to defend himself with,
+and from Adam the Devil a rude push that throws him in front of Mazurec,
+who, protected from head to foot by the knight's own armor, holds up his
+three-pronged and sharp fork.
+
+"Come up, you double thief!" Mazurec called out; "must I step forward to
+meet you?"
+
+[The knight of Chaumontel, pale from fright and pursued by the cries of
+(these words missing due to printer's error, here translated from the
+French version by the etext transcriber)] the Jacques, grasps his stick
+with both hands and forcing a smile on his lips answers: "The
+heralds-at-arms have not yet given the signal."
+
+In the meantime, Conrad of Nointel, whose arms have been unbound,
+stooped down to seize the sword from which Jocelyn had not yet lifted
+his foot.
+
+"One moment!" cried the champion, always with his foot firmly on the
+sword. "Sire of Nointel, look me in the face ... if you dare!"
+
+Conrad raised his head, fastened his glistening eyes upon his adversary
+and asked: "What do you want?"
+
+"Worthy Sire, I wish to goad you to the combat. I mistrust your courage.
+You fled like a coward at the battle of Poitiers, and a minute ago you
+referred to me as a vile slave fit only for the whip and the cane--"
+
+"And I say so again!" yelled Conrad turning red and white with rage,
+"you vagabond!"
+
+"Take this for the insult!" came from Jocelyn like a flash while
+buffeting the livid face of Conrad of Nointel. "These slaps are the goad
+I promised you. Even if you were more cowardly than a hare, fury will
+now serve you instead of courage!" Saying this Jocelyn made a leap
+backward, placing himself on his guard and leaving the sword on the
+ground free. Crazed with rage, Conrad of Nointel seized the weapon and
+rushed upon Jocelyn at the very moment that, armed with his stick,
+Gerard of Chaumontel was rapidly retreating before the approaching
+prongs of Mazurec's fork.
+
+"Infamous thief!" cried the vassal pressing the knight with his fork; "I
+had more courage than you.... I threw myself under the feet of your
+horse, and seized you hand to hand!"
+
+"My Jacques!" cried out Adam the Devil seeing the knight of Chaumontel
+still retreating before Mazurec, "cross your scythes behind that knight
+of cowardice; let him fall under your iron if he tries to escape
+Mazurec's fork."
+
+The Jacques followed Adam the Devil's suggestion; at the same time that
+Mazurec ran forward with his fork Gerard of Chaumontel perceived a
+formidable array of scythes rise behind him.
+
+"Cowardly varlets! Infamous scamps! You abuse your strength!"
+
+"And you, worthy knight," answered Adam the Devil, "did not you abuse
+your strength when you fought on horseback and in full armor against
+Mazurec half naked and with only a stick to defend himself?"
+
+During this short dialogue, the Sire of Nointel was impetuously charging
+upon Jocelyn. Rendered dexterous in the handling of the sword by the
+practice of the tourneys, young, agile and vigorous, he aims many an
+adroit blow at Jocelyn, who, however, parries them all like a consummate
+gladiator, while pricking his adversary with the contemptuous remark.
+"To know how to handle a sword so well, and yet to retreat so pitifully
+at the battle of Poitiers! What a shame!"
+
+With a rapid step back Jocelyn evades at that instant a dangerous thrust
+of Conrad of Nointel's sword, retorts with a vigorous pass, smites his
+adversary on the shoulder and, to his great astonishment, sees him
+suddenly roll on the ground, seem to stiffen his members, and then
+remain motionless.
+
+"What?" observed the champion lowering his sword, "dead with so little?
+Beaten down so quickly?"
+
+"Brother, look out ... it probably is a ruse!" cried Mazurec, at whom
+Gerard of Chaumontel had finally aimed so furious a blow with his stick
+that it broke into splinters against the iron casque on the vassal's
+head. "Without the casque I would now be a dead man. Oh! that's a good
+practice you knights have of fighting so well armed against half naked
+Jacques Bonhomme!" Although somewhat dazed by the shock, Mazurec plunged
+his fork into the bowels of the robber knight, who fell blaspheming.
+Observing that Conrad still remained motionless on the ground, Mazurec
+repeated the warning: "Look out, brother! It is a ruse!"
+
+And so it was. Astonished at the fall of his adversary Jocelyn was
+stooping over him when the Sire of Nointel suddenly rose on his
+haunches, seized the champion's leg with one hand, and with the other
+sought to stab his adversary in the flank with a dagger that he had kept
+concealed in his hose. Taken by surprise and pulled by a leg, Jocelyn
+lost his balance.
+
+"Viper!" cried Jocelyn dropping his sword and falling upon Conrad whose
+hand he struggled to overpower. "I was on the look-out.... I thought
+your death was feigned!" and wresting the dagger from Conrad's hand,
+Jocelyn plunged it in his adversary's breast: "Die, thou son of the
+Nerowegs!"
+
+"Gerard!" muttered Conrad, dying, "I ... was wrong ... in violating the
+vassal's wife.... Oh, Gloriande!"
+
+Hardly had Jocelyn stepped aside from the corpse of the Sire of Nointel
+when his vassals, so often the victims of his cruelty, precipitated
+themselves upon the arena, and plying their forks, scythes and axes with
+savage fury on the still warm body of their recent tyrant, mutilated it
+beyond recognition. In the meantime, aided by other Jacques, Adam the
+Devil raised the knight of Chaumontel, who, though mortally wounded by
+the thrust of Mazurec's fork, was still alive, and called out: "Fetch
+the bag and ropes!"
+
+A peasant brought a bag with which they had provided themselves at the
+castle of Chivry. The bleeding body of the knight of Chaumontel was
+placed within and tied fast so as to allow his cadaverous head to stick
+out, and the bundle was carried to the Orville bridge.
+
+"Do you recall my prophecy," Mazurec asked the knight, with a diabolical
+smile; "I prophesied you would be drowned."
+
+Gerard of Chaumontel uttered a deep moan. A superstitious terror now
+overpowered him. His wonted haughtiness was no more. In a fainting voice
+he murmured: "Oh, St. James, have pity upon me.... Oh, St. James,
+intercede for me.... with our Lord and all his saints.... I am justly
+punished.... I stole the vassal's purse.... Oh, Lord, Oh, Lord, have
+pity upon me!"
+
+Arrived at the Orville bridge, the peasants threw the bagged body of the
+knight of Chaumontel into the river amid the frantic cheers of the
+Jacques, who exclaimed: "May thus perish all seigneurs!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+ON TO CLERMONT!
+
+
+Tarrying a moment on the Orville bridge, which the Jacques had left on
+the march to join other bands and proceed in stronger force against
+other seigniories, Jocelyn noticed a rider approaching at full gallop. A
+few minutes later he recognized the rider to be Rufin the
+Tankard-smasher, who soon reined in near the bridge, followed at a
+distance by a considerable number of insurgents.
+
+Jumping off his horse Rufin said to Jocelyn: "I learned from the
+peasants coming up behind me that there was a large gathering of Jacques
+at this place; I thought I would find you among them and hastened hither
+to deliver to you a letter from Master Marcel.... Great events are
+transpiring in Paris."
+
+Jocelyn eagerly took the missive, and while he read it, Rufin the
+Tankard-smasher went on saying: "By Jupiter! The company of an honorable
+woman brings good luck. When I used to have Margot on my arms, I always
+ran up against some accident; on the other hand, nothing could have been
+happier than this trip of mine to Paris with Alison the Huffy, who, I
+fancy, is huffy only at Cupid. We arrived in Paris without accident, and
+Dame Marguerite received Alison with great friendship. Oh, my friend! I
+worship that tavern-keeper. Fie! What an improper term! No! That Hebe!
+And was not Hebe the Olympian tavern-keeper? Oh, if Alison would only
+have me for her husband, we would set up a lovely tavern, intended
+especially for the students of the University. The shield would be
+splendid. It would exhibit Greek and Latin verses appealing to the
+topers, such as: "Like Bacchus does----"
+
+Jocelyn here interrupted the student, saying with much animation after
+he had finished Etienne Marcel's letter: "Rufin, I return with you to
+Paris; the provost has orders for me. Mazurec is revenged. Everywhere
+the Jacques are rising according to the information that reaches Marcel
+from the provinces. The formidable movement must now be directed and
+utilized. The Jacquerie must be organized. Wait for me a minute. I shall
+be back immediately."
+
+Jocelyn thereupon called to Adam the Devil, Mazurec and William Caillet,
+who had also remained behind, took them aside and said: "Marcel calls me
+to his side. The Regent has withdrawn to Compiegne; he has declared
+Paris out of the pale of the law and is preparing to march upon the city
+at the head of the royal troops; they are waiting for him, and will give
+him a warm reception. All the communal towns, Meaux, Amiens, Laon,
+Beauvais, Noyons, Senlis are in arms. Everywhere the peasants are rising
+and the bourgeois and guild corporations are joining them. The King of
+Navarre is captain-general of Paris. The man deserves the nickname of
+'Wicked,' nevertheless he is a powerful instrument. Marcel will break
+him if he deviate from the right path and refuse to bow before the
+popular sovereignty. The hour of Gaul's enfranchisement has sounded at
+last. In order to carry the work to a successful issue, the Jacquerie
+will have to be regulated. These scattered and dispersed bands must
+gather together, must discipline their forces and form an army capable
+of coping, first with that of the Regent, and then with the English. We
+must first crush the inside foe and then the foreign one."
+
+"That is right," said Caillet, thoughtfully. "Ten scattered bands can
+not accomplish much; the ten together can. I am known in Beauvoisis. Our
+Jacques will follow me wherever I lead them. Once the seigneurs are
+exterminated, we shall fall upon the English, a vermin that gnaws at the
+little that seigneurs and their clergy leave us."
+
+"Yesterday's butcheries have opened my appetite," cried Adam the Devil,
+brandishing his scythe. "We shall mow down the English to the last man.
+Death to all oppressors!"
+
+"The crop will be fine if we mow together," replied Jocelyn. "Meaux,
+Senlis, Beauvais and Clermont are awaiting the Jacques with open arms.
+Their gates will be opened to the peasants. These will find there food
+and arms."
+
+"Iron and bread! We need no more!" put in William Caillet. "And what is
+Marcel's plan?"
+
+"These fortified cities, occupied by the Jacques and the armed
+bourgeoisie, will hold the Regent's troops in check in the provinces,"
+answered Jocelyn. "The other sections of the country are to organize
+themselves similarly. Now, listen well to Marcel's instructions. The
+King of Navarre is on our side because he expects with the support of
+the popular party to dethrone the Regent. He occupies Clermont with his
+troops. Thence he is to proceed to Paris and meet the royal army under
+the walls of the city. He needs reinforcements. Marcel mistrusts him.
+Now, then, you are to gather all the bands of Jacques into a body and
+proceed to Clermont at the head of eight thousand men. You can then join
+Charles the Wicked without fear, although he is never to be trusted. But
+as his own forces barely number two thousand foot soldiers and five
+hundred horsemen, in case of treason they would be crushed by the
+Jacques, who would out-number them four to one."
+
+"Agreed," answered William Caillet, after carefully listening to the
+champion, "and from Clermont are we to march straight to Paris?"
+
+"Upon your arrival at Clermont you will receive further instructions
+from Marcel. To overpower the nobility, dethrone the Regent and chase
+the foreigners from our soil--that is the provost's programme. When the
+campaign shall be over, the hour of Jacques Bonhomme's enfranchisement
+will have come. Delivered from the tyranny of the seigneurs and the
+pillaging of the English, free, happy and at peace, the peasant will
+then be able to enjoy the fruits of his arduous labors and will be able
+to taste without molestation the sweet pleasures of the hearth.... Yes,
+you William Caillet, you Adam the Devil, you Mazurec, and so many
+others who have been wounded in your tenderest feelings, you will have
+been the last martyrs of the seigneurs and clergy, you will be the
+liberators of your kind."
+
+"Jocelyn, whatever may now happen, vanquisher or vanquished, I can die
+in peace. My daughter is revenged!" said William Caillet. "I promise to
+lead more than ten thousand men to the walls of Clermont. The blood of
+the seigneurs and their priests who have outraged us, the conflagrations
+of their castles and churches, from which they issued to oppress us,
+will mark the route of the Jacques."
+
+"Marcel recalls me to Paris; I shall return to him; but you will meet me
+at Clermont, where I shall convey to you further instructions." And
+pressing Mazurec to his heart: "Adieu, my brother, my poor brother! We
+shall soon meet again. William, I leave him with you. Watch over the
+unfortunate lad!"
+
+"I love him as I did my daughter! She will be the topic of our
+conversation. And we shall fight like men who no longer care for life."
+
+After this exchange of adieus, Jocelyn turned back to Paris with Rufin
+the Tankard-smasher on the crupper of his horse.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+CLERMONT.
+
+
+Charles the Wicked, King of Navarre, occupied at Clermont, in the
+province of Beauvoisis, the castle of the count of the place--a vast
+edifice one of whose towers dominated the square called the "Suburb."
+The first floor of the donjon, lighted by a long ogive window, formed a
+large circular hall. There, near a table, sat Charles the Wicked. It was
+early morning. The prince asked one of his equerries:
+
+"Has the scaffold been erected?"
+
+"Yes, Sire, you can see it from this window. It is just as you ordered
+it."
+
+"What face do the bourgeois make?"
+
+"They are in consternation; all the shops are closed; the streets are
+deserted."
+
+"And the masses?... the artisans.... Are they heard to murmur?"
+
+"Sire, after yesterday's massacre, there are none more of the poorer
+class to be seen ... neither on the streets nor the squares.... The
+people are scarce."
+
+"But some must still be left."
+
+"Those that are left are in consternation and stupor like the
+bourgeois."
+
+"All the same, let my Navarrians keep sharp watch at the gates of the
+town, on the ramparts and on the streets. Let them kill on the spot any
+bourgeois, peasant or artisan who dares this morning to put his nose
+outside of his house."
+
+"The order has been given, Sire. It will be carried out."
+
+"And the chiefs of those accursed Jacques?"
+
+"They remain impassive, Sire!"
+
+"Blood of Christ! They will become livelier, and that soon.... Has a
+trevet been procured. Let the executioner hold himself ready."
+
+"Yes, Sire. Everything is prepared according to your orders."
+
+"Let everything be ready at the stroke of seven."
+
+"All shall be ready, Sire."
+
+Charles the Wicked reflected a moment, and then resumed, taking up an
+enameled medallion with his monogram that lay near him on the table:
+"Did the man arrive who was arrested at the gates last night, and who
+sent me this medallion?"
