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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Blacksmith's Hammer, or The Peasant Code, 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 Blacksmith's Hammer, or The Peasant Code
+       A Tale of the Grand Monarch
+
+Author: Eugene Sue
+
+Translator: Daniel De Leon
+
+Release Date: January 17, 2011 [EBook #34987]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BLACKSMITH'S HAMMER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was
+produced from scanned images of public domain material
+from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE BLACKSMITH'S HAMMER
+
+THE FULL SERIES OF
+
+The Mysteries of the People
+
+:: OR ::
+
+History of a Proletarian Family Across the Ages
+
+By EUGENE SUE
+
+_Consisting of the Following Works:_
+
+
+    THE GOLD SICKLE; or, _Hena the Virgin of the Isle of Sen_.
+    THE BRASS BELL; or, _The Chariot of Death_.
+    THE IRON COLLAR; or, _Faustina and Syomara_.
+    THE SILVER CROSS; or, _The Carpenter of Nazareth_.
+    THE CASQUE'S LARK; or, _Victoria, the Mother of the Camps_.
+    THE PONIARD'S HILT; or, _Karadeucq and Ronan_.
+    THE BRANDING NEEDLE; or, _The Monastery of Charolles_.
+    THE ABBATIAL CROSIER; or, _Bonaik and Septimine_.
+    THE CARLOVINGIAN COINS; or, _The Daughters of Charlemagne._
+    THE IRON ARROW-HEAD; or, _The Buckler Maiden_.
+    THE INFANT'S SKULL; or, _The End of the World_.
+    THE PILGRIM'S SHELL; or, _Fergan the Quarryman_.
+    THE IRON PINCERS; or, _Mylio and Karvel_.
+    THE IRON TREVET; or, _Jocelyn the Champion_.
+    THE EXECUTIONER'S KNIFE; or, _Joan of Arc_.
+    THE POCKET BIBLE; or, _Christian the Printer_.
+    THE BLACKSMITH'S HAMMER; or, _The Peasant Code_.
+    THE SWORD OF HONOR; or, _The Foundation of the French Republic_.
+    THE GALLEY SLAVE'S RING; or, _The Family Lebrenn_.
+
+
+    Published Uniform With This Volume By
+    THE NEW YORK LABOR NEWS CO.
+    28 CITY HALL PLACE
+    NEW YORK CITY
+
+
+
+
+THE BLACKSMITH'S
+HAMMER
+
+: : OR : :
+
+THE PEASANT CODE
+
+A Tale of the Grand Monarch
+
+By EUGENE SUE
+
+TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL FRENCH
+By DANIEL DE LEON
+NEW YORK LABOR NEWS COMPANY. 1910
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE                   v
+
+INTRODUCTION                           1
+
+
+PART I. HOLLAND.
+
+CHAPTER
+
+   I. THE ST. ELOI                     5
+
+  II. BERTHA OF PLOUERNEL             11
+
+ III. THE HUGUENOT COLONEL            25
+
+  IV. THE LOST LETTER                 33
+
+   V. JOHN DE WITT                    54
+
+  VI. CORNELIUS DE WITT               79
+
+ VII. MOB-VERDICT                     91
+
+VIII. THE FLIGHT                     103
+
+
+PART II. BRITTANY.
+
+   I. NOMINOE                        113
+
+  II. A BRETON WEDDING               122
+
+ III. THE RED-COATS                  140
+
+  IV. DESERTED!                      155
+
+   V. THE MYSTERY AT PLOUERNEL       164
+
+  VI. BERTHA AND NOMINOE             190
+
+ VII. EZ-LIBR                        229
+
+VIII. THE MANOR OF PLOUERNEL         251
+
+  IX. THE PEASANTS' DEFEAT           258
+
+   X. UNITED                         265
+
+EPILOGUE                             282
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+
+
+
+TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
+
+
+Bulwer Lytton observes of fiction that, when aspiring at something
+higher than mere romance, it does not pervert, but elucidates the facts
+of the times in which the scene is placed; hence, that fiction serves to
+illustrate those truths which history is too often compelled to leave to
+the tale-teller, the dramatist and the poet. In this story, _The
+Blacksmith's Hammer; or, The Peasant Code_--the seventeenth of the
+charming series of Eugene Sue's historic novels, _The Mysteries of the
+People; or, History of a Proletarian Family Across the Ages_--the author
+reaches a height in which are combined all the elements that Bulwer
+Lytton distributes among history, tale, drama and poetry.
+
+The history is clean cut; the tale fascinates; its dramatic presentation
+is matchless; last, not least, the poetic note is lyric. As historian,
+as tale-teller, as dramatist and as a poet the author excels himself in
+this narrative, that serves at once as a sequel of the age described in
+the previous story, _The Pocket Bible; or, Christian the Printer_, and
+as prelude to the great epopee of the next story that deals with the
+French Revolution.
+
+DANIEL DE LEON.
+
+New York, March, 1910.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+I, Salaun Lebrenn, the son of Stephan, who was the son of Antonicq, who
+finished the legend of The Pocket Bible, begun by his grandfather
+Christian the printer--I, Salaun Lebrenn, am the writer of the following
+narrative.
+
+To you, my last-born, Alain Lebrenn, the child of my old age, I bequeath
+this legend, a continuation of our plebeian annals. I shall join to
+these pages the head of a blacksmith's hammer. It will increase the
+number of our family relics. You are to transmit it, jointly with our
+annals, to your own descendants.
+
+My grandfather Antonicq Lebrenn died in his sixty-eighth year, on
+November 11, 1616. Stephan, Antonicq's son, was twenty-three years of
+age at the time of his father's decease. He continued to be a farmer on
+the Karnak farm, a dependency of the fief of Mezlean, held under the
+suzerainty of the seigniory of Plouernel. Obedient to the _law of
+usage_, after a certain number of years Stephan became a vassal of the
+seigniory. At the age of twenty-six, in 1619, he married, and had two
+sons--myself, Salaun, born in 1625, and my brother Gildas, born in 1628.
+Our father Stephan, a good man, but timid and resigned, submitted
+without a murmur to all the impositions, all the affronts, and all the
+sufferings of vassalage. He died in his fifty-ninth year on February
+13, 1651. My brother Gildas, a man of as good, patient and submissive a
+disposition as my father, succeeded him in the holding of the Karnak
+farm, located on the coast of Armorican Brittany. Myself, being of a
+less submissive disposition than Gildas, and having chosen a sailor's
+life for my vocation, engaged as ship's boy on board one of the vessels
+in the port of Vannes. I was then fifteen years old. I made many
+voyages, and attained the office of supercargo, and later of captain of
+a merchant vessel. Thanks to my earnings, I was later enabled to
+purchase a ship, and sail it on my own account. In 1646--during the
+reign of Louis XIV who succeeded his father Louis XIII--I married for
+the first time. My first wife was Janik Tankeru, the sister of a
+blacksmith of Vannes. My dear and lamented wife made my life as happy as
+circumstances allowed, and I returned to her the happiness I owed her.
+In 1651 she bore me a son whom I named Nominoe. Alas! I was to survive
+him. You will now read his history in this narrative that I leave to
+you, son of Joel--a lamentable narrative which I have written, often
+moistening it with my tears.
+
+
+
+
+PART I.
+
+HOLLAND.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE ST. ELOI.
+
+
+Early in the month of August of the year 1672, a violent tempest raged
+on the coast of Holland. Driven by the storm, and already deprived of
+one of its masts, the French brigantine St. Eloi "fled before the gale,"
+as mariners put it. With only a little triangular bit of sail spread
+forward, she strove to run into the port of Delft, which lies not far
+from The Hague. The enormous waves, furiously dashing against the jetty
+of the port, completely hid it behind a mist of foam. Aware of his close
+proximity to land, the captain gave at frequent intervals the signal of
+distress with two pieces of artillery that were placed upon the
+forecastle. He sought thereby to attract some daring pilot of the port
+to take charge of the partly dismantled craft, the plight of which
+became all the more distressful when a dash of the sea carried away a
+portion of the rudder, and rendered control of the vessel almost
+impossible. The St. Eloi had left Calais that morning for Dover; the
+weather was beautiful, the wind favorable. In the middle of the Channel,
+however, the wind shifted suddenly to west-northwest, and blew with such
+fury that, compelled to flee before the tempest, and unable either to
+keep its course for Dover or return to Calais, the brigantine sought to
+reach a haven of refuge in one of the ports on the Dutch coast.
+
+The distinguished passengers who chartered the St. Eloi for a passage
+across the Channel to England were three in number: the Marchioness of
+Tremblay; her niece, Mademoiselle Bertha of Plouernel; and Abbot
+Boujaron. They were accompanied by a lackey and a maid. The Marchioness
+of Tremblay was on the way to join in London her nephew, Bertha's
+brother, Baron Raoul of Plouernel, who was charged by Louis XIV with a
+special commission to Charles II, King of England. Although, since the
+beginning of the year, both the latter power and France were at war with
+the Dutch Republic, or rather the seven United Provinces, strangers
+occasionally received "letters of safeguard" from the admiralty at
+Amsterdam, thanks to which they could cross the Channel without fear of
+the cruisers of Admiral Ruyter's squadron. Equipped with one of these
+letters, the St. Eloi was under sail for Dover when the storm overtook
+her. In order not to stand in the way of the pumps, that were kept busy
+by as many of the men as the vessel's small crew could afford, bailing
+the water from a leak in the hold, the passengers were soon obliged to
+go upon the bridge. Their different attitudes at that critical moment
+presented striking contrasts. The Marchioness of Tremblay, a woman of
+ripe age, once reputed a belle but now of haughty demeanor, lay
+shuddering with fear upon a mattress, stretched out on the vessel's
+poop; she was supported by her maid, and, in order to prevent her being
+tossed about by the heavy roll of the ship, she was steadied by a scarf
+that passed under her arm and was fastened to the taffrail. Beside her,
+and no less pale than herself, Abbot Boujaron, a man of fifty, short,
+thick-set and puffy, held himself fast to a shroud with a convulsively
+clenched hand, while with the other he clung to the arm of his lackey,
+and emitted plaintive moans, interspersed with bits of expostulatory
+prayers. Mademoiselle Bertha of Plouernel on the contrary, seemed to
+take no thought of the danger of the hour, but gave herself over to the
+imposing poetry of the storm, after having vainly endeavored to reassure
+her aunt the Marchioness, and induce her to share the serenity that
+never leaves brave spirits in the lurch. The young girl, barely twenty
+years of age, was tall, supple, well rounded, with a brunette complexion
+of radiant beauty. It was emotion and not fear that animated her
+otherwise pale face, while the spark that shone in her large black eyes,
+surmounted with well-marked eyebrows, sufficiently denoted the feverish
+admiration that the sight of the elements in fury inspired her with.
+With dilating nostrils, a heaving bosom, her forehead lashed by the gale
+that raised and blew backward the floating ringlets of her hair, she
+steadied herself with a firm hand against the rigging of the ship, and
+yielded to the motion of the rolling and pitching craft with a
+suppleness that unveiled the elegance of her waist while enabling her to
+preserve her equilibrium. Mademoiselle Plouernel contemplated in wrapt
+enthusiasm the spectacle presented to her eyes, all the more indifferent
+to the danger that threatened her, seeing she did not believe in death.
+Yes, son of Joel, in keeping with the ancient faith of the Gauls, our
+fathers, the young girl was upheld by the conviction that, as a
+consequence of the phenomenon called "death," the soul freed itself of
+its material wrappage, the body, in order to assume a new form
+appropriate to its entrance upon other spheres. She firmly believed
+that, body and soul, spirit and matter, life was renewed, or rather
+continued, in the starry worlds that spangle the firmament.
+
+A second dash of the sea finished and carried off the brigantine's
+rudder. The vessel's position became desperate. The captain fired a last
+signal of distress, still hoping to be heard by the pilots of Delft and
+to bring them to his aid. The signal was heard. A caravel, a sort of
+solid yet light ship, that, thanks to its special build, is better able
+than any other to beat its way against violent winds and over heavy
+seas, was seen to emerge from the harbor. Tacking with as much skill as
+daring, at times disappearing in the troughs of the towering waves that
+seemed to swallow her up, the caravel would again reappear riding their
+crests and almost lying upon her white sails that grazed the foam of the
+billows as the wings of a sea bird graze the water. At the risk of
+foundering, the caravel steadily approached the disabled brigantine.
+
+"Ah," cried the captain of the St. Eloi, "to dare come out to our help
+in such a storm, the commander of that caravel must be as generous a man
+as skilful and intrepid a sailor!"
+
+Struck by these words Mademoiselle Plouernel followed with increased
+interest the manoeuvres of the caravel, that steadily tacked its way
+towards the distressed brigantine. The sturdy craft went upon a new leg,
+in order to pass within hailing distance of the brigantine, that now,
+wholly dismantled and deprived of its rudder, had become the toy of wave
+and wind, the combined violence of which was driving her towards the
+shore, where she would inevitably have been dashed to pieces.
+
+Suddenly--a common phenomenon near land--the storm was almost completely
+hushed; the sea, however, would long continue heavy, and its action,
+combined with that of the tide, carried the St. Eloi, which was unable
+to steer herself into port, straight upon the rocks that littered the
+shore. The caravel had made good use of the last gusts of wind and drawn
+steadily nearer. She had only a few sailors on board. At the stern and,
+despite his youth, managing the rudder with a vigorous and experienced
+hand, stood a mariner of about twenty years. The youth presented a
+virile and charming picture. His head and neck were bare, his hair and
+forehead streamed with the spray of the dashing waves. He wore a jacket
+of red wool and wide breeches of white cloth that were half hidden in
+his large fisherman's boots. The resolute attitude of the young mariner,
+who, at the risk of his own life, strove to save the lives of strangers
+to him; his calm, intelligent and bold face--in short the youth's
+attitude, appearance and conduct, imparted to the heroism of his action
+a character of such grandeur and touching generosity that both the
+courage and personality of the approaching savior of the brigantine
+made a lively impression upon Mademoiselle Plouernel. As soon as he hove
+within hailing distance, the young master of the caravel shouted in
+French to the captain of the St. Eloi that, although the swell of the
+sea still continued heavy and rendered approach dangerous, he would
+manoeuvre in such manner as to tow the brigantine into port. Laborious,
+delicate and difficult was the operation requisite to keep the disabled
+ship from certain wreck by being cast upon the rocks by the rising tide.
+The skilful manoeuvre was successfully executed by the master of the
+caravel. His sailors threw a cable to the brigantine; out came their
+long oars in order to supplement the dying wind; at the expiration of an
+hour the St. Eloi, finally out of danger, cast anchor in the harbor of
+Delft.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+BERTHA OF PLOUERNEL.
+
+
+Once disembarked at the port of Delft, the Marchioness of Tremblay
+regained her spirits, that the fright of the tempest had upset, and she
+remembered often to have met in Paris a certain Monsieur Tilly at the
+house of Monsieur Van Orbek, a rich Dutchman, who, emulating in
+sumptuous display the famous contractor Samuel Bernard, gave the
+handsomest feasts in the world, whither both court and town crowded. On
+such occasions, Monsieur Tilly more than once gallantly offered the
+Marchioness the hospitality of his house in The Hague, if she should
+ever happen to visit that city; his residence, he said, was at her
+disposal. The Marchioness now remembered the offer, and finding it
+unpleasant to have to wait in a wretched hostlery of the seaport of
+Delft for some neutral vessel bound to England--a rare occurrence since
+the breaking out of the war--the lady despatched an express to Monsieur
+Tilly, certain that he would deem himself highly honored at extending
+hospitality to her. Indeed, Monsieur Tilly gallantly hastened in person
+from The Hague to Delft, whence he himself took the Marchioness, her
+niece and Abbot Boujaron to The Hague, being at the time all the better
+able to tender his hospitality to the distinguished guests, seeing that,
+as he explained, his wife was then at Amsterdam at the sick-bed of her
+mother.
+
+The Marchioness of Tremblay was speedily installed at The Hague in the
+residence of Monsieur Tilly, where she occupied on the first floor a
+vast apartment furnished with the luxury peculiar to those republican
+navigators, who, trafficking with the whole world, gathered in their
+homes most precious fabrics, porcelains and furnitures from China and
+the East Indies, vases from Japan, lacquer cabinets and folding-screens
+from Coromandel, carpets from Smyrna, glasswork from Venice. All these
+rare curiosities were found in profusion at Monsieur Tilly's residence.
+Still suffering from the fatigue of her rough passage, the Marchioness
+was partly stretched upon a reclining chair, placed near a glass door
+that opened upon a balcony, sheltered from the rays of the sun and the
+public gaze by a sort of netting striped red and white. Mademoiselle
+Plouernel sat not far from her aunt, who, continuing the conversation
+that the two had been carrying on, proceeded to say:
+
+"You will have to admit, my dear, that the lot of Mademoiselle
+Kerouaille is worthy of envy. The King--"
+
+But noticing that her niece was not listening, the Marchioness broke
+off, remarking:
+
+"Bertha, your absentmindedness is singular. What is it that you are
+thinking about? Tell me!"
+
+"I was thinking of my brother Raoul. I hope his illness will not grow
+worse during the delay that our journey to London is unfortunately
+undergoing," answered Mademoiselle Plouernel in accents of deep emotion.
+
+And after a moment's silence she continued:
+
+"But there is in all this something that seems unexplainable to me.
+Monsieur Noirmont left London two or three days after the date of the
+letter that informed you of my brother's illness, and still Monsieur
+Noirmont stated to us only a short time ago, at Versailles, that at the
+time of his departure from England he left Raoul in perfect health."
+
+"Monsieur Noirmont must have wished to conceal the truth from us,"
+replied the Marchioness, slightly embarrassed; "people always dislike to
+be the bearers of bad news."
+
+"And yet nothing seemed more sincere than the extreme astonishment with
+which Monsieur Noirmont was struck when he learned from us of my
+brother's illness, and--"
+
+"Good God, my dear, I wish I had your facility for doubting facts," said
+the Marchioness, impatiently interrupting her niece; "but I am not
+allowed to entertain any such doubts. I only console myself in advance
+with the thought of the excellent influence that will be exercised upon
+Raoul's health by my presence, and yours especially--"
+
+"Mine?" answered Bertha sadly; "I hope it will be so."
+
+"That should be, to you, not a hope, but a certainty."
+
+"My elder brother has until now shown so much coolness towards me--"
+
+"My niece, such a reproach!"
+
+"It is not a reproach--it is the expression of a sorrow. For the rest,
+Raoul and I have spent our childhood and the first years of our youth
+almost as strangers to each other. He lived near my father, I near my
+mother. I can not be surprised at Raoul's indifference towards me."
+
+"You greatly err, my dear, with regard to what you wrongly, very
+wrongly, term his indifference. Do you forget that by virtue of his
+right of primogeniture, with the death of my brother, he has become the
+head of our family? The quality of head of our family confers upon Raoul
+the full authority that your father and mother were vested with during
+their lives over their children. As a matter of course, such authority
+imposes upon Raoul, in his relations towards you and Guy, your second
+brother, a certain degree of reserve, of gravity, I might say of
+severity that must in no wise be confounded with indifference. He, on
+the contrary, is exceptionally attached to you. But I must say--and I
+beg you not to see in my words even the shadow of a reproach," the
+Marchioness added, insinuatingly, "I must admit that a certain turn to
+freedom in your disposition, a certain stubborn way of looking at some
+things from a viewpoint that is wholly opposed to Raoul's, may have
+occasionally, I shall not say made him take umbrage at you, but may have
+given some uneasiness to the warm solicitude that he entertains for
+you--seeing that it is his duty to fill towards you the strict functions
+of a father."
+
+"I might answer you, aunt, that Raoul showed himself cold and severe
+towards me before the loss of my father and my poor mother--a loss that
+would be irreparable to me but for the certainty of some day re-rising
+into new life with that idolized mother, in the spirit world where we
+shall all meet again."
+
+"Your father's loss must, accordingly, be less irreparable to you than
+your mother's," observed the Marchioness with some bitterness; "to say
+the least, the difference that you establish in your grief for the
+departed ones, is strange."
+
+"Aunt," replied Bertha with a firm voice, "I respected my father and
+adored my mother. She nursed me, brought me up, educated me. I never
+left her. My happiest days were spent at her side in Brittany, in the
+retirement of our Castle of Plouernel, where I spent my first eighteen
+years, while all that time my father lived at court. I barely saw him
+once every year for a short time during his transient visits to the
+castle when the hunting season would bring him to his domains. So you
+see, my mother has left me numerous tokens of remembrance. They were
+continuous and loving, profoundly loving. They render, they will ever
+render her loss--or rather, her absence--irreparable to me, at least in
+this world. But let us return to Raoul. As I told you a moment ago, he
+always showed himself, even when still young, cold and even haughty
+towards me, whenever he accompanied my father into Brittany, and he felt
+offended at my having my own way of looking at things, a way that
+frequently was different from his own."
+
+"The reason is, my dear, that for people of our class there is but one
+way of looking upon a number of things--such as religion, morals,
+politics--"
+
+"In that case I must be an exception to the general rule; but that is of
+no consequence. Believe me, aunt, I have the liveliest desire to find
+myself mistaken with regard to Raoul's sentiments towards me; and, I
+must admit it, I have been profoundly touched by his request to see me
+at a time when, as I hear, he is seized with a grave disease, the
+reality of which I still wish I could doubt. I did not expect such a
+proof of tenderness on his part. And so, as I said before, I hope
+Raoul's illness has not grown worse, seeing that, alas! like so many
+others, he has preserved the prejudice of death, a thing that adds such
+cruel agonies to all illness."
+
+"The prejudice of death!" repeated the Marchioness, shrugging her
+shoulders and hardly able to control herself. "That is one of your
+extravagances! You set yourself up in rebellion against our holy
+religion!"
+
+"A sublime extravagance!" replied Bertha with a radiant smile. "It
+suppresses superstitions; it frees us from the terror of decease; it
+imparts to us the certainty of living anew near those whom we have
+loved."
+
+"My dear niece, I would take you to be out of your mind, were it not
+that I know you really derive pleasure from such eccentricities. But
+however that may be, I have the infirmity of sharing with your brother
+and with so many other weak minds the vulgar prejudice of death. I hope,
+and I have every reason to hope, that the state of Raoul's health,
+although grave, is by no means alarming. Far away from his own country,
+his family, his friends, but still considering it to be a sacred duty on
+his part to remain in London in the service of the King our master, he
+has fallen into a sort of listless languor, a black melancholy, and he
+relies upon our presence, and yours especially, to dissipate his
+distemper."
+
+"A distemper of languor?" replied Mademoiselle Plouernel pensively. "It
+seems to me such a disease is generally preceded by symptoms of
+dejection and sadness; but Monsieur Noirmont said to us that when he
+left Raoul, my brother's spirits, good looks and genuinely French
+mirthfulness eclipsed the most brilliant seigneurs of the court of King
+Charles II."
+
+"Oh, I doubt not that! Poor Raoul is capable of the greatest sacrifices
+in order worthily to represent his master, our great King; he would even
+suppress his physical pains and moral sufferings."
+
+"Excuse me, aunt, but I am unable to understand you. I was not aware
+that my brother had a political mission to fill."
+
+"And yet there is nothing more simple! Does not your brother, charged
+with a mission to King Charles II during the absence of the French
+ambassador Monsieur Croissy, represent his Majesty Louis XIV at London?
+Consequently, however deep his melancholia may be, is not my nephew
+bound to conceal it from the eyes of the English court, so as not to be
+outdone in gracefulness, wit and mirth by the English courtiers, and to
+continue to eclipse them all in honor of his master? Thus it is that
+Raoul is fulfilling the duties imposed upon him by his mission to King
+Charles. But," added the Marchioness, after this plausible answer to her
+niece's objections, and wishing, moreover, to change the subject of a
+conversation that embarrassed her, "but by the way of the good King
+Charles--the name of that gallant and joyful prince leads me back to the
+subject that we wandered from with this long digression upon my nephew.
+I must repeat to you what I was saying and which your absentmindedness
+at the moment prevented you from hearing. I was speaking of the
+beautiful young Breton lady."
+
+"What did you say about her, aunt?"
+
+"I was saying: Admit that the lot of the beautiful Mademoiselle
+Kerouaille, who is to-day the Duchess of Portsmouth, and one of the
+greatest ladies of England, by reason of the favor that she has
+received, is a lot worthy of envy."
+
+Bertha of Plouernel shuddered; her beautiful and usually pale visage was
+suffused by a blush; her black eyebrows contracted; and, gazing at the
+Marchioness with undisguised amazement, she said:
+
+"Is it to me that you put such a question?"
+
+"What astonishes you, my dear?"
+
+"You ask me whether the lot of Mademoiselle Kerouaille seems to me
+worthy of being envied?"
+
+"Why, yes, my dear child; the question is quite natural."
+
+"You, then, despise me!" cried Mademoiselle Plouernel with an outburst
+of indignation. "You, my father's sister! Oh, madam--madam!"
+
+"Truly, niece, I drop from the clouds!" answered the Marchioness with
+profound sincerity. "What! Do I despise you because I mention to you the
+enviable lot of a noble young girl who has had the signal honor of
+serving the interests of the great King, our neighbor--and of meriting
+the affection and favors of such a powerful monarch!"
+
+"Madam," replied Bertha, interrupting the Marchioness with a trembling
+voice, "during the nearly eighteen months since I had the misfortune of
+losing my mother, I have lived with you in Paris or Versailles; I
+thought you knew me somewhat; I find that I am mistaken, since you look
+surprised to see me revolt at infamy, and since you dare to ask me such
+a question."