+
+"Yes, Sire. He has just been brought in unarmed and pinioned, as you
+ordered. He is kept under watch in the lower hall. What is your
+pleasure?"
+
+"Let him be brought up."
+
+The equerry stepped out. Charles the Wicked rose, and approached the
+window that opened upon the square where the scaffold was erected. After
+throwing it partly open so as to be able to look out, he reclosed it and
+returned to his seat near the table, his lips contracted with a sinister
+smile. He had barely sat down again when the equerry returned preceding
+the archers in the middle of whom walked Jocelyn the Champion with his
+hands bound behind his back and his face inflamed with anger. The prince
+made a sign to the equerry, who thereupon withdrew with the Navarrians,
+leaving Charles the Wicked and Jocelyn alone, the latter, however, still
+pinioned.
+
+"Sire, I am the victim either of a mistake or of unworthy treason!"
+cried Jocelyn. "For the sake of your honor, I hope it is a mistake....
+Order me to be unbound."
+
+"There is no mistake in the case."
+
+"Then it is treason! To disarm me! To pinion me!... Me, the carrier of
+the medallion that I sent to you together with a letter that I brought
+to you from Master Marcel! That is treason, Sire! Disgraceful felony!"
+
+"There is in all this neither mistake nor felony. A truce with your
+imprudent words!"
+
+"What else is it?"
+
+"A simple measure of prudence," coolly answered Charles the Wicked; "you
+signed the letter 'Jocelyn the Champion'.... Is that your name and
+profession?'
+
+"Yes, Sire; I am a defender of the oppressed."
+
+"Did Marcel send you to me?"
+
+"I told you so, and proved it by forwarding the medallion. What do you
+want of me? Ask; I shall answer."
+
+"What is the purpose of your message?"
+
+"You shall know it when you will have set me free of my bonds."
+
+"The bonds do not tie your tongue ... seems to me! You can answer very
+well as you are."
+
+"You ignore my character of ambassador! I have come in that capacity."
+
+"That's subtle ... but be careful; the minutes are precious; your
+message is certainly important.... Its success may be endangered by a
+prolonged silence."
+
+"Sire, I came to you, if not as a friend, still as an ally. You treat me
+like an enemy. Master Marcel will be thankful for my reserve----"
+
+"Very well," said Charles the Wicked, ringing a bell. The call was
+forthwith answered by the equerry. "Let this man be taken outside of the
+town, and the gates closed after him. Do not allow him in again."
+
+After a brief struggle with himself, Jocelyn resumed: "However
+outrageous be the reception you give an envoy of Marcel, I shall speak
+and fulfill my mission."
+
+At another sign from the King of Navarre, the equerry stepped out again
+and the former said to Jocelyn: "What is your message?"
+
+"Master Marcel charged me to say to you, Sire, that it was time to open
+the campaign; the Regent's army is marching upon Paris; all the vassals
+are up in arms; numerous troops of Jacques must be approaching Clermont
+to join you. Indeed, I am astonished at not having met any Jacques."
+
+"By what gate did you enter Clermont? From what side did you cross the
+walls?"
+
+"By the gate of the Paris road. It was dark when I arrived and sent you
+one of the archers who arrested me."
+
+"You spoke with no soldier?"
+
+"I was locked up alone in one of the turrets of the rampart. I could
+speak with nobody. I communicated only with your archers."
+
+"Proceed ... with your message."
+
+"Marcel wishes to know what your plan of campaign will be when your
+troops have been reinforced by eight or ten thousand Jacques, who,
+according to our information, may any time arrive in Clermont."
+
+"We shall speak about that presently.... First tell me what the public
+sentiment is in Paris. Are more rebellions feared?"
+
+"The adversaries of Marcel and partisans of the Regent are very active.
+They seek to mislead the population by imputing to the revolt all the
+ills that the city suffers from. Royal troops seized Etamps and Corbeil
+to prevent the arrival of grains in Paris and starve out the city.
+Marcel took the field with the bourgeois militia, and after a murderous
+conflict he threw the royalists back and secured the subsistence of
+Paris. But the provost's adversaries are redoubling their underhand
+manoeuvres with a view to bring a portion of the bourgeoisie back to the
+Regent. The people, more accustomed to privations, are easily resigned;
+full of hope in the future that is to bring them deliverance, they
+weaken neither in energy nor in devotion to Marcel, especially since the
+tidings of the revolts of the Jacques reached Paris. The vassals of the
+whole valley of Montmorency are now in revolt ..."; but suddenly
+breaking off, Jocelyn said: "Sire, order these bonds to be removed from
+my hands; they are a disgrace to me and to you.... You treat me like a
+prisoner!"
+
+"You were saying that the Regent's partisans are active? Is not Maillart
+among the leaders in that movement?"
+
+"No ... at least not openly. The avowed leaders of the court party are
+all nobles; among them is the knight of Charny and the knight James of
+Pontoise. Prompt and resolute action is necessary. Your chances of
+reigning over Gaul are excellent if you come to the help of the
+Parisians, take the field against the forces of the Regent, and utilize,
+as Master Marcel suggests, the powerful aid offered by the Jacquerie.
+Next to the clergy and the seigneurs, there are no more implacable
+enemies of the peasants than the English. Marcel's purpose in
+encouraging the insurrections of the Jacques and organizing their bands
+is above all to hurl them in mass against the English in the name of the
+country that the invaders are ravaging with their predatory bands, and
+to drive them from our soil. Triumph is assured if the present
+enthusiasm of the Jacques is utilized by turning it into that sacred
+channel towards the safety and deliverance of the country. That is the
+reason, Sire, why Master Marcel has been seeking to effect the junction
+of the Jacques with the forces that you command."
+
+"Our friend Marcel," Charles the Wicked observed caustically, "made an
+excellent choice of allies for me in the revolted peasants!" saying
+which he rang the bell. The equerry entered and left after the prince
+had whispered a few words in his ear.
+
+"Sire," again remonstrated Jocelyn, "your manners are mysterious. Are
+you hatching some other plot against me? You may be frank; I am in your
+power."
+
+"There is no plot hatching," coolly answered Charles the Wicked,
+shrugging his shoulders. "I am merely taking precautions to insure the
+quiet and calmness of our interview as becomes people like ourselves."
+
+"Sire, have I perchance failed in calmness and quiet? My language is
+self-possessed."
+
+"So far ... you are right ... but presently your moderation may be put
+to a severe test ... my precautions are wise----"
+
+The entrance of two other robust equerries in the company of the
+prince's confidante interrupted his last words, and without Jocelyn,
+whose hands were tied, being able to offer any effective resistance, he
+was thrown on the floor, where, however, despite his being pinioned, he
+resented the treatment with Herculean though vain efforts to disengage
+himself from his assailants.
+
+"By God! You are a Hercules ... what athletic vigor you display! Am I
+wrong if I take precautions against the consequences of our further
+interview, despite your assurances of calmness and moderation?"
+
+Not without much difficulty the three equerries finally succeeded in
+binding Jocelyn's legs as firmly as his arms. When that was done,
+Charles the Wicked said: "Place the envoy on the settee near the window.
+He may sit up or lie down, as he chooses.... You may now go."
+
+Again alone with Jocelyn, who was writhing in impotent rage, the prince
+pursued: "Our interview can now proceed peacefully."
+
+"Oh, Charles the Wicked, every day you strive to justify your name!"
+cried Jocelyn. "My suspicions did not deceive me. You have some infamous
+act of treason to inform me of!"
+
+Nonchalantly shrugging his shoulders, the prince answered: "Vassal, if I
+did you the honor of fearing you I would have had you hanged before
+this.... If I was betraying Marcel I would be at Compiegne beside the
+Regent.... You are not hanged, and I am not at Compiegne! Let us now
+tranquilly resume the conversation that was interrupted when you were
+speaking about the Jacques.... Well, now, the Jacques did come in
+bands.... The worthy allies of your friend Marcel came----"
+
+"Here to Clermont?"
+
+"They came here ... to Clermont, in the number of eight or ten
+thousand."
+
+"Where are they?"
+
+"Oh! Oh!... Where are they?" Charles the Wicked answered back with a
+Satanic leer. "Where are they?... That is an embarrassing question, that
+is!... Since man is man it has been the despair of those who seek to
+fathom the secret of where we go ... when we leave this world.... They
+are where we all shall go!"
+
+"What is that? The Jacques?----"
+
+"They are where we all shall go.... Do you not understand me?"
+
+"Dead!?" cried Jocelyn, stupefied with terror. "Dead! Massacred! My
+God!"
+
+"Come, keep cool.... Listen to the details of the adventure ... you are
+to transmit it to your friends."
+
+"This man frightens me!" thought Jocelyn, a cold perspiration bathing
+his forehead. "Is it some trap he is laying for me?"
+
+"The Jacques came," resumed Charles the Wicked, "those wild beasts that
+pillage and burn down castles, massacre priests and seigneurs, outrage
+women, and pitilessly cut the throats of children, to the end, as these
+devils put it, of annihilating the nobility!"
+
+"Oh, God!" cried Jocelyn, sitting up, "the reprisals of Jacques Bonhomme
+lasted one day ... his martyrdom centuries!----"
+
+"Vassal!" the King of Navarre haughtily interrupted Jocelyn, "the rights
+of the conqueror over the conquered, of the seigneur over the serf, are
+absolute and from heaven!... A villein or peasant in revolt deserves
+death. It is the feudal law."
+
+The champion shivered, and looking fixedly at the King of Navarre said:
+"Charles the Wicked, you will not let me leave this place alive; you
+would be a lost man if I carried your words to Marcel!"
+
+"You will leave this place alive," coldly answered the prince, "and
+besides my words, you will report the facts to Marcel."
+
+A prey to irrepressible agony, Jocelyn fell back upon the settee and
+Charles the Wicked proceeded:
+
+"You will first of all tell Marcel that, however wily he may be, I have
+not been his dupe. The chiefs of the Jacques whom he sent to me as
+auxiliaries were expected to become my watchers, and, if need be, my
+butchers ... if I deviated from the path marked out by that insolent
+bourgeois. I was in his hands, said he to me, but an 'instrument that he
+would break if need be'.... Very well! I have broken one of Marcel's
+redoubtable instruments.... I have annihilated the Jacquerie ... and at
+this very moment my friends, Gaston Phoebus, the Count of Foix and the
+Captal of Buch are crushing in Meaux the last coils of that serpent of
+revolt that sought to rise against the nobility----"
+
+"The Jacquerie crushed! annihilated!" exclaimed Jocelyn, more and more
+beside himself. But returning to his first suspicion, he gathered voice
+to say: "Charles the Wicked, you are the most cunning man on earth ...
+you are laying some trap for me.... If the Jacques came to Clermont to
+the number of eight or ten thousand, you were not in command of
+sufficient forces to exterminate them."
+
+"Sir envoy, you are too hasty in your conclusions. Listen first, you
+will then be able to judge. I promised facts to you. Here they are.
+Yesterday, towards noon, I was apprised of the approach of the Jacques.
+The bourgeoisie of Clermont and the corporation of artisans, infected
+with the old communal leaven, went out to meet the malefactors and to
+feast them. I encouraged their plans, and while the Jacques halted in
+the valley near Clermont, three of their chiefs presented themselves at
+the drawbridge demanding to entertain me."
+
+"What were their names?"
+
+"William Caillet ... Adam the Devil ... and Mazurec the Lambkin.... I
+ordered the three Jacques chiefs to be brought to me; I received them
+with great courtesy; I touched their hands, called them my comrades and
+gave them fraternal embraces. We agreed that, obedient to Marcel's
+wishes, they should be my auxiliaries, and that we would speedily start
+on the march to Paris. In the meantime their men were to remain encamped
+in the valley. After issuing their orders to this effect, the three
+chiefs conferred with me upon the plan of campaign. So said, so done.
+The three chiefs returned to their encampment to order matters and came
+back to me. My first act then was to throw all three into prison. I knew
+that, deprived of their chiefs, the execrable bandits were half
+overcome. I then sent one of my officers, the Sire of Bigorre, to inform
+the Jacques that at the conference I had with their chiefs, they desired
+that their men should immediately begin to exercise themselves with my
+archers and cavalrymen, in order to accustom themselves to military
+manoeuvres. The Jacques tumbled into the trap, gladly accepted the
+proposition, and were formed into battalions."
+
+Noticing the indignation and rage of Jocelyn, that betrayed themselves
+through his involuntary twitchings in his bonds, Charles the Wicked
+interrupted his narrative for a moment in order to interject the remark:
+"I congratulate myself more and more upon having had you bound fast.
+Waste not your fury. It will soon have stronger matter upon which to
+expend itself.... I now proceed.... The bourgeois and artisan guilds of
+Clermont had tapped a large number of barrels to feast their friends the
+Jacques with. Their hilarity was soon complete. With loud cries the
+Jacques called for their first exercise in military marching. The Sire
+of Bigorre, an able captain, commanded the manoeuvre. He did it in such
+a way that, after a few marches and countermarches, the Jacques found
+themselves huddled and crowded together like a herd of cattle at the
+bottom of the valley, an easy mark to my archers stationed on the
+surrounding eminences, while my cavalry occupied the only two issues
+from which the fleers could escape out of the deep hollow."
+
+"You princes are experts at massacres!" cried Jocelyn, in bitter
+despair.
+
+"It was a regular slaughter of wolves," answered Charles the Wicked.
+"The Jacques, like stupid and ferocious brutes, and full of vain-glory
+at parading before the bourgeois of Clermont, put out their chests, and
+carried their staves, forks and scythes with as much pride as if they
+carried the noble arms of knighthood; they even applauded the excellent
+order of my men-at-arms who held the crests round about the hollow in
+which they were penned up. Suddenly the clarions gave a signal. The
+music greatly delighted the revolted varlets. But their delight is soon
+ended. At the clarion's first notes my archers bent their bows and a
+hail storm of murderous bolts, shot by my soldiers from above into the
+compact mass of Jacques in the hollow, decimated the bandits. A panic
+took possession of the savage herd; the brutes sought to flee by the two
+issues in the valley; but there they found themselves face to face with
+my five hundred cavalrymen, cased in iron, who, with lances, swords and
+iron maces furiously charged upon the canaille, while my archers
+continued riddling with their bolts both the flanks of the band and
+those who sought to climb up the hill.... It was a superb slaughter....
+The ground was heaped with the dead!"
+
+Jocelyn uttered a hollow groan. Charles the Wicked smiled satisfied and
+proceeded:
+
+"Nothing more cowardly can be conceived than those varlets after their
+first exaltation. Such was their fright, as told me by the Sire of
+Bigorre, that they allowed themselves to be killed like sheep; they fell
+upon their knees, bared their throats to the swords, their breasts to
+the arrows and their heads to the iron maces. In short, all those whom
+iron did not pierce were smothered under the corpses. A large number of
+bourgeois and town plebs, spectators of the slaughter, and also crowded
+down in the valley, shared the fate of their comrade Jacques Bonhomme.
+Thus with one blow I relieved myself of the peasants and of the town
+plebs together with a considerable number of communal bourgeois. I now
+hold their town in my power, and keep it. That is their affair with me.
+And, now, Sir ambassador, tell Marcel in my name no more to mix up the
+Jacques in our operations. There are now few of these ferocious beasts
+left; moreover, they are evil companions. You shall presently be freed
+of your bonds and your horse shall be returned to you. Should you doubt
+my words and wish to make sure of the facts before returning to Paris,
+go out by the side of the valley, look around, and, above all, close
+your nose ... the carcasses of those accursed Jacques are beginning to
+emit rank odors."
+
+Forgetting in his rage that he was pinioned, Jocelyn turned to rush upon
+Charles the Wicked. The prince, however, proceeded smiling as before:
+
+"Ungrateful fellow.... You would strangle me.... Yet you ignore how
+generous I have been.... I have saved the lives of the three chiefs of
+that band of raving wolves.... Do you doubt it?" he inquired, answering
+a painful sigh that escaped from the breast of Jocelyn, whose thoughts
+ran upon his brother; "you question my clemency and generosity!"
+
+"Could it be true?" cried Jocelyn, yielding to a vague hope; "did my
+brother Mazurec really escape?"
+
+"If you talk calmly instead of bellowing like a staked steer, I shall
+give you my word as a knight that you will see your brother."
+
+"Mazurec lives.... I shall see him!"
+
+"He lives.... You will see him ... upon the word of a knight. But let us
+talk sensibly. We must now consider the means by which Marcel and I can
+co-operate in the accomplishment of our common projects."
+
+"Marcel will not co-operate with the butcher of so many innocent
+victims!" cried Jocelyn. "Marcel will not ally himself with you, who
+just told me that all rebellious vassals deserve death!... The fatal
+alliance he entered into with you, compelled thereto by stress of
+circumstances, is now forever sundered. It has been a terrible lesson.
+It will enlighten the people who seek the support of princes in the
+struggle against their oppressors."
+
+"You slander Marcel's good judgment, whose political sagacity none
+appreciates more than I. That clothier is a master-man. Do you know what
+he will answer you when, back to Paris, you will have reported to him
+the carnage of the Jacquerie?"
+
+"Oh, indeed I do!"
+
+"He will say this: 'The bourgeoisie and the Jacquerie were my army; I
+expected to discipline it and to be able to say to the King of Navarre:
+"My army is superior to yours; accept my conditions; let us jointly
+march against the Regent; I promise you his crown if you consent to
+submit to the national assembly as the supreme power. If you prefer
+allying yourself with the Regent, do so. The bourgeoisie holds the
+towns, the Jacquerie the country. I do not fear you." But here is the
+Jacquerie, the bulk of my army, annihilated.' Marcel will thoughtfully
+add: 'The disaster is irreparable. I now have but one of two courses
+open: either submission to the Regent, and deliver up to him my head and
+the heads of my friends, or promote the projects of the King of Navarre,
+who has an army capable of coping with the royal forces. Accordingly,
+instead of dictating terms to the King of Navarre, I am compelled to
+accept his terms.' That is what Marcel will say."
+
+"Marcel will never betray the cause to which he has devoted his life."
+
+"So far from betraying the cause of the people, he will insure the
+execution of a part of his programme. Do you take me for fool enough to
+ignore that, inevitably--Marcel said so to me, and he spoke
+truly--inevitably, if I mount the throne, I am compelled to carry out
+the larger part of the reforms that that redresser of wrongs has been
+pushing so many years? Would not the bourgeois sooner or later rebel
+against me as they have done against the Regent if I did not grant them
+greater freedom? Marcel furthermore said to me with his usual good
+sense: 'You, Sire, who covet the crown, will see in every reform
+measure only a means to confirm you upon the throne; the Regent, on the
+contrary, considers every measure of reform as a curtailment of his
+hereditary sovereign rights.'"
+
+"Charles the Wicked, if such are your plans, if each of your words is
+not a lie or does not hide some trap, why did you massacre the Jacques?
+Why did you crush that popular uprising? Was it not bound to insure the
+freedom of Gaul and chase away the English?"
+
+"Do you take me for a simpleton? What would there be left for me to
+reign over if Gaul were entirely free? What would become of the
+nobility? No, no! Whether I like it or not, I shall be compelled to
+grant a large number of reforms that may satisfy the bourgeoisie; I
+would not resign myself to the role of a passive instrument of the
+national assembly, as Marcel proposes, but I shall want to rule jointly
+with the assembly; and I would put forth all my efforts to end the
+English war. But as to raising Jacques Bonhomme from his condition--not
+at all! If I tried it I would turn every seigneur into an enemy. Jacques
+Bonhomme shall remain Jacques Bonhomme. Who would be left to fill the
+royal treasury if I enfranchised Jacques Bonhomme? Who would there be
+left to be taxed at will? The enfranchisement of Jacques Bonhomme would
+be the end of both nobility and royalty!... Those pests of bourgeois
+franchises, that issued from the execrable communes, are themselves
+enough of a menace to the throne.... This being all understood, you will
+say to Marcel that as early as to-morrow I shall begin collecting the
+several divisions of my army, and that I shall march upon Paris, whose
+gates shall be open to me.... Finally, in order to settle this and some
+other matters, you will tell him to meet me at Saint-Ouen, where I shall
+be in the evening of the day after to-morrow."
+
+The merciless logic of Charles the Wicked only redoubled the horror that
+he inspired Jocelyn with, and the latter was about to give vent to it
+when the hour of seven was struck from afar by the parochial church of
+Clermont. With his usual smile the prince observed:
+
+"I promised you that you would see your brother.... You are about to see
+him. And I want to let you know how I discovered your relationship. I
+ordered a fellow who is all ears to be concealed in a secret closet of
+the prison of the three chiefs of the Jacquerie. He was instructed to
+spy upon the scamps. In that way he heard one of them say to his
+accomplices, that he regretted he could not see his brother Jocelyn the
+Champion and friend of Marcel once more. When I this morning received
+the letter signed 'Jocelyn,' announcing yourself as the envoy of the
+provost, I easily discovered your relationship with the Jacques."
+
+"Where is my brother? Where is that poor Mazurec? Have me carried before
+him."
+
+"You will see him! Did I not pledge you my word as a knight?... But do
+not forget to notify Marcel that I expect to see him at Saint-Ouen day
+after to-morrow evening. And may the devil take you!"
+
+The King of Navarre left the room. A few minutes after his departure the
+door was again opened and Jocelyn joyfully turned expecting to see his
+brother enter. He hoped in vain. It was one of the equerries.
+
+"Your master assured me that I would see my brother, Mazurec," said
+Jocelyn, an unaccountable feeling of anxiety creeping over him.
+
+The equerry opened the window near which the champion had been deposited
+and pointing to it said: "Look out of this window. Our Sire is faithful
+to his promise," and he withdrew, locking the door after him.
+
+Seized with a terrible presentiment, Jocelyn leaned towards the window
+as far as his bound limbs allowed him, and the following ghastly scene
+was enacted before his eyes:
+
+Below the window, about thirty feet down, is a vast square surrounded
+with houses and into which two streets run out, both of which are barred
+with strong cordons of soldiers charged to keep the inhabitants of the
+town from entering the square. At one end of the square and not far from
+Jocelyn's window rises a wide scaffold. In the middle of the scaffold
+stands a stake with a stool attached, at either side of which is a block
+on which a sharp-pointed pile is firmly fastened. Several executioners
+are busy on the scaffold. Some are attaching iron chains to the center
+stake; others are standing around a cooking-stove turning on the burning
+coals, with the help of tongs, one of those iron trevets or tripods used
+by the peasants to cook their porridge in the fire-place. The trevet
+begins to be red hot; some of the executioners engaged near the stove
+kneel down and blow upon the fire to keep up the flames.
+
+Presently, trumpets are heard approaching from the direction of one of
+the two streets; the cordon of soldiers posted at the mouth of that
+street part and allow a passage to a first squad of archers. Between
+this and the second squad, William Caillet, Adam the Devil and Mazurec
+the Lambkin are seen marching with firm tread. Mazurec is only half clad
+in an old hose of goat-skin; the two other peasants wear the ancient
+Gallic "blaude" or blouse, wooden shoes and woolen cap. It was not
+thought necessary to pinion them. Adam and Mazurec have each an arm on
+the shoulder of William Caillet, who is placed between the two. Thus
+joined in one embrace, the three men march with heads erect, intrepid
+looks and resolute carriage towards the scaffold erected for their last
+martyrdom.
+
+The archers who compose the rear-guard of the escort spread themselves
+over the place, with their bows ready and their eyes searching the
+windows of the surrounding houses. One of the lattices clicks open, and
+instantly two arrows fly and disappear through the aperture, followed by
+an agonizing cry within. The two archers immediately re-fit their bows.
+They are executing the orders they received from their chiefs. The town
+people occupying the houses around the square had been forbidden to
+appear at their windows during the execution of the three chiefs of the
+Jacquerie. The three are now at the foot of the scaffold.
+
+Gasping for breath, his face moist with cold perspiration, horrified and
+desperate at the sight of such a spectacle, Jocelyn feels his head
+swimming. He seems oppressed by a horrible nightmare. He distinguishes
+the faces; he hears the voice of Mazurec, of Adam, of Caillet exchanging
+a supreme adieu on the scaffold, while the executioners around them are
+making ready. William Caillet takes the hands of Adam and Mazurec and
+cries out in a strong voice that reaches the champion's ears:
+
+"Firm, my Jacques! Firm to the end! Adam, your wife is revenged!...
+Mazurec, our Aveline is revenged!... Our relatives and friends,
+smothered to death in the cavern of the forest of Nointel are
+avenged.... The executioners are about to torture and put us to death.
+What does it matter? Our death will not return life to the noble dames
+and seigneurs who fell under our blows in the midst of their happiness.
+They sorrowed to leave life ... not so with us, with us whose lives are
+brimful of sorrows and tears!... The Jacquerie has revenged us!... Some
+day others will finish what we began!... Firm, my Jacques! Firm to the
+end!"
+
+"Oh, Jacques Bonhomme, for so many centuries a martyr!" responded Adam
+and Mazurec in savage enthusiasm. "The Jacquerie has revenged you!...
+Others will finish what we began!... Firm, my Jacques!... Firm to the
+end!"
+
+The executioners, engaged in their last dispositions, feel no concern at
+what the three peasants may say. Their words can find no echo upon that
+deserted place. As soon as the iron trevet is at white heat, one of the
+tormentors cried: "Ready! We are ready for the job!"
+
+The archers chain the three Jacques fast to the platform of the scaffold
+and deliver them to the executioners. These seize William Caillet and
+bind him down upon the seat attached to the stake in the center of the
+two blocks with sharp-pointed piles. Mazurec and Adam are stripped of
+their clothes except their hose, their hands are tied behind their backs
+and they are led to the two blocks. One of the executioners pulls off
+the woolen cap that covers the grey-headed William Caillet, while
+another seizes with a pair of tongs the little trevet, turns it upside
+down with its feet in the air, and placing the white-hot iron on the
+skull of the aged peasant cries out: "I crown thee King of the Jacques!"
+
+Caillet bellows with the insufferable pain; his hair takes fire, the
+skin of his forehead shrivels, runs blood and rips open under the
+pressure of the incandescent iron. The axes of two other executioners
+rise over Mazurec and Adam, who are now on their knees each before one
+of the blocks.
+
+"Brother!" cries Jocelyn the Champion, overcoming the nightmare pressure
+on his chest that suffocated and extinguished his voice; "Brother!"
+
+At the heart-rending cry, Mazurec quickly raises and turns his head
+towards the window from which the cry proceeded. But that very instant
+the glint of the descending axe of the executioner flashes in Jocelyn's
+eyes; his brother's body sinks upon and his head rolls over the
+scaffold, reddening it with its blood. The champion is seized with a
+vertigo; his heart fails him; and he falls unconscious upon the floor.
+
+When Jocelyn recovered consciousness he found himself unbound and
+stretched upon a pallet of straw in a lower hall. An archer mounted
+guard over him near a lamp. It was night. Gathering his thoughts as if
+he had awakened from some troubled dream, the champion soon recalled the
+horrible reality. The archer informed him that he was found unconscious
+by the equerries of the prince in the hall of the tower, had been
+transported to that place, and, after a fit of delirium, had fallen into
+profound torpor. The archer also informed him that his horse and arms
+were to be returned to him, and that he could leave Clermont whenever he
+wished. Jocelyn requested the archer to take him to one of the officers
+of the King of Navarre, hoping to obtain permission to render a pious
+homage to Mazurec. The prince granted the request, and Jocelyn, leaving
+the castle, proceeded to the place of the execution. By the light of
+the moon he mounted the scaffold which was guarded by soldiers. The
+corpses of the three Jacques were to remain exposed during the whole of
+the next day. After his torture, William Caillet had been beheaded like
+his two companions. His head and theirs were stuck to the points of the
+piles that surmounted the blocks. Jocelyn religiously kissed the icy
+forehead of his brother Mazurec, and turning to descend the scaffold,
+his foot struck against the iron trevet which had fallen down after the
+decapitation of William Caillet.
+
+"This instrument of torture and witness of my brother's martyrdom shall
+join the relics of our family," said Jocelyn the Champion to himself,
+picking up and concealing the trevet under his cloak. He then hastened
+to his horse that was held ready at the gate of Clermont and left the
+town, hastening to rejoin Etienne Marcel in Paris.
+
+
+
+
+PART IV
+
+JOHN MAILLART
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE WAYS OF ENVY.
+
+
+About a month had elapsed since the death of William Caillet, Adam the
+Devil and Mazurec the Lambkin.
+
+Denise, the niece of Etienne Marcel and betrothed to Jocelyn the
+Champion, has retired to a large apartment over the cloth shop of the
+provost and is busy sewing by a lamp. Uneasiness is depicted on the
+sweet face of the young maid. From time to time she stays her needle and
+listens towards the window through which the confused talk and hurrying
+steps of large numbers of people on the street penetrate into the room.
+Gradually the noise on the street subsided and silence reigned again.