+
+"Infamy! In truth, you are losing your mind, my dear niece."
+
+"Not one, but many infamies," Bertha of Plouernel proceeded, with biting
+satire. "Madam, I have no choice but to say so plainly to you. Thanks to
+the licence in morals that reigns in your salon, at court and everywhere
+else, I have despite myself learned things that a young girl should
+never as much as suspect--the principles that guide the conduct of the
+great world."
+
+"And what did you learn, niece?"
+
+"Among a thousand other indignities, I learned this, madam: King Charles
+was still hesitating whether or not to declare war upon the Dutch
+Republic, where we now are meeting with generous hospitality; Louis XIV
+thereupon charged the Duchess of Orleans to overcome the indecision of
+her brother Charles II by whatever means she could. She agreed; departed
+for London equipped with a considerable sum of money and intentionally
+leading in her train one of her ladies of honor, a young girl of
+extraordinary beauty--Mademoiselle Kerouaille. And what was the purpose
+that caused the Duchess of Orleans to take the handsome girl in her
+company? It was for the purpose of delivering her to the King in return
+for his declaration of war upon the Dutch. Lewdness matched with
+treachery--infamy! Such is the statecraft of these monarchs!"
+
+"One moment, niece. You are mistaken in your appreciations."
+
+"Madam, I said there was not one but several infamies. Did I exaggerate?
+Let us number them: speculating upon the dissoluteness of the King of
+England, Louis XIV sends his sister-in-law, the Duchess of Orleans, to
+fill the role of a coupler--is not that enough of an infamy? And when we
+see that princess lowering herself to such an ignoble commerce, towards
+whom? towards her own brother--is there not in that a double infamy?"
+
+"Once more, my niece, what do you know about the negotiations between
+princes?"
+
+"Finally, Mademoiselle Kerouaille, an accomplice in the ignominious
+transaction, sells herself to the King of England and accepts the duchy
+of Portsmouth as the price of her public shame--a further infamy! Shame
+upon these execrable beings!"
+
+"You seem to forget that you speak of crowned heads!"
+
+"It is true, madam! I forgot that a Prince of the Catholic Church,
+Bossuet, the Bishop of Meaux, dared to say, in the very house of God, in
+the presence of the court, assembled on that occasion to hear the
+funeral oration on the Duchess of Orleans: 'She went on a mission to
+unite two kingdoms by _pleasing methods_, and her own _virtue_ was the
+sole mediator between the two Kings.' Is such language not infamous
+enough on the lips of a man invested with an august character?
+Hypocrisy, servility, cowardice--what apanages to a priest who, rather
+than corrupt, should purify the human race!"
+
+After having first betrayed her sincere astonishment at the vehement
+indignation of Mademoiselle Plouernel, and after a sense of suppressed
+anger and even rage succeeded her astonishment, the Marchioness of
+Tremblay collected herself, reflected for a moment, and promptly
+imparting to her features the sweetest expression that they could
+assume, and to her voice the most affectionate accents into which she
+was capable of modulating it, she rose from her reclining chair and said
+to her niece, who was still trembling with contempt and disgust:
+
+"Dear child--come to my arms. Let me embrace you--you are an angel."
+
+Not a little astonished at this outburst of tenderness, the young lady
+hesitated to respond to the invitation of her aunt, who repeated:
+
+"Yes, come and let me embrace you; you are a noble being, worthy of the
+name that you carry; you are an angel, an archangel; you have issued
+triumphant from a trial to which I wished to put you."
+
+"A trial?" queried Mademoiselle Plouernel without any effort at
+concealing her incredulity; but immediately after, and yielding to the
+impulse of all pure and straightforward characters, who are ever more
+disposed to believe good than evil, Bertha approached the Marchioness,
+who, taking her niece in her arms, pressed the noble girl to her heart
+and kissed her effusively.
+
+"Blessed be God! It was only a trial!" repeated the young girl, smiling
+with gratification and feeling her chest relieved of a heavy weight.
+"But aunt, dear aunt, I mean not to reprove you--only those are tried
+who are doubted. Did you doubt me?"
+
+"No; of course not! But in our days one sees a King's love turn so many
+young heads, even the most solid, that--"
+
+"And you mistrusted the solidity of mine?"
+
+"However certain I was, I wished, dear niece, to see you prove it in all
+the luster of good judgment and purity. Only, and neither do I now mean
+to convey a reproach, I do deplore that a young person of your birth
+should, as it sometimes happens with you, forget herself to the point of
+speaking irreverently of the priests, the bishops, the Princes of the
+Church, and above all of the great King, our master, of whom your
+brother has the honor of being one of the most faithful, the most
+devoted servants."
+
+"Aunt, let us not discuss the worthiness of Bossuet and his fellows, any
+more than the worthiness of him whom you style your master; he never
+will be mine. I have but one Master: He thrones in heaven."
+
+"Do doubt; but after God, come the priests, the ministers, the Pope, the
+bishops, and then comes the King, to whom we owe blind submission,
+boundless devotion, pious respect."
+
+"Pious respect! When at Versailles I saw that King promenading in public
+in one carriage with the Queen his wife and his two mistresses--the old
+and the new--Mademoiselle La Valiere and Madam Montespan! Is such
+audacity in bad morals to be respected? No! I shall not respect that
+infamous King who surrounds himself with high-born courtesans!"
+
+"In truth, my dear, you are losing your reason. The violence of your
+language! Where can you have drawn such principles from?"
+
+"Excuse my Breton frankness, but I could not respect a person who
+inspires me with aversion, disgust and contempt. What! That prince knows
+how his scandalous amours afflict the Queen. He is aware of the
+bitterness of the rivalry between La Valiere and Montespan! And yet,
+without pity for the laceration of the hearts of those three women, he
+forces them to gulp down the affront put upon them, to silently swallow
+their mutual jealousy and resentment, to smother their shame. He forces
+them to appear in public face to face; he drags them triumphantly after
+him as if anxious to glory openly in his double adultery! Ah, I repeat
+it, that ridiculous self-infatuation, that disregard of all sense of
+chastity, that brutal disdain for all human feelings, that insolent
+cynicism towards women--no, that never could inspire me with aught but
+aversion, contempt and disgust!"
+
+"Oh, my niece, in their fervent adoration of their much beloved
+sovereign, La Valiere, Montespan and the Queen do as people do who make
+to God a sacrifice of their pains--they offer their torn hearts to their
+idol, the handsomest, the greatest King in the whole world!"
+
+"Well, aunt, that theory becomes excessively hyperbolic. Have I not seen
+him, that 'great King,' an undersized man in reality, seeking to add
+inches to his stature with the aid of immoderately high heels and
+enormous wigs! Tell me, deprived of his heels, his wigs and, above all,
+his royal mantle, what, I pray you, is left of the 'idol'? Why, a little
+stuffed and groomed crow! For the rest, a good carpet dancer, a still
+better knight of the carrousel; always in red paint, severe, buttressed
+in the majesty of his trappings, never laughing out of fear to expose
+his villainous teeth, otherwise negligent of his appearance and never
+shaving but every three days, passionately fond of perfumery in order to
+conceal his bad breath, finally having, under the category of truly
+'great' nothing to show except his appetite, to judge from his voracity,
+which I once witnessed at Versailles on a gala day! But raillery carries
+me away, and I blush, myself," added Mademoiselle Plouernel, whose
+features quickly assumed an expression of deep sadness. "Am I ever to
+forget that my mother's brother finished his days in a dungeon, the
+victim of the iniquity of Louis XIV!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE HUGUENOT COLONEL.
+
+
+The Marchioness of Tremblay had her secret reasons to suppress her own
+sentiments, and not to fulminate against what she termed the "enormities
+of her niece," who, however, on this occasion, had given stronger vent
+than ever before to her hostility for the "idol" who was desolating
+Gaul. Accordingly, Bertha's aunt contented herself with a few forced
+smiles, and seeking to give a different turn to the conversation that,
+besides being generally distasteful to her, threw doubts into her mind
+concerning the secret plans that she was pursuing, she observed in a
+mild tone:
+
+"After all, my dear, the unwonted vehemence of your language has its
+excuse in this, that the contagion of the country on whose shores we
+suffered shipwreck has smitten you. This wicked little heretical
+republic, once so severely chastised by Louis XIV, has always held our
+great King in particular aversion. The heretical and republican
+pestilence must have mounted to your head; who knows," she added with an
+affectation of archness, "but you may come out of the country a
+full-fledged Huguenot."
+
+"I should then have, at least, the consolation of knowing that I shall
+not be the first or only Huguenot in our family," answered Mademoiselle
+Plouernel, whose features the line of thought into which her aunt's
+words threw her seemed suddenly to overcast with pensiveness; "I would
+be but following the example of one of our ancestors who was not much of
+a partisan of royalty. Was not my father's grandfather a Huguenot? Did
+not Colonel Plouernel, as he was then called, take part in the religious
+wars of the last century under the great Coligny, one of whose bravest
+officers he proved himself? Did he not fight valiantly against the royal
+and Catholic armies?"
+
+"Alas, it is but too true. The apostasy of that Plouernel is a blot upon
+our family. He was the youngest son of the family. After his eldest
+brother, the Count, and the latter's son, the Viscount, were both killed
+in the front ranks of the royal and Catholic army, at the battle of
+Roche-la-Belle, fighting against the rebellious heretics, the Huguenot
+colonel became by that catastrophe the head of our house, and came into
+possession of its vast domains. Unfortunately, his son shared the
+paternal vice of heresy, but at last his grandson, who was my father,
+re-entered, thanks to God, the bosom of the Catholic Church, and resumed
+the observance of our old traditions of love, respect and loyalty to our
+Kings. Let us leave the two Plouernels, the only two unworthy members of
+our family, buried in their double felony. We should endeavor to forget
+that the two ever lived."
+
+"It goes against my grain, aunt, to contradict you, but I can assure you
+that Colonel Plouernel, by reason of his courage, his virtues and the
+nobility of his character, is perhaps the only male member of whom our
+family may be justly proud."
+
+As Mademoiselle Plouernel was saying these last words she happened to
+cast her eyes in the direction of the net awning that sheltered from the
+rays of the sun the wide balcony near which she was seated. She remained
+silent for a moment, while her eyes, looking intently into the space
+that stretched before Monsieur Tilly's house, seemed to follow with so
+much interest someone who was passing on the street, that, half rising
+from her easy-chair, the Marchioness inquisitively asked her niece:
+
+"What is it you see out there? You seem to be absorbed in deep
+contemplation."
+
+"I am looking at the young mariner whom you know," answered Bertha
+without evincing the slightest embarrassment; "he was just passing with
+a grey-haired man, I doubt not his father; there is a marked resemblance
+between the two. Both have very sympathetic ways and faces."
+
+"Of what mariner are you speaking, if you please? I know nobody of that
+class."
+
+"Why, aunt, can you have so soon forgotten the services rendered us when
+we were in mortal danger--you who believe in death? Would not the
+brigantine on which we embarked from Calais have foundered with every
+living soul on board, had it not been for the heroic action of that
+young mariner, French like ourselves, who braved the tempest in order to
+come to our aid, and snatch us from the imminent danger that we ran?"
+
+"Well! And did not Abbot Boujaron give the mariner ten louis in my name,
+in payment for the service that he rendered us? We are quits with him."
+
+"It is true--and immediately upon receiving the remuneration, which went
+unaccompanied by a single courteous word, or a single expression that
+came from the heart, the young mariner turned, threw the ten louis into
+the cap of an invalid sailor who was begging on the wharf, and our
+generous rescuer said with a smile to the poor man: 'Take this, my
+friend, here are ten louis that Monsieur the Abbot gives you--for you to
+pray for the absolution of his sins; we all need being prayed for,
+abbots as much as anybody else.' And with a respectful salute he walked
+away."
+
+"And that was what I call a piece of extreme impertinence!" interjected
+the Marchioness, interrupting her niece. "The idea of giving the ten
+louis to the beggar to pray for the absolution of the Abbot's sins! Was
+not that to insinuate that the holy man had a heavily loaded conscience?
+I was not aware of the fellow's effrontery and ingratitude; I was still
+too sea-sick and under the effect of the fright we went through. Well,
+then, to return to the salt water rat, the fellow's disdain for the
+remuneration offered him, cancels even more completely whatever debt we
+may have owed him."
+
+"That is not my opinion, aunt. Accordingly I requested our host,
+Monsieur Tilly, to be kind enough to ascertain the name and address of
+our brave countryman, who can only be a temporary resident of Delft--to
+judge by what has been reported to me."
+
+"And for what purpose did you make the _kind_ inquiry, dear niece?"
+
+"I wish to commission Monsieur Tilly to assure our generous rescuer of
+our gratitude, and to ask him to excuse the strange conduct of Monsieur
+the Abbot towards him--excuses that, I must admit, I had not the courage
+to offer on the spot; I felt so confused at the humiliation that he was
+put to, and, besides, I felt too indignant at the conduct of the Abbot
+to trust myself to speak to him. Just now, as I saw him crossing the
+square--"
+
+"You probably had a wish to call him from the window?" asked the
+Marchioness suffocating with repressed anger. "Truly, dear niece, you
+are losing your head more and more. Such a disregard for propriety on
+the part of a person of your quality!"
+
+"I never thought of calling our countryman out of the window; I was only
+sorry that Monsieur Tilly did not happen to be with us at the time. He
+might have gone out after him and asked him to step in."
+
+"My dear, what you say upon this subject is so absurd, that I even
+prefer to hear your praises of Colonel Plouernel--although that topic is
+not of the most edifying."
+
+"Nothing easier than to accommodate you, aunt," answered Bertha with a
+smile that seemed to foreshadow numerous subjects for the suffocation of
+the Marchioness. "In a manuscript left by Colonel Plouernel under the
+title of 'Instructions to His Son' a most extraordinary fact was
+recorded. In reminding his son of the antiquity of his family, which
+goes back to the time of the conquest of Gaul by the Franks, the
+colonel added the natural observation that there are no conquerors
+without conquered, and that the Franks, from whom we of the noble race
+claim to descend, despoiled and then enslaved the Gauls. He then
+proceeded to say that a family of the Gallic race, a descendant of whom
+the colonel became acquainted with at the siege of La Rochelle, handed
+down to its own members from age to age, first, from the time of the
+conquest of Gaul by the Romans, and then, from the conquest of the
+country by the Franks, a series of legends that chronicled the trials
+and misfortunes undergone by the several and succeeding members of that
+family, which, strange coincidence! on the occasion of the frequent
+uprisings of the enslaved Gauls, more than once fought arms in hand and
+victoriously against the seigneurs of our own Frankish house! Our
+ancestor, the colonel, approves and extols the right of conquered
+peoples to rise in insurrection.
+
+"Towards the end of the last century," Mademoiselle Plouernel proceeded
+as in a revery, "during the siege of La Rochelle, Colonel Plouernel
+became strongly attached by bonds of friendship to one of the
+descendants of that Gallic family, an armorer by occupation, and one of
+the bravest soldiers of Admiral Coligny. The armorer being, at the close
+of the religious war, ardently desirous of returning to Brittany and
+establishing himself there, in the ancient cradle of his family, which,
+according to the chronicles of his kin, owned their fields not far from
+Karnak, and Colonel Plouernel, on his part, wishing to do a kindness to
+his friend, the armorer of La Rochelle, our ancestor offered the brave
+Huguenot a long lease of the farm of Karnak, which he owned and which he
+transmitted to his descendants together with the domain of Mezlean. But,
+according to the feudal custom, 'use' and 'habitance' change after a
+certain number of years into 'vassalage,' and so it has come about that
+the descendants of the armorer, they never having left the domain of
+Mezlean, are to-day vassals of my brother. My mother obtained the
+certainty of this fact by ordering the bailiff of Plouernel to
+communicate with the bailiff of Mezlean and inquire whether a family
+named Lebrenn, that is the family's name, lived on the farm of Karnak.
+The bailiff answered that in the year 1573 a man of that name had taken
+the farm in lease and that the farm was still cultivated by the
+descendants of the same family. I doubt not that, owing to the proximity
+of the port of Vannes, the elder brother of the present farmer of Karnak
+took to the sea, a calling that carries with it enfranchisement from
+vassalage. Struck by the circumstances mentioned in the manuscript of
+Colonel Plouernel, my mother arranged an excursion to Mezlean in order
+to make the acquaintance of a family in so many ways interesting to
+know. We were to make the journey only shortly before the fatal illness
+that separated me from my mother--until the day when I shall live again
+at her side in the world that she now inhabits," added Bertha with a
+sigh, and she relapsed into pensive silence.
+
+"But, in short, what conclusion did that Huguenot colonel, and do you,
+draw from the, I must admit, extraordinary facts registered in that
+manuscript? I find myself unable to follow your reasoning."
+
+"The conclusion is simple and touching, it serves as the moral to the
+manuscript left by Colonel Plouernel; he closes it with these words to
+his son: 'My child, the death of my dear brother has made me master of
+the immense domains of our house in Auvergne, in Beauvoisis and in
+Brittany; thousands of vassals inhabit those domains. But never forget
+this--our vast acres and large wealth as well as our nobility have for
+their origin an iniquitous and bloody conquest; these lands that to-day
+are ours and over which we lord it, once belonged to the Gauls who, from
+being free, were dispossessed, subjugated and reduced to a frightful
+condition of slavery by the Franks, our ancestors. Our present vassals
+are the descendants of that disinherited race which has been
+successively the slaves, serfs and vassals of our ancestors. Show
+yourself, accordingly, charitable, compassionate, equitable, fraternal,
+benevolent, obedient to the humane law of the Christian faith. Alas!
+however generous your conduct may be towards them, never could it
+expiate the wrongs to which our conquering race has subjected the Gallic
+generations for now more than ten centuries. To the end that you may
+know and entertain a just horror for so much iniquity and all the
+sufferings that it entailed, I shall subjoin to these pages several
+fragments of the history of a family of Gallic origin, the family of
+Lebrenn of Karnak--'"
+
+"Niece!" cried the Marchioness indignantly, "I can no longer listen to
+such enormities!"
+
+The Marchioness of Tremblay was interrupted in the flow of her
+indignation by the entrance of Abbot Boujaron, her confessor, intimate
+friend, and, in short, her paramour.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE LOST LETTER.
+
+
+Abbot Boujaron's worried looks, the disorder into which his wig, his
+neckerchief and his cloak were thrown, threw the Marchioness of Tremblay
+into such alarm that, wholly forgetting the subject of her conversation
+with Mademoiselle Plouernel, she cried: "My God, Abbot, what has
+happened? You are all upset; you seem to be in great excitement; you
+look as if you had just come out of a scuffle."
+
+"I have good reason to be uneasy, dear Marchioness. I have mislaid the
+letter that we wrote this morning to your nephew--the confidential
+letter that you know of."
+
+"What!" replied the Marchioness visibly terrified. "Was not the letter
+put carefully folded in the pocket of your coat? I put it there myself.
+It can not have been mislaid."
+
+"I was on my way to the house of the person whom, as we decided, I was
+to call upon in order to obtain some further information from him and
+add it to the letter, on which account it was left unsealed, when,
+crossing a large square, I was overtaken and soon found myself
+surrounded by a big crowd clamoring for the death of the De Witt
+brothers and the French."
+
+"What De Witt brothers?" asked the Marchioness. "Are they the two
+intractable republicans whom Monsieur Estrade spoke to us about when he
+returned from his embassy to this country?"
+
+"They are both of them men cast in the mold of Plutarch, to judge by
+what Monsieur Tilly, our host, was telling us of them yesterday,"
+observed Mademoiselle Plouernel, emerging from the revery in which she
+was steeped since the arrival of the Abbot; "I could not tire of hearing
+him speak of the domestic virtues of the two brothers, whom he considers
+to be the greatest living citizens of Holland, and men of distinguished
+probity."
+
+"My dear daughter," answered the Abbot, "our host belongs to the same
+political party as those De Witts; as such he has his reasons to give
+them a high place--in your estimation."
+
+"But the letter," put in the Marchioness with increasing anxiety, "how
+comes it to be mislaid, perhaps lost?"
+
+"Swallowed up, as I found myself, by that loudly vociferating mob that
+was rushing towards the prison where one of the two De Witt brothers is
+confined; pushed, hustled, shoved about, and almost suffocated by that
+plebeian flood, the current of which was carrying me away despite all
+that I could do, I made frantic efforts to extricate myself from the
+surging crowd; in my struggle my frock was unfastened, and I suppose the
+letter dropped out as I was being whirled about--unless I inadvertently
+pulled it out myself when I took my handkerchief to wipe the
+perspiration that streamed down my forehead, after I had finally
+succeeded in getting clear of the bawling, threatening and swearing
+mob."
+
+"I am distracted at the loss of that letter. It may fall into the hands
+of and be read by some indiscreet fellow--you understand me,
+Abbot?--that would be most disagreeable and compromising."
+
+"I understand you but too well, Marchioness! Only too well! I therefore
+went twice over the road that I traveled, but all in vain; I could not
+find the letter! Most unfortunately it was unsealed. The most scrupulous
+man would have been justified to cast his eyes over it--and thus inform
+himself upon its contents."
+
+"Truly, aunt," put in Mademoiselle Plouernel, "I fail to understand the
+deep anxiety that the loss of a letter, that seems to have been written
+to my brother in order to inform him of the delay in our arrival in
+England, can cause you and Monsieur the Abbot. The matter is a trifle;
+it can have no serious results; cease to fret about it."
+
+"There are things, my niece, the wide bearings of which you can not
+understand," answered the Marchioness of Tremblay sententiously; "it is
+enough that you know that the loss of this letter is most regrettable."
+
+At this moment the Marchioness's lackey entered the room after
+announcing himself with a rap at the door, and said to his mistress:
+
+"Madam, there is a man who asks to see Monsieur the Abbot without delay
+on an important matter."
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+"He is a Frenchman, madam."
+
+"Does he seem to be noble?"
+
+"Yes, madam, he carries a sword."
+
+"Marchioness," said the Abbot excitedly as if struck by a sudden
+thought, "it may be this individual found the letter, and is bringing it
+back to me. God be praised! our alarm will be at end! Oh, I hope it may
+be so!"
+
+"But how could the stranger know your address?"
+
+"Did I not write to Raoul that we were stopping with Monsieur Tilly?"
+
+"In that case, Abbot," replied the Marchioness with an accent of extreme
+apprehension, "the stranger must have read the letter! We would have a
+stranger informed upon our plans! We must have light upon this, and
+quickly."
+
+And addressing the lackey:
+
+"Introduce the stranger immediately, and then withdraw."
+
+"The more I think upon it," said Mademoiselle Plouernel to herself,
+astonished and pensive, "all the more unexplainable does my aunt's and
+the Abbot's uneasiness seem to me."
+
+The personage whom the lackey introduced into the salon was a man of
+about forty-five years of age; he was simply dressed, without lace or
+embroidery; for all sign of rank he wore on his shoulders a scarlet knot
+of the color of the feather in his grey felt hat, and the ribbon of his
+sword that hung from a leather baldric. The tawny complexion of the
+stranger, his quick, penetrating eye, black as his moustache, seemed to
+indicate a southern extraction. Of middle size, robust and sinewy,
+resolute in his port and endowed with a physiognomy in which
+intelligence and wit vied with boldness, everything about him revealed
+a man of energy and decision, but so completely master of himself that
+nothing, except what he had no interest in concealing, would be allowed
+to rise to the surface. The new personage presented himself in the salon
+with complete ease, bowed respectfully to the Marchioness and her niece,
+and looked from the one to the other in silence with so marked, so fixed
+a gaze, that the Marchioness of Tremblay felt embarrassed and said to
+her niece:
+
+"Come, Bertha, let us withdraw to my chamber, and leave Monsieur the
+Abbot with monsieur."
+
+Bertha of Plouernel was preparing to follow her aunt when, after having
+again contemplated the young maid, the stranger bowed once more to the
+Marchioness, and said:
+
+"If Madam the Marchioness will allow, the interview that I desire to
+hold with her and with monsieur, Abbot Boujaron, will take place in the
+presence of Mademoiselle Plouernel. It is proper, it is even necessary
+that this should be."
+
+"You know us, monsieur?" said the Marchioness, not a little astonished.
+"You know our names?"
+
+"I have the honor, madam; and my little knowledge extends further than
+that," answered the stranger with a singular smile, again casting a
+penetrating glance at Mademoiselle Plouernel, as if he sought to judge
+her mind by the expression on her face. On his face, in turn, the
+evidence of a heightening interest in the girl could be detected. But as
+these manifestations passed unperceived by Bertha, she felt hurt by the
+persistence of the stranger's gaze, she blushed, and taking a step
+towards the door of her aunt's chamber said to the Marchioness:
+
+"Excuse me, aunt, if I go and leave you with the gentlemen."
+
+"Mademoiselle," said the stranger warmly, as he divined the maid's
+thoughts, "I conjure you, do not impute the obstinacy of my gaze to a
+disregard of the respect due you, and with which I am profoundly
+penetrated; I sought to read and I did read on your features the
+uprightness and nobility of your heart; I doubly congratulate myself on
+being able to render you a service, a great service."
+
+"Me, monsieur?" answered Mademoiselle Plouernel in great astonishment,
+yet struck by the accent of unquestionable sincerity in the stranger's
+words. "What service can you render to me, me whom you do not know, and
+whom you now see for the first time? Be kind enough to explain yourself
+more clearly."