+These evidences of the excitement that agitated Paris greatly alarmed
+Denise.
+
+"My God!" she exclaimed. "The tumult augments. My aunt Marguerite has
+not yet returned. Where can she have gone to? Why did she borrow the
+cloak of Agnes our servant? Why the disguise? Why did she conceal her
+head under a cowl? Can she have gone to the town-hall, where my uncle
+and Jocelyn have been since morning?" At the thought of the champion,
+Denise blushed, sighed and proceeded: "Oh, should there be any danger,
+Jocelyn will watch over my uncle Marcel as he would have done over his
+own father.... But the prolonged absence of my aunt causes me mortal
+anxiety.... May God guard her...."
+
+Agnes the Bigot, the old domestic of the house, entered the room
+precipitately, and said to Denise whom she had known since her birth:
+"For the last hour I have noticed three men of sinister looks on our
+street. They never stray far from our door. I watched them through the
+lattices. Off and on they consult in a low voice and then separate
+again. One of them has now planted himself on the left, the second to
+the right of the door, and the third opposite.... They must have been
+sent to spy upon the people who enter and leave the house."
+
+"Such spyings seem to me ominous; I shall notify my aunt as soon as she
+returns."
+
+"I think this is she," answered the servant. "I heard the shop door open
+and close; that must be madam."
+
+Indeed Marguerite Marcel soon entered the room. She threw far from her a
+cowled cloak that she had on, and said to Agnes: "Leave us."
+
+The provost's wife threw herself into a chair; she was exhausted with
+fatigue and emotion. Her dejection, the pallor of her visage and the
+visible palpitation of her bosom redoubled the fears of Denise who was
+about to interrogate her aunt, when the latter, making an effort over
+herself suppressed her agitation and said to Denise collectively:
+
+"Courage, my child; courage!"
+
+"Oh, heaven!... Aunt ... have we any new misfortune to deplore? What has
+happened now?"
+
+"No ... not at present; but to-morrow; perhaps this very evening."
+Marguerite stopped short for a moment, and then proceeded with still
+greater calmness and decision: "I paid a tribute to weakness; I now feel
+strong again; I am now prepared for the worst.... I shall at least know
+by resignation how to rise to the height of the man whose name I bear!
+Oh, never was an honorable man more unworthily misunderstood, or
+attacked in more cowardly fashion!"
+
+"Then Master Marcel is exposed to new perils?"
+
+"My presentiments did not deceive me. What I have just learned by myself
+confirms them. A plot is hatching against Marcel and his partisans.
+Perhaps his own life and the lives of his friends are at stake. Let the
+worst come! At the hour of danger Marcel will do his duty and I mine....
+I shall stand by my husband unto death."
+
+Marguerite pronounced these last words in an accent of such mournful
+determination that a cry of astonishment and fright escaped from Denise.
+
+"My resolution astonishes you, poor child!" resumed Marcel's wife.
+"To-day you see me full of courage! And yet last year ... even as late
+as yesterday ... I admitted to you my agony and the fears that every day
+beset me at the mere thought of the dangers that my husband ran. I then
+minded only his fatigue, I then only objected to the overwhelming labors
+that barely left him two hours of rest a night, I then looked back
+regretfully to the days when, a stranger to political affairs, he busied
+himself only with the affairs of our own cloth business. Our then
+obscurity at least saved us the sad spectacle of the hatreds and the
+envy that have since been unchained against Marcel's glory and
+popularity."
+
+"Oh, aunt, you speak truly! Do you remember that wicked and envious
+Petronille Maillart? Thank God she never came back since the day of the
+funeral of Perrin Mace! We have been spared her presence!"
+
+"I now have no doubt that her husband is one of the leaders in the plot
+that is hatching against Marcel."
+
+"Master Maillart!... Uncle's childhood friend! He who only the other day
+was so loudly protesting his affection for him!"
+
+"Maillart is a weak man; he yields to his wife's influence over him, and
+she is consumed with envy. She envied in me the wife of the man whom
+the idolizing people called the King of Paris. In those days I would
+have sacrificed Marcel's glory to his repose ... his genius to his
+safety! The slightest popular commotion made me fear for him.... I was
+then weak and cowardly.... But to-day, when he is pursued by hatred,
+ingratitude and iniquity, I feel strong, brave and withal proud of being
+the wife of that great citizen. I feel capable of proving to him my
+devotion unto death."
+
+"Oh, may heaven prevent that your devotion be put to so terrible a test!
+But how did you learn about the plot?"
+
+"I determined this evening to put an end to my suspense, and to
+ascertain the actual facts regarding the popular sentiment towards
+Marcel. I wrapped myself in that mantle to prevent being discovered, and
+moved among numerous groups that gathered in our quarter."
+
+"I now understand it all. And you learned directly...."
+
+"Things that cause me to foresee an imminent and fearful crisis. The
+life of Marcel is in great danger."
+
+"Good God! May you not be mistaken?"
+
+"No! The privations, the sufferings and the ills that follow in the wake
+of the painful conquest of freedom are laid to Marcel's door. My husband
+is at once attacked by the emissaries of the court party and by those of
+the party of Maillart. These emissaries circulate among the poor people,
+who, credulous of evil as well as of good, are fickle in their
+affections, and whimsical in their hatred. It is harped upon to them
+that all the evils of these days would have been avoided if Councilman
+Maillart, 'the true friend of the people,' had been listened to; others
+preach prompt submission to the Regent as the only means to a speedy end
+of our public disasters. 'What does the Regent, after all, demand,' ask
+his backers, 'What does he exact in return for his pardon? Only eight
+hundred thousand gold pieces for the ransom of King John and the heads
+of the leaders of the revolt and of its principal partisans! Would it be
+paying too dearly with a little shame, a little gold and a little blood
+for the peace of the city?'"
+
+"Great God!" cried Denise, pale and trembling, "who are the leaders of
+the revolt whose heads the Regent demands?"
+
+"They are Marcel ... my son ... our best friends ... all honorable
+people, devoted to the public weal, adversaries of oppression and
+iniquity ... uncompromising enemies of the English, who are ravaging our
+unhappy land, and who would have put Paris to fire and sword were not
+Paris protected by the fortifications that it owes to Marcel's foresight
+and zeal! The people to-day seem to have forgotten the services that my
+husband has rendered the city; they seem to have forgotten that they owe
+to Marcel the reforms that have been imposed upon the Regent and which
+guarantee them against rapine and violence from the side of the court."
+
+"Can it be possible that the people are guilty of such ingratitude
+against Master Marcel?"
+
+"My husband's soul is too large, his spirit too just to have been swayed
+in his public acts by expectations of gratitude. How often has he not
+said to me: 'Let us do what is right and just, such acts are their own
+reward.' Marcel is prepared for any emergency. Nevertheless, thinking
+that my observations might be of benefit to him, I stepped into the
+house of our friend Simon the Feather-dealer who lives not far from the
+town-hall, and I wrote to my husband what I had seen and heard. My
+letter was carried to him by a trusty man----" but observing that the
+tears that Denise had long been suppressing now inundated her face,
+Marguerite interrupted her report, inquiring tenderly: "Why do you weep,
+dear Denise?"
+
+"Oh, aunt! I have neither your strength nor your courage.... The thought
+of the dangers that threaten Master Marcel ... and our friends ...
+overwhelm me with fear!"
+
+"Poor child! You are thinking of Jocelyn, your lover? He is a true
+friend of ours."
+
+"Should there be a riot or a fight, he will rush into the thickest ...
+to save Marcel."
+
+"I regret, for the sake of your happiness, dear child, that I ever
+called you to Paris. Had you not come, you would now be living
+peacefully at Vaucouleurs, away from this center of trouble and strife."
+
+At this instant Agnes the Bigot re-entered, preceding a person whom she
+announced, saying: "Dame Maillart has come, she assures me, in order to
+render you a great service. She wishes to speak to you without delay."
+
+"I do not wish to see her!" cried Marguerite, impatiently. "I detest the
+sight of that woman. I refuse to receive her!"
+
+"Madam, she says she came to render you a great service," answered the
+servant, sorry for having involuntarily crossed her mistress' wishes. "I
+thought I was doing right to allow her to come up; it is now
+unfortunately too late----"
+
+Indeed, Petronille Maillart appeared at that moment at the door of the
+room. Triumphant and barely controlled hatred betrayed itself in the
+looks that the councilman's wife cast upon Marguerite. But assuming a
+mild and kind voice she approached the object of her envy.
+
+"Good evening, Dame Marcel; good evening, poor Dame Marcel."
+
+"This affectation of sympathy conceals some odious perfidy," thought
+Denise, whose face was still wet with tears. "I do not like to afford
+this wicked woman the spectacle of my sorrow."
+
+The young maid left the room, together with the servant. Alone with the
+councilman's wife, Marguerite addressed her dryly:
+
+"I am greatly astonished to see you here, madam; our friendly relations
+must cease."
+
+"I understand your astonishment, poor Dame Marguerite, seeing we have
+not met since the day of the funeral of Perrin Mace. Oh, Master Marcel's
+popularity was then immense; people called him then the King of Paris
+... they swore by him ... he was looked upon as the saviour of the
+city----"
+
+"Madam, I beg you to speak less of the past and more of the present....
+Make your visit short. What do you want of me?"
+
+"First of all to beg you to forget the little quarrel we two had on the
+day of the funeral of Perrin Mace. Next I come to render a great service
+to poor Master Marcel."
+
+"My husband excites nobody's pity ... he does not need your services."
+
+"Alack! I wish I could leave you in that error, Dame Marguerite. But I
+must tell you the truth, and inform you, seeing you are not aware of it,
+that you no longer are the 'Queen of Paris' as you were in the days when
+Master Marcel was the King. Even at the risk of wounding your legitimate
+pride, I must add against my will that your husband's position has
+become desperate.... I feel distressed at the sorrow that overwhelms
+you----"
+
+"Your excellent heart is unnecessarily alarmed, Dame Petronille. Do not
+mind my sorrow."
+
+"Unfortunately, however, I am certain of what I say."
+
+"Madame, I greatly mistrust both your protestations and your
+confidences."
+
+"You do not seem to be informed on what is transpiring in Paris."
+
+"I know that there are wicked and envious people in Paris."
+
+"I know you too well, Dame Marguerite, to imagine that a wise and
+discreet person like yourself would reproach me with being envious----"
+
+"Indeed, I would not venture, madam.... I would indeed not venture----"
+
+"And you would be right. What is there in your present fate to be
+envied. A storm is beating down upon you."
+
+"Envious people do not need much to be envious about. They envy even
+the calmness and courage derived from a clean conscience, when
+misfortune is on!"
+
+"You admit it?... Misfortune has come upon you and your husband?" cried
+the councilman's wife triumphantly, and for a moment forgetting her role
+of hypocrite. But recalling herself, she added cajolingly: "The avowal
+at least makes me hope that you will accept the services of my husband."
+
+Realizing the gravity of the last words of the councilman's wife,
+Marguerite fixed a penetrating look upon her and answered:
+
+"Did Master Maillart send you to offer his services to my husband?
+Whence such solicitude?"
+
+"Have the two not been friends since their childhood? Is the friendship
+of youth ever forgotten? You have earned our affection."
+
+"It is so at least with generous hearts. But if Master Maillart wishes
+to render a service to my husband, why should he send you, madam? Does
+he not meet Marcel daily at the town-hall?"
+
+"Since last evening, neither Maillart nor any of his friends have set
+foot at the town-hall ... and for good reasons. And for another reason
+he would not set foot here. That is why he has commissioned me to come
+and offer you his advice and services."
+
+"What does he advise ... what are his services?"
+
+"Maillart advises your husband to secretly leave Paris this very night."
+
+"We now know the advice; it implies a great resolution.... As to the
+service ... what is it?"
+
+"My husband offers to favor Marcel's flight if you adopt his advice."
+
+"And how?"
+
+"Maillart will send a trusty man to your house towards midnight. He
+shall accompany your husband. He is to wrap himself up well so as not to
+be recognized, and confidently follow our emissary, who is charged to
+see him safely off.... But your husband must be absolutely alone,
+otherwise our emissary will refuse to conduct him."
+
+"It seems to me that in his eagerness to advise and serve, Master
+Maillart forgets that Marcel and the town council--the governors, as
+they are called--are still masters of Paris. The captains of tens and
+the guards at the gates still obey them. If it should happen--a thing
+that I consider impossible--that my husband should contemplate quitting
+his post at the moment of danger, he would take horse with some of his
+friends, and would order whatever gate of Paris he chose to be
+opened.... He has the right and the power to do so."
+
+"You would be right if Master Marcel's orders would be obeyed, if these
+were still the days when, lording it over all Paris, he had the first
+place at all ceremonies.... But the times have changed, good Dame
+Marguerite. At this very hour in which I am speaking to you, your
+husband's authority is about to be ignored. If he tried to order one of
+the gates of Paris to be opened, his action would confirm the rumors
+concerning his treason. People would cry: 'Hold the traitor! Death to
+the traitor!' A hundred avenging arms would rise, and Master Marcel
+would fall under their blows dead, disfigured, bleeding, butchered!...
+His body would be torn to pieces.... That would then be his fate!"
+
+"Enough! Enough!" stammered Marguerite, shivering and hiding her face in
+her hands. "This is horrible. Hold your tongue!"
+
+"Would not such a death be awful, dear Dame Marguerite? Therefore, in
+order to save his friends from such a fate, my husband charged me to
+come and offer you his services."
+
+Despite the poor opinion in which she held Maillart and his wife, whose
+envy she was aware of, Marguerite did not imagine that the proposition
+of the councilman, one of Marcel's oldest friends and, like himself, of
+the popular party, could conceal a trap or a snare. Marguerite even took
+it for a token of sincere pity, easily supposable from the part of
+envious people at the moment of their triumph over a rival. Moreover,
+did not the state of public opinion in Paris, on which Marguerite had
+that very evening sought to assure herself, but too well confirm the
+words of the councilman's wife on the subject of Marcel's increasing
+unpopularity? On the other hand, Marguerite was too well acquainted with
+her husband's force of character and his energy not to feel assured
+that, unless he was reduced to utter extremities, he never would decide
+to leave Paris as a fugitive. Nevertheless, the hour of that terrible
+extremity might arrive. In that case Maillart's offer was not to be
+despised. These thoughts rapidly flashed through Marguerite's mind. She
+remained pensive and silent for a moment, while the councilman's wife
+observed her closely and anxiously awaited her answer.
+
+"Dame Maillart," finally answered Marguerite, "I wish to believe, I
+believe in the generous impulses that dictated the tender of services
+that you have just made me in the name of your husband."
+
+"Then, it is understood?" said the councilman's wife, with an eagerness
+that should have excited Marguerite's suspicion. "The emissary will be
+here at midnight. Let your husband follow him without taking any
+companion.... He must have no escort.... That is understood."
+
+"Allow me, Dame Petronille. I can not go so far as to accept your offer
+in my husband's name. He alone is the judge of his conduct. He gave me
+reasons to believe that he would be here this evening to take a few
+hours' rest. If my expectations prove true, I shall soon see him.... I
+shall notify him of Master Maillart's proposition. Ask your husband to
+send his emissary here at midnight. My husband will decide."
+
+"He should not hesitate a moment. Believe me, poor Dame Marguerite, you
+must exert your whole influence upon your husband, and decide him to
+avail himself of the one opportunity of escape left to him. He is in
+great danger."
+
+At this juncture Denise entered the room affecting great hurry and said:
+"Aunt, Dame Alison wishes to see you privately; she has no time to
+wait." To these words Denise added a significant gesture conveying to
+Marguerite the hint to seize the opportunity for putting an end to the
+visit of the detested Dame Petronille.
+
+Marguerite understood the thoughts of her niece, and said to the
+councilman's wife: "Please excuse me, there is a visitor I must
+receive."
+
+"Adieu, good Dame Marcel," said the councilman's wife, taking a step
+towards the door. "Fail not to remember my advice.... We must know how
+to resign ourselves to what can not be prevented.... The days follow,
+but do not resemble each other.... For the rest you understand me. Good
+evening, dear Dame Marguerite, I wish you happier days. May God preserve
+you and yours!"
+
+As always, not envy here followed hatred, but hatred envy. Born of the
+rankling enviousness that the unworthy entertain for the worthy,
+Petronille Maillart was consumed with malevolent hatred for the man and
+woman whose ruin she was plotting. Casting upon Marguerite the furtive
+look of a viper, Dame Petronille took her leave.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+LAST DAY AT HOME.
+
+
+The handsome tavern-keeper, who now entered in response to the summons
+of Denise, looked neat and prim as ever. Her beautiful black eyes, her
+white teeth, her comely shape, above all her golden heart--all justified
+the partiality of the student Rufin for this amiable and honorable woman
+to the total eclipse of Margot. Finally, thanks to Jocelyn, Alison had
+not only saved her honor from the clutches of Captain Griffith, but also
+quite a round sum of gold, sewed in her skirt, from the rapacity of the
+English. Jocelyn the Champion, once Alison's defender against Simon the
+Hirsute and later her liberator, when exposed to the libertinage of the
+bastard of Norfolk, had inspired her with sentiments more tender than
+merely those of gratitude. Nevertheless, apprized of the engagement of
+Denise and Jocelyn, the young woman struggled bravely against the
+promptings of her heart, and seeking to free her mind from the
+affectionate thoughts that crowded upon her, had found pleasure in
+observing that, despite his turbulence, Rufin the Tankard-smasher lacked
+neither devotion, nor heart, nor brightness, nor yet external
+attractions. Thus, since the day when, fleeing from the horrors of the
+war that desolated Beauvoisis, she had taken refuge in Paris near the
+family of the provost to whom she had been recommended by Jocelyn,
+Alison often met the student in her little lodgings at the inn where she
+housed, and it often occurred to her that, despite his name, which
+sounded particularly unpleasant in a tavern-keeper's ear, Rufin the
+Tankard-smasher might after all not make a bad husband. Moreover, her
+vanity was not a little flattered by the hope of herself opening a
+tavern, whose principal customers would be the students of the
+University of Paris. Received with kindness by Marguerite and Denise,
+Alison entertained for both a deep sense of gratitude. On this evening
+she had hastened to Marcel's house in the hope of being of service to
+them. Observing the signs of uneasiness depicted on the tavern-keeper's
+face, Marguerite said to her affectionately, taking her hands:
+
+"Good evening, dear Alison ... you look alarmed.... Tell us the cause of
+your trouble."
+
+"Oh, Dame Marguerite! I have but too much reason for being alarmed, if
+not for myself, yet for you"; and interrupting herself she added: "First
+of all, and so as not to forget the circumstance, I must warn you that
+coming in I saw three men enveloped in cloaks who seem to be in hiding
+on some ambuscade. These men seem to have evil intents."
+
+"Agnes, our servant, also noticed them," said Denise; "we are
+forewarned."
+
+"They are no doubt spies," replied Marguerite. "But Marcel need not fear
+the consequences of being spied upon. Whatever he does is in the public
+interest, and none of his acts need concealment. Nevertheless, seeing
+that hatred now dogs his steps ... the information may be useful."
+
+"It is distressing to me, Dame Marguerite, to bring what may be bad news
+to you, who received me so kindly upon my arrival from Beauvoisis."
+
+"Our friend Jocelyn recommended you to us; he informed us of your
+misfortunes and of your tender care of that ill-starred Aveline. Our
+good wishes in your behalf were but natural. But what is the matter?"
+
+"This evening I was looking out of the window of my room at the tumult
+of the people in the street, because you must know there is an unusual
+agitation this evening on the streets of Paris, when a young man all out
+of breath, handed me this note from Rufin the Tankard-smasher."
+
+Alison drew from her corsage a slip of paper which she passed to
+Marguerite, who nervously seizing it began to read it aloud:
+
+"As true as Venus in her Olympian beauty...."
+
+"Skip that, skip that, Dame Marguerite! Begin at the fourth or fifth
+line," said Alison, blushing and smiling at once. "Those are but
+flourishes that Master Rufin amuses himself with. Lose no more time over
+them than I did myself.... That worthy fellow should have abstained from
+his roguishness when writing upon such serious subjects."
+
+After having run her eyes over the first lines of the epistle, during
+which the student displayed his amorous and mythological vein,
+Marguerite arrived at the essential portion of the missive:
+
+" ... Hurry to the house of Master Marcel; if he is not at home, tell
+his honored wife to have him warned not to leave the town-hall without a
+strong escort. I am on the track of a plot against him. So soon as I
+shall have positive proofs I shall go either to Master Marcel's house,
+or to the town-hall to inform him of my discovery. Above all, let him be
+on his guard against Councilman Maillart. He has no more mortal enemy.
+He ought to order his arrest on the spot ... just as I would on the spot
+have your heart for my prison whose turnkey is the gentle bantling
+Cupid."
+
+"Skip all that also, Dame Marguerite; those are some more flourishes.
+There is nothing more of importance. I am not a little surprised at
+seeing master student mix up folly with serious matter in that manner."
+
+"Serious, indeed! Very serious!... This letter increases my
+apprehensions," answered Marguerite, trembling; and recalling her recent
+conversation with the councilman's wife, she thought to herself: "Could
+the councilman's offer be a snare?... And still I can not yet accept the
+existence of quite so horrible a plot!"
+
+"My God!" cried Denise bitterly, "and yet uncle, despite all our
+presentiments, always answers us when we mention to him our suspicions
+regarding Maillart: 'He is not a bad sort of a man; only he is wholly
+under the influence of his wife, who is devoured with vanity. Do not
+judge him unjustly.'"
+
+"Dear Alison," rejoined Marguerite after a few moments' reflection, "did
+you question the messenger who brought you the letter?"
+
+"Indeed, madam ... I asked where he had left Master Rufin."
+
+"What answer did he make?"
+
+"That the student was in a tavern near the arcade of St. Nicholas when
+he handed him the letter."
+
+As Alison was uttering the last words, two men wrapped to the eyes in
+cloaks entered the room. Marguerite immediately recognized her husband
+and Jocelyn the Champion. As they were throwing off their wraps,
+Marguerite cried: "At last, here you are!" and unable longer to control
+her emotions, she threw her arms around Marcel's neck, while Denise gave
+her hand to her lover, who respectfully took it to his lips. Under his
+armor Jocelyn wore a black jacket, a piece of clothing that he had
+assumed since the day that he witnessed the execution of Mazurec the
+Lambkin. Sad and pale, the face of Jocelyn betokened the grief that
+beset his mind. After tenderly embracing Marcel, who effusively returned
+her caresses, Marguerite said, delivering to him Rufin the
+Tankard-smasher's letter:
+
+"My friend, take notice of what this latter contains; our good Alison
+just brought it to me in great haste."
+
+Marcel read the letter in a low voice in the midst of the profound
+silence of all present, while Marguerite, his niece and Alison
+attentively watched his face. He remained calm throughout. He even
+smiled at the mythological flourishes of the student. When he had
+finished the letter he returned it to Alison, saying kindly:
+
+"I thank you for your anxiety to bring me the missive, Dame Alison; our
+friend Rufin is wrongly alarmed."
+
+"Nevertheless, my friend," put in Marguerite with intense seriousness,
+"what about the plot that the student mentions, and on the track of
+which he says he is?"
+
+"Rufin must have exaggerated to himself the importance of some
+insignificant fact, my dear Marguerite."
+
+"But ... did you notice what he said about Maillart?"
+
+"Last evening Maillart affectionately shook me by the hand when leaving
+the town-hall after a discussion in which his opinion differed from
+mine. 'Men,' said he to me, 'may differ, but the bonds of old friendship
+are indissoluble,' he added."
+
+Jocelyn confirmed the episode, but Marguerite insisted, the disclosures
+of the student having gone far to confirm her suspicions against the
+councilman. "Marcel," said the alarmed wife, "Maillart's wife was here
+this evening ... she came to propose a place of refuge for you in case
+of danger----"
+
+"The generous offer does not surprise me."
+
+"A man is to come here this midnight ... you are to follow him alone ...
+well wrapt in your mantle," said Marguerite with emphasis. "Alone ... do
+you hear, Marcel?... and he is to conduct you to a place whence you
+shall be able to flee without danger."
+
+"This is too much kindness," Marcel answered with a smile. "I am
+grateful for the offer; I do not think of fleeing, that is certain....
+We never have been so near the triumph."
+
+"What!" cried Marguerite encouraged by new hope. "Is that true? And yet,
+why all this commotion.... Why this tumult in Paris ... why these
+alarming rumors?" And her apprehensions that for an instant had been
+allayed by the reassuring words of her husband, again regaining the
+upperhand, she proceeded sadly: "The precaution that you as well as
+Jocelyn took of enveloping yourselves in these cloaks, no doubt for the
+purpose of not being recognized on the street--all these things
+contribute to make me fear that you are deceiving yourself ... or that
+out of consideration for me, you are concealing the true state of
+things."
+
+"Aunt forgot to tell you that three men seem to have been watching our
+house all evening," said Denise, and it did not escape her that Jocelyn
+seemed struck by the circumstance.
+
+"And I also," observed Alison, "noticed at entering that there seemed to
+be three spies near the house. Their presence is strange."
+
+"My friend," said Marguerite, seeking to detect from her husband's face
+whether his feeling of safety was real or assumed, "I sent you this
+evening a note that I wrote to you at our friend's, Simon the
+Feather-dealer. I there informed you of my impressions on my personal
+observations, and urged you to take precautionary measures."
+
+"I received your letter, my dear wife," said Marcel, tenderly taking
+Marguerite's hands. "You trust me, do you not?... Very well; believe me
+when I assert that your fears are unfounded. Better than anybody else do
+I know what is going on in Paris this evening. Are our enemies active? I
+let them talk, certain that I shall lead my work to a happy issue, as my
+device proclaims. For the rest, is not my presence here the best proof
+of my confidence in the situation? Upon receipt of your letter I decided
+to leave the town-hall for a moment in order to come and calm your
+fears, to comfort you, and also to beg of you not to alarm yourself if
+it should happen that I do not return home all day to-morrow....
+To-morrow grave matters will be decided. And to sum up," Marcel
+proceeded, cheerfully, "as I mean to overthrow all your objections, you
+dear, timid soul, I shall add that it was partly due to my modesty that
+I enveloped myself in that cloak. I meant to reach here and return
+without being stopped twenty times on the street by the cheers of the
+people. Despite the envy and hatred of some of the bourgeois partisans
+of the Regent, Marcel continues to be loved by the people of Paris."
+
+"And you would not doubt it, Dame Marguerite," added Jocelyn, "if you
+had heard, as I did, the addresses delivered to-day by the trades
+guilds, all of which came to pledge their loyalty to Master Marcel."
+
+Jocelyn's words, the cheerful and serene physiognomy of the provost and
+the tone of conviction that marked his words, somewhat allayed the
+fears of Marguerite and Denise, the latter of whom said to Marcel: "Your
+presence suffices to encourage us, dear uncle, just as the sight of the
+physician sometimes suffices to allay the pains of a patient."
+
+"My worthy Jocelyn," Marcel said, cheerfully, turning to the champion,
+"that applies to you as much as to me ... you happy and beloved lover!"
+
+"Dear Denise," said the champion to the blushing maid, "the mourning for
+my poor brother has put off our marriage.... I do not very much regret
+the circumstance when I consider that in these days of turmoil I could
+not have devoted all my time to you. But believe Master Marcel; better
+days are approaching. Need I tell you that they are the subject of my
+ardent wishes, seeing that they will witness our union?"
+
+"Dame Alison," cordially put in Marcel, "since marriage is the topic of
+the conversation, take pity on the amorous martyrdom of poor Rufin....
+He is a good and loyal heart, despite some transports of youth that
+earned for him the nickname of 'Tankard-smasher.' I feel quite sure that
+the wholesome influence of a kind and honorable woman like yourself
+would make an excellent husband of him. It would be a double pleasure to
+me to see you and Rufin, Denise and Jocelyn, approach the altar the same
+day. What say you?"
+
+"That needs thinking over," answered Alison, meditatively. "That needs
+much thinking over, Master Marcel. For the rest," she proceeded, with a
+blush and a sigh, "I say neither 'yes' nor 'no'.... I wish to consult
+Dame Marguerite."
+
+"Rufin's prospects are good," rejoined the provost. "The woman who says
+not nay ever has a strong wish to say aye."
+
+"Marcel would not be so cheerful and jovial did he actually believe
+himself and his partisans on the eve of grave dangers," thought
+Marguerite, now more and more reassured by the turn of gaiety her
+husband's words had taken. "I must have attached exaggerated importance
+to what I heard this evening. My husband is right. Even when his
+popularity is strongest, calumny pursues him. Maillart may be yielding
+simultaneously both to envy and the more generous feelings prompted by
+old friendship. He may believe in the loss of popularity by Marcel and
+enjoy the idea, and yet wish to save him. That wicked Petronille has
+merely thrown poison into an offer that, in itself, is honorable. If it
+were otherwise, Maillart would be the vilest of men, and that I am not
+ready to believe. Such a degree of perversity would exceed the bounds of
+possibility----"
+
+"Denise," said the provost, kissing his niece on the forehead, "order a
+lamp to be taken into my cabinet. I have some documents to finish."