+
+"Monsieur," said the Marchioness haughtily to the stranger, as he was
+about to answer Bertha, "you introduced yourself into this house under
+pretext of soliciting an interview, which Monsieur Abbot Boujaron has
+condescended to grant you. That notwithstanding, you have hitherto
+addressed mademoiselle only--a violation of propriety towards me and
+Monsieur the Abbot."
+
+"Moreover, monsieur," added the Abbot, "we are wholly in the dark as to
+who you are. Your language is as strange as your visit."
+
+"I am your obedient servant, Monsieur Abbot," answered the stranger,
+bowing with sardonic courtesy, "and I shall, if you please, answer
+Mademoiselle Plouernel, who has done me the honor of asking me what the
+service is that I am happy enough to be able to render her. The service
+is summed up in this simple advice: Mademoiselle, go not to England;
+refuse to undertake the voyage."
+
+A tremor ran over Bertha's frame; for an instant she remained dumb with
+stupefaction, while, scarlet with confusion and apprehension, both her
+aunt and the Abbot exchanged significant looks that betrayed their
+embarrassment. Struck speechless for an instant, Mademoiselle Plouernel
+turned to the stranger and asked:
+
+"And why, monsieur, do you warn me against the journey to England?"
+
+"For two reasons, mademoiselle, two important reasons--"
+
+"Monsieur," the Abbot interrupted the stranger with, in an icy tone, "I
+wish to call your attention, first, to the fact that you have committed
+a breach of confidence; secondly, that you have not understood a word of
+the letter that you found and that you took the freedom of reading--an
+indiscretion that a man of good breeding would have carefully guarded
+against."
+
+"And I, in turn, will call your attention, Monsieur Abbot," retorted the
+stranger, "first, to the fact that to read an unsealed letter, found on
+the pavement of a public thoroughfare, is no breach of confidence;
+secondly, that, without priding myself on being gifted with
+extraordinary intellectual power, yet am I intelligent enough to
+understand the value of words. For that reason I have advised
+mademoiselle not to go to England, and resolutely to refuse to
+undertake the journey."
+
+"Monsieur," broke in Bertha with profound feeling, as she yielded to a
+sudden and painful sense of danger that flashed through her mind. "I ask
+it as a favor of you, explain yourself clearly. Be good enough to give
+me your reasons for the advice."
+
+"One moment, my dear child," the Abbot hastened to interpose, in order
+to parry off the stranger's answer; "I am the writer of that letter; it
+is for me to speak intelligently upon it. I can tell monsieur that the
+despatch which he read is addressed to an envoy of his Majesty Louis XIV
+at the court of his Majesty Charles II, and that it deals with very
+delicate affairs of state. Now, then, I must add, that unless one be the
+most reckless of men, which I certainly am not, one does not conduct a
+correspondence upon matters of such a nature, except in cipher, or by
+means of enigmatic phrases, that bear a double sense, both of which seem
+perfectly logical on their face, but the real purport of which remains
+secret between the correspondents themselves, who are alone able to
+interpret it. It will be well for monsieur to understand that."
+
+"If that is the case, Monsieur Abbot, there will be nothing left to me
+but to admit a mistake," replied the stranger with mock humility, "a
+mistake, however, that was quite excusable, and of which I request
+Mademoiselle Plouernel herself to be the judge," he added, taking the
+letter out of his pocket, "from the terms in which this interesting
+missive is couched."
+
+"Monsieur, the reading of the letter is wholly superfluous, it being
+established that the letter no wise concerns mademoiselle."
+
+"No doubt," replied the stranger, "mademoiselle is not touched upon in
+it except in an enigmatic and mysterious manner. Accordingly, when
+Monsieur the Abbot writes to Monsieur the Count of Plouernel:
+
+     "We have all reason to hope that your sister's matchless beauty
+     will produce a lively impression upon the King of England when she
+     is presented to him, and may induce him to decide--"
+
+"But, monsieur, that is intolerable!" cried the Marchioness, "you are
+outrageously abusing our patience--you compel me to request that you
+leave our presence!"
+
+"Monsieur, I listen to you," observed Mademoiselle Plouernel, "and
+believe me, I shall never forget the service that you will have rendered
+me. Be kind enough to continue the reading of the letter."
+
+Recognizing the futility of any further objection to the reading of the
+despatch, the Marchioness and the Abbot crossed their arms, raised their
+eyes to heaven and assumed the appearance of resigned innocence.
+Addressing himself to Bertha the stranger proceeded:
+
+"I shall pass over the details of the incident at sea that obliged the
+vessel on which you, mademoiselle, had embarked, to put in at the port
+of Delft. I now come to the interesting portion of the letter:
+
+     "You informed us, my dear Raoul, that the influence is on the wane
+     of Mademoiselle Kerouaille, who is now the Duchess of Portsmouth
+     and was taken to Charles II by his sister, Madam the Duchess of
+     Orleans, at the beginning of this year in order to urge the
+     libertine King more effectively, by means of the charms of the
+     beautiful Krouaill and a present of a few millions, to sign the
+     treaty of alliance between England and France against the Republic
+     of the United Provinces; you add that, in even measure as the
+     influence of the Duchess of Portsmouth wanes, waxes the ascendency
+     of my Lord Arlington, a bitter partisan of the alliance between
+     England, Spain and the United Provinces, over the vacillating and
+     profligate Rowley, as the familiars of Charles II call his Majesty,
+     and that the said my Lord Arlington has for his assistant and agent
+     a certain Nell Gwynne, a low-lived creature, an incarnate
+     she-devil, who swears, curses, drinks and gets drunk like a
+     trooper, but whose sprightliness, noisy hilarity and brazenness
+     seem greatly to delight his Majesty. From all of this it may hap,
+     as you indicate, that, aided by the nymph and the doubloons of
+     Spain and the Republic, King Charles, after having tired of
+     Mademoiselle Kerouaille and dissipated the present of several
+     millions bestowed upon him by our own master under the pretext of
+     _catholicity_, may go so far as to break the alliance with France
+     and return to the alliance with Spain and the Republic of the
+     United Provinces. Meditation upon those grave possibilities
+     suggested the thought to you, my dear pupil, that the magnificent
+     eyes and challenging beauty of our own Bertha might operate a
+     salutary change in the now unfavorable disposition of old Rowley,
+     counterbalance the influence of Nell Gwynne, and confirm King
+     Charles in his alliance with our master. Struck by the importance
+     of your suggestion, over which madam your aunt and I have long
+     reflected, the expedient seemed excellent to us and also so
+     pressing, that, without answering you, and resorting to an innocent
+     ruse, we have persuaded your sister that you were taken so
+     seriously ill as to induce her to proceed with us to England. We
+     prepared the agreeable surprise for you, but the violent storm of
+     which I gave you a sketch compelled us to put in at Delft. I am now
+     writing to you from The Hague, in order that you may not feel
+     uneasy at the prolonged delay in our answer.
+
+     "So then, my dear pupil, at our speedy arrival in England you are
+     expected to have so completely recovered from your sickness, with
+     the help of God, that there will be no trace of it left to be seen.
+     You will then hasten to present at the court of London Madam the
+     Marchioness of Tremblay and Mademoiselle Plouernel. So that, unless
+     our justified expectations should unhappily be dashed, King
+     Charles, dazzled by the matchless beauty of our Bertha, will be set
+     aflame as usual. We have all reason to hope that your sister's
+     matchless beauty will produce a lively impression upon the King of
+     England when she is presented to him, and may induce him to decide
+     to continue the alliance with France against the United Provinces.
+
+     "I must admit, my dear boy, that I contemplate with no less delight
+     than yourself the huge satisfaction that such a result must afford
+     our master; and I can well understand how in your letter you
+     judiciously passed in review the prodigious favors that were
+     showered upon Monsieur Vivonne from the time that his sister, the
+     Marchioness of Montespan, was honored with the attention of the
+     King, and had the august honor of presenting him with progeny.
+     Accordingly, if our project succeed as we wish, although the affair
+     will have to happen in England, you will not therefore, my dear
+     pupil, in what concerns the favor of our master, be any less the
+     _Vivonne_ of our beautiful _Montespan_.
+
+     "I wish to add that, having put my sojourn at The Hague to good
+     use, I have come to the conclusion, arrived at upon my own
+     observation and after certain conversations that I had with a
+     member of our Society, who is not suspected of belonging to us, A.
+     M. D. G. (conversations, the import of which I shall add at the
+     post-script of this letter, which I shall seal at the house of the
+     good father) I have come to the conclusion that a formidable blow
+     can be dealt to this bedeviled Republic, this hot-bed of heresy,
+     by--"
+
+But the stranger broke off his reading of the letter, and addressing
+Mademoiselle Plouernel:
+
+"The rest of the missive only refers to some confidential communications
+from a member of the Society of Jesus, to which Monsieur the Abbot has
+the privilege of belonging, or, rather, with which he is affiliated.
+These confidential communications, mademoiselle, are of no interest
+whatever to you, since they only refer to the affairs of the Republic.
+When I read this letter, which fell into my hands by the merest
+accident, I revolted at the thought of the unworthy role prepared for a
+young girl who was ignorant of such machinations, and was, perhaps,
+worthy of profound respect. Accordingly, I decided to enlighten her upon
+the dark plot that was being concocted against her. Such, mademoiselle,
+was the only purpose of my visit to this house; and when I read in your
+face the nobility of your heart, and the loftiness of your sentiments I
+applauded myself doubly for having been able to inform and warn you
+concerning the disgraceful projects of your aunt, and to enlighten you
+upon an odious intrigue."
+
+An interval of silence followed the communication of Abbot Boujaron's
+diplomatic missive and the last words of the stranger. Although nailed
+to the floor with consternation, both the Marchioness and the Abbot were
+astonished at seeing Mademoiselle Plouernel listen to the reading of the
+letter without the slightest interruption. Indeed, the young girl
+remained speechless, overwhelmed; her eyes were fixed in space, her
+bosom heaved, and her lips were contracted in a desolate smile.
+
+"Monsieur," she finally said, addressing the stranger with an accent of
+profound gratitude, "it goes beyond my power to express to you my
+gratitude for having judged me favorably, and I shall, in your presence,
+declare my thoughts in full upon this affair to my aunt, the Marchioness
+of Tremblay." And addressing her aunt in a collected voice she proceeded
+deliberately: "I now know, madam, how you and my brother proposed to
+exercise towards me the guardianship with which you were entrusted; I
+shall spare you my reproaches; they could not be understood of you; you
+lack the moral sense; but this much I here declare to you--I shall not
+go to England, and I am resolved no longer to live with you, madam,
+neither at Paris nor at Versailles; I shall henceforth never leave
+Brittany; I shall reside at Plouernel or at Mezlean, having the right to
+live in my father's house."
+
+"My God, mademoiselle," replied the Marchioness with sardonic
+bitterness, "your virtue is strangely resentful and savage! Why such a
+display of anger? Your brother considered that your presence at the
+court in London might be of some service to the King our master. Where
+is the harm in that, I ask you to tell me? Would you not remain free, at
+full liberty to encourage or reject his Britannic Majesty's advances? If
+not to you, then there will be others to whom King Charles may address
+his homage."
+
+"Monsieur, did you hear?" said Mademoiselle Plouernel, turning towards
+the stranger and unable to conceal the disgust that her aunt's words
+caused her. "Could the infamous thought be expressed more
+discreetly--the thought that my dishonor should subserve the violence,
+the cupidity, the ambition and the vainglory of princes bent upon
+oppressing the people!"
+
+"Mademoiselle," said the stranger, deeply affected and struck with the
+admirable expression of the young girl's features as she uttered the
+lofty words that he had just heard, "some day, perhaps, I may remind you
+of your brave malediction of the oppressors."
+
+Not a little surprised at these words, Mademoiselle Plouernel was about
+to ask the stranger for an explanation, when Monsieur Tilly entered the
+salon. The new arrival seemed a prey to overpowering emotion. His face
+looked haggard, his gait was almost tottering. The moment, however, that
+he noticed the presence of the stranger, he hastened to him, saying:
+
+"Monsieur Serdan, do you know what is going on in the city?"
+
+And taking him aside Monsieur Tilly spoke to Monsieur Serdan for several
+minutes in a low voice, after having politely excused himself with the
+Marchioness for holding in her presence a private conversation, the
+gravity and urgency of the subject being his apology for such
+discourteous conduct.
+
+"That bad man's name is Serdan. Do not forget it, Marchioness,"
+whispered the Abbot; "he must be one of our King's enemies--and also an
+enemy of the holy Society of Jesus. Forget not his name--_Serdan_."
+
+"I shall remember it well, my dear Abbot; and there will be others to
+learn it also. Oh, if we only were in France! A _lettre de cachet_ would
+throw the insolent fellow into the Bastille, he would sleep there this
+very night, and he never would come out again."
+
+Mademoiselle Plouernel relapsed into her own painful train of thoughts,
+while her aunt and the Abbot exchanged a few words in a low voice, and
+Monsieur Tilly continued to impart the news of the day to Monsieur
+Serdan, who, after hearing him to the end, exclaimed: "But that would be
+monstrous! No! No! Impossible!"
+
+"After what I have just learned, there is hardly any room left to doubt
+the execrable iniquity that is about to be perpetrated," put in Monsieur
+Tilly. "For the rest, within an hour, I shall know all--we shall then
+take council together."
+
+"But what does John De Witt think of all this?"
+
+"Relying upon his brother's innocence and upon the justice of the
+tribunal, can he remotely suspect such barbarity? I shall proceed to his
+house after issuing orders to the cavalry of The Hague, which I command
+and with which I can count, to keep themselves ready to take horse. I
+anticipate a serious riot."
+
+"I shall meet you at John De Witt's house. There are two of my
+countrymen from Brittany whom I wish to introduce to him. Until you deny
+or confirm the horrible tidings that you have just imparted to me, and
+which I must still doubt, I shall not say a word to John De Witt on the
+subject," answered Monsieur Serdan.
+
+And making a profound bow to Bertha of Plouernel: "Should I never again
+have the honor of meeting you, mademoiselle, I shall ever preserve the
+most touching remembrance of the loftiness of your sentiments. But
+should I meet you again, I shall allow myself to remind you of the noble
+words that you uttered in favor of the downtrodden."
+
+As he was about to leave the room, Monsieur Serdan said to Monsieur
+Tilly: "I shall await you at John De Witt's residence. Do not delay."
+
+"I shall be there shortly, so soon as my dispositions are taken,"
+answered Monsieur Tilly.
+
+Upon Monsieur Serdan's departure, Madam Tremblay assumed her most
+smiling expression and observed to Monsieur Tilly:
+
+"What an amiable man this Monsieur Serdan is! Tell us, I pray you,
+monsieur, where is he from? where does he belong? who is he? what is his
+rank? We feel particularly interested in him. We should be pleased to be
+edified on that subject."
+
+"Please excuse me, Marchioness," answered Monsieur Tilly, "at this
+moment I am pressed for time and have no leisure to post you fully upon
+Monsieur Serdan. He is an honorable man and close friend of mine. I came
+in haste to impart to you, madam, some rather disagreeable
+news--terrible things that our city is just now the theater of."
+
+"What is the matter, monsieur?" inquired the Marchioness. "This morning
+the Abbot noticed considerable excitement among the populace. Are
+matters assuming a grave aspect?"
+
+"Yes, madam, there is an intense excitement in The Hague. It is the
+result of two circumstances--one, the manoeuvres of the agents of the
+Prince of Orange, the head of the party opposed to that of the De Witt
+brothers; the other--pardon, madam, the frankness of my words--the other
+circumstance is the report of the atrocities committed in our country by
+the armies of Louis XIV. There are letters circulating in The Hague
+to-day from several of our provinces which the royal troops have
+invaded. The atrocities that those letters report the French army guilty
+of have exasperated our people. Our party is charged with connivance in
+these deeds, and even with complicity in the treachery of Louis XIV
+towards the Republic; and we are referred to as the _French party_
+because our party sustains the policy of the De Witts in the matter of a
+French alliance. I enter into these details, madam, in order to inform
+you that, such is the popular effervescence at this moment, you would
+run grave risks if you were to be seen on the streets and recognized as
+French. I therefore take the liberty to impress upon you, as well as
+upon Mademoiselle Plouernel and the Abbot, the wisdom of remaining
+indoors to-day. Finally, should there be any serious disorders on the
+streets, do not show yourselves at the windows. Even so, I pray to God
+that the house may be respected in case popular passion becomes
+inflamed, as I much fear it will be. I need not add, madam, how painful
+it is to me to find the hospitality, that it has been my honor to tender
+to you, disturbed in such a way!"
+
+Mademoiselle Plouernel listened in silence to this conversation, and
+seeing both her aunt and the Abbot turn pale, even tremble and exchange
+frightened looks, the young girl said to them with bitter irony: "What
+else do you expect? We are not here at the court of Versailles! Here the
+perjury, the iniquity, the deeds of violence of your master appear in
+their true and horrible colors. Who knows but this very day the deserved
+execration, inspired by 'Louis the Great' for himself, may cost us our
+lives! Oh! Thank God, it is only with joy that I would at this hour
+leave this world, to reunite myself with my mother!"
+
+Mademoiselle Plouernel owed to her mother her virile hatred of wrong,
+her independent spirit, her opinions so wholly at variance with those
+that prevailed at court. To her mother also she owed her firm faith in
+immortality, the faith of our own Gallic forefathers. Brought up in the
+Reformed religion, Madam Plouernel was forced to embrace Catholicism
+when still quite young, and yielding to the importunities of her father
+and mother, she espoused the Count of Plouernel. At the bottom of her
+heart, however, she preserved, her abjuration notwithstanding, that
+"Huguenot leaven," the generous ferment of which imparts to the
+character sooner or later a spirit of independence, and of free inquiry.
+Madam Plouernel's marriage was far from being a happy one. After she
+presented two sons to her husband, he, feeling certain of the
+continuance of his stock, ceased to pay any regard to his wife. Intent
+upon indulging his scandalous amours, he left her in Brittany in the
+Castle of Plouernel, where she was thenceforth to live in absolute
+seclusion, with no other care or happiness than the education of her
+youngest child Bertha.
+
+The Countess had a brother, who was tenderly devoted to her. Bold and of
+an adventurous disposition, he devoted himself to the navy. When still a
+young man he commanded a royal frigate. Having remained a Huguenot, like
+his admiral, Duquesne, he detested the despotism of Louis XIV, and never
+made his appearance at court. Dearly loving his sister, and well
+acquainted with the immoral character of the Count of Plouernel, he
+sought, though in vain, to dissuade his family from a marriage the sad
+consequences of which he clearly foresaw, and he embarked upon a long
+and distant cruise. Kept far away from France by a variety of events, he
+learned, upon his return home, of the sort of exile that his sister was
+doomed to, and of the excesses of her husband. Sorrow and indignation
+carried away the impetuous mariner. He proceeded to Versailles, and
+there, in a crowded gallery, in plain view of all the courtiers, he
+stepped straight toward the Count of Plouernel, overwhelmed him with
+bitter reproaches, and forgot himself to the point of exclaiming:
+"Monsieur, the infamous cynicism of your conduct and your shameless acts
+of adultery are an outrage to my sister and a flattery to your master!"
+This allusion to the amours of Louis XIV was speedily carried to the
+despot's ears. He flew into a violent rage, and that same day the Count
+of Plouernel's brother-in-law was taken to the Bastille and thrown into
+one of its unhealthiest dungeons, where he was left to languish for the
+space of two years, at the end of which he died. Her brother's
+imprisonment and death afflicted Madam Plouernel profoundly, and steeped
+her heart in irreconcilable detestation for Louis XIV. This fresh sorrow
+increased her domestic infelicity. She divided her time between Bertha's
+education, study and reading. The library of the castle, established a
+generation before by Colonel Plouernel, consisted in part of works
+imbued with the spirit of the political and religious independence of
+the Reformation. The Countess nourished her mind with the virile
+substance of those writings. Her favorite books were those which
+breathed the strictness of morals, the loftiness of thought, the
+inflexible love of justice, the austerity of honesty that the avowed
+enemies of the Huguenots themselves give them credit for. Among the
+books collected by Colonel Plouernel she found an admirable treatise on
+the druid creed and traditions, "thanks to which the Gauls were freed
+from the evil of death," inasmuch as they looked upon death as the
+signal for a complete re-birth towards which the soul winged its way
+radiant and reclad in a fresh garb. This faith in the immortality of our
+being, in spirit and matter, the passionate curiosity kindled by the
+thought of incessant migrations through unknown and mysterious worlds,
+in short, that creed, so consoling to hearts that are crushed under the
+weight of present sorrows, soon became the faith of Madam Plouernel, and
+imparted a powerful impulse to the development of her noble qualities.
+Brought up in almost complete seclusion by a mother who adored her, and
+in whom she, in turn, reposed absolute faith, Bertha of Plouernel could
+not choose but imbibe the maternal convictions and opinions. In what
+concerned the recent ignoble action of her own family, Bertha's
+sentiments flowed also from the philosophy of her training. Her aunt and
+Abbot Boujaron, thrown into consternation by the tidings brought to them
+by Monsieur Tilly with regard to the popular indignation in The Hague
+against Louis XIV and the French, remained a prey to distressing
+apprehensions, while Monsieur Serdan hastened away to the residence of
+John De Witt, the Grand Pensionary of Holland.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+JOHN DE WITT.
+
+
+Cornelius and John De Witt were the sons of Jacob De Witt, a citizen
+illustrious by his patriotism and his learning, and formerly one of the
+principal leaders of the Lowenstein party. That party, representing as
+it did the republican traditions of the Low Countries, as contrasted
+with the military spirit, tended above all to promote the maritime
+preponderance that the confederation of the United Provinces was
+entitled to enjoy by reason of her geographic position and the
+mercantile genius of her population. Accordingly, the Lowenstein party
+had, for half a century, been opposing the influence of the Orangemen,
+partisans of the military and hereditary principle of government
+represented by the Princes of Orange. The hereditary Stadtholdership,
+coupled with the functions of captain general of the military and naval
+forces, was in reality a sort of royalty, qualified, it is true, yet
+dangerous to the people's liberty. Accordingly, the Lowenstein party
+caused the States General to enact a decree which disqualified the
+Princes of the house of Orange from holding the Stadtholdership and at
+the same time the supreme command of the military and naval forces, and
+provided, furthermore, that the said offices were not to be hereditary.
+Cornelius De Witt, the elder of the two brothers, was born at Dortrecht
+in 1623, and, at the age of twenty-three was elected a deputy of his
+city and _ruart_ (inspector general of the dikes) in the district of
+Putten--an office of great importance in that country where the dikes
+protect agriculture, and may, at a critical moment, become an important
+means of defense by being broken down--a redoubtable piece of strategy
+in the event of a foreign invasion. Cornelius De Witt, a man of antique
+virtues, and, like his brother, endowed with wide attainments, did not
+confine himself to affairs of state. Having since earliest boyhood
+applied his mind to nautical science and become a skilled mariner, he
+contributed powerfully with his advice during the present war to the
+successful attack made by the fleet of Holland upon the English port of
+Chatham, a victory that was at once disastrous and shameful to the
+British navy. Finally, on the occasion of the naval battle delivered
+this very year to the British and French fleets by Admiral Ruyter in the
+roadstead of Solway, Cornelius De Witt, seated in his capacity of
+commissioner of the admiralty of the Republic, in an ivory chair at the
+most perilous post, the rear castle of the admiral's ship, faced with
+heroic calmness the murderous fire poured upon him by the enemy, and
+thus witnessed impassibly the glorious combat, the plan for which he
+laid down in concert with Ruyter.
+
+John De Witt, his brother's junior by over two years, excelled Cornelius
+as a statesman, and equalled him in civic virtues and courage. Elected
+about 1662 Pensionary of Holland, or the executive agent of the
+Republic, and thus placed at the head of the government, John De Witt's
+love for his country assumed a religious character. He looked upon his
+office as a ministry. Inaccessible by the natural loftiness of his
+nature to the intoxicating allurements of power, that great man's
+simplicity and modesty never were belied by his acts; neither did ever
+his respect for justice, for duty and for pledged faith falter before
+the pretext of 'necessities of state.' Charged with the diplomatic
+relations of the United Provinces, he balked the snares, the perfidies
+and the underground manoeuvres of the foreign ambassadors by the mere
+rectitude of his character and the penetration of his judgment. One
+instance among many, in this great citizen's life, may suffice to depict
+him. He inspired such confidence even in his adversaries, that the
+Princess of Orange entrusted to him the direction of her son's
+education, aware though she was of John De Witt's hostility to the
+hereditary Stadtholdership in the house of Orange. The only descendant
+of that family, destined to become the head of the Orangemen's party,
+was thus entrusted by the most enlightened of mothers to the care of
+John De Witt. He watched over the child with paternal solicitude,
+endeavoring to attune the youthful soul to sentiments of generosity, to
+inspire him with a love for the Republic that he was to serve as a
+citizen, and disclosing to him the misfortunes he would conjure up upon
+his country if he ever became the instrument of the party that used his
+name for a flag. Alas! the efforts of John De Witt failed before the
+consummate dissimulation of the morose, frail, sickly, nervous lad, who
+seemed ever to be wrapped in himself, who concealed his ardent
+aspirations under an impassive exterior, and who, when he arrived at
+man's estate, was this year to repay John De Witt's paternal kindness
+with the blackest ingratitude.