+Turning to his wife, whom he also kissed on the forehead: "I shall see
+you again before I leave," and taking Jocelyn by the arm: "Come, we have
+work to attend to."
+
+Denise hastened to carry a lamp into Marcel's cabinet, where she left
+her uncle and her lover closeted together.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+DARKENING SHADOWS.
+
+
+Once alone in his cabinet with Jocelyn, Marcel sank into profound
+pensiveness. The cheerful serenity that had pervaded his bearing during
+the conversation with his wife was now replaced by an expression of
+melancholic seriousness. For a few minutes he contemplated in silence
+his studious retreat, the witness of the meditations of his riper years.
+Finally, leaning over a large table that was strewn with parchments, he
+emitted a sigh and said to Jocelyn:
+
+"How many nights have I not spent here, elaborating by the light of this
+little lamp the plans of reform that some day, hap now what hap may,
+will be the solid basis for the emancipation of our people, the
+evangelium of the rights of the citizen!... Here have been spent the
+happiest, the most beautiful days of my life!... What a pure joy did I
+not then taste!... Sustained by my ardent love for justice and right,
+and enlightened by the lessons of the past, I soared upward to the
+sublimest theories of freedom!... I then was ignorant of the deceptions,
+the evils, the delays, the struggles, the storms that the practice and
+application of truth inevitably engender!... I then saw truth in its
+radiant simplicity!... I did not then reckon with human passions!... But
+that matters not!... Truth is absolute.... Sooner or later it imposes
+itself upon humanity that ever is on the march, progresses and improves
+itself...."
+
+Jocelyn listened to Marcel in mute reverence. He now beheld that
+illustrious man wrapt with pensive brow in ever deeper meditation. A few
+instants later, Marcel stepped towards an oaken trunk that age had
+blackened. He opened it, took out several rolls of parchment, lay them
+on the table, pushed a stool near and sat down to write. His virile and
+characterful face betrayed by degrees increasing sadness, and, to
+Jocelyn's surprise several tears dropped from the provost's eyes upon
+the lines that he was writing. Tears from so great a man, from a man of
+such energy, endowed with ancient stoicism, profoundly impressed the
+champion. Jocelyn's heart ached, and he began to suspect Marcel's
+motives for the affectation of safety that he had shortly before
+displayed before his family. Jocelyn saw him dry his tears and seal the
+parchment with black wax, using for that purpose the impress of a large
+gold ring that he wore on his finger, after which, placing the scroll
+together with the others that he had taken from the trunk, he made one
+package of all, sealed them together and replaced them in the trunk. He
+then locked it, and giving the key to Jocelyn, said to him deliberately:
+
+"Keep this key safe.... I charge you to deliver it to my wife and to
+tell her, in case certain events should happen, that she will find in
+that trunk, together with my testament and some other papers that it is
+well to keep, a letter for herself ... written by me this evening ...
+written for my beloved Marguerite...."
+
+"Master Marcel," Jocelyn answered, a cold shudder running over his
+frame, "these are lugubrious preparations."
+
+"Lugubrious?... no ... but prudent.... I have fulfilled my sacred
+duty.... I now find myself in a singular frame of mind.... The latest
+happenings, those of to-day, cast over my mind, not any doubt upon the
+decision I should take, but considerable uncertainty on the head of the
+means to be adopted. Never yet have I been so in need of a clearness of
+judgment as now, when I must take some supreme and irrevocable step. I
+imagine that by talking over the general condition of things, these will
+stand out more clearly before me. Thought expressed in words becomes
+preciser, while mute it often fades from one thing to another and is
+lost to the goal in mind. Therefore, listen to me, and if in the rough
+sketch that I shall present any omission should strike you, any point
+should seem obscure, tell me so.... It is a friendly duty that I now
+conjure you to fulfill."
+
+"I listen, Master Marcel."
+
+"Upon your return from Clermont--pardon that I open the wound of your
+private sorrow--I also wept over the death of your unfortunate
+brother--upon your return from Clermont, you informed me of the massacre
+of the Jacques. The following day we learned that the Captal of Buch and
+the Count of Foix exterminated at Meaux another considerable troop of
+revolted peasants. Finally, recovering from the stupor into which these
+formidable insurrections had struck it, the nobility gathered its forces
+and running over the country it put a mass of serfs, men, women and
+children, to frightful tortures and to death, whether these sympathized
+with the Jacquerie or not, and set their villages on fire. That settled,
+at least for a long time to come, all thought of an alliance between the
+townsfolks and the country people. The destruction of the Jacquerie
+reduces the bourgeoisie to its own forces in its struggle against the
+Regent. The bourgeoisie has, thereupon, no choice but either to accept
+the unequal fight or deliver itself to Charles the Wicked, and instead
+of dictating terms to him, accept those that he may choose to dictate to
+us."
+
+"That was the calculation of the blood-thirsty knave. He said so
+explicitly to me at Clermont."
+
+"Nevertheless, by massacring the Jacques, skillful politician though
+Charles the Wicked be, he deprived himself of powerful auxiliaries
+against the Regent, whose forces are far superior to those of his own.
+He may fail in his calculations."
+
+"The scoundrelly prince! Had he followed your generous advice, his own
+hands, re-inforced by thousands of armed peasants and thousands of
+bourgeois, would by now have crushed the royal troops. And profiting by
+the general enthusiasm of the people, who are as exasperated at the
+English as at the seigneurs, Charles the Wicked would now be chasing the
+foreigners from our soil and would ascend the throne in the midst of the
+acclamations of a people whom he would govern placing before them the
+example of submission to the national assembly."
+
+"Such was the glorious mission that opened before Charles the Wicked. It
+is not yet too late if he would only have the courage, the wisdom and
+the loyalty to devote himself body and soul to so noble an aim. I shall
+presently explain that. At present, however, he is, just as ourselves,
+no other than a rebel against the loyal authority of the Regent. The
+latter disposes of considerable forces. He has on his side the monarchic
+tradition, which in the eyes of the people runs back into the night of
+the ages; he has on his side the royal name, the courtiers, the clergy,
+the royal officers, the administrators of the revenue and of justice, in
+short, all those who live upon abuses and exactions--a huge clientage
+that imparts formidable strength to the Regent. Charles the Wicked is
+too clear-sighted not to have realized by now all that he lost by
+destroying the Jacquerie, and how slight his chances now are of usurping
+the crown. He must have thought of an eventual settlement with the
+Regent in case our cause, to whose side he still seems to lean, should
+be seriously compromised, or actually lost."
+
+"Do you believe that Charles the Wicked has actually negotiated with the
+Regent?"
+
+"Everything makes me think so. The conduct of the King of Navarre during
+these last days reveals a man who is wavering between ambition to ascend
+the throne and the fear of a defeat which he would have to pay for with
+his life and the loss of his domains. He sends us a few insignificant
+reinforcements, but refuses to enter Paris. He has accepted the title of
+captain-general of our city, but the queen, his mother, has frequent
+interviews with the Regent. The hour is critical. The court party
+exploits at our expense and with its habitual perfidy the present
+national calamities whose original causes are the insane prodigalities
+of the court itself. King John and his creatures have driven both towns
+and country districts to desperation with their acts of rapine and
+violence and their unbearable imposts. A revolution broke out. We
+conquered radical reforms. These were expected to inaugurate an era of
+peace and prosperity unequaled in the annals of the land, because
+liberty is at once well-being and independence. But liberty is complete
+only with the possession of the instruments of work."
+
+"A profound truth, Master Marcel. Tyranny ever engenders servitude, and
+servitude misery. Only by freeing them from seigniorial tyranny could
+the insurrection of the serfs insure to these the enjoyment of the
+fruits of the earth which they now cultivate for their own butchers."
+
+"Yes, but all revolution is arduous and rough. It cannot overnight
+remedy ills that are the fatal inheritance of the past. Sometimes such
+ills are even temporarily aggravated by the remedial revolution, as the
+cauterized wound for a while smarts worse than before. These ills, these
+sufferings, have been carried to their extreme by the ravages of the
+English after the battle of Poitiers. The people have valiantly endured
+them, placing their confidence in the revolution of 1357. The city
+council, presided over by myself, the 'governors' in short, as the body
+is called, have been forced to exercise a temporary dictatorship, often
+to resort to energetic and even terrible measures in order to make front
+against the English at our gates, and the court party inside of our
+walls. The people at first accepted the dictatorship for the sake of the
+safety of the city, but they have since fallen away when they found that
+we could not instantly meet their expectations of material well-being.
+The people are tired of dictatorship, and now in their credulous despair
+they lend ear to the mischievous words of their own enemies! They are
+ready to withdraw from the struggle instead of finishing the work of
+emancipation! The people now deplore their rebellion; they are ready to
+curse the councilmen who have sacrificed their repose and their
+property, and even exposed their lives in the effort of emancipation.
+They imagine that by humbly submitting to the Regent, that by meekly
+resuming their yoke, the ills they now suffer from will vanish.
+Perchance to-morrow the people will be dragging me to the scaffold, me
+who so recently was their idol!" After a few seconds of silence the
+provost resumed: "To sum up, we can now barely count with the support of
+the masses; Charles the Wicked is a doubtful ally; the Regent a
+formidable adversary."
+
+"Unhappily the manifestations of the defection of the people, whom the
+manoeuvres of the Regent's party have done their best to promote, have
+struck me during the last few days. Must all hope be given up, Master
+Marcel?"
+
+"No! No! I merely wished to establish the critical aspect of our
+situation. But all is not lost. By virtue of their very fickleness the
+people are capable of sudden revulsions. A considerable section of the
+bourgeoisie, firmly resolved to carry our work to a happy issue, in the
+language of my device, will go with us to the end, whatever the dangers
+be that menace our lives and property in case of failure. We still can
+make our influence felt among the masses; we can arouse their
+enthusiasm, wrench them free from their acquiesence in the enemy's
+suggestions, adopt terrible measures against these, and gain a decisive
+victory over the Regent. But seeing that the Jacquerie is annihilated,
+it would be insane to undertake such a struggle without the support of
+Charles the Wicked. This, then, is our last resource. This very night I
+shall induce the prince to declare himself against the Regent, and
+sufficiently compromise himself so as to force him to the alternative of
+vanquishing with us and ruling, or of losing both his life and his
+property should the Regent prevail. If he accepts my propositions, then
+Charles the Wicked, having staked his head for a crown, will enter Paris
+at the head of his Navarrians. We shall make a supreme effort; we shall
+arouse the people and shall take the field against the Regent. If we are
+victorious, we shall then rouse against the English the peasants that
+have escaped the vengeance of the nobility. The foreigner will be beaten
+back; delivered from her domestic and her foreign foes, Gaul will
+delegate her sovereignty to Charles of Navarre under control of the
+national assembly. Our provinces will then form a powerful
+confederation with us as the center."
+
+"Such a result would be admirable. But would Charles the Wicked keep his
+promise once he is crowned King of France? Will he submit to the laws of
+the States General?"
+
+"He would have submitted to all our conditions before the annihilation
+of the Jacquerie which was a counterpoise to his bands of mercenaries.
+But when he mounts the throne the force of circumstances will compel him
+to keep a large number of the reforms very much like a gift of joy. Thus
+a part of our conquests over the royalty will have been assured. Nor is
+that all. The masses, still steeped in ignorance are slavish. Accustomed
+through centuries to being governed despotically by a prince of royal
+lineage, they can arrive only by degrees at free government under
+elective magistrates, as were the communal towns at the time of their
+enfranchisement. But experience will be gradually gained. Is not the
+mere fact of the overthrow of one dynasty and the setting up of a new at
+the will of the citizens, an immense step forward? The divine prestige
+of the royalty will have received a death-blow. The power of choosing a
+sovereign implies the right to depose him. And, finally, let us not lose
+sight of this, always supposing that Charles the Wicked succeeds in the
+war: Gaul will be delivered of the English; after that, whatever may
+happen, the nobility will preserve the memory of the formidable
+insurrection of the Jacques; it will feel itself compelled to ease the
+yoke, realizing that, driven again to extremities, Jacques Bonhomme
+might again wield the fork, the scythe and the torch."
+
+"Aye, Master Marcel, the future is bright ... provided Charles the
+Wicked openly pronounces against the Regent, and we triumph."
+
+"I have weighed everything, calculated everything. If we succumb in this
+supreme conflict, Charles the Wicked will share our defeat and, like us,
+will pay for his rebellion with his head. He is, at best, a wicked
+prince; the Regent will return to Paris just as he would inevitably do
+if the King of Navarre refuses to embrace our cause. It would be an act
+of folly to try to oppose the Regent without him. Let us examine this
+last hypothesis. Aiming at putting an end to the hesitations of Charles
+the Wicked, I have forced him to decide this very night--"
+
+"This very night?"
+
+"At one o'clock to-morrow morning I shall await the King of Navarre at
+the St. Antoine gate. I declared to him yesterday at St. Denis that I
+shall no longer count with him, and shall look upon him as a traitor if
+at the hour I mentioned he does not appear at the rendezvous so as to
+enter Paris with me and to solemnly announce to-morrow at the town-hall
+his adherence to our cause, and the support of his arms. We are left to
+our own forces if Charles the Wicked fails to put in his appearance
+to-night."
+
+"What did he answer you, Master Marcel?"
+
+"He answered me in his usual manner, that he would think it over. Now,
+then, if the fear of losing his domains and of risking his head carries
+the day over his ambition, he will go and throw himself at the feet of
+the Regent and will offer him his services in atonement for his past
+conduct. The Regent has great interest in temporizing with such an
+adversary. He will grant him pardon, and the two will march upon Paris
+at the head of their combined troops. Our city will then fall back under
+the monarchic yoke."
+
+"Then, Master Marcel," cried Jocelyn, "let us call to arms all the
+stout-hearted people of the city; let us then close our gates and lock
+ourselves behind our ramparts that are now so well fortified by your
+foresight and zeal; let us be killed to the last man; let not the Regent
+re-enter his capital but through the breach that he will have to make
+over our corpses!"
+
+"Such a resolution is heroic. But you forget the horrors that follow the
+capture of a city by assault. You forget Meaux delivered to the flames
+by the Captal of Buch and the Count of Foix; the women assaulted, old
+men and children slaughtered or perishing in the flames! Shall I deliver
+Paris to such a fate, Paris the head and heart of Gaul? No! To attempt
+to resist the Regent without the assistance of Charles the Wicked would
+be to expose ourselves to annihilation. Let us prefer a salutary
+sacrifice to a sterile heroism. Even our defeat will be fruitful."
+
+"Master Marcel, I do not understand you now."
+
+"Whatever the stubbornness and duplicity of the Regent may be, the
+terrible lessons he has received will not be lost upon him. A fugitive
+before the popular uprising, he was forced to leave the palace of the
+Louvre furtively ... he has seen himself on the point of losing his
+crown. If, thanks to the submission of the Parisians, he should re-enter
+the city, however he may seek to satiate his vengeance and satisfy his
+royal pride, he will feel compelled to observe certain reforms. These,
+no doubt, will be less numerous than Charles the Wicked would have
+accepted in order to consolidate his usurpation. Nevertheless, whatever
+they be and however few, these reforms will remain safe to posterity,
+our revolution will have borne some fruit, the burden that weighed upon
+the people will have been lightened. Do you grasp my sense?... What is
+it that astonishes you?"
+
+"In order to satisfy the resentment of the Regent and slake his
+vengeance, the heads of the chiefs of the rebellion will be demanded."
+
+"Some heads will be demanded!" answered Marcel with Spartan simplicity.
+"Yes, the Regent will demand my own head first of all and also the heads
+of the governors, the principal leaders in the rebellion.... Very well!
+We shall deliver our heads to the Regent.... My friends and I are in
+accord upon that.... This conversation elucidates, as I expected of it,
+the facts that are to be considered, and confirms me in my resolution.
+At one in the morning I shall proceed to the gate of St. Antoine, where
+I shall expect to meet Charles the Wicked. If he fails to come, I shall
+take horse and ride to the Regent's camp at Charenton. I shall offer him
+my life; if that does not suffice him, I shall offer him the lives of my
+friends: they have authorized me to dispose of their heads. In exchange,
+I shall demand of the prince the observances of the reforms sworn to in
+1357. I shall demand a good deal so as to obtain something.... These
+reforms will smooth the day for the advent of our plan of government,
+based upon the federation of the provinces and the permanence of the
+sovereign national assemblies that will at first delegate the appearance
+of a crown to a phantom king, and later, by wholly suppressing the idol,
+suppress royalty itself. The government of free Gaul, free and
+confederated, will then be again what it was at the time of the invasion
+of Caesar, as we learn from history and as one of your family's legends
+confirms."
+
+"At the time of the abolition of the commune of Laon and of so many
+other municipal republics that Louis the Lusty destroyed, my ancestor
+Fergan the Quarryman said to his son, who despaired of the future:
+'Hope, my child, hope!... Have faith in the slow, painful but
+irresistible progress of the race.' He spoke truly! Thanks to your
+genius, I might have seen in this very century the municipal government
+of the old communes--free, benevolent and wise governments--applied no
+longer to one town only but to all Gaul. Be praised for having promoted
+such a step forward."
+
+"That is my dream! Social unity and administrative uniformity. Political
+rights made commensurate with civic rights. The principles of authority
+transferred from the crown to the nation. The States General changed
+into a national assembly under the control of the people of the towns
+and the country, and the living forces of the nation; and the popular
+sovereignty attested by the overthrow of one dynasty and the transfer of
+the crown to another, until the day of the total suppression of the
+royalty, the last vestige of the Frankish conquest!... That was my
+dream! Time will change the dream into reality. May be I stepped in
+advance of my century.... Is that wrong?... That government of the
+future will have been practiced three years!... Our children will place
+all the stronger reliance in the prospect of their deliverance when,
+instructed by the past, they will know that their fathers actually held
+their deliverance in their own hands; that, having one day assumed their
+freedom, they bent and chased away the royal incumbent, and that, if
+they relapsed under the yoke, it was because on the eve of final triumph
+they yielded to discouragement; it was because, after having overcome
+formidable obstacles, they grew faint-hearted at the moment of reaching
+the ultimate goal. The lesson will be great and profitable to our
+children. Perchance the death of myself and my friends may render the
+lesson all the more striking! Our death will have been as fruitful as
+our life!... The scaffold will crown it!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+PLOTTERS UNCOVERED.
+
+
+Wrapt in wonderment and admiration, Jocelyn was contemplating the noble
+figure of Etienne Marcel that now seemed transfigured in the brilliancy
+of the sentiments he had given utterance to, when a knock was heard at
+the door. Jocelyn opened and Denise said to him:
+
+"Jocelyn, your friend Rufin wishes to speak to you without delay."
+
+"Master Marcel," the champion observed, "it must be about the plot that
+Rufin thinks to have discovered."
+
+"My child, tell Rufin to come in," said the provost to his niece.
+
+Rufin entered immediately. He was deeply agitated: "Master Marcel," he
+said, "I believe the goddess Fortuna served me as well this time as she
+did the night I discovered the flight of the Regent"; and drawing a
+letter from his pocket he handed it over to Marcel, adding: "Be kind
+enough to post yourself thereon; if the message is to be judged by the
+messenger, it bodes nothing good."
+
+Marcel took the letter, broke the seal, trembled when he recognized the
+hand that wrote it, and carefully read its contents, while Jocelyn,
+leading the student to the outer end of the cabinet, said to him in a
+low voice:
+
+"How did you get the letter, friend Rufin?"
+
+"By Hercules! I got it ... by the force of my fist! without, however,
+forgetting the aid that my chum Nicholas the Thin-skinned and two Scotch
+students lent me. I became acquainted with the last two about a year ago
+in a contest over the flagrant superiority of the rhetoric of Fichetus
+over that of Faber. Our discussion having turned from oral to manual,
+to all the greater honor of rhetoric, I preserved a striking souvenir
+of their fists--"
+
+"The minutes are precious, Rufin; grave matters are at stake; I beseech
+you, come to the point."
+
+"This evening, towards nightfall, I was walking on
+Oysters-are-fried-here street, totally oblivious of the perfumes exhaled
+by the fries, although I had dined only on a herring, and thinking only
+of that treasure, that pearl, or rather of that bouquet of roses that
+Dame Venus, her godmother, christened by the succulent name of Alison--"
+
+"For heaven's sake, Rufin!"
+
+"Keep cool; I shall bid my soul hold its tongue. I shall come to the
+point. Well, then, I noticed a large crowd at the other end of the
+street; I elbowed my way in and reached its front ranks. There I saw a
+certain large-boned scamp with a furred cap whom I had come across
+before and knew to be a bitter partisan of Maillart. The said
+large-boned scamp was perorating against Master Marcel, attributing to
+him all the ills we are suffering from and crying: 'We must put an end
+to the tyranny of the governors. The Regent's army is gathered at
+Charenton and is about to march upon us. The Regent is furious. He
+wishes to set fire to his good city of Paris and slaughter its townsmen.
+Maillart, the true friend of the people, is alone able to make a front
+against the Regent or to negotiate with him and thus save the city from
+the ruin that threatens it.'"
+
+"Always that Maillart!"
+
+"Such language exasperated me. I was on the point of breaking out and
+confounding the man of the furred cap whose words, I must say so, were
+having their effect upon the mob. Some of them had even begun to
+vituperate Master Marcel and the governors, when suddenly I heard
+someone behind me say in Latin: 'The water begins to boil, the fish must
+now be thrown in,' and another voice answered, also in Latin: 'Then let
+us hasten to notify the master cook.' Seeking to fathom the mysterious
+meaning of these parables, I turned towards my Latinists at the moment
+when they began to cry, this time in French: 'Good luck to Maillart, to
+the devil with Marcel! He is a criminal! A traitor! He plots with the
+Navarrians! Good luck to Maillart! He alone can put an end to our ills!'
+A portion of the crowd took up the cries, whereupon the lumbering scamp
+of the furred cap closed his peroration and came down from the box on
+which he had been perched. The two Latinists then approached him, and
+while the crowd was dispersing my three gentlemen stepped aside and
+conducted an animated discussion. I did not lose sight of them; the
+three walked on together and I followed, catching these broken words
+that they let drop: 'rendezvous,' 'horse,' 'arcade of St. Nicholas.' You
+know how even at mid-day the arcade of St. Nicholas is dark and
+deserted. Night was falling fast. The idea struck me that my three
+worthies might be having some suspicious rendezvous at that secluded
+spot, because the mysterious Latin words would not leave my head. 'The
+water begins to boil' might mean the boiling of the popular rage; 'the
+fish that was to be thrown in the boiling water,' might mean Master
+Marcel; finally, 'the cook who was to be notified'--"
+
+"Might be the Regent or Maillart," put in Jocelyn. "I do not believe
+your penetration was at fault. It is a credit to your sagacity."
+
+"And the words 'horse,' 'rendezvous,' 'arcade of St. Nicholas' might
+mean some messenger on horseback was waiting for my three worthies at
+that secluded spot. I know the place. Often did Margot.... But I shall
+drop Margot! I said to myself on the contrary: 'Oh, if now, instead of
+following the lumbering scamp of the furred cap to the spot so
+propitious to love, I followed the divine Alison--"
+
+The champion again made an impatient gesture, took his friend by the
+arm, and pointed significantly towards the other end of the chamber
+where Marcel sat with his forehead leaning on his hand, contemplating
+the letter that he had just finished reading, and a smile at once
+bitter and sorrowful playing around his lips. The student grasped
+Jocelyn's meaning and proceeded in a still lower voice:
+
+"I have quick legs. I put them to use and made a short cut on the run
+across St. Patern to arrive before my three men at the arcade of St.
+Nicholas. The place was dark as an oven. I listened, but heard nothing.
+I know the place. Groping about I found a niche where one time stood the
+statue of the saint. I vanished in the cavity, and awaited at all
+hazards. I was well repaid. About fifteen minutes later steps were heard
+under the vault and I recognized the voice of the man of the furred cap
+whispering: 'Haloa ... haloa! John Four-Sous', and presently a voice
+answered: 'He has not yet arrived ... the devil take the loafer!' 'No
+time is lost,' answered a third voice, 'he only needs three hours to
+reach here from Charenton on horseback; he will not fail.'"
+
+"The situation is grave," said Jocelyn. "It is at Charenton that the
+Regent has his headquarters. There must be some treasonable plot on
+foot."
+
+"Exactly. So you can imagine how I congratulated myself on my discovery.
+Evidently there was a plot hatching with the court party. John Four-Sous
+finally arrived by the other side of the entrance of the arcade and the
+man of the furred cap asked him: 'Are you ready to leave?' 'Yes, my
+horse stands saddled in the stable of the inn of The Three Monkeys.'
+'Very well; here is the letter,' came from the man of the furred cap,
+'Make haste to arrive at the royal encampment; deliver the letter to the
+seneschal of Poitou; he will understand.' 'But will they allow me to
+leave the city?' asked the messenger. 'Fear not,' he is answered, 'the
+gate of St. Antoine is this evening guarded by men of our side; Master
+Maillart is to be there himself; you shall give for pass-word "Montjoie,
+the King and Duke"; that will let you through. To horse, now, to horse!'
+After that the man of the furred cap and his two companions walked off
+by one entrance and John Four-Sous by the other. I left the niche where
+I had taken St. Nicholas' place, and followed the messenger of whom I
+got a clear view when the light of the moon fell upon him outside the
+vault. The scamp was tall, sinewy and well armed. I made up my mind to
+seize the letter that he carried. How to do it? I was still revolving
+the matter when I saw him enter the tavern of The Three Monkeys. I
+imagined he was going for his horse in the stable. Not at all! John
+Four-Sous, being a man of foresight, called for supper before starting
+on his journey, and through the open door I saw him comfortably anchored
+at a table. Bacchus willed it that I had often emptied more than one
+tankard at the tavern of The Three Monkeys without smashing them after
+drinking. I knew the inn-keeper, a worthy fellow belonging to Marcel's
+party. I immediately dropped a few lines to the divine Alison whom Dame
+Venus ... attached to her chariot...."
+
+"We know all about that ... come to the point."
+
+"Uncertain of what success I might meet, I wished at least to forewarn
+Master Marcel, and that so soon as possible, that something was hatching
+against him. The inn-keeper undertook to forward my note to Alison's
+inn, and presently.... Blessed be the goddess Fortuna, whom do I see
+enter but my chum Nicholas the Thin-skinned, in the company of the
+Scotch students, with whom I had once fistically discussed the merits of
+the rhetoric of Fichetus. They came to drink some spiced wine. With the
+corner of my eyes I was taking in John Four-Sous devouring his ample
+supper. My plan was formed. I communicated it to my friends and the
+inn-keeper, confiding to them the suspicions that I entertained, and
+which the incident of the arcade of St. Nicholas confirmed. Nothing
+simpler than my project: Pick up a quarrel with John Four-Sous, fall
+upon him, take possession of the letter, and lock up the scamp in the
+cellar of The Three Monkeys so as to keep him from giving the alarm to
+Maillart's party. So said, so done.... I approached John Four-Sous'
+table and started quarrelling with him. He gave me an insolent answer. I
+jumped at his throat and Nicholas the Thin-skinned rummaged through the
+fellow's pockets, and seized the letter, and--"
+
+The student's account was interrupted by Marcel, who after a long and
+thorough reflection, rose from his seat, and stepping towards Jocelyn
+said:
+
+"I spoke to you of my quandary; this letter would have put an end to it
+had not my resolution been previously taken. Do you know who wrote this
+letter?"
+
+"No, Master Marcel; who is its author? A friend or an enemy?"
+
+"My oldest friend," answered the provost with deep concern and disgust,
+"John Maillart! This letter proves that for some time, and despite his
+affectation of devotion for the popular cause and his violent language
+against the court, Maillart was secretly negotiating with the royalist
+party whose chiefs in Paris are the Sire of Charny and the knight James
+of Pontoise, for the nobility, with Maillart and the old councilmen
+Pastorel and John Alphonse for the bourgeoisie. These are our worst
+enemies."
+
+"Master Marcel," asked Jocelyn, "will not you and the governors take
+rigorous measures against these traitors?"
+
+"They dare to conspire within our walls!" added the student. "They seek
+to lead astray a credulous people! They deserve death!"
+
+"It will have been brought on by our enemies themselves! They must he
+stricken down with terror. They invoke frightful vengeance upon Paris!"
+replied Marcel. "Yes, Maillart, keeping the Regent informed upon our
+intestine dissensions, upon the discouragement inspired among the masses
+by the agents of the court, upon the hatred that they have incited
+against us, beseeches the prince to march upon Paris, and assures him
+that the people are tired of suffering. He assures him that a movement
+in his favor will break out within our walls so soon as he approaches.