+
+The following was the sequence of events: About six weeks before, John
+De Witt spent a part of the night in considering affairs of state in his
+cabinet at the palace of the States General. Towards two o'clock in the
+morning he left for home, preceded by a valet bearing a torch.
+Unexpectedly a band of men, armed with swords and knives, leaped from
+ambush and fell upon him. He received a saber cut over the neck;
+although unarmed he struggled bravely and received three more wounds,
+the last of which was so serious that he fell down upon the pavement.
+Believing him dead the assassins took to their heels. De Witt succeeded
+in rising to his feet and reaching his residence. The assassins were
+four in number--the two brothers Van der Graeff, Adolf Borrebugh, the
+Post Office Commissioner of Maestricht, and Cornelius De Bruyn, an
+officer in The Hague militia. Only one of the two Van der Graeff
+brothers could be arrested. The other brother and his two accomplices
+succeeded in fleeing to a place of safety--the camp of the young William
+of Orange, who was appointed commandant of the land forces when the war
+broke out against France and England. The Prince was summoned to deliver
+the murderous assailants of John De Witt. He refused.
+
+From that moment suspicions of William of Orange's complicity in the
+crime gathered against him. Only he and his party had an interest in the
+death of John De Witt, who, notwithstanding the disorder that the
+government was thrown into by the misfortunes of the war, was striving
+to avert the dangers with which the Prince of Orange threatened the
+Republic from within, while Louis XIV was attacking it from without. But
+it was not enough for the Orangemen to have armed assassins against John
+De Witt; his brother--Cornelius De Witt, the _ruart_ of Putten--was also
+to be disposed of. A horrible scheme was concocted.
+
+Notwithstanding his high office of Grand Pensionary of Holland, John De
+Witt, a modest man in his tastes, lived with the utmost simplicity,
+seeking in the company of his wife and his two daughters Agnes and Mary
+sweet distractions from the cares that weigh upon a statesman. At the
+period of this narrative he was close to his forty-eighth year. His tall
+stature, his kind yet grave face, his thoughtful mien, imparted to him
+an imposing appearance. On this occasion he was writing, alone in his
+cabinet, a spacious room the walls of which were concealed behind long
+shelves loaded with books. Above the mantlepiece hung the picture of the
+father of the two De Witts--an austere face, painted after the manner of
+Rembrandt. A table, heaped up with papers, stood in the embrasure of a
+tall window with little square panes of glass held in a lozenge-work of
+lead, on either side of which were shelves with instruments of physics;
+for the Grand Pensionary was, like his brother, a lover of the sciences.
+
+Seated at the table, pensive and sad, John De Witt was writing to his
+friend, Admiral Ruyter, the following remarkable letter that bore the
+stamp of antique simplicity, and in which the plot, concocted by the
+Orangemen against Cornelius De Witt, was unveiled:
+
+
+TO ADMIRAL RUYTER:
+
+     My dear Sir and good friend:--I have received the letter that you
+     did me the honor of writing on the 25th of last month to express to
+     me your deep sorrow at the wounds that I received. Thanks to God, I
+     am now almost completely healed: Three of the wounds are closed;
+     the fourth, and most painful of all, is on the way to be likewise
+     closed. The envy with which certain malignant people pursue our
+     family has reached such extremes in these unhappy days, that, after
+     attempting to rid themselves of me by assassination, they are now
+     seeking to rid themselves of my brother, the _ruart_ of Putten,
+     through legal process. You will surely have learned that the fiscal
+     attorney has caused him to be arrested by order of the States of
+     Holland, and had him brought here, where he is at present under
+     arrest at the castle. We could not at first surmise the cause, or
+     at least the pretext, for his imprisonment. To-day we know the plot
+     that has been concocted against my brother. It is this: A surgeon
+     named William Tichelaar accused my brother with unheard of
+     brazenness and impudence of having endeavored to corrupt him with a
+     large sum of money to assassinate the Prince of Orange! My brother,
+     being incapable of conceiving so execrable a scheme, and less still
+     of executing it, I am firmly convinced that, seeing it pleased God
+     to deliver me, as if by a miracle, from the murderous hands that
+     sought to assassinate me, He will not allow innocence to fall a
+     victim to slander and calumny. My brother will doubtlessly escape
+     the snares that are spread against him, as I escaped the daggers of
+     my implacable enemies.
+
+     Tichelaar, the informer against my brother, was a short time ago
+     summoned by him, in his capacity of _ruart_ of Putten, before the
+     court of that district to answer the charge of attempted rape.
+     Tichelaar was convicted and a sentence was pronounced fastening
+     upon him the stain of moral turpitude. That man, now branded with
+     infamy, sought to revenge himself against my brother by a horrible
+     calumny. Furthermore, we know from reliable sources the following
+     details: Three weeks ago Tichelaar went to my brother's house at
+     Dortrecht, and requested a private interview with him. My
+     sister-in-law, his wife, having opened the door to the man and
+     admitted him to the house, but fearing (after what had happened to
+     me) that he might have evil designs against the _ruart_, ordered
+     one of the servants to keep near the door of the room, and to be on
+     the alert, should Tichelaar attempt violence against my brother.
+     The servant testified under oath before the court commissioner that
+     having been posted near the door, he heard Tichelaar offer to
+     reveal certain secrets to the _ruart_, to which my brother, knowing
+     Tichelaar for a dishonorable character, answered:
+
+     "If what you have to say is something proper, I shall be ready to
+     hear you and give you help; if, however, it is something improper,
+     do not mention it to me; it would be better for you, because I
+     would immediately notify the regency or the court."
+
+     The servant further testified that thereupon several words were
+     exchanged, and Tichelaar closed the interview saying:
+
+     "Seeing that monsieur does not wish me to reveal my secret to him,
+     I shall keep it for the present, and shall later disclose it to
+     others."
+
+     My brother has confirmed the deposition, and Tichelaar's testimony
+     being the only one against my brother, I can not see that there is
+     room to apprehend aught in this affair. I do not doubt that he will
+     be soon set free. There is nothing left to regret but the disturbed
+     condition of the times and the wickedness of our enemies.
+
+     For the rest, the capture of the cities situated along the Rhine;
+     the swiftness of the motions of the armies of Louis XIV; their
+     invasion of our territory up the Yssel--all this without hardly
+     meeting any resistance, in fact encouraged by unheard of cowardice,
+     or even infamous treason, have more and more brought home to me the
+     truth of what used to be said of old of the Roman
+     Republic--_Prospera omnes sibi vindicant, adversa uni
+     imputantur_.[1] That is what I am now experiencing. The people of
+     Holland blame me for the disasters and calamities of our Republic,
+     notwithstanding I have never been otherwise than a faithful servant
+     of the country. For these reasons I decided to resign my office of
+     Grand Pensionary. The States had the kindness to grant my request,
+     as you will see from the extract which I forward to you. I have
+     thought it my duty to inform you of my resignation, in order that
+     you may not continue to address me on matters that concern the
+     state, and that you forward all such matters to the Pensionary of
+     Holland and West Friesland, or to his present substitute.
+
+John De Witt was about finishing this letter to Admiral Ruyter when a
+maid servant entered the room and announced to the ex-Grand Pensionary
+of Holland that Monsieur Serdan, together with two other persons, asked
+to speak with him.
+
+"Let him in!" answered John De Witt. "Never more so than at this moment
+was the company of a friend welcome to me."
+
+Monsieur Serdan and his two companions were brought in. One of the
+latter was a man of mature age and grey of hair; the other, his son, was
+the young and bold mariner who saved the brigantine St. Eloi, on board
+of which was Mademoiselle Bertha of Plouernel, and, a singular accident
+that she was still ignorant of, both men belonged to that old Gallic
+family of Breton extraction of whom Colonel Plouernel made mention in
+his manuscript, that Lebrenn family which, successively slave, serf and
+vassal since the conquest of Clovis, transmitted its own plebeian annals
+to its descendants from generation to generation.
+
+Salaun Lebrenn and his son Nominoe, who followed close upon the heels of
+Monsieur Serdan, could neither restrain nor conceal their emotion at the
+sight of John De Witt, the great citizen whom they admired and venerated
+even more than before, after they learned from Monsieur Serdan a
+thousand intimate details concerning the illustrious man.
+
+"My friend," said John De Witt to Serdan after affably responding to the
+respectful greetings of the two Frenchmen, "these are, I suppose, your
+two countrymen in behalf of whom you asked me to communicate with the
+college of the admiralty, in order to obtain a secret order and safe
+conduct, in the event of their vessel's being boarded by one of our
+cruisers?"
+
+"Yes, my dear John. As French sailors they have nothing to fear from the
+royal squadrons. The pass is only to protect them from the cruisers of
+Holland. When day before yesterday I handed you the notes concerning
+Brittany, confided to me by Monsieur Salaun Lebrenn, the captain of a
+French merchant vessel and resident of the port of Vannes, I informed
+you under what circumstances I became acquainted with Monsieur Lebrenn
+at Nantes, three years ago. Identity of views, religion and hopes bound
+us together since then. A frequent exchange of letters drew us still
+closer together. Monsieur Lebrenn, better than anyone else, is qualified
+to speak upon conditions in Brittany. Both his family and his mercantile
+connections enable him to be aware of and to apprise me of the evidences
+of discontent in his province, analogous to those that my friend and I
+observed when we crossed Languedoc, Dauphiny, the Vivarais, Guyenne and
+Normandy. Struck with the significance of the tide of popular discontent
+invading the larger part of France, I induced Monsieur Lebrenn to come
+to The Hague in order to confer with you, and I placed in your hands his
+report of the grave events of which Brittany is just now the theater. I
+need not add that you may place perfect reliance upon all he says."
+
+"I doubt not. It agrees at all points with other reports that have
+reached me concerning the political situation in France," answered John
+De Witt.
+
+And addressing himself to Salaun Lebrenn:
+
+"Yes, monsieur, I have read your report with close and scrupulous
+attention. The distressing and often horrible facts in which it abounds
+are, I am sure, in no way exaggerated. The acts of pillage, of rapine
+and numerous other unheard-of atrocities which the troops of Louis XIV
+are at this hour committing in our own provinces, attest but too clearly
+the violent and disorderly habits that your armed forces have
+contracted at home. In short, monsieur, your report proves to me
+incontestably that the popular discontent, the progress of which is so
+glaring in Brittany, is to be attributed to the following causes: to the
+taxes, the imposts and the levies raised upon their vassals by the
+seigneurs and the clergy; to the ill-treatment, the imprisonment and
+even the executions mercilessly inflicted upon the vassals, and against
+which these have no redress, seeing that a large number of seigneurs are
+vested with supreme powers in their own domains;--to the exactions, the
+unbridled licence of the seigniorial soldiery, to which the people of
+the cities and the country are alike exposed;--to the profound
+irritation of the bourgeoisie of such large cities as Rennes and Nantes,
+who, whelmed every day with new imposts, find themselves threatened with
+imminent ruin;--finally, to the no less profound irritation of the
+Breton parliament, which feels itself outraged by the promulgation,
+without its sanction, of fiscal edicts which it refuses to register, and
+which are so burdensome that poverty, distress and misery weigh down
+upon all classes in the province. Such, monsieur, is the succinct
+summary of your report, which is supported with facts that are painfully
+real. You add--do you not?--that, according to your own observations,
+the discontent brought on by the despotism of Louis XIV has reached such
+a point that a general uprising is imminent, and may break out at any
+moment?"
+
+"Yes, monsieur," answered Salaun Lebrenn; "that is my conviction, which
+rests upon a careful study of the people and of affairs."
+
+"Your conclusion seems to me well founded. And yet," observed John De
+Witt, "allow me to remind you that at such serious junctures one must
+always be on his guard against illusions--illusions that are all the
+more excusable, and therefore all the more liable to mislead us, seeing
+they are born of generous hopes, of the legitimate desire to put an end
+to crying abuses."
+
+"You may be certain, monsieur, my wishes do not carry away my judgment,"
+answered Salaun Lebrenn. "The present state of public opinion in
+Brittany does offer to our common cause and that of humanity strong
+chances of success. But I am far from being blind to many an unfavorable
+possibility in the event of the impending uprising. Nevertheless, it has
+seemed to me opportune to profit by the state of general discontent,
+and, even if we may not succeed in overthrowing, at any rate seek to
+check the tyranny which is exhausting the energies of France, is
+degrading and oppressing the land, and reaches beyond our own borders,
+inflicting painful blows upon your own Republic, our natural ally. The
+times are once more proving that, seeing Kings, without consulting their
+peoples, declare war upon whoever interferes with their ambition, or
+wounds their pride, the people, in their turn, have the right to ally
+themselves with those who will aid them to break the yoke. Is not that
+your opinion also, monsieur?"
+
+"Yes, indeed," replied John De Witt; "all oppressed peoples have the
+right, in the name of eternal justice, to ask for help and support from
+a friendly people against tyranny. To revolt against Kings and to look
+for foreign support is a legitimate act, provided that the support do
+not hide either on the part of those who accord, or those who receive
+it, any project hostile to the integrity of the territory, or the
+independence, or the honor of the country. It must be in the interest of
+the freedom of all."
+
+"Yes; and for that reason eternal shame fastens upon the League!"
+exclaimed Serdan. "The Catholic League in France sought for Spanish
+support in order to exterminate the Protestants, and dethrone Henry IV,
+who, his vices and deplorable defects notwithstanding, at least
+represented the French nationality."
+
+"While the League, the Catholic Union, on the contrary, represented the
+foreigner, the party of Rome, of Spain and of the Inquisition," added
+Salaun Lebrenn. "In its hatred of the Protestants and of the spirit of
+liberty, the League aimed at a crushing despotism that was to be
+exercised in the interest of its own members. Did they not nurse the
+parricidal thought of dismembering France? Did they not scheme to offer
+the throne to Philip II, that bigoted monarch whose bloody tyranny
+stupefied the world? All honor to your ancestors, Monsieur De Witt! By
+dint of their sacred revolt they dealt the first blow to the Spanish
+monarchy, and they raised, heavily paying therefor with their own blood,
+this Republic whose existence is now threatened by Louis XIV."
+
+"Your observations are just, monsieur," answered John De Witt. "Yes, to
+the eternal glory of Protestantism, which is my faith, the Protestants,
+having been placed outside the pale of common rights and kept in
+constant dread of death, were driven, in the course of the last century
+and of this very century also, to ask for help from their coreligionists
+of other countries, in order to defend their families, their hearths,
+their faith and their threatened lives. But never was their action
+stained with any project of aggrandizement at the cost of France! Their
+request for help always had for its purpose only the triumph of the
+Reformation and the freedom of all! In short, when, oppressed in mind,
+when physically trampled upon, when plundered of its property, when
+deprived of its rights, when persecuted in its faith, a people invokes
+against its tyrant the help of a friendly and disinterested nation, it
+is not, then, upon the foreigner that it calls but upon its own brothers
+in the human family."
+
+"My son," said Salaun Lebrenn to Nominoe, "you are still young; we live
+in evil days; you will no doubt take a part in struggles that are as
+grievous as any that our ancestors experienced in past ages, during
+which they were alternately vanquishers and vanquished. Never forget the
+noble sentiments you have just heard uttered by one of the greatest
+citizens who can do honor to a republican people. Kings are outside of
+the pale of the law, outside of common rights!"
+
+"Father," answered Nominoe in a moved and serious voice, "the sentiments
+I have just heard will forever remain graven in my memory, and likewise
+will the memory of the illustrious man that I to-day have the honor of
+seeing. I pledge undying hatred to tyranny and royalty."
+
+And, in response to what appeared to him a movement of embarrassment on
+the part of John De Witt at the crudity of a praise that seemed
+exaggerated, the young mariner added:
+
+"Oh, monsieur! Your mind is too lofty, your knowledge of men too sound
+to mistake for base flattery the sincere enthusiasm that one feels at my
+age for genius and virtue. If you only knew with what avidity I have
+listened to our friend, Monsieur Serdan, when he told us of the
+simplicity of your life, which, for so many years, has been consecrated
+to the service of the Republic, to the defense of its rights, to the
+promotion of its power, and to the solidification of its conquered
+freedom! If you only knew how sweet, how wholesome to the soul is the
+religious adoration one entertains for great and upright men! how
+fruitful such admiration is of generous aspirations and brave
+resolutions! how it redoubles in one the love of justice and the horror
+for iniquity! Oh, Monsieur De Witt, if my admiration wounds your
+modesty, allow me at least to express to you my gratitude for the noble
+thoughts that your words and your presence inspire me with, for the good
+that you have done to me!" Nominoe uttered these words in a voice
+tremulous with emotion, and eyes glistening with tears.
+
+"God forfend, young man, that I should question your sincerity,"
+answered John De Witt touched by the language of Nominoe. "Yes," he
+proceeded, extending his hand to the young sailor, "yes, you are
+right--admiration, if not for men, then at least for the principles that
+they represent, is wholesome and fruitful of good! You have expressed
+that noble sentiment in such terms that I can not but congratulate your
+father in having such a son. Preserve your vigorous hatred for all
+tyrants."
+
+Yielding to an involuntary impulse of enthusiasm, instead of clasping
+the hand that John De Witt offered him, Nominoe bowed down and, with a
+motion of almost filial veneration, approached De Witt's hand to his
+lips. The act was so natural and so touching that his father, Monsieur
+Serdan and John De Witt felt solemnly impressed.
+
+His eyes moist with tears and filled with ineffable happiness, Salaun
+Lebrenn said to the ex-Pensionary of Holland: "Yes, monsieur, I am a
+happy father."
+
+"And now, my friend," resumed Monsieur Serdan addressing John De Witt,
+"if you entertained any doubt upon the reliableness of the information
+transmitted to you by Monsieur Lebrenn concerning the popular sentiment
+in Brittany, the lofty sentiments of my worthy friend and his son should
+cause you, I hope, to place full confidence in them."
+
+"Their straightforwardness and nobility of character do, indeed, deserve
+my full confidence," answered John De Witt. "I shall listen with
+interest to any further information that your friends may have
+concerning the political affairs of your country."
+
+"Well, monsieur, this is the actual state of things in Brittany: A
+strong portion of the bourgeoisie of Rennes and Nantes, belonging to
+the Reformed religion, favors a federative Republic, agreeable to the
+Protestant traditions of the last century. The majority of the members
+of the provincial parliament, of the officeholders, and even a portion
+of the bourgeoisie, although they execrate Louis XIV, do nevertheless
+hold to the monarchic form of government, but desire to subordinate the
+same to the States General, the sovereignty of which was proclaimed in
+the Fourteenth Century by Etienne Marcel. This element desires to reduce
+the throne to the functions of an executive agent of the national
+assemblies. The nobility and seigneurs are royalists, but they are not
+numerous. As to the urban population, you know, monsieur, in what a
+state of subjection and of calculated ignorance they are held. Weighed
+down with taxes, they would rebel against misery and tax collectors
+sooner than against the King, or the monarchy. The rustic population,
+which consists mainly of vassals and is exploited and oppressed by the
+clergy, the seigneurs, the tax collectors and the armed forces quartered
+upon them, would also, driven to extremities by misery, revolt against
+their sufferings, against the seigneurs, against the priests, against
+the tax collectors and against the soldiers, but would remain no less
+indifferent to the form of government than the city folks. You see,
+accordingly, Monsieur De Witt, that I yield to no illusions. As certain
+as I am of an imminent uprising in Brittany, am I also of its
+consequences. No doubt, the republican form of government, to which your
+provinces owe so much of their power, their prosperity, and greatness,
+is, in my opinion, the ideal government; but I entertain no hopes of
+seeing the same prevail in my country for the present. In fine, I shall
+go so far as to say, it is possible, it is even probable that, in case
+the insurrection triumph, and that Brittany reconquer, arms in hand, her
+freedom and ancient franchises, the victory will be thwarted the very
+next day, and she will lose again almost all the fruits of her triumph,
+owing to the lack of organization and of oneness of view, of abnegation,
+or of intelligence on the part of the victors themselves. This
+notwithstanding, the insurrection in Brittany will have favorable
+consequences to progress. The King, the nobility and the clergy,
+frightened by the violence of the popular movement, will feel
+constrained, out of fear of new reprisals, to lighten the yoke that
+to-day they cause to bear heavily upon our people in general. Such
+relief would be a modest conquest, but it will be sure. Experience will
+justify my words. My conviction upon this head is so firm, that neither
+I nor my son will hesitate to take part in a struggle in which he and I
+will probably be the first victims, as were so many of our ancestors,
+who embarked in similar undertakings. But what does that matter? A step
+will have been taken towards the day of ultimate deliverance. This is
+the reason, Monsieur De Witt, that I have come to you, in the name of
+the discontented elements of Brittany, to request the moral and
+financial support of the Republic of the United Provinces, in order to
+combat the execrable Louis XIV, who is both your enemy and ours."
+
+"My friend," replied John De Witt after listening attentively to Salaun
+Lebrenn's presentation, "last year, at about this time, our friend
+Serdan returned from a journey through France. Before him, Monsieur Roux
+Marcilly, a Huguenot captain, an active and observing man, who has many
+friends among the independent members of the British House of Commons
+opposed to the French alliance, noticed, just as our friend did, the
+sprouting germs of the uprising that is to-day imminent. Both asked me
+at the time whether, in case of an outbreak, it would receive the
+support of the Republic."
+
+"You answered me in the negative," interrupted Monsieur Serdan, "on the
+ground, as you expressed it, that the Republic was bound to Louis XIV by
+a treaty concluded at a time when there was nothing to indicate that
+that prince would become an oppressor. I foretold you that the alliance
+would be observed by you only, but would be trampled under foot by Louis
+XIV. Have not events confirmed my foresight?"
+
+"It is true--but I would have considered it criminal to forestall one
+act of treason by another. The face of things is changed to-day. In
+violation of his oath of renunciation, taken at the time of his marriage
+with the Infanta of Spain, Louis XIV has invaded Flanders without cause,
+broken the alliance by declaring war upon us without the shadow of even
+a pretext, and suborned England to his aid. The Republic finds itself
+now legitimately entitled to take up arms, and it thereby does an act
+that is at once generous and politic, by affording help to the oppressed
+people of France. By these means dangerous complications can be
+conjured up against Louis XIV within his own kingdom, and furthermore,
+we would be aiding the French people in their effort to break his yoke,
+at least to render it less galling. I therefore give you my formal
+promise to induce my friends in the Assembly of the States to lend the
+moral and material aid of the Republic to the people of France. If they
+rise against Louis XIV, I promise you arms and funds."
+
+"Oh! father," cried Nominoe with the enthusiastic ardor and presumptuous
+confidence of his age; "we shall deal the death blow to despotism! The
+Republic is with us! Commune and Federation!"
+
+Without sharing his son's confidence of success Salaun Lebrenn said to
+John De Witt solemnly: "In the name of so many oppressed people, who
+will see, if not the finish, at least a relief of their sufferings, a
+blessing upon you, monsieur! Once more you show yourself faithful to the
+principle that has guided your whole life. Perhaps our success may turn
+out greater than I expect, if the Republic gives us a helping hand. Its
+moral and material support, at this season, may now be considered
+certain. Your powerful influence as Grand Pensionary of Holland will be
+determining and decisive in the Assembly of the States."
+
+"Pardon me, monsieur, if I interrupt you. I am no longer the Grand
+Pensionary of Holland."
+
+Serdan, Salaun Lebrenn and Nominoe looked at one another in
+astonishment. For a moment they stood dumbfounded. Serdan was the first
+to recover his speech: "What, my friend! Is what you say possible? Did
+you resign your high functions?"
+
+"Just as you came in with your two friends I was finishing this letter
+to Admiral Ruyter," said John De Witt pointing to the letter on the
+table. "I informed the admiral of my resignation from the office of
+Grand Pensionary of Holland. Nevertheless, the interview I was to have
+with you and your friends was of such importance that, although I no
+longer filled my former office, I thought it well to hear you in order
+that, should it seem wise to me, I could assure you of my co-operation
+as a member of the Assembly, where I have numerous friends. You may rely
+upon my support."
+
+"Oh! monsieur," said Salaun Lebrenn sadly; "sad presentiments assail me;
+your withdrawal will prove fatal to the cause of freedom. Your
+resignation is a public disaster."
+
+"But what is the reason for your resignation?" asked Serdan. "What,
+John! The state is in danger!--and at such a moment you resign the high
+office with which you were clad?"
+
+"My friend, so far from serving the Republic, my activity at the present
+juncture would be fatal to it. Be frank," John De Witt proceeded after a
+pause; "you have been back in The Hague only a few days; nevertheless,
+the change in the public mind regarding myself can not have escaped your
+quick eye. Answer me frankly. What is the opinion entertained about me
+to-day by the people?"
+
+"Well--I must admit it! Your popularity, once unbounded, has been
+somewhat impaired--but it is still strong."
+
+"You deceive yourself, my friend; my popularity is completely destroyed.
+A month ago, when divine providence snatched me from almost certain
+death, those who a short time before would have cursed my assassins, saw
+in the crime nothing but a providential punishment. They called me
+traitor--and said the hand of God smote me! These charges of treason
+unchained public hatred against my brother and myself. A short while ago
+my father's house was torn down by a furious mob at Dortrecht; and my
+brother--my brother!--one of the most virtuous citizens of the Republic,
+is at this hour held in confinement, imprisoned as an assassin, upon the
+mere word of a wretch who is smarting under the brand of infamy. I
+nevertheless hope that, despite the inveterate hatred of our enemies, my
+brother's innocence will baffle the infamous calumny."
+
+John De Witt's confidence in the happy issue of the process instituted
+against his brother saddened Serdan's heart. It reminded him of the
+alarm Monsieur Tilly expressed for the life of Cornelius De Witt. Serdan
+was still hopeful, and preferred not to disturb the peace of mind of the
+ex-Grand Pensionary of Holland with the latest tidings. The painful
+state of agitation into which the mind of Nominoe was thrown increased
+by the second. He suddenly turned his moist eyes to his father and said:
+
+"The De Witt brothers accused of treason to the Republic! Good God, it
+is enough to make one despair of humanity! Oh, blind people! Or are you
+stupid and cruel? Are you ever to be a foe to your most generous
+defenders? Will you ever allow them to be dragged to the scaffold?"
+
+"My son, we must never despair of humanity. The people must never be
+flattered. To do so is to debase it, and to debase oneself. Its errors
+must be condemned but excused--when they are excusable," put in John De
+Witt addressing Nominoe with affectionate reproach. "The people believes
+me a traitor. I deplore, I pity its blindness more than I condemn it. It
+is to be excused--on account of its ignorance."
+
+Nominoe, his father and Serdan contemplated John De Witt in
+astonishment. The young mariner resumed:
+
+"What, monsieur!--is the people to be excused when it charges you with
+treason? Should it not judge you by your acts?"
+
+"And if my acts seem to-day to turn against me overwhelmingly, would not
+that explain the people's error with regard to me?"
+
+And John De Witt, responding to a questioning look from Nominoe, added:
+"Listen, my son, the lesson is grave and instructive--listen. My
+friends, my brother and myself (we are given the name of the 'French
+party') now about ten years ago, in 1662, used all our influence with
+the Assembly of the States to bind the Republic in a close alliance with
+France, our natural ally, as we considered her. Louis XIV was then quite
+young; if he exhibited certain foibles of youth, I considered him gifted
+with their reciprocal virtues--honesty, generosity, faithfulness to his
+pledged word. The King pledged himself to assist the Republic in the
+event of a war with England, and to respect the territory of Spanish
+Flanders, in accord with the act of renunciation of the treaty of the
+Pyrenees. But what happened? The increasing prosperity of our commerce,
+which extends from one end of the world to the other, our maritime
+preponderance and our wealth awakened the jealousy and cupidity of our
+neighbors; besides, the very existence of our Republic, ever more and
+more flourishing, seemed to Louis XIV a dangerous example to his own
+people. Accordingly, winning England to his side with bribes, he drove
+her to declare war against us, and, so far from keeping faith with us,
+and assisting us with his fleets, he not only did not furnish us a
+single ship--no, I err, he did send us one, a fire ship--but he left us
+isolated to struggle with England single-handed, and capped the climax
+by finally dropping his mask, and also declaring war upon us, in concert
+with England."
+
+Perceiving the indignation marked upon Nominoe's face, John De Witt
+added:
+
+"I told you a minute ago, the people was wrong to believe me guilty of
+treachery, but the error is pardonable. My acts seem to bear witness
+against me. When the Republic saw me, my brother and my friends exert
+all our power to induce it to ally itself with Louis XIV, offering
+ourselves as a guarantee of the prince's good faith in his promises, the
+Republic placed confidence in us, and the alliance was concluded.
+To-day, we but suffer the consequences of the treason of Louis XIV."
+John De Witt paused for a moment and then proceeded:
+
+"But however great the iniquity of which I am a victim, do not pity me.
+My conscience is clear; I know I have lived the life of an honorable man
+and a good citizen. Should God call me to Him to-morrow, I shall go,
+serenely, and await his judgment. That, my son, is the moral of the
+lesson."
+
+As John De Witt was uttering these last words, listened to devoutly by
+Nominoe, Monsieur Tilly entered precipitately into the apartment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+CORNELIUS DE WITT.
+
+
+Monsieur Tilly, dressed in full uniform, wore the distinctive signs of
+his rank--a high collar and a scarf. He was pale, and so visibly
+disturbed that, struck by his appearance, John De Witt asked with alarm:
+
+"My friend--you must be the bearer of tidings that portend some public
+calamity?"
+
+"A great calamity!" answered Monsieur Tilly with a faltering voice. "An
+irreparable calamity!"
+
+"What has happened?" inquired John De Witt. "What are the frightful
+tidings that you bring me?" And looking towards Salaun Lebrenn and his
+son he added: "These friends are countrymen of Monsieur Serdan's. You
+may speak freely before them."
+
+"My friend," said Monsieur Tilly, hardly able to control his emotions,
+"you must leave The Hague this very day--you must depart within an hour,
+if possible. You must flee!"
+
+"Flee!" cried John De Witt astounded. "Flee like a criminal! And why
+should I leave The Hague?"
+
+"You must leave! Go quickly, I implore you, in the name of your wife and
+daughters. Depart!"
+
+"Tilly," replied John De Witt. "I am not devoid of courage. I should at
+least know the cause of your alarm!"
+
+"Yes; you have a strong soul; yes, you sustain the blows of adversity
+with the serenity of an upright man--but however strong your soul, it is
+at the same time susceptible of great tenderness for the objects of your
+affection--you feel the smart of the blows that strike them--and--"
+
+"My brother!" cried John De Witt turning pale and breaking in upon
+Monsieur Tilly. "It is about my brother!"
+
+"Ask me no more questions--embrace your wife and daughters--and leave
+The Hague on the spot--you must not delay an instant!"
+
+"But my brother--my dear and good brother--what has befallen him?"
+
+"In God's name, spend no time with questions--depart--a few minutes more
+and it will be too late."
+
+A tremor ran over John De Witt's frame. He wiped the perspiration from
+his forehead, and overpowering his emotion, bowed to Salaun Lebrenn and
+his son, saying to them in a firm voice: "You will have to excuse me, my
+friends, if I leave you. I can not remain any longer in this painful
+uncertainty regarding my brother's fate. I shall hurry to the castle,
+where he is confined."
+
+"John!" broke in Monsieur Tilly, throwing himself in the way of the
+Grand Pensionary of Holland. "You shall not go there! By God! You shall
+not go to the castle--I shall tell you all--"
+
+"They have killed him!" cried John De Witt in heartrending accents.
+"Unhappy me, they have killed him!"
+
+"No," replied Monsieur Tilly in despair; "no, I assure you, Cornelius is
+not dead!"
+
+This assurance allayed the poignancy of John De Witt's anxiety. But
+still staggering under the blow of his terrible apprehension, he felt
+his knees give way under him, and he leaned on the edge of the table,
+unable to articulate a word. Salaun Lebrenn and his son stood in
+consternation, dreading some great misfortune, and looked at Monsieur
+Tilly with uneasy curiosity, while Serdan said to him in a low voice:
+"Alas! A moment ago John De Witt felt perfectly at ease on the score of
+the charge against his brother. I dared not mention to him the fears
+that you expressed to me this morning."
+
+Serdan broke off as he heard John De Witt say to Tilly in a calm voice:
+"Pardon my weakness, my friend. There are unexpected blows that take one
+by surprise, and floor him. Thanks to God, my brother still lives.
+Speak, I listen."
+
+"As late as this morning I was as certain as yourself of the
+worthlessness of the charges preferred against Cornelius. I was in that
+frame of mind until I met an officer of the bourgeois militia that
+guards the prison, and who is of our party. From him I learned of the
+wild popular exasperation against yourself, your brother and the French
+party, who are considered accomplices in the ferocities committed by the
+troops of Louis XIV, and that this exasperation was assuming such a
+violent aspect that the tribunal, before which Cornelius was to be tried
+and which consists of bitter Orangemen, decided, with a view of
+satisfying the blind popular rage,--decided," repeated Monsieur Tilly
+with a shudder, "to submit your brother to the torture, and compel him
+to confess his crime. The atrocious project has been carried out!"
+
+"Good God!" cried John De Witt, raising his hands and eyes heavenward.
+"What frightful tidings!"
+
+Serdan, Salaun Lebrenn and his son could not restrain a cry of
+indignation and horror.
+
+"But perhaps my brother is expiring from the consequences of the
+torture!" exclaimed John De Witt in despair.
+
+"Notwithstanding the sufferings he has undergone, your brother's life is
+safe," answered Tilly. "I pledge you my word."
+
+"The infamous wretches! To believe that the torture could wrest from a
+De Witt the admission of a crime which he is guiltless of!" exclaimed
+John De Witt in a smothered voice. "I am certain my brother underwent
+the ordeal of the torture with heroic serenity. Proceed, my friend, I
+feel strong enough to listen."
+
+"I have my information direct from the court registrar who witnessed the
+horrible scene," continued Tilly. "Cornelius was tied down upon a table.
+His hands were placed by the executioner between two iron plates, held
+together by screws, the slightest turn downward of which would break the
+patient's bones."
+
+"Oh!" cried Serdan, horrified. "These are shocking details!"
+
+"Tilly," said John De Witt in a firm voice, "conceal nothing from me. I
+want to know everything. Oh, my brother! Poor, dear victim!"
+
+"During the preparation for the torture, the face of Cornelius was pale
+and impassive. One of the judges approached him: 'Are you ready to make
+a confession?' he asked your brother. 'I have nothing to confess,' was
+his answer. 'Then you persist in denying that you plotted to assassinate
+the Prince of Orange?' 'Monsieur,' replied Cornelius, 'had I desired to
+assassinate the Prince of Orange, I would not have employed another's
+arm.' 'Prisoner,' rejoined the judge, 'torture may compel you to confess
+what you now refuse to admit.' 'Monsieur, you will cut me to pieces
+before you can make me confess an act that I never even thought of.'
+'Then you deny?' 'I deny.' Upon a sign from the judge, the executioner
+gave the screws a turn; the plates drew closer together, and crushed
+Cornelius's hands. His suffering was cruel, yet he remained silent,
+impassive. Suddenly a wild clamor from the mob that was gathered at the
+foot of the tower, reached your brother's ears. 'Death to the French
+party!' 'Death to the accomplices of Louis XIV!' 'Death to De Witt!'
+Upon hearing these cries, the registrar informed me, your brother raised
+his head and turned his inspired eyes to the ceiling of the prison; his
+features were transfigured; they were serenely resplendent; a divine
+smile flitted over his lips; his moral courage dominated the agonies of
+the body; and, as the mob without redoubled its cries for his death,
+Cornelius recited in a powerful ringing voice this strophe from Horace:
+
+"'_Neither the unjust clamor of the people, nor the angry frown of a
+tyrant, is able to dethrone the mind of a man upright and true to his
+cause._'"[2]
+
+"Oh! my noble brother!" cried John De Witt breaking the silence of
+admiration that followed the narrative of Monsieur Tilly. "Often did you
+make the remark--_the dark iniquity of the guilty but causes the virtue
+of the just to shine forth with all the greater luster!_"
+
+"Yes!" continued Monsieur Tilly. "And at this very moment that beautiful
+sentiment is approved true. The executioners and judges were seized with
+respect and admiration for the grandeur of soul of Cornelius De Witt,
+and they gazed upon one another in a sort of stupor, as if the absurdity
+of the hateful process had broken its way into their vision. The judges
+conferred. The ignominy of submitting one of the greatest citizens of
+the Republic, one of the victors of Chatham and Solway, to the torture,
+and upon no stronger grounds than the word of a noted wretch, smote
+their consciences. Even paler than the patient himself, the registrar
+informed me, the judges ordered the torture to cease, and, addressing
+Cornelius in a faltering voice said to him: 'So, then, monsieur, you
+insist upon making no confession?' 'Save me and yourselves the trouble
+of such questions,' was Cornelius's answer; 'you have the power to
+proceed with the torture; my body belongs to you.' Recoiling before the
+thought of repeating the barbarous act, the judges ordered the
+executioners to untie their victim. Your brother was taken back to his
+prison, where the registrar of the States announced to him a few minutes
+later the decree that was pronounced upon him. It is as follows:
+
+"'The court of Holland, having considered and examined the documents,
+submitted to it by the attorney general of the court, against and in
+accusation of Master Cornelius De Witt, former burgomaster of Dortrecht
+and ruart of the district of Putten, at present a prisoner of the said
+court, as well as examined him, his confrontations, and all that was
+said by himself, declares the prisoner forfeit of all his offices and
+dignities, banishes him from the provinces of Holland, never to return
+again under pain of still severer punishment, and sentences him to pay
+the costs of the trial.'"
+
+"But this very decree proves the innocence of Cornelius De Witt," cried
+Salaun Lebrenn. "Devoted Orangemen though the judges are, they have
+recoiled before their own iniquity. They did not even dare to mention
+the alleged crime of the prisoner. If the crime were mentioned, the
+death penalty would be the necessary punishment. Oh, the miserable, the
+infamous fellows!"
+
+"You are correct," replied Monsieur Tilly. "After hearing his sentence
+read, Cornelius De Witt said to the registrar: 'Monsieur, if I am an
+assassin I deserve death; if I am innocent I should be set free, and my
+accuser punished. I appeal from this sentence to the Supreme Council.'
+'If so, monsieur,' said the registrar, 'be kind enough to formulate
+your objection at the foot of the decree and to sign the same.'
+Cornelius De Witt cast a bitter smile upon the registrar, and raising
+his two hands mutilated by the torture and bandaged in blood-stained
+wrappages: 'I can not write, monsieur, I shall dictate to you my
+objections to the sentence.' So saying, Cornelius formulated his
+objection in the following terms: 'In the face of God and of man, I must
+be pronounced an assassin or innocent: death or freedom.'"
+
+"Oh!" cried John De Witt. "I shall devote all the power left to me, all
+my life, to seek and obtain the rehabilitation of my brother! I shall
+not falter in the task."
+
+"Do you now understand," asked Tilly, "why I consider that you would be
+lost, without profit to your brother, if you were now to be seen at the
+prison? The agents of the Prince of Orange quickly spread among the mob
+the news of Cornelius's banishment, and stirred up the popular rage at
+his not having been put to death. These moves have raised the popular
+exasperation to a still higher pitch, and incited the mob's cravings for
+vengeance. The crowd has threatened to tear down the gates of the prison
+in order to take your brother and do him to death. The registrar having
+hastened to notify me of these events, I ordered The Hague cavalry to
+the spot. It is now drawn up before the castle. Our horsemen are not
+Orangemen, as you know; the prison will not be broken in so long as they
+are allowed to remain on guard. You see, you may feel at ease, for the
+present, on the fate of Cornelius. I conjure you, my friend, renounce
+the purpose of proceeding to the prison. You are known by the whole
+city. To cross its streets at this moment of ferment, is uselessly to
+challenge the greatest risk. Think of your own dear family."
+
+"John," added Serdan, "we join Tilly in urging you to flee as soon as
+possible. Who knows but that your own house may be invaded at one moment
+or another by that senselessly furious mob, as your father's house was
+invaded in Dortrecht!"
+
+"Preserve yourself for your brother's sake, Monsieur De Witt," put in
+Salaun Lebrenn. "Leave The Hague."
+
+"Live for this people which is more blind than it is ungrateful. Maybe
+the day will come when it will implore you to save the Republic!" said
+Nominoe with tears in his eyes, as he saw John De Witt receive the
+urgings of his friends with a silent impatience that betrayed his inner
+resolution to go to his brother.
+
+Monsieur Tilly made a last effort, crying: "Is it your purpose to risk
+your own life, as well as that of Cornelius, by proceeding to the
+prison?" And answering an impatient wafture of John De Witt's hand, he
+added: "It is horrible, but it is a fact--the first blood that a mob
+sheds throws it into a savage intoxication. So far from being allayed by
+your death, the hatred of those furious men will then become so
+unbridled that it will be impossible any longer to restrain them. They
+will then force the prison gates and slaughter your brother!"
+
+"Enough! Enough, my friend!" said John De Witt with a shudder, and
+almost overcome by the insistence of his friends. He seemed to hesitate
+in his first determination, when he saw Madam De Witt step into the
+apartment.
+
+"My friend," said she to her husband handing him a note that she held in
+her hand, "one of the grenadiers of the prison has just brought you this
+letter from our brother Cornelius. It is urgent, says the man. He is
+waiting for your answer. He says there is considerable commotion in The
+Hague, and that, should you wish to proceed to the castle, he offers to
+lead you through the closed Borlek Alley, and thence to Vivier Alley, of
+which he has the key. But he says you must not delay."
+
+John De Witt hastened to take the note, ran his eyes over it, and cried:
+"My brother writes to me that he wishes to see me immediately."
+
+"It is a trap!" exclaimed Serdan. "You seem to forget that Cornelius is
+not in a condition to write! Crime and treachery!"
+
+"Why should he not be in a condition to write?" asked Madam De Witt,
+ignorant of the circumstance that her brother-in-law's hands were
+crushed.
+
+An embarrassing silence followed upon Madam De Witt's question, a
+silence which Monsieur Tilly broke:
+
+"Madam, your brother is suffering with an abscess on his thumb. It would
+be difficult for him to hold a pen."
+
+"Mary, my cloak, my sword, my gloves; quick, I pray you," said John De
+Witt to his wife.
+
+Madam De Witt left in quest of the articles demanded by her husband. No
+sooner had she withdrawn than Tilly, Serdan, Salaun Lebrenn and his son
+cried in alarm: "Give up the thought! Do not go to the castle! You will
+be marching to your death!"
+
+"The letter is a forgery!" added Serdan. "They are laying a snare for
+you, and the jailer is in the plot!"
+
+"First of all, hear what Cornelius writes to me," said John De Witt to
+his friends, and he read:
+
+     "Dear brother, I am obliged to help myself with a stranger's hand
+     to write to you. I urge you earnestly, come to me to the castle
+     without delay. Your presence is indispensable. One of the jailers
+     is devoted to me. He will lead you by a circuitous route, where you
+     are not likely to meet anyone. Come, come."
+
+"Treachery!" repeated Serdan. "I tell you once more, their purpose is to
+lead you into a trap, an ambush!"
+
+"Cornelius has heard from his prison the clamor of the people for his
+life, and for yours," added Monsieur Tilly. "There is even fear that the
+maddened mob may succeed in breaking into the prison, and do you suppose
+that your brother would call you to his side at such a moment? No, no!
+There is treachery in all this!"
+
+"But suppose this letter was truly dictated by my brother!" cried John
+De Witt, interrupting Tilly. "Suppose that, finding himself about to die
+as the result of his torture, he wishes to die in my arms! Suppose he
+awaits my presence as a supreme consolation! Should I hesitate before a
+sacred duty? No, never!"
+
+As John De Witt was uttering these last words Madam De Witt re-entered
+accompanied by her two daughters, Agnes and Mary, one thirteen, the
+other fifteen years of age. They brought their father's cloak and sword.
+Their candid and smiling faces presented so painful a contrast to the
+dangers that threatened their father, that the witnesses of the scene
+felt their hearts wrung.
+
+"Father," said Mary, handing John De Witt his cloak, and helping him to
+put it on, "since you are going to see our dear uncle in that horrid
+prison, that I am sure he will soon be free to leave, tell him for me
+that, although he was away from us, we always had him in mind."
+
+"But, better still, father," added Agnes gaily, giving her father his
+sword, "bring us our dear uncle back soon. And while we wait for his
+return give him this kiss for me--"
+
+"And this one from me," said Mary, embracing and kissing her father.
+
+With a superhuman effort John De Witt controlled and concealed his
+afflicted thoughts, tenderly answered the caresses of his daughters by
+covering their young foreheads with kisses, and addressing his wife,
+said: "Adieu, my faithful friend; brave companion in evil days, adieu! I
+hope shortly to bring you better tidings of my brother," and he left
+abruptly, followed by Monsieur Tilly, Salaun Lebrenn, his son and
+Monsieur Serdan.
+
+"The die is cast!" said Tilly to his friends in a low voice while John
+De Witt descended the stairs of his house. "Follow him! Guard him! My
+horse is waiting for me near by; I shall rejoin my company. We shall
+defend the prison with all our might."
+
+"Rely upon us," answered Serdan; "all that three resolute men can do
+shall be done by us. May we be able to save John De Witt, and, with him,
+the Republic."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+MOB-VERDICT.
+
+
+In the near vicinity of the palace, where the States General of the
+Republic of the Seven Provinces held their sessions, rose a vast edifice
+blackened by years and pierced with narrow, iron-barred windows. This
+ancient castle now did the services of a place of detention. Its
+principal facade, pierced with an ogive gate that was led up to by a few
+stairs, was separated from Buytenhoff Square by a closed iron-barred
+gate, before which, on this particular day, stood drawn up the cavalry
+troop of Monsieur Tilly. Up to that moment the troopers had, thanks to
+their coolness and the closeness of their ranks, prevented the mob that
+crowded the square from forcing the iron gate of the prison in which
+Cornelius De Witt lay. The tumultuous gathering that at first had been
+emitting furious howls and threats of death against the French party,
+now crowded in silence around several citizens of The Hague who, mounted
+upon posts, or standing upon the stairs, or upon carts, read aloud and
+commented on to the gaping mob letters recently received from the
+provinces that the armies of Louis XIV had invaded. Among the more fiery
+of the orators a rich goldsmith of The Hague was prominent. His name
+was Henry Weroeff, who until recently was one of the most active members
+of the French party. Accordingly, when he jumped upon an unhitched wagon
+and announced that he wanted to speak, his voice was drowned under a
+volley of hoots. Weroeff held a letter in his hand, and motioned for
+silence while he shouted:
+
+"My friends, deceived and misled like so many others, I belonged up to
+now to the French party--but I have come to apologize for my error, and
+to declare in the face of heaven and of man that the brothers De Witt,
+the heads of the party, deserve public execration. Either as
+accomplices, or the dupes of Louis XIV, they are responsible for the
+horrible deeds that the armies of that King are now committing in our
+provinces. Listen to this letter, which I received this morning from a
+relative who lives in Bodegrave:
+
+     "My dear friend, I write to you in haste. I owe my life to a
+     miraculous accident. Our two burgs of Swamerdam and Bodegrave, each
+     consisting of over six hundred houses, have just been reduced to
+     ashes by the army of the King of France. Only one house is left
+     standing--by the merest accident. The soldiers were especially bent
+     upon destroying the Protestant churches. Not one escaped. The
+     school houses and the City Hall, where the court met, were set on
+     fire. In order to carry out their detestable work, the soldiers
+     furnished themselves in Utrecht with torches of readily combustible
+     material. This is a sight that I saw--a father, mother and children
+     were locked up in their house, and then the place was forthwith set
+     on fire. Those who sought to escape the flames were massacred by
+     the soldiers and transfixed with pikes--"[3]
+
+An explosion of furious yells, born of the indignation aroused by
+Weroeff's letter, interrupted him at this point. A butcher of herculean
+stature, with red hair and beard, blood-shot eyes, and livid with rage,
+rushed forward, and jumping upon the cart from which the goldsmith was
+speaking, cried out in a stentorian voice that rang above the din: "The
+letter tells the truth! My sister lived in Swamerdam. Her two children
+were burnt to death in her house. She herself was violated--and then
+murdered by the royal soldiers!"
+
+The infuriate man then drew a long knife from his belt, and brandishing
+it, cried:
+
+"Massacre and death! In default of the King of France himself, I shall
+cut the throats of his good friends in Holland!"
+
+"Death to the De Witts!" "Death to the accomplices of Louis XIV!" echoed
+the mob, whose exasperation rose to fever heat. "Death to the traitors!"
+"Upon them the blood that has flowed!"
+
+Silence being restored by degrees, the goldsmith proceeded to read:
+
+     "Yesterday, when, upon the departure of the enemy, we returned to
+     our burgs, and removed the ashes of our homes, we found everywhere
+     charred bodies of men, women and children, the women often holding
+     the lifeless and partially burnt corpses of their infants in their
+     own charred stumps. Acts of unheard-of ferocity were committed in
+     cold blood by the soldiery of Louis XIV. A blind and crippled old
+     woman, the object of our people's compassion, was killed before the
+     eyes of her four children, and then thrown, together with them,
+     into the flames. A number of little children were found horribly
+     mutilated. The soldiers took a cruel delight in cutting off their
+     limbs; others would throw them up in the air and receive them on
+     the points of their bayonets!"
+
+"Little children! Poor little children! Massacre and death! These
+atrocities must be revenged!" cried the butcher, whose voice broke the
+first silence caused by the stupor and consternation produced by
+Weroeff's reading. The butcher's cries were immediately followed by a
+volley of imprecations that it is impossible to reproduce. "Death and
+extermination!"
+
+"Listen!" said Weroeff. "There is worse yet:
+
+     "Girls were violated before the eyes of their mothers, wives before
+     the eyes of their husbands. The only act of charity on the part of
+     the soldiers was to spare the victims of their brutalities the
+     shame of surviving their dishonor--they drowned them in the canal,
+     or murdered them on the spot--"
+
+At these words, which reminded him of his sister's fate, the butcher,
+instead of breaking forth anew with violent imprecations, covered his
+face in both his hands and began to weep. The sight of this rough and
+rude man's tender sorrow produced a deep impression upon the crowd. The
+frightful ferment of a revengeful, inexorable and blind hatred caused
+even the coldest hearts to boil with indignation. The goldsmith finished
+his letter amid a mass of humanity that was panting for revenge, and
+impatient to slake its ire upon the partisans of the French:
+
+     "Greed, besides cruelty, animated both the French captain and his
+     soldiers. They hanged men by the feet in the chimneys of their own
+     houses, and lighted a fire under them in order that, suffocated and
+     singed by the clouds of smoke that rose upward and the flames that
+     licked their faces, they be driven to disclose where they had
+     hidden their money and valuables. Often the victims possessed none
+     of these, and they perished, the prey to barbarous greed. Other
+     soldiers stripped the last shred of clothing from the women and
+     girls whom they outraged, and drove them naked into the fields
+     where they were left to die of hunger and cold. One officer (in
+     justice to him be it said) finding two young ladies of the upper
+     class in this condition, took pity upon them, gave them his cloak
+     and some linen that he had with him, and, before returning to his
+     post, recommended the unfortunate girls to the care of another
+     officer. The latter, however, violated both the girls, and
+     thereupon turned them over to his soldiers, who, after subjecting
+     them to further and extreme outrage, mutilated them frightfully.[4]
+     Their shapeless corpses were found day before yesterday near the
+     dike that leads from Bodegrave to Woerden.