+He informs the prince that he and his partisans will be on guard
+to-night and to-morrow at the gate of St. Antoine, and that they will
+open the gates to him. Finally, he expresses the hope of being able to
+deliver me to the Regent, me whom he calls 'the soul of the
+revolution.'"
+
+"There can be no longer any doubt!" exclaimed Jocelyn horrified. "So
+that when Maillart's wife came here this evening to offer means for your
+escape to Dame Marguerite she only was laying a trap for you."
+
+"Aye," broke in Marcel with a look of contempt, "she was laying a trap
+for me. I was to trust the loyalty of my oldest friend ... I was to go
+alone to his house ... and there he was to take me prisoner and deliver
+me to the Regent at his entry into Paris!"
+
+"Treason and cowardice!" cried the student indignantly. "What a female
+monster! Oh, I judged her rightly from her hypocritical lamentations at
+the funeral of Perrin Mace."
+
+"The envy and pride that devour her have lost Maillart," rejoined the
+provost. "The vanity of that insensate woman has driven her husband to
+crime and to deep baseness. That man without character and without
+convictions reminds the seneschal in his letter that the Regent promised
+him a patent of nobility in consideration of the services he is
+rendering the court party!... That is the Maillart that was incessantly
+reproaching me for not exterminating the members of the court party who
+remained in Paris!... He could not find words enough to throw at the
+nobility!"
+
+"Oh, Master Marcel," cried Jocelyn, "and your blood was to be the price
+for the ennobling of that infamous wretch!"
+
+"This act of betrayal wounds me doubly ... I know mankind. Nevertheless,
+I resisted up to this moment the belief that Maillart could be guilty of
+such felony.... He, the friend of my infancy.... But now, to work. There
+is now no longer any doubt, nor can there now be any question what step
+to take.... The reaction of the court party will be merciless.... Our
+only chance of escape lies in the support of the King of Navarre ...
+and in the vigorous measures that we must now take against these
+implacable enemies."
+
+"Master Marcel," Jocelyn whispered to the provost, "if Charles the
+Wicked does not put in his appearance at the rendezvous of this evening,
+what will you do then?"
+
+"I shall ride at a gallop to deliver to the Regent my own head and the
+heads of the governors ... Our blood will slake the young prince's
+thirst for vengeance and he will spare Paris."
+
+A great noise, at first from a distance, was heard rapidly approaching
+along the street. Presently distinct cheers were heard: "Good luck to
+Marcel!" "To a happy issue, to a happy issue!" "Good luck to Marcel!"
+and almost at the same time Marguerite entered her husband's cabinet
+saying: "Simon the Feather-dealer, Philip Giffart, Consac and other
+friends are in arms in the street with a large number of faithful
+partisans cheering for you. Our friends consider it prudent to come for
+you and escort you to the town-hall."
+
+"Good-bye, Marguerite, dear and beloved wife!" said Marcel with profound
+but well-controlled emotion, thinking that this was perhaps the last
+time he might press to his heart the companion of his life. "Adieu ...
+and may we soon meet again!"
+
+"Oh, my friend, these cheers that acclaim you with enthusiasm reassure
+me ... Our friends are guarding you."
+
+Fear nothing; I shall see you again to-morrow ... Adieu!... Adieu once
+more!" repeated Marcel, who despite his courage, felt his heart breaking
+at the moment of a separation that might be eternal. Giving a last
+embrace to Marguerite, Marcel descended to the street. There he was met
+by several of the councilmen in the midst of a large crowd of partisans
+whose sympathetic acclamations redoubled at the sight of their idol.
+Discouragement had, it was true, gained over a majority of the people.
+Nevertheless Marcel could still count upon many devoted and intrepid
+hearts.
+
+"Friends!" Marcel cried out aloud to the councilmen, "we shall not go
+to the town-hall, but to the gate of St. Antoine. I shall tell you more
+on the way."
+
+The words were caught by one of the three men who all during the evening
+had never left the approaches to Marcel's house. The spy said to his
+companions:
+
+"Let one of you hurry to the Sire of Charny and notify him that Marcel
+is going with his men to the gate of St. Antoine. The other of you run
+ahead of the bandits and notify Master Maillart that they are coming. I
+shall follow them at a distance and watch their movements. Let each be
+at his post and well armed."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE GATE OF ST. ANTOINE.
+
+
+The clock had sounded the first hour of morning from the church in the
+quarter of St. Antoine. Just before sinking below the horizon the moon
+still shed enough light to brighten with a fringe of silver the topmost
+battlement of the two high towers that defend the gate of St. Antoine,
+towards which Etienne Marcel was wending his way accompanied by the
+councilman Philip Giffart and Jocelyn, and holding two keys in his
+hands. The other magistrates and a group of their partisans had posted
+themselves, at the request of the provost, in a house near the ramparts.
+The profoundest silence reigned near a wide and dark vaulted passage
+that led to the gate of the city. A man leading a horse by the bridle
+followed Marcel at a little distance.
+
+"This is the decisive moment," Marcel was saying to his companions. "If
+Charles the Wicked has come to our rendezvous, we then have a chance of
+success ... if not, I shall mount that horse and ride to Charenton to
+deliver myself to the Regent!"
+
+Hardly had Marcel finished pronouncing these words when two sentinels,
+posted outside the dark passage which he was about to enter, called out:
+"Montjoie, the King and Duke!" and almost at the same moment appeared
+John Maillart stepping forward. At the sight of his old friend, whose
+infamous treason he was now acquainted with, Marcel stopped indignant
+and the following exchange of words took place:
+
+"Marcel," said the councilman in an imperious voice, "Marcel, what
+business brings you here at this hour? You should now be at the
+town-hall!"
+
+"What business is that of yours," answered Marcel. "I am here to guard
+the safety of the town, whose government is in my hands."
+
+"By God!" cried Maillart imperceptibly drawing nearer to Marcel. "By
+God! You cannot be here for anything good!" and turning to the two
+sentinels who stood motionless a few steps off: "You see it; Marcel
+holds in his hands the keys of the gate.... It is to betray us!"
+
+"You miserable and abominable scamp," cried Marcel, "you lie in your
+throat!"
+
+"No, traitor, it is you who lie!" replied Maillart, and suddenly raising
+a short axe that he had held concealed behind his back, he leaped with
+one bound at the provost crying: "To me, my friends! Death to Marcel!
+Death to him and his partisans! They are all traitors!" Before Jocelyn
+or Philip Giffart could foresee and parry the sudden charge, Maillart
+dealt so furious a blow at Marcel's head that he staggered and fell
+bathed in blood.
+
+At Maillart's cry, "To me, my friends!" the passageway, until then dark,
+was suddenly illumined by several lanterns that had been kept under the
+cloaks of their carriers. By the glimmering light a large number of men
+were seen, all armed with pikes, halbards and cutlasses. Among them were
+the Sire of Charny, the knight James of Pontoise and the councilman
+Pierre Dessessarts. Hardly had Marcel dropped under the axe of Maillart
+than the troop of assassins issued forth from their ambuscade, and
+crying: "Montjoie, the King and Duke!" precipitated themselves upon the
+provost to despatch him. Marcel, his skull cleaved in two and his face
+covered with blood, sought to regain his feet with the help of Jocelyn
+and Philip Giffart. These made heroic efforts to defend the wounded man,
+but they were soon thrown down with him and all three riddled with sword
+thrusts and axe blows. The other governors and several of their
+partisans, who were posted in reserve at a nearby house where they were
+to await the issue of Marcel's rendezvous with the King of Navarre,
+hearing the increasing tumult and cries of "Montjoie, the King and
+Duke!" rushed to the gate of St. Antoine intending to come to the aid of
+the provost. Their red and blue head-covers pointed them out to the fury
+of the murderers. Their heroic defence was soon overcome and they were
+all butchered like their chief. But the rage of Maillart and of the Sire
+of Charny was not yet appeased.
+
+"To death with all the enemies of our Sire, the Regent!" cried the
+seigneur. "We know where they are burrowing. Let us run to their houses.
+We shall kill them in their beds!"
+
+"To death!" responded John Maillart brandishing his axe. "To death with
+the partisans of Marcel! To death with all the communiers!"
+
+"Montjoie, the King and Duke!" repeated in chorus the armed band. "Death
+to the red and blue!"
+
+"Friends!" cried the seigneur of Charny, "the body of the knight of
+Conflans, a victim of the popular party, was exposed in the Student's
+Dale. Let now the body of Marcel be exposed in the same place.... Carry
+him on your shoulders."
+
+"To-morrow the body shall be placed on a hurdle and dragged through the
+mud to the Louvre which our beloved Sire, the Regent, was forced to
+leave in sight of Marcel's threats. After that let the carcass of the
+felon be thrown into the river--unworthy sepulchre for a Christian,"
+added John Maillart, and he said to himself, thinking of his wife:
+"Petronille will no longer reproach me with being under the provost;
+Petronille will no longer be eaten up with jealousy; Petronille will no
+longer hear that Marguerite is the wife of the 'King of Paris' ... and I
+shall have a title of nobility."
+
+The orders of the Sire of Charny and Maillart were carried out. The
+corpse of the provost was picked out from among his dead friends. Four
+men carried on their shoulders the disfigured remains of the great
+citizen, and marching by the light of torches, the funeral cortege
+wended its way to the Student's Dale brandishing their arms and
+shouting:
+
+    "Death to the partisans of the governors!"
+    "Death to the red and blue!"
+    "Montjoie, the King and Duke!"
+
+
+
+
+EPILOGUE.
+
+
+The hatred of Etienne Marcel's enemies pursued him beyond the grave. His
+corpse, taken to the Student's Dale, remained there the whole day
+exposed to the insults and the jeers of the fickle and ingrate mass
+whose enfranchisement and happiness he had labored to attain. The day
+after his death his bloody and mutilated remains were thrown upon a
+hurdle, dragged towards the Seine and hurled into the river in front of
+the Louvre. Such was that great man's sepulchre.
+
+The principal leaders of the popular party, to the number of sixty,
+among whom were Simon the Feather-dealer, Cousac and Pierre Caillart,
+were executed by orders of John Maillart and the Sire of Charny, now
+become joint dictators. These executions being over, the dictators
+delegated Simon Maillart, a brother of the councilman, the councilmen
+Dessessarts and John Pastorel, to appear before the Regent and notify
+the young prince that he could re-enter his good town of Paris, now
+submissive and penitent. The Regent answered the delegation: "That will
+be gladly done." Accompanied by a numerous cavalcade, the Regent left
+the bridge at Charenton and re-entered the Louvre where, in the language
+of the chronicler of the time, "he found John Maillart, whom he greatly
+esteemed and loved."
+
+"As the Regent," the chronicler proceeds, "was crossing a certain street
+on his way to the Louvre, a workingman had the daring to call out aloud:
+'By God, Sire, if my advice had been taken, you would not now be
+entering here. But nothing will be done for you.'"
+
+These and some other instances showed, to the honor of humanity, that
+ingratitude, defection and the fickleness of the masses--the fruits of
+their ignorance and secular subjection--offered at least pleasing
+exceptions. The memory of Marcel remained alive and sacred in the hearts
+of many loyal to the popular cause. Despite the triumph of the court
+party, several conspiracies were started looking to the overthrow of the
+throne and intended to revenge upon the Regent the death of the
+venerated Etienne Marcel. The last of these conspiracies was organized
+by a rich Paris bourgeois, Martin Pisdoe. He mounted the scaffold and
+paid with his head for his religious devotion to the memory of Marcel.
+
+Jocelyn the Champion had been left for dead near the gate of St. Antoine
+in the midst of a heap of corpses. Informed the same night by popular
+rumors of the assassination of the provost and his partisans, Rufin the
+Tankard-smasher and Alison the Huffy hastened to the place of the
+massacre in order to ascertain Jocelyn's fate. They found him covered
+with wounds, ready to expire, and carried him to a charitable person in
+the neighborhood where, thanks to their untiring care he was rescued
+from death. Protected by the obscurity of his name, he long remained
+hidden in that asylum where a surgeon, a friend of Rufin, visited him.
+Only slowly did he regain his strength.
+
+Marguerite learned of her husband's death from emissaries sent by John
+Maillart, who came that same night to arrest her at her house. Taken to
+prison, the unfortunate woman vainly implored permission to bury Marcel
+with her own hands. The supreme consolation was denied her, and she was
+later made acquainted with the ignominies inflicted on her husband's
+corpse. She soon died in captivity. The property of Etienne Marcel was
+confiscated for the benefit of the Regent.
+
+Alison, always compassionate, offered Denise, who now found herself
+helpless and without means, to share with her the chamber she occupied
+at her inn. Often the two called to see Jocelyn the Champion in his
+secret retreat. Among other wounds an axe-stroke deprived him forever of
+the use of his right arm. When his other wounds were completely healed,
+he married Denise; on the same day Dame Alison married Rufin the
+Tankard-Smasher.
+
+Jocelyn had inherited a little patrimony, thanks to which he could
+almost wholly cover the indispensible needs of himself and wife, a
+fortunate circumstance seeing that the weakness consequent upon his
+wounds did not allow him to pursue his profession of champion. The only
+relative left to Denise lived near the frontier of Lorraine in the town
+of Vaucouleurs. Jocelyn decided to move hither. Despite the little
+notice he had drawn upon himself during the late revolt, it would have
+been imprudent on his part to prolong his stay in Paris after his
+recovery, seeing that the re-action of the court party was implacable.
+Jocelyn sold his patrimony, took, not without deep regret, leave from
+Rufin the Tankard-smasher and Alison, and escaping a hundred dangers
+from the bands of English soldiers and marauders who then ravaged Gaul,
+he reached the town of Vaucouleurs with Denise and settled there.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+
+[1] In the judicial combats of the Middle Ages, it was allowed to women,
+children and old men, except in cases of high treason or of parricide,
+to appear in the lists by a representative. Such a hired combatant was
+called a champion.
+
+[2] Jack Drudge.
+
+[3] "Poignez villain, il vous oindra; oignez villain, il vous poindra."
+
+[4] The three lilies, the device of French royalty.
+
+[5] The Lord's Prayer, called "pater" from the first word, "pater"
+(father) in the Latin prayer.
+
+[6] A prayer or invocation to Mary, so named from the first word, "Ave,
+Maria," (Hail to you, Mary), in the Latin prayer.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Iron Trevet or Jocelyn the Champion, by
+Eugene Sue
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