+
+     "From Nymwegen I learn that one of those butchers, who do not
+     deserve the name of soldiers, and who was wicked enough to cut off
+     the breasts of a lying-in mother and to sprinkle gunpowder upon her
+     wounds, died yesterday in the agonies of a frightful delirium,
+     caused by remorse for his crime. He believed he saw the distracted
+     woman pursuing him, and heard her cries of pain. A boatman, the
+     brother of my father's tenant farmer, was nailed by both his hands
+     to the mainmast of his barge, while, under the very eyes of the
+     poor fellow, the soldiers indulged their depravity upon his
+     daughter. Not even the dead are respected. Two funerals were
+     stopped on the way to the graveyard, the corpses were stripped of
+     their shrouds by the soldiers of Louis XIV, and then thrown into
+     the canal."
+
+The recital of such sacrilegious profanation--doubly abominable in the
+eyes of a Protestant people, who religiously guard their dead--caused
+the popular fury to boil over. It wanted instant victims to slake its
+thirst for revenge and for reprisals. Such victims were at hand--the
+brothers De Witt and the other chiefs of the French party, considered
+either the dupes or the accomplices of Louis XIV, as the mob declared
+with pitiless logic. The popular rage reached its highest pitch. An
+ear-rending cry went up from all throats--"Death to De Witt! To the
+prison! To the prison!"
+
+By a spontaneous movement the whole mass of enraged humanity rolled
+against the prison, the approaches to which Tilly and his troopers had
+up to that moment managed to keep clear. So spontaneous was the rush
+against the prison, and so resolutely was it executed, that Tilly's
+horsemen, finding themselves assailed by a shower of stones, were
+constrained in self-defense to draw their sabers. They were on the point
+of falling upon their assailants when, with drums beating and amid the
+glad acclaims of the multitude, an infantry company of The Hague
+militia, known by the name of the "Blue Flag," and consisting
+exclusively of Orangemen, debouched upon the square. The captain of
+this militia corps informed Monsieur Tilly that, in order to avoid an
+effusion of blood in a conflict with the populace, the Council of State
+had ordered the company of the Blue Flag to mount guard at the castle,
+and relieve the cavalry posted there. Monsieur Tilly had no choice but
+to obey and yield the place to his substitutes, although he had no doubt
+that the prison would now be speedily invaded by the delirious mob. The
+cavalry, its retreat covered by the infantry corps, withdrew from the
+square amidst the hootings, the vociferations and even the threats of
+the mob which now had reached a pitch of delirious paroxysm.
+
+"After De Witt, to the others, and Tilly shall have his turn. We know
+where he lives!" yelled a bitter Orangeman. "He has taken a lot of
+French people into his house. Some of them are grand dames! I saw them
+yesterday on the balcony."
+
+"Massacre and death! May lightning strike me if I do not take revenge
+for my sister upon those French women!" bellowed the butcher. "But
+forward, now! First bleed the De Witts. The prison is ours!"
+
+The butcher's threats, directly alluding to Mademoiselle Plouernel and
+her aunt, were heard by Serdan, Salaun Lebrenn and his son, who, having
+returned to the square, and being driven by the current of the mass,
+found themselves pushed in the direction of the prison. Vainly had they
+sought to keep their promise to Monsieur Tilly of protecting the life of
+John De Witt. When the venerable man left his house under the guidance
+of the jail grenadier, Serdan and his friends requested him to allow
+them to escort him. He consented. Together they crossed several narrow
+and quiet streets and presently an almost deserted lane. When, at the
+end of the same, they arrived before a gate that barred further passage
+and opened upon a corridor leading into the castle, the grenadier
+declared to the companions of John De Witt that they could go no
+further, his orders being to allow admission only to the Grand
+Pensionary of Holland. John De Witt urged his friends to withdraw,
+clasped their hands, and entered alone, the door being unlocked, then
+closed and re-locked after him by the grenadier who was furnished with a
+key. John De Witt was taken without delay to his brother, and there
+discovered the trap that was laid for him. His brother had not sent for
+him, and was greatly alarmed at what he considered a most inopportune
+visit, in view of the general popular excitement, and the riot at the
+prison gate. A heartrending scene took place between the two brothers.
+John sought to induce his brother to leave the prison, the doors of
+which, he argued, had to be opened to him, seeing he was sentenced to
+banishment. Cornelius declined, on the ground that he had appealed from
+the decree of proscription. He insisted that the judges pronounce him
+either innocent or guilty of conspiracy to commit murder. To quit the
+prison would be to accept the sentence which put a blot upon his name,
+and against which he protested. Unable to induce his brother to flee,
+John De Witt declared he would not leave him, and would share his fate.
+While this debate, a struggle of fraternal generosity, was proceeding
+in the prison of Cornelius, two officers and four militiamen of the Blue
+Flag company forced themselves into the chamber in which the two
+brothers were conversing, and assailed them with violent threats.
+
+Alas! son of Joel; I shall let an eye-witness of that lamentable event
+narrate it in his own words, and let us transmit the report to our
+descendants:
+
+"The officers and the militiamen found Cornelius De Witt lying on his
+couch in a morning gown, and his brother seated near the head of the bed
+reading to him out of the Bible. The Grand Pensionary sought to awaken
+some sense of humanity in the maddened men who entered the room. They
+only redoubled their threats, and compelled the two brothers to rise and
+leave the room, saying they were to be taken to the place where
+criminals are executed. The De Witts embraced each other tenderly at the
+head of the stairs which led out of the castle, and bade each other
+their last adieus. Cornelius De Witt, who, in consequence of the
+torture, was very weak, descended leaning upon his brother's arm. The
+latter, preserving a most heroic calmness in sight of so imminent a
+danger, exhorted in kind language those who led him and his brother not
+to commit so great an iniquity as they threatened to be guilty of. 'My
+friends,' he said to them as he continued to descend the stairs,
+sustaining his brother, 'we are innocent, we are not traitors to the
+Republic; take us wherever you please, but take us to judges.' 'March!
+March!' the officers answered, brutally pushing him forward and causing
+him to trip and stumble over the lowest steps of the staircase; 'You
+will soon know where you are taken to, traitors!'"
+
+The iron gate that served as a defense to the castle had been forced
+open. A portion of the mob penetrated into the outer yard which
+separated the square from the facade of the castle, and where a low
+stoop led up to an ogive door. The shadow, into which the vault of the
+door threw the inside, allowed but an indistinct view of the lowest
+steps of the staircase by which John and Cornelius De Witt descended.
+The instant the two brothers appeared at the top of the stoop, whither
+they were pushed by the militiamen of the Blue Flag, yells of hate and
+vengeance broke forth from all sides.
+
+"There they are!" "We got them both!" "Death to the De Witts!" "Death to
+the traitors!" "Death to the French party!"
+
+Separated from the two victims, and hemmed in by a compact mass of
+people, Serdan, Salaun Lebrenn and Nominoe were as impotent to bring the
+slightest help to Cornelius and John as to flee from the spectacle that
+they were about to witness. In that situation, and justly fearing to be
+recognized as Frenchmen and massacred on the spot, they controlled their
+grief and indignation, and only exchanged looks of despair as the
+tragedy was enacted before their eyes.
+
+The moment the two De Witts, John sustaining his brother, stepped out
+upon the stoop, one of the militiamen raised his musket, holding it by
+the barrel, and dealt Cornelius De Witt a furious blow upon the head,
+shouting at the same time:
+
+"Die, traitor! The blood, shed by the soldiers of Louis XIV, shall fall
+upon your head! Death to all the accomplices of the French King!"
+
+Stunned by the blow, Cornelius staggered and reeled. Instantly the
+butcher seized him by the hair, and dragged him down to the bottom of
+the stoop, brandishing his knife. John De Witt rushed forward to his
+brother's help, but before he could descend two steps, a notary, Van
+Soenen by name, barred his way, and, exclaiming: "Die, traitor! Your
+friends the French murdered our prisoners at Swamerdam! Die, traitor,
+renegade!" hurled his pike into the face of the Grand Pensionary,
+transfixing it.
+
+Blinded by the blood that spurted from his wound, John De Witt dropped
+on one knee. He immediately endeavored to rise, crying: "My brother! My
+brother!" But at that moment a man named Van Valen gripped him by the
+throat, threw him to the ground, and planting his foot upon De Witt's
+chest, discharged his pistol into the head of the prostrate man, loudly
+vociferating: "Die, wretch! You betrayed your country! So shall all the
+accomplices of Louis XIV die! Death to all papists!"
+
+The corpse of John De Witt was dragged under the Buytenhoff Arcade
+beside his brother's, whom the butcher killed. The mob pounced like
+tigers upon the two bodies, riddled them with shots, stripped them
+naked, mutilated them beyond recognition--and, Oh, frightful reprisals
+that the two martyrs were the innocent victims of! each act of
+sacrilegious profanation was accompanied with a thousand imprecations
+intended to recall the atrocities committed by the soldiers of Louis
+XIV, who crowned their acts of pillage, of incendiarism, of iniquities
+perpetrated upon women, and of murder, by outraging even the corpses
+which they stripped of their funeral robes, and deprived of burial!
+
+Finally, the shapeless remains of the two great citizens were hung from
+the gibbet where common malefactors were executed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE FLIGHT.
+
+
+Salaun Lebrenn, his son, and their friend, the witnesses to the
+massacre, stood shuddering with terror, when they were suddenly aroused
+by the cries of several voices: "And now for Tilly!" "Death to Tilly!"
+"To the sack of his house!" "Death to the traitors!" "Death to the
+friends of the French!"
+
+"Vengeance and reprisals!" howled the most infuriated of the mob. "To
+Tilly's house! to Tilly's house! Sack the house of Tilly!"
+
+The three Frenchmen, who were, until then, wedged in the compact mass of
+the mob, and compelled, despite themselves, to witness the sight of the
+popular fury, succeeded by dint of vigorous efforts in cleaving their
+way in a diagonal line across the press, and finally freed themselves
+entirely, while the mass of people took the direction of the house of
+Monsieur Tilly.
+
+Madam Tremblay and Abbot Boujaron, faithful to the recommendations of
+Monsieur Tilly, kept the curtains of the windows closed, and abstained
+from showing their faces. Standing near one of the embrasures, and
+slightly parting the curtain, the Abbot sought to obtain a glimpse of
+what went on upon the street, and cast furtive looks upon the square.
+
+"Abbot!--no imprudence!" cried the Marchioness.
+
+Mademoiselle Plouernel sat steeped in revery at the opposite end of the
+parlor. Her mind dwelt indignantly upon the odious designs that her own
+family had dared to plot, and in which so ignoble a role was assigned to
+her. She remained an utter and indifferent stranger to all that was
+happening within and without the house.
+
+"Well, Abbot," inquired Madam Tremblay, "do you see anything on the
+square?"
+
+"Marchioness!" cried the Abbot, turning pale and stepping back from the
+window, "we are lost! A mob of men armed with pikes and axes is just
+turning into the square. They yell: 'Death to the French!' Listen!
+Listen! Do you hear them? The mob is running this way, howling and
+vociferating!"
+
+Indeed, at that moment, a formidable clamor that drew ever nearer was
+heard on the square, and distinctly could be made out the furious cries:
+
+"Death to Tilly!" "Death to the French!" "Sack the house!"
+
+"They are coming to murder Tilly!" stammered the Abbot, livid with
+terror. "It is done for us! We are lost!"
+
+"Abbot, you are losing your senses," replied the Marchioness endeavoring
+to allay her own alarm. "Matters are not at such an extremity."
+
+"Madam, do you not hear those furious cries: 'Vengeance and reprisals!'"
+asked Mademoiselle Plouernel. "These people are coming to take
+vengeance upon us for the atrocities committed by the troops of your
+master, at the instigation of your infamous Catholic clergy!"
+
+The danger grew ever more threatening. Hurried steps were heard in the
+house, where the frightened servants were running about crying out to
+one another and precipitately and noisily closing and bolting the main
+door on the ground floor. The door, though thick and strong, and studded
+with iron nails, could not long resist the assailants. Already it shook
+under the repeated blows of axes and the butts of muskets, while a
+volley of stones, thrown from the street, broke with a crash the
+window-panes in the parlor. The shattered windows allowed the clamor
+from without to reach the parlor with distinctness. "My sister was
+violated and disemboweled by the soldiers of Louis XIV," cried the
+butcher in his stentorian voice; "Vengeance and reprisals! French women
+are housed in Tilly's residence! Fire upon the door and windows! We will
+get in! Massacre and fury!"
+
+The sound of a discharge of musketry fire followed almost instantly upon
+the butcher's words. The house seemed to rock to its very foundations.
+The fusilade continued uninterrupted. At the same time the main door,
+already half broken down, was attacked with renewed blows of axes, and a
+lever was applied to its hinges.
+
+Suddenly the ceiling of the parlor shook with the vibrations of heavy
+blows given with iron maces and by dint of which the main street door
+finally fell in with a great crash. The vociferations of the assailants,
+who irrupted into the house, reached the ears of the Abbot, the
+Marchioness and Mademoiselle Plouernel. They stood petrified with
+terror. At that instant a little door, that communicated with, and was
+concealed by the drapery of the parlor flew open.
+
+"The assassins are here!" stammered the Marchioness, almost dead with
+fright. "We are lost! Mercy! Mercy!"
+
+"We are saved!" cried Bertha of Plouernel, as she recognized in the new
+arrivals Serdan and his two friends. "These are our liberators!"
+
+The uproar and the distinct rush of hurrying and tumultuous steps
+announced that the assailants were mounting the staircase. Serdan ran to
+the principal door of the parlor, closed and double barred it.
+"Mademoiselle," he said hurrying back to the young lady and pointing to
+her the issue through which he had just entered, "flee by that door--the
+corridor leads to a concealed staircase."
+
+Already the parlor door cracked under the repeated blows from without.
+Bertha, seized with a sort of vertigo, followed Serdan mechanically; the
+Abbot pushed the Marchioness before him, and disappeared after the two
+women in the corridor. The hall was left empty.
+
+The parlor door, attacked with heavy axes, was rent and dashed into
+splinters, giving a passage to the butcher, who rushed in followed by
+his band. The Frenchwomen had vanished, but he saw the little door
+through which they escaped hurriedly closed. He ran forward to open it,
+or break it down with his fists. It resisted his efforts. Not having had
+time to bolt the little door from the inside, Nominoe had placed his
+back against it, and held it closed with his feet firmly planted against
+the side-walls. Finding himself unable to force his passage, the butcher
+called out for a hatchet in order to break down the obstacle that now
+barred his progress.
+
+"We can do better!" exclaimed one of the assailants. "Let us discharge
+our muskets against the door. The balls will pierce the wood and kill
+the man. Death to the traitors! Death to the French!"
+
+Three muskets were lowered and fired.
+
+While these incidents were following one another with the rapidity of
+thought, the fugitives had crossed the corridor and descended the steps
+of a masked staircase that led to a little inside yard, which opened
+upon a narrow lane, into which a number of dark and vaulted passages,
+common in The Hague, ran out. Serdan, being long familiar with the
+entrances to Monsieur Tilly's residence, and bent upon endeavoring to
+snatch Mademoiselle Plouernel from the frightful peril that threatened
+her, the means of escape offered by these devious passages, of which the
+assailants knew nothing, occurred to him. Through the same secret
+passages the servants of Monsieur Tilly's household now took flight.
+
+"Monsieur," said Bertha to Salaun in a fainting voice, "I implore you,
+acquaint me with the name of the man to whom I owe my life and honor!
+Give me the name of my generous deliverer!"
+
+"Nominoe Lebrenn, my son, a mariner of the port of Vannes as is his
+father, mademoiselle."
+
+At that moment the detonations of the shots, fired upon the door which
+Nominoe defended, resounded through the narrow corridor which the
+fugitives had just left. The reverberations were immediately followed by
+the distant and expiring cry of the young mariner: "Adieu, father! Flee!
+Flee!"
+
+"Unhappy boy! They have killed him!" cried Salaun Lebrenn in a
+heartrending voice. "They have killed my dear Nominoe!"
+
+Leaving Mademoiselle Plouernel to the care of Serdan, who just returned
+after exploring the lane, Salaun Lebrenn re-ascended the flight of
+stairs and ran to his son's aid.
+
+"Come! Come, mademoiselle," said Serdan. "The lane is deserted. Night is
+upon us. I answer for your safety the moment we have entered the first
+vaulted passage."
+
+Mademoiselle Plouernel did not seem to hear the words of her guide. She
+stood motionless; her eyes roamed about bewildered; she murmured to
+herself: "I am the cause of his death. They killed him! They killed my
+liberator! Woe is me!"
+
+"Make haste, madam; cross the yard, then the alley and enter into the
+first passage to your right; then wait for me there," said Serdan to the
+Marchioness and the Abbot, whose terror inspired them with the strength
+to follow Serdan's instructions.
+
+Serdan himself speedily joined them, sustaining, in fact carrying
+Mademoiselle Plouernel, who had lost consciousness.
+
+As Salaun Lebrenn was rushing to the assistance of his son, he ran in
+the corridor against the butcher. "Wretch! You killed my son!" he cried;
+and seizing the tall fellow by the throat threw him down. The two men
+struggled on the floor. The obstruction of the narrow passage by the two
+combatants impeded the advance of the butcher's companions. That instant
+a ruddy glow projected itself into the corridor. It was the first
+flickering flames of the conflagration that the men who remained in the
+parlor had started. Salaun Lebrenn leaped up; the butcher, finding
+himself free, fled back through the parlor, before escape from the fire
+were too late. The Breton discovered his son lying prone and bathed in
+his own blood. He took him on his shoulder, hastened to the masked
+staircase, to the yard, to the alley, and, only then considering himself
+safe, laid down his precious burden, ignorant as yet whether his son
+lived or was dead. God be praised! Salaun Lebrenn felt the heart of
+Nominoe beat.
+
+Mademoiselle Plouernel having returned to consciousness, she could be
+supported by Serdan to a carriage, and conveyed, together with the
+Marchioness and the Abbot, to the port of Delft. Before leaving The
+Hague the young girl had at least the consolation to know that, although
+serious, the wounds received by Nominoe were not mortal. The guide to
+whom Serdan entrusted the three fugitives inquired, upon his arrival in
+Delft, after any outgoing vessel. A captain of Hamburg, a neutral city
+whose merchant vessels had, consequently, nothing to fear from the
+French, the English or the Dutch squadrons, agreed to convey the three
+passengers to Havre-de-Grace. That same day the vessel set sail for
+France, where it calculated to arrive safely after a short passage.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the same day of the double murder of the De Witts the Assembly of the
+States of Holland despatched a courier to the young Prince of Orange,
+then encamped with his army at Alpen on the banks of the Rhine, between
+Leyden and Woerden. The courier arrived as the Prince was about to sit
+down to table. He opened one of the two despatches brought to him, read
+it and said: "Gentlemen, I have good news to announce to the friends of
+Fagel, who is greatly endeared to me. He was appointed yesterday Grand
+Pensionary of Holland in consequence of the resignation of John De Witt.
+Let us drink to the health of Grand Pensionary Fagel."
+
+The Prince thereupon opened the second despatch and read it. His face
+remained impassive; not the least emotion did his features betray. He
+refolded the despatch, and sitting down where the cover was laid for
+him, remarked: "I learn that both De Witts were yesterday massacred at
+The Hague by the populace. May God pardon them, if it is true that they
+betrayed the fatherland!" And turning to his chaplain, the Prince added
+with unction: "You will order prayers to be read for the repose of the
+souls of the two De Witts. May God be merciful unto them!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+These were the only words that the young Prince vouchsafed to the memory
+of Cornelius and John De Witt.
+
+
+
+
+PART II.
+
+BRITTANY.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+NOMINOE.
+
+
+The burg of Mezlean, situated on the coast of Brittany and at about
+equal distances from the port of Vannes and from the druid stones of
+Karnak, was inhabited mainly by Protestant families. Their ancestors, at
+the time when the Reformation invaded and spread over Brittany, and
+subsequently during the religious wars of the Sixteenth Century, had
+quitted Vannes and founded, so to speak, this burg, in which they raised
+a temple. This temple, destroyed in the reactionary days of the League,
+of which lower Brittany was the last hot-bed, was replaced by a Catholic
+church, and was later again rebuilt after the promulgation of the Edict
+of Nantes by Henry IV. Upon that event, and for a long time after, the
+reformers of Mezlean were not disturbed in the exercise of their faith.
+The revival of the spirit of intolerance, however, which later caused
+the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV, speedily manifested
+itself in Brittany also, and the Bishop of Vannes claimed the right of
+restoring the temple of Mezlean to the Catholic cult. In pursuit of the
+Bishop's designs, a thousand difficulties were thrown in the path of,
+and a thousand vexations inflicted upon, the Protestants of the burg.
+The rectors and curates of the neighboring Catholic parishes took the
+hint, and rekindled religious animosities among their flocks by pointing
+at their neighbors of Mezlean as stiff-necked heretics.
+
+One day, towards the end of the month of May, in the year 1673, the burg
+of Mezlean was, since early dawn, in great bustle over the preparations
+for a wedding. The curious blocked the neighborhood of the shop of
+Paskou the Long, so nicknamed for his thinness and tall stature. Paskou
+the Long was a tailor by trade, besides being renowned for miles around
+as a poet. His songs and plaintive love ditties caused him always to be
+chosen for the function of "Baz-valan," or messenger of love, to the
+girls of the place. Thanks to his good-heartedness, his witty sallies
+and his irresistible humor, Paskou the Long was greatly beloved by the
+people of Mezlean. The man's personal qualities, coupled with his poetic
+talents, rendered him a matchless "Baz-valan." When, mounted upon a
+white horse with braided mane gaily decked in ribbons, Paskou the Long
+departed to negotiate some marriage, holding in his hands the symbolic
+twig of broom in bloom, the emblem of love and unity, the lover was
+almost certain to see the "Baz-valan" return the bearer of happy
+tidings, unless, on his outward trip, he encountered a magpie, or saw a
+crow perched upon a tree--sinister auguries that would cause Paskou the
+Long to turn back his horse's head. If, on the contrary, a turtle dove,
+nestled among the leaves, cooed on the passage of the messenger of love,
+the Baz-valan felt certain of the success of his mission. It was a
+treat to hear him sing the praises of his client, set into relief the
+good points of the swain's personal appearance, laud his character,
+enumerate the cattle in his stables, the bushels of garnered wheat in
+his granary, readily and gaily meet the objections of the parents of the
+_demanded girl_, in short, exhibit his matchless skill at cheering the
+most morose, or at proving to the most incredulous that his client would
+be the Phoenix of all husbands.
+
+On that particular day, the curious of the burg of Mezlean thronged
+around the door of Paskou the Long's house, which was contiguous to an
+inn, the yard and outlying stables of which were crowded with wagons
+hitched to the oxen or horses of the peasants who were to join the
+nuptial procession charged with fetching the bride from her paternal
+house, about a league away. The bridegroom, Nominoe Lebrenn, and his
+father, Salaun Lebrenn, were in an upper chamber of Paskou the Long's
+house. Nominoe seemed to be a prey to some secret anxiety. His pale and
+haggard face bore the stamp of concentrated grief. Seated near a table
+with his elbow resting upon it, he reclined his care-worn forehead upon
+his hand. Standing beside his son, Salaun contemplated him with
+amazement, and said to him considerately: "Verily, my son, I can hardly
+believe that I heard you rightly. What! our relatives, our friends, all
+assembled in the neighboring house, are waiting to join you in the
+procession to your cousin Tina's house, and to bring her to Mezlean
+where your wedding is to be celebrated in the temple--and all of a
+sudden, without any reason therefor, you appear to waver before this
+marriage that has been decided and agreed upon for so long a time!"
+
+"Father," answered Nominoe with an effort, "I am not irrevocably engaged
+until the Baz-valan has gone and taken my betrothed from her house--not
+until after that last ceremony has been performed, is it forbidden to me
+unless I am ready to be taken for a faithless man, heartless and without
+honor, to retract my word."
+
+Salaun listened to his son with increased amazement and replied: "Am I
+awake, or am I dreaming? Is not this union, so much desired by your
+mother's brother and me, and planned, I may say, since your and Tina's
+birth--is it not also the constant aspiration of you two? Did you not
+exchange rings shortly after our voyage to The Hague? Finally, was it
+not in concert with your uncle, his daughter and yourself, that
+recently, upon our return from our cruise along the coasts of Saintonge
+and Guyenne, the day for your marriage was fixed? And, now, you mean to
+pretend that, in the absence of an insignificant formality, you would
+still be free to break an engagement that you voluntarily accepted and
+remained true to for so many years! I seek in vain for the cause of this
+change, an inconceivable change, a change that is so unexpected!"
+
+Nominoe answered without raising his eyes to his father: "I was weak; I
+failed in sincerity; but, I still can draw back before a fatal final
+step. Brought up with Tina, habituated to see in her the future
+companion of my life, I believed I loved her. I mistook for that
+sentiment the fraternal affection that I entertained for her since
+childhood. But little by little the truth dawned upon my heart, and I
+discovered that Tina was not and never could be aught to me but a
+sister. Unfortunately I did not have the courage to destroy the poor
+girl's illusion. I recoiled before the thought of the grief that the
+rupture of this alliance between our two families would cause you and my
+uncle. I admit it--I recoiled before the declaration that, however
+tardily, I now feel forced to make, at last. Now, when the hour is
+approached in which I was to unite my fate with Tina's, I interrogate
+myself with the inexorable severity of a judge, and I declare to you,
+father, that I fear, were I to marry Tina, I could not render her as
+happy as she deserves to be. Finally, there is another grave reason for
+my decision not to contract this union: At any moment now, the
+insurrection, that has so long been brewing in Brittany, may break out
+with fury. I hold it would be an act of imprudence on my part to wed
+Tina on the eve of a civil war, in which I may be killed. Looked at from
+any side we choose, it is preferable that the wedding do not take
+place."
+
+The face of Salaun Lebrenn grew sadder and more serious. His son's
+embarrassment, and the weakness of the reasons that he adduced to
+justify his sudden change, clearly betrayed the fact that the young man
+was but beating about for pretexts for a rupture, the real reason for
+which he sought to conceal.
+
+"My son," replied Salaun in a firm and grave tone, "this is the first
+time in your life, I think, that you have lowered yourself before me by
+resorting to a ruse, to equivocation, and even to untruth! You dare not
+look me in the face, and you stammer out your pretended reasons for a
+rupture that you feel ashamed of!"
+
+And the father, taking pity upon his son's prostration, softened the
+severity of his tone by adding: "Nominoe, I shall now address myself to
+your loyalty of heart. I wish to believe, I do believe that your
+scruples, so tardily expressed, are sincere. You fear you may not render
+Tina as happy as the good girl deserves. You fear to plunge her into
+mortal anxiety for your life, perhaps into the mourning of widowhood,
+should the insurrection of Brittany break out to-morrow. To all that my
+answer is: You would have to be a man of selfish heart before I could
+believe you capable of rendering unhappy a creature who loves you with
+all her heart and soul. But you are what you are. Now, then, I swear to
+God, whatever the nature may be of your affection for your wife, she
+will have nothing for which to envy the happiest of wives. My conviction
+on that head is complete, absolute. Do you imagine that, if I believed
+otherwise, I would fail to be the first to wish, in fact, to order you,
+however late the hour, to break off the match? No, no, my son, I have
+more confidence in you than you seem to have in yourself. There, then,
+remains this one objection--the imminence of an uprising in which we
+would take part, and, consequently, Tina's anxiety for your safety. As
+to that, you are right, my son; your apprehensions are well founded; but
+the sorrows that you foresee for your bride are not pressing, while, on
+the other hand, I see a certain sentence of death for the poor girl in
+your refusal to marry her."
+
+"Great God!" exclaimed Nominoe with a shudder, unable to prevent himself
+from sharing his father's fears.
+
+"Listen to me. At this very hour that I am speaking to you, Tina,
+surrounded by her girl companions, her head decked with the bridal
+ribbons, is awaiting you from minute to minute, with her eyes upon the
+Mezlean road, her heart beating with joy and tender impatience. Instead
+of the nuptial procession, preceded by the radiant Baz-valan holding in
+his hand the twig of broom in bloom, she is to see him from a distance
+on the road, coming to her sad, alone and with the twig broken. The poor
+girl will understand the symbol, the ruin of her hopes. She will feel
+herself deserted, considered by you unworthy of being your wife. She
+will not complain. Not a single reproach will escape her lips. She will
+even endeavor to appease her father's indignation. She will say to him:
+'Nominoe is master of his own heart; he has loved me; he loves me no
+more; I was his promised wife, but am not to be his wedded wife. What
+did I do to be deserted? I know not, and am resigned. May he be happy.
+As children we were put to sleep in the same cradle. He always was the
+friend of my youth. My only wish is that he may be happy. It is my last
+wish!' And as she utters these words," Salaun proceeded to say in a
+shaken voice, "tears will wet the pale and sweet countenance of Tina. In
+silence the poor girl will untie her bridal ribbons, will put off her
+wedding robes, and returning to her household work, will resume her
+distaff--all without expressing one bitter word. She will suffer
+without complaining. The period of her sufferings will be more or less
+prolonged, and then," added Salaun, tears beginning to interfere with
+his speech, "and then, at the end of this month, perhaps before the end
+of this week, the people of the burg of Mezlean will say: 'You know
+little Tina, the daughter of Tankeru the blacksmith? Well, she died!'"
+
+At these last words, pronounced by Salaun with poignant simplicity,
+Nominoe could no longer hold back his tears. The natural kindness of his
+heart triumphed over his indecision, and he cried:
+
+"Oh, father! You are right. My desertion of her would cause Tina's
+death! I shall not be guilty of the murder. You shall live, dear child!
+You shall live! Hap what hap may, I shall make you happy. Let my destiny
+be fulfilled!"
+
+"And you also will be happy!" replied Salaun with joy, as he took his
+son in his arms. "Come, dear boy! My insistence is the presentiment of
+the bliss that awaits you two. You are worthy the one of the other. You
+will both be happy, dear children!"
+
+Saying this, Salaun ran to the door that opened upon the staircase of
+the tailor's shop, opened it and called down from the banister: "To
+horse, Paskou the Long! To horse, joyful Baz-valan! Call our relatives
+and friends! Worthy herald of nuptial ceremonies, take your gay sprig of
+broom in bloom, and to horse!"
+
+"It is done!" said Nominoe to himself while his father was calling to
+the Baz-valan. "Adieu, insane hopes! Adieu, deceitful, senseless
+visions, yet so dear to my heart! Adieu, gilded dream, a dream as
+distant from reality as heaven is from the pit! This morning, when I
+learned of the arrival of Mademoiselle Plouernel at Mezlean, I intended
+to break off this match. Poor fool! Return to your senses, to earth!
+Your marriage will put an end to the visions that led your mind astray!"
+
+"Let us depart, my son! Make haste! Poor Tina must have begun to feel
+uneasy," observed Salaun to his son. "All our relatives and friends are
+waiting for us. Quick, to horse!"
+
+A moment later the nuptial procession, headed by the Baz-valan and
+Nominoe, left the burg of Mezlean and took the road to the house of
+Tankeru the blacksmith, the father of Tina, the bride.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+A BRETON WEDDING.
+
+
+Tankeru was both blacksmith and wheelwright. After having long resided
+at Vannes with his mother and daughter, he moved with them and settled
+down in an isolated house situated about a league outside of Mezlean in
+a hollow, at the crossing of two roads one of which skirted the forest
+of Mezlean. Several reasons had combined to determine Tankeru's choice
+of the lonesome locality. The first was that the house stood at the foot
+of two bluffs which rose over a granite soil, rough, rocky and uneven,
+where the horses and oxen that drew the heavy wagons over the road could
+not choose but lose some nails of their shoes as they climbed the steep
+ascent; the blacksmith would be on the spot ready to repair the damage.
+In the second place, Tankeru counted upon indulging in the hunt in the
+forest of Mezlean, a sport to which he was passionately addicted. In the
+teeth of all the punishments decreed against illegal hunting--the
+prison, the whipping post, the galley, even the gallows--Tankeru gave a
+loose to his controlling passion in full security of conscience,
+claiming that the wandering beasts of the forests belonged to the best
+marksman, and that, moreover, it was a good office to keep down the
+number of wild beasts. Game belongs to all--to the villein as to the
+nobleman.
+
+On this day there was great animation in Tankeru's home. His smithy and
+wheelwright shop were full of relatives, friends and vassals of the
+neighborhood--a pale and haggard crowd, pinched by privation, all
+dressed in their best rags, and, for a moment, oblivious of their misery
+as they came to rejoice over the wedding of Tina and Nominoe. They
+emptied the pots of cider, ate the bacon from the salt-tub, and the
+cakes of black bread. The daughters and wives of the invited guests,
+congregated in the upstairs room of the house, were lending a hand in
+the last touches of the bride's toilet. Tankeru was a man of about forty
+years of age, of an open and resolute face, tall of stature, and endowed
+with an athletic strength that often won for him the prize in the
+wrestling matches at the rustic festivals. The host was fulfilling at
+his best the duties of hospitality.
+
+"Friends," said the blacksmith, "let us empty the barrel, the salt-tub
+and the bread-bin. Whatever is eaten and drunk escapes the clutches of
+the King's men, the seigneurs and the clergy!" And Tankeru added
+sardonically: "Fire and flames! The devil take the armed troopers and
+the tonsured gentry! Comrades, we are honest folks, may Satan take the
+Pope!"
+
+"If we are honest folks, Tankeru, we are also poor folks!" replied a
+white-haired peasant. "Very poor folks! The royal taxes, the seigniorial
+imposts, the tithes of the church are ever on the increase--and still I
+hear rumors of fresh taxes. Why, they took almost everything away from
+us. If they take still more, what will be left to us?"
+
+"Why, our skin will be left to us--and who knows but they may want that
+also to turn it into hose for themselves!" put in Tankeru. "Listen, by
+force of forging, shoeing, mending wagons and saving from my daily bread
+for twenty years and more, I laid by a little sum for my daughter's
+dower. In less than twenty months three-fourths of the sum has passed
+into the bag of the tax collectors. Fire and flames! We are honest
+folks! Let us empty the barrel, the salt-tub and the bread-bin! What has
+been drunk and eaten is not seized! The devil take the tonsured
+fraternity and the troopers!"
+
+"Tankeru, you are always saying--'We are honest folks,'" again put in
+the old peasant. "You mean by that, I suppose, that we are a lot of
+fools to allow ourselves to be plucked to the quick. But what would you
+have us do, otherwise than repeat with you--'The devil take the troopers
+and the tonsured fraternity!'"
+
+Tankeru's eyes fell upon a yoke used for oxen. Its nails had fallen out,
+and it stood against the wall. He took it up, showed it to the vassals,
+broke it over his knees, and throwing the pieces at his feet said: "The
+devil take the tonsured fraternity and the troopers! That's what's to be
+done!"
+
+These short words, together with the energetic expression of the
+blacksmith's countenance, produced upon the vassals an instantaneous
+effect. They all rose simultaneously, clenched their fists
+threateningly, and some of them stamped angrily with their heels upon
+the fragments of the yoke that Tankeru had broken. Desirous that his
+guests remain under the sway of the thoughts that the incident had
+awakened in their minds, Tankeru said to them:
+
+"I am going upstairs to see whether my daughter is ready with her
+toilet. It will not be long before her bridegroom will be here."
+
+Tina, the betrothed of Nominoe, surrounded with her friends and
+relatives who joined her grandmother in prinking up the girl, was seated
+in their midst in the old dame's bedroom. It would be hard to depict to
+oneself a more charming and dainty girl than "Little Tina," as she was
+commonly called by her companions. Her blonde hair shone like gold in
+the sun; her eyes, bluer than the cornflower, reflected the sweetness of
+her angelic disposition. Everything breathed gladness around her, and
+yet her delicate features, full of candor and grace, were expressive of
+profound sadness. Alas! Her moist eyes, piercing the glass in the leaden
+frame of the narrow window in the room, wandered far away, vainly
+expecting for a long time to see the nuptial procession at the head of
+which her betrothed was to appear. Tina's friends exchanged a few words
+in a low voice, while the grandmother held in her hands the nuptial
+ribbons--white, signifying the innocence of the bride; red, her beauty;
+and black, her sorrow at leaving her family. As the grandmother was
+about to tie the symbolic bunting on Tina's head, the girl emerged from
+her revery, took the knot of ribbons in her hand, gazed upon it in
+silence, and pointing with her finger to the black, said with a
+heartrending sigh:
+
+"Grandma, this should be the only color of my nuptial ribbons--black,
+like the wings of a crow."
+
+"Still harping on the memory of that presage of evil!" said the
+grandmother in a voice of affectionate reproach. "To entertain such sad
+thoughts on such a beautiful day is to offend God."
+
+"It is to listen to God, grandma! In His goodness He sends us omens in
+order to prepare us for misfortune," answered Tina pensively. "Early
+this morning I stood at the window. The sun had hardly risen, but
+already my eyes wandered in the direction of Mezlean. From that quarter
+I saw flying towards me, with wings outstretched--a crow. He flew over
+my head and circled over our house emitting his lugubrious screech. A
+little turtle dove, nestled among the leaves of the large apple tree
+that shades our well, was at the time cooing its song of love and
+tenderness. The moment she heard the cawing of the crow she hid herself
+from sight among the foliage. The crow detected and pounced down upon
+her. In her attempt to escape she fluttered about, and happening to
+stumble near the edge of the well, fell in and was drowned," Tina mused
+aloud to herself. "God sends us omens to prepare us for misfortune!
+Black should be the only color of my nuptial ribbons, grandma! Only
+black! Nominoe does not come. The hour has passed--he will not come."
+
+The belief in omens was so general in Brittany that, however singular or
+unreasonable in appearance, Tina's persistency in her presentiments
+impressed her companions. Nevertheless, Janik, the dearest of her
+friends, sought to reassure the bride and said, forcing a smile upon her
+own lips:
+
+"That you should take the sweet little turtle dove to personify
+yourself, I agree to, little Tina; but to see your betrothed, Nominoe,
+so handsome, so good and so enamoured a youth--aye, to see him in that
+ugly and wicked crow--fie, little Tina, fie! How can such a thought
+occur to you!"
+
+"Janik is right," put in the grandmother. "Your cousin has loved you
+since your childhood. You have been long betrothed. As late as yesterday
+he was here. Did he not say, as he was taking leave: 'Till to-morrow, my
+sweet Tina. Fools are they who are often seen to look for happiness at a
+distance when they can have it near at hand. Happiness to me consists in
+joining my fate to yours. Till to-morrow, my sweet Tina!' And after such
+words, you foolish child, and simply on account of a delay of perhaps an
+hour in the arrival of the nuptial procession, you begin to have evil
+dreams and to talk to us of black ribbons, crows and birds of death!
+Come, cast off such mournful thoughts!"
+
+"In the crow I see bad luck, grandma," persisted Tina, more and more
+absorbed in her sad presentiments, and her eyes ever resting on the
+desert road of Mezlean. "I see in the crow the bad luck that threatens,
+and perhaps is to punish me."
+
+"Punish you!" replied the grandmother no less surprised than the
+bride's companions. "What harm have you ever done to anybody, dear,
+innocent creature, as pure and innocent as a dove?"
+
+"I had the vanity and pride of imagining myself beloved of Nominoe.
+Alas! I know it; I am his own cousin; often did we sleep together, as
+children, in the same cradle; but I am only a poor, ignorant girl, while
+Nominoe is clever and cultured like a clerk. He has traveled and seen
+distant countries. He and my uncle Salaun Lebrenn are the best mariners
+of Vannes. They own their own vessel. They are rich, compared to my
+father, who only has his forge and a few gold coins that he deprived
+himself of for my sake." Tina paused and then proceeded in a tone of
+bitter self-reproach: "Oh, what I have just said is not right--it is a
+wrong to Nominoe. He desert me out of avarice! No! no! His heart is too
+generous for that. Seeing how much I loved him, he took pity upon me. He
+feared to grieve me if he did not love me. He is so good! Yes, last
+night, as he thought of his coming here to-day to take me for his wife,
+he must have realized that he loved me only out of compassion. That is
+the reason of his absence!"
+
+"Nominoe to put such an affront upon you! upon your father! upon your
+family!" cried the grandmother interrupting Tina. "My child, you are
+losing your senses! What nonsense, to imagine such cruel things simply
+because your bridegroom is a little late in coming! Return to your
+senses!"
+
+"Why," remarked Janik, "I can easily guess the reason of his delay. It
+must be the fault of the Baz-valan. That Paskou the Long, the longest
+and most talkative of all tailors that I have ever seen, must have had
+the notion of composing a new song in honor of your wedding, and he is
+trying to commit it to memory. That is the reason of the delay. But they
+must now be on the way."
+
+Suddenly Tina, who, unmindful of the consoling words with which her
+grandmother and friends strove to allay her fears, did not remove her
+fixed and moist eyes from the deserted Mezlean road--suddenly Tina
+seemed electrified; she rose, uttered a slight cry of joy, and,
+transfigured and radiant, stretched out both her arms towards an object
+in the distance. The shock of joy, the sudden revulsion from despair,
+caused her to turn pale and stagger. She leaned upon her grandmother,
+embraced her effusively, and muttered in a voice that gladness seemed to
+choke: "Nominoe is coming! There he is now! There he comes!"
+
+The bride's friends crowded to the window. At a distance they saw the
+front ranks of the nuptial procession descending the slope of the
+highway, preceded by the Baz-valan, who bestrode his little white horse
+and held aloft the sprig of broom in blossom. Tankeru entered at that
+moment, announcing gaily:
+
+"Attention! There comes the procession! Are you ready, my little
+daughter? What! Your nuptial ribbons are not yet tied in your hair!"
+
+Only at that moment did the blacksmith notice the pallor of Tina's face,
+and the traces of recent tears in her eyes. Turning to the grandmother,
+uneasy and even alarmed, he inquired: "Mother! What has happened? The
+girl has been weeping. She weeps--and on such a day as this! What is the
+cause of her grief?"
+
+"Good father!" answered Tina to whose plump and chaste cheeks the roses
+were rapidly returning, "I was crazy! A sad presage oppressed me this
+morning, despite myself. The procession was delayed so long in coming--I
+thought Nominoe had deserted me!"
+
+"Fire and flames!" cried the blacksmith, his face assuming an ominous
+appearance. "Such an outrage!" But immediately interrupting himself he
+addressed his daughter in a tone of affectionate reproof: "It is you,
+dear child, who, surely without intending it, wronged Nominoe and his
+father, the husband of your mother's sister, in believing them capable
+of breaking faith."
+
+"Friend Tankeru, they are waiting for you!" said one of the peasants,
+stepping into the room. "The Baz-valan has alighted. He has knocked
+twice at the house door. Cousin Madok, in his capacity of 'Brotaer,' is
+going to answer the summons of Paskou the Long. The one is as pert as
+the other. The answer will match the demand."
+
+"Quick, quick, little Tina!" said the grandmother. "Let me adjust the
+ribbons in your hair. The Brotaer will call for you in a minute. Come!
+Make haste! We must be ready when called!"
+
+"Oh! Grandma," said Tina, bending to her grandmother her virginal
+forehead, "the Brotaer will not have to call me twice!" And radiant with
+joy and pink with agitation, she raised to heaven her limpid eyes, that
+a moment before were veiled in sadness, but now shone sweetly, like a
+cornflower glistening in the morning dew.
+
+When the nuptial procession was near the house of the bride it stopped.
+The guests alighted from their rustic wagons and formed a circle. Paskou
+the Long leaped to the ground, entrusted his mount to one of his
+apprentices who officiated as a page, and holding in his hand his fresh
+sprig of broom, and swaying his long body with the conscious importance
+of a personage upon whom all eyes are centered, the Baz-valan stepped
+alone to the house door, which was kept closed, and knocked. The door
+opened; a relative of Tankeru, a miller named Madok, a pert and jolly
+fellow, appeared at the threshold. He was to fill the office of
+"Brotaer," or god-father to the bride, and meet and answer the
+Baz-valan, the bridegroom's messenger. Paskou the Long began his
+oration, modulating his voice to a slow rythm, that imparted to his
+sentences the sound of a measured recitative:
+
+"In the name of the Lord God--peace to this house, and blessings upon
+its roof-tree--and greater bliss than I enjoy on earth."
+
+"What is the matter with you, friend?" mischievously interrupted Madok
+the Brotaer. "Why should not your heart be glad--the heart of one who
+causes others to laugh so much--to laugh at your long neck and your long
+legs, and your long arms! Paskou the Long, my friend, what is the grief
+that you nurse at your heart?"
+
+"Tut! Tut! Tut! my friend Madok," the Baz-valan replied, "very long are
+my legs; still, they do not prevent the King's men from catching me,
+from grabbing me by the neck and saying: 'Pay! pay! pay!--pay over
+again! pay all the time!' Very long are my arms, but the arms of the
+bailiff of our seigneur, and of the tithes-collector of the curate are
+longer still! They are so long that they can reach down to the very
+bottom of my pockets, even if they were as bottomless as the wells of
+Melusine! Quite long is my neck--and yet, Monseigneur the Governor of
+Brittany could stretch it out still longer--aye, my poor long neck! That
+is the reason, my friend, why I am not among the most gladsome of
+earth."
+
+"Oh! how true is the proverb--how squarely the proverb hits the nail
+upon the head when it says: It takes nine tailors to make one man. The
+proverb is applicable to you," replied Madok.
+
+"It takes just as many asses to make one miller, friend Brotaer--or, I
+should rather say, Seigneur Windmill!" returned Paskou the Long. "Go to,
+and grind your grain!"
+
+"Well answered, Seigneur of the Needle and Thread!" said Madok. "And
+yet, I repeat it--what a poor, inconsequential one-ninth of a man you
+are! There you are, whimpering and all in a fright as you speak of
+monseigneur, of monseigneur our Governor. Aye, your long face frowns and
+becomes still longer. And yet, just tell me, when you start to speak of
+a good fat pig, good and fat, a pig with such a belly that he can hardly
+move his body, so club-cheeked that one can no longer see his little
+peepers, hidden under three folds of fat--tell me, is it not true that
+then your long face grows longer still--so much do you rejoice, so
+brimful of admiration are you when you speak of such a fat and
+incomparable pig? How comes it, then, my friend, that you do not
+likewise rejoice when you speak of monseigneur--of monseigneur our
+Governor? Answer my question."
+
+The wedding guests received with loud outbursts of laughter the allusion
+of Madok the miller to the enormous obesity of Monseigneur the Duke of
+Chaulnes, the Governor of Brittany, whom the people nicknamed the Fat
+Pig, and whom all classes execrated on account of his severity, his
+haughtiness and his merciless exactions. Paskou the Long waited until
+the hilarity of the audience subsided, and then proceeded:
+
+"Certes, friend Brotaer, I rejoice greatly at the thought of a big and
+honest pig--provided his profitable body is intended for the salt-tub.
+But, Lord, when I think of a huge boar, wicked and unprofitable, who
+fattens, pastures and wallows upon and in my own meager pittance, in
+return for which the gormandizer grunts, steps upon my feet, turns me
+black and blue butting against me, and bites me--is it at all
+astonishing if then my long face should grow still longer and look sad?
+But that is not the cause of my grief."
+
+"What may be the cause of your grief? Speak! Let me know it, friend
+Baz-valan," demanded the Brotaer.
+
+Instead of answering the Brotaer's question, Paskou the Long replied: "I
+had in my dovecote a beautiful pigeon--its plumage turned to all
+imaginable colors. I also had a little white dove, the constant love of
+my handsome pigeon. But, alas! my dove flew away--she flew away from my
+dovecote. Did you, perhaps, see her around here?"
+
+"No, my friend; I have not seen your dove. I do not care for such small
+birds. A fine hen suits me better."
+
+"But some neighbors informed me that she alighted in your yard. I
+entreat you, friend, go in and inquire after my little dove. If I do not
+find her, I assure you my poor pigeon will die of sadness in my
+dovecote."
+
+"In order to satisfy you, friend, I shall inquire after your dove."
+
+Saying these words, the Brotaer went back into the bride's house, closed
+the door after him, and reopened it after a short interval holding in
+his hand and leading out a little girl of about five years. He presented
+her to the Baz-valan and said:
+
+"I went into my yard. I did not see your dove there, but I saw a large
+number of fresh buds of eglantine. Here," pointing to the child, "is one
+of them. She will gladden the eyes of your pigeon, and he will feel
+consoled for his loss. I make you a present of the little bud, in the
+place of your dove."
+
+The Baz-valan embraced the child and answered: "Fresh and charming is
+the little bud--but my pigeon is too sad--too sad is he over the loss of
+his dove--too sad to forget her at the sight of a little flower, however
+pretty it be. Go in again, my friend, and look and see if perhaps my
+dove did not fly into your garret."
+
+"Be satisfied--but as true as every time that he sets out--the good old
+mother of the ferocious Marquis of Guerrand--rings, with tears and
+shudderings--the alarm bell of the castle--to warn the vassals of the
+Marquis to be on their guard against her merciless son--just so stubborn
+are you in the search of your dove--as stubborn as the taxcollectors in
+pursuit of the poor folks."
+
+With these words Madok the Brotaer re-entered the house of the bride,
+and speedily reappeared, leading by the hand a buxom matron of about
+thirty years of age, saying: "I climbed into my garret. The tithes, the
+taxes and the imposts extorted from us by the King, the castle and the
+curate, leave nothing for us to glean but wisps after the harvest.
+Nevertheless, in my garret did I find, escaped by accident from the
+rapacity of the tax-gatherers, this beautiful ripe ear of tasteful and
+golden wheat," and he pointed to the matron. "This beautiful ear of
+wheat will console your pigeon, and he will cease to pine for his dove.
+I give you my ripe ear of wheat to replace your dove. Take it with you."
+
+"However tasteful, however golden they be, the grains of that beautiful
+ripe ear will never tempt my pigeon. Alas, with the loss of his little
+white dove he lost the taste for both eating and drinking. Friend,
+friend, I entreat you, go down into your cellar. See if, perchance, my
+white dove did not seek refuge there. Search in all the corners of your
+cellar, you may find my white dove there."
+
+"Be at your ease, but, by heaven! the men of the royal fisc, when they
+pounce upon our poor houses, in pursuit of taxes and imposts, even they
+are not skilful as you in rummaging a dwelling from the cellar to the
+garret. I shall go look again, and see whether, by accident, your dove
+has fled into my cellar."
+
+For a third time Madok the Brotaer re-entered the bride's house, whence
+he soon again emerged holding by the hand a very old and venerable
+looking woman, and said: "Into my cellar I went; I did not see your dove
+there. But I did find a good old fruit," pointing to the old
+grandmother, "that was gathered long, very long ago. Despite its
+wrinkles, however, it has preserved its taste and flavor. Good fruit
+gains with time. I offer it to you for your pigeon."
+
+"Certes, my friend, the wrinkles of good fruit do far from hurt its
+quality. Always nourishing and wholesome, such fruit ever seems more
+precious, and sweeter, when, winter having come, the summer fruits are
+gone. But, alas! my pigeon cares not either for your good fruit, or for
+your beautiful ear of ripe wheat, or for your fresh bud of eglantine.
+Go, if you please, and sow your pearls before monseigneur our Governor.
+What my pigeon wants is his own white dove. She is here; I know she is.
+You only refuse to return her to me. I shall go in and look for her
+myself. I must have my dear white dove, and I shall have her."
+
+"Friend, I shall save you the trouble. Come with me, Baz-valan, come.
+Your little dove is not lost. I kept her safe myself, for you. I kept
+her in an ivory cage, a cage with bars of gold and silver. Yes, your
+dove is here. She is here, gentle, beautiful, and decked quite gaily.
+Your handsome pigeon need not die."
+
+Saying this, the Brotaer opened the house door to the Baz-valan. The
+latter beckoned to Nominoe to alight from his mount, took him by the
+hand, and led him into the house of his bride, followed by his relatives
+and friends. Tina soon appeared, led by the Brotaer and accompanied by
+her father and grandmother. The first looks of the young girl were for
+Nominoe; and he, seeing her so charming, above all so radiant with
+happiness, no longer regretted having overpowered his reluctance to
+contract the marriage. He thought to himself: "My father was right--my
+refusal would have been death to her!" Beside Nominoe stood Salaun and
+his brother Gildas Lebrenn, a vassal of the Count of Plouernel on the
+farm of Karnak. The more distant relatives and friends ranked themselves
+along the wall of the blacksmith's shop, leaving an empty space in the
+middle in which the bride and bridegroom were placed by the Baz-valan
+and the Brotaer. The faces of these two officials looked no less roguish
+than jovial, yet serious and solemn. The touching expression on the face
+of Paskou the Long caused his ridiculous thinness to be for a moment
+lost sight of. Tankeru and Salaun each delivered a silver ring to the
+Baz-valan, which he put upon the fingers of Nominoe and Tina. After this
+ceremony the Brotaer said to them:
+
+"On your knees, my children!"
+
+The couple knelt down upon the bare floor, and the Brotaer proceeded:
+
+"Exchange the rings given to you by the Baz-valan, in token of your
+indissoluble alliance."
+
+The bride and bridegroom exchanged rings, and the Brotaer added in a
+grave voice:
+
+"Nominoe Lebrenn, Tina Tankeru, do you swear to be joined on earth, the
+one to the other as your finger to your ring?"
+
+"Oh, I swear!" answered Tina with an expression of celestial bliss, and
+she approached to her lips the ring which her bridegroom had temporarily
+carried on his finger.
+
+"I swear!" responded Nominoe.
+
+At the moment of binding his life to his cousin's, Nominoe was
+constrained to wrestle for a last time with his irresolution. Before
+pronouncing the irrevocable oath he was silent for an instant. The
+interval was imperceptible to all except Salaun Lebrenn. The father of
+the bridegroom realized that, at that solemn moment, his son underwent a
+supreme struggle with himself. His heart was gripped with pain.
+
+"Tina Tankeru, Nominoe Lebrenn," resumed the Brotaer, "be you two for
+evermore united, as the ring is to the finger. We live in evil days,
+oppressed and harassed as we are by the men of the King, the seigneurs
+and the clergy. Lean upon each other in your journey through these sad
+times. May your children see better days. And now, let us proceed to the
+temple. The Lord will bless those whom man has united. Let us all
+proceed."
+
+The ceremony being over, Paskou the Long took Nominoe's horse by the
+bridle and led the animal to the door of the house. A lighter saddle,
+provided behind the principal one, enabled the husband to take his wife
+on the crupper of his mount. The two were considered married with the
+exchange of rings. Nominoe leaped upon his horse. The Brotaer, in the
+exercise of his office, raised Tina, light and supple as a child, in his
+arms, and placed her behind her husband. The nuptial procession again
+put itself in motion, now back to Mezlean, whither it was preceded by a
+band of Armorican bag-pipers, playing lustily. Behind them came Paskou
+the Long, cantering on his little white horse, and Madok the miller
+astride of his ass. They were followed by Nominoe with little Tina
+behind him--happy--Oh, as happy as one may think, at having her arms
+around the waist of her well-beloved husband. Salaun Lebrenn and Tankeru
+rode behind the married couple upon hired horses, while Gildas Lebrenn,
+his wife, and all the other relatives and friends were seated in wagons
+drawn by heavy Breton oxen. A large crowd of men, women and children on
+foot brought up the rear.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE RED-COATS.
+
+
+The nuptial procession wended its way slowly. All thought to themselves,
+and freely expressed the view to their friends, that a better matched
+couple could not be. She was sweet and charming, and he of a virile
+bearing which was enhanced by his Breton costume--round hat with wide
+brim; long black waistcoat and upper vest; wide, white, floating hose
+that descended to the knees and were held around the waist by a broad
+belt of scarlet serge; and grey cloth stockings, displaying Nominoe's
+well-shaped calves, which were glued to the sides of his strong grey
+horse. Tina, whose fresh and rosy countenance was framed in her coif
+surmounted with her nuptial ribbons, wore a corsage of green cloth
+embroidered with white thread and cut square over her linen gorgerette
+which betrayed the coy pulsations of her virginal bosom, seeing that, in
+order to keep her balance, one of her arms encircled Nominoe. The sweet
+child had been silent since her departure from the paternal roof. Now
+she spoke, and, blushing, said timidly to Nominoe:
+
+"Nominoe--I have a confession to make to you--"
+
+"A confession of what, dear Tina?" answered the young man
+affectionately, turning his head to his wife in order to see her over
+his shoulder.
+
+But Tina, foreseeing the move, put in: "I beg you, do not look at me! If
+you do I would not dare to say a word!"
+
+"It shall be as you desire, sweet girl;" and smiling, he added: "What
+can be that redoubtable secret that you fear to confess to my face?
+Speak, my dear Tina; reveal your secret to me."
+
+"A sad secret--that I am ashamed of, very much ashamed. I pray to God
+you may pardon me for it. I have been very guilty."
+
+Tina's voice was so moved as she spoke these words, that Nominoe was
+surprised, and involuntarily moved in his saddle in order to turn around
+to his wife. But once more she stopped him, saying:
+
+"I entreat you, do not look at me," and she proceeded after a short
+pause: "I am your wife--you must not be ignorant of any of my thoughts,
+be they good or bad. No! nothing must remain hidden from my husband."
+
+"A bad thought in your mind, you angelic creature! That is impossible.
+You surely exaggerate some trifle, my dear Tina."
+
+"And yet it is so, Nominoe. I doubted you--I doubted your love."
+
+"And why? And when was that?"
+
+"This morning, seeing you delayed in arriving, I said to myself:
+'Nominoe does not want me for his wife'--'Nominoe does not love me'--"
+
+And noticing that an involuntary shudder ran over the young man's frame,
+Tina interjected, almost alarmed:
+
+"Do you feel hurt at my mistrust? I knew you would! I deserve your
+reproof. That is the very reason that I accuse myself. I prefer to be
+blamed by you, rather than to conceal aught from my husband. May the
+sincerity of my confession earn your pardon for me."
+
+The young man remained silent, surprised and struck by the correctness
+of Tina's presentiment. To himself he thought: "What a fatality hovers
+over this marriage! My union is consecrated before man, it will shortly
+be before God. Let me at least reassure the poor child."
+
+Nominoe was about to answer his young wife when an unexpected incident
+suddenly changed the course of his thoughts. His attention being at
+first turned to Tina's words, and being immediately afterwards absorbed
+in his own meditations, Nominoe had not noticed the approach of a
+detachment of soldiers that seemed to be hastening to meet the nuptial
+procession. Suddenly the captain of the troop waved to the peasants to
+stop.
+
+"Fire and flames! Let us face these red-coats!" said Tankeru to Salaun.
+
+"We are unarmed, and we have women and children with us," answered
+Salaun. "No imprudence--let us wait till the hour shall have come. I
+shall ride forward and ascertain what these soldiers want."
+
+"Father," said Nominoe overhearing Salaun's words, "I shall accompany
+you. You must not go alone."
+
+"You forget that you have your wife on your crupper. Both of you remain
+near Tankeru," answered Salaun, and making his horse jump forward, he
+rode towards the soldiers.
+
+Paskou the Long and Madok the miller, the one in his capacity of
+Baz-valan, the other of Brotaer, both official representatives of the
+wedding, joined Salaun Lebrenn. The three trotted briskly towards the
+armed force in order to ascertain the reason for the hold-up.
+
+The King's soldiers, fifteen in number and commanded by a sergeant,
+belonged to the Crown Regiment, and wore the red uniform. The sergeant
+in command of the detachment had an assumed military name. He called
+himself La Montagne. He was an athletic man, tall of stature and in the
+prime of life. His uniform consisted of a scarlet coat embroidered with
+alternate blue and silver threads. His hose, his stockings and the
+lining of his cloak were blue and of the color of his shoulder knot. His
+sword hung from a white baldric that matched the cockade in his
+three-cornered hat, which was surmounted by red and blue feathers,
+gallooned in silver, and challengingly tipped on his hair which,
+agreeable to the new military regulation, was dressed in the fashion
+called _cadenette_. His hair was curled on his temples, and was twisted
+behind his neck in a thick queue, tied with a leather thong. The face of
+the weather-beaten soldier--clean shaven, except for his moustache, and
+furrowed by a deep scar--bore the stamp of hardihood, daring and
+insolence. In his hand he carried a long cane with an ivory head. His
+soldiers, clad in a uniform like his own, except that a simple galloon
+of white wool ornamented their coats and hats, were armed with a new
+pattern of guns that replaced the old muskets. A triangular and pointed
+blade of steel, resembling the long poniards used by the people of
+Bayonne, and therefore called a _bayonet_, was attached to the muzzle of
+these guns.
+
+A drummer and a man clad in a blouse, who carried on his back a ball of
+rope and in his hand a bell which he rang when the drum beat, preceded
+the troop. The sergeant marched at its head; behind him came two men
+clad in black. One was the bailiff of the Seigneur of Plouernel and
+Mezlean, the other the usher of the fisc. Salaun Lebrenn, the Baz-valan
+and the Brotaer, the last mounted on his ass, and his two companions on
+their horses, reined in a few paces from the detachment. Obedient to the
+suggestion of Salaun, and anxious to avoid a collision, all three
+alighted, and approached the sergeant, holding their mounts by the
+bridle. The soldiers had halted upon the command of their chief, and,
+drawn up in a semi-circle, they leaned upon the barrels of their guns.
+
+"Messieurs," said Salaun courteously, "we are peaceful people; we are
+celebrating a wedding; I am the father of the bride; our company
+consists of our relatives and friends."
+
+"And I," put in Paskou the Long with an air of importance, "I am the
+Baz-valan of the wedding, the master of ceremonies."
+
+"And I," added Madok the miller without lowering his eyes before the
+piercing looks of the sergeant, "I am the Brotaer. You ordered our
+procession to stop--it obeyed--what do you want? Speak. We shall be
+pleased to accommodate you."
+
+"By God's death! Here is a pack of inquisitive rustics!" observed
+Sergeant La Montagne to the bailiff and the usher, after measuring
+Salaun, Paskou the Long and Madok the miller with his eyes.
+
+And addressing his two acolytes over his shoulder, La Montagne added,
+pointing with the tip of his cane at those whom he was referring to:
+"Are not these the ragamuffins whom you are looking for?"
+
+"No," answered the bailiff and the usher. "The delinquents, whom we are
+after, are among the other people of the wedding."
+
+"Soldiers, load your guns--and fire upon the woolen caps if they but
+budge!" ordered the sergeant. "Drummer, beat the march, and forward!
+Soldiers, fire upon these peasants at the slightest resistance!"
+
+"And you, ring the bell--and forward!" said the usher to his subaltern.
+"The bell is to the civilian what the drum is to the military. Forward,
+and ring loud, so that those ragamuffins may hear you, and be notified
+of our approach."
+
+Grieved and alarmed at seeing their pacific intervention so rudely
+brushed aside, the three Bretons exchanged a few words in a low voice,
+and when the troop was about to resume its march, Salaun Lebrenn
+addressed the sergeant, the bailiff and the usher in carefully measured
+words: "Messieurs, I do not know the purpose of your coming here. But
+be your purpose whatever it may, I entreat you to postpone until after
+the marriage ceremony the measures that you intend to take. Do not alarm
+and throw our relatives, friends, wives and children into a fright. Are
+you in quest of any one? I give you my word of honor that no one will
+attempt to escape. I invite you to escort us back to the burg of
+Mezlean--"
+
+Salaun Lebrenn broke off. He noticed that he and his two companions had
+fallen into a sort of ambush. While simulating great attention to what
+was being said to him, the sergeant had whispered a few words to his
+corporal, and the latter, obeying the orders given him, had disposed his
+soldiers in such manner that the three Bretons found themselves
+surrounded from all sides, and unable to rejoin their friends.
+Addressing himself thereupon to Salaun Lebrenn, who, no less surprised
+than his two friends at finding himself obviously treated as a prisoner,
+looked at his companions in amazement, the sergeant said sneeringly:
+
+"Your promise notwithstanding, that none of those woolen bonnets will be
+allowed to run off, I prefer something more substantial than a promise,
+rather than to have to chase all over this devilish country that is so
+cut up with moats and hedges. I shall hold you as hostages, you and your
+two companions. You are the chiefs of the band. You will be a guarantee
+for the rest. If any one of them escapes, you will go to prison, and
+stay there until each of you will have paid me two gold louis--besides
+six pistoles for my men. That's the end of it. I want no answer or
+further remarks from you. Forward!"
+
+"So, then, you arrest us?" observed Salaun calmly. "Besides, you place
+us under ransom. But what do you charge us with? What crime are we
+guilty of, sergeant?"
+
+"You double rustic! I charge you with speaking when I order you to hold
+your tongue! Head and bowels! Forward, or I shall knock you down!" cried
+the petty officer brutally, raising his cane; and stroking his moustache
+he proceeded:
+
+"Oh, there is the wedding! The bride may, perhaps, be worth rumpling!
+Bah! She probably is but one of their big flat-footed wenches! And yet,
+who knows! We shall see! Drummers, beat the march!"
+
+When Paskou the Long heard the sergeant's allusions to the bride, he
+raised his two long arms to heaven; Madok the miller, a resolute man,
+clenched his fists, and casting a defiant look at the soldier, was about
+to explode, when he was restrained by a sign from Salaun. Madok yielded
+to his friend, realizing that it would be an act of madness to attempt,
+under the circumstances, a struggle against the armed men. Surrounded by
+these, the three Bretons resigned themselves to move forward, leading
+their mounts by the bridle. The detachment resumed its march, drums
+beating and bell ringing, towards the nuptial procession. The sergeant
+walked ahead.
+
+Such was the terror with which the soldiers of Louis XIV inspired the
+poor folks of our country districts, that at the first sight of the
+red-coats the children threw themselves weeping into their mothers'
+arms; the young girls drew timidly close to their parents; and a good
+number of the vassals began to tremble, while the blacksmith and other
+determined men of his stamp could hardly control their anger. At this
+place the road was narrowed between two bluffs topped with brush. The
+detachment divided in two. One-half halted at the head of the procession
+in order to bar its passage, should it attempt to proceed; the other
+half marched on to the rear in order to cut off the retreat.
+
+Kept as hostages in the midst of the rear guard platoon, Salaun Lebrenn,
+Paskou the Long and Madok the miller were unable to approach their
+friends. Nominoe, with his wife on the crupper of his horse, saw with as
+much surprise as anxiety his father a prisoner of the soldiers.
+
+"Let none of you budge or breathe, ye rustics! If you do, by God's
+death! my men will open fire, and will rip you open with their
+bayonets!" cried Sergeant La Montagne, stepping with his cane raised
+towards the peasants, who crowded back upon one another in order to make
+room for him.
+
+Turning thereupon to the bailiff and the usher:
+
+"Do your work! I shall in the meantime step over to the bride and
+inspect her," added the swash-buckler, looking to the right and to the
+left.
+
+It did not take the sergeant long to discover the charming face of the
+bride, who, moreover, was recognizable by the nuptial ribbons, and was
+all the more in evidence being on horseback behind Nominoe.
+
+"God's blood! The handsome girl! The lassie is too dainty a morsel for
+that clod-hopping husband!" exclaimed the sergeant, and he took several
+steps to draw nearer to Tina.
+
+A heavy roll of the drum, accompanied by the repeated ringing of the
+bell, drowned the last words of the impudent soldier. After that signal
+for silence, the bailiff of the very high, very powerful, very honorable
+and very redoubtable Seigneur Justin-Dominic-Raoul Neroweg, Count of
+Issoire in Auvergne; Baron of Nointel, Valdeuil and other places in
+Beauvoisis; Seigneur of Plouernel and Mezlean in Brittany, etc., etc.,
+announced:
+
+"That the said Gildas Lebrenn, vassal and lease-holder of the fief of
+Mezlean, having, with evil intent and for other reasons, put off, beyond
+the only and last term, the payment of the taxes, imposts and duties,
+which it had pleased the very high and very powerful and very redoubted
+seigneur, etc., etc., to assess upon his vassals of Mezlean, therefore,
+the furniture, crops, cattle, domestic and field animals, household
+utensils, etc., etc., of the said Gildas Lebrenn are hereby ordered to
+be seized and sold by virtue of _military constraint_. And if the said
+goods and chattels of the said Gildas shall not suffice to meet his
+obligations, then action shall be instituted against a house, to him
+belonging as the property of his wife, and the said house, in default of
+a purchaser in block, shall be demolished, and its doors, windows,
+beams, rafters and other debris shall be sold to the highest bidder at
+the option of the said bailiff, who, having presented himself at the
+said farm, called Karnak, in order to execute the orders herein
+contained and to effect the seizure, found the house closed and the
+stable empty, the latter of which should have contained especially two
+yokes of white and orange oxen, the which, being exposed by the
+malignity of the said Gildas to being kept out of the farm in the
+evening and to being surreptitiously sold during the day, the said usher
+now came to seize them bodily, _hic et nunc_, without prejudice to the
+other seizures which he reserves the right of operating on the said
+farm, including the materials that may proceed from the demolition of
+the house above referred to.[5]
+
+"The bailiff, being also vested with the powers of the very respectable,
+discreet, pious and venerable curate of the parish, shall collect by
+force of the same seizures, an arrear of tithes due to the said
+venerable person by the said Gildas Lebrenn and other vassals herein
+below named, etc., etc.
+
+"The said bailiff also comes to proceed against one Tankeru, a
+blacksmith, charged with and convicted of having poached in the confines
+of the forest of Mezlean, in order, wickedly and of deliberate purpose,
+to interfere with the pleasures of the very high, very redoubted and
+very powerful seigneur, etc., etc., by killing his game, notably a
+ten-pronged deer, in the course of the night of the 5th day of the
+present month, as appears from the deposition of one of the
+forester-watchers of the said seigneur, etc., etc. By reason of the said
+crime, the said Tankeru, a blacksmith, is ordered to be apprehended in
+body, and taken to the seigniorial jail, in order there to undergo the
+preliminary punishment of the whip, without prejudice to further
+imprisonment and fines to be paid, etc., etc."
+
+The complaints of the bailiff having been made known amid the mournful
+silence of the nuptial party, the drum was once more beaten, the bell
+was once more rung, and then the usher of the fisc spoke in turn:
+
+"A requisition against the same Gildas Lebrenn and five other leasehold
+peasants, hereinbelow named, etc., etc., who, with evil intent, or for
+other wrongful cause, having paid neither the taxes, nor the tithes, nor
+the capitation, etc., etc., furtively left their houses before the said
+usher could present himself there this morning, taking with them their
+spans of oxen, their wagons and their horses, the same being the most
+important part of the havings of the said peasants; and, fearing lest
+they may profit by the market day of Bezenek, which is to begin early
+to-morrow morning, and surreptitiously make away with their said oxen,
+wagons and horses, the said usher now comes to operate _illico_ the
+seizure of the said animals and wagons, without prejudice of other
+recuperations, etc., etc."
+
+The peasants listened to the reading of the preceding jargon with
+increasing consternation and rage, but without astonishment, similar
+seizures being matters of daily recurrence in Brittany and in all the
+other provinces of France. But what, on that day, drove the indignation
+of the peasants to the point of rage was the insolence of Sergeant La
+Montagne. While the bailiff and the usher reeled off their legal jargon,
+the insolent swash-buckler approached Tina, and, with his plumage
+dangling over his ear, stretching out his legs, arching himself in his
+gallooned coat, and stroking his moustache with one hand, while with the
+other he caressed the hilt of his sword, he pursued the young bride with
+his brazen looks. Tina turned her head away, and took shelter behind the
+back of Nominoe, who, outraged by the soldier's audacity, was livid with
+anger. Nevertheless, he restrained himself; in order to preserve his
+self-control all the more fully, he sought to move a little further to
+the rear; but the moment he made his horse take a few steps backward,
+the sergeant seized the bridle rudely and kept the animal motionless.
+The peasants who saw the sergeant's conduct, began to grumble. But he,
+casting a disdainful look at them and brandishing his cane, shouted:
+
+"Head and bowels! Meseems these rustics are raising objections! By God's
+death, I'll know how to bring you to your senses!"
+
+"Think of your wives--your daughters--your children! Patience!
+patience!" cried Salaun Lebrenn in a loud voice from among the platoon
+of soldiers who held him, Paskou the Long and the miller at a distance.
+"All keep cool, and have patience, my friends!"
+
+The wise warning of Salaun Lebrenn was hearkened to. The grumbling
+ceased. La Montagne, attributing the resignation of the peasants to the
+fear that he inspired, redoubled in audacity. Brutally placing one hand
+upon Tina's knees, who sat upon the crupper of Nominoe's horse, he said
+to her:
+
+"God's blood! Look at me, my pretty lassie! Fear not, my pretty maid--my
+moustache causes only men to tremble," he added, fastening a look of
+contempt upon Nominoe.
+
+Thereupon, carrying outrage to its climax, the sergeant raised himself
+on tip-toe, passed his arm around Tina's waist, and drawing her to him,
+said: "Give me a sweet kiss! God's death! it is the meed of the brave!"
+
+Nominoe was without arms; but with a movement that was swifter than
+thought, he drew his foot from the stirrup, and with a kick of his heel,
+vigorously planted in the sergeant's chest, he hurled him reeling upon
+Tankeru, who was rushing to the defense of his daughter. The blacksmith
+gripped the swash-buckler by the neck and threw him flat upon the
+ground.
+
+"Help, soldiers!" bellowed the sergeant as Tankeru threw him down. "To
+the rescue!"
+
+Those of the soldiers who happened to be near their chief sought to rush
+to his aid, but finding themselves quickly surrounded and closely hemmed
+in by the more resolute of the peasants, they were unable to ply their
+bayonets.
+
+The blacksmith cried:
+
+"Let us disarm the red-coats!"
+
+The cry, being repeated by the other peasants, reached the ears of the
+platoon of soldiers that blocked the head of the procession. These
+rushed back to the aid of their comrades, driving aside the women and
+children with the butts of their guns. The mass of people, thus pushed
+back and crowded closely in the middle of the road, emitted shrieks of
+fright. All was confusion.
+
+At the thickest of the turmoil a lackey on horseback rode up from the
+direction the procession was headed in, preceding by about twenty paces
+two other personages, also on horseback. The lackey reined in his mount,
+cracked his whip and cried:
+
+"Room! Room for Mademoiselle Plouernel! Room for the sister of
+Monseigneur Neroweg of Plouernel! Make room! Make room, there!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+DESERTED!
+
+
+It was, in fact, Mademoiselle Plouernel, who, coming from the manor of
+Mezlean, was approaching the spot of the tumult. She wore an elegant
+riding habit--a long skirt and closely fitting jacket of a pearl-grey
+material, trimmed with knots of ribbon of the same azure-blue color as
+her shoulder knot and the feathers in her broad-brimmed black felt hat.
+She rode with ease a palfrey white as snow, and richly caparisoned with
+a saddle-cloth of blue velvet trimmed in silver. An old equerry with
+grey hair and dressed, like the lackey, in the Plouernel livery--green,
+orange and silver--accompanied Bertha. Her beautiful, yet pale and
+delicate face, revealed the ravages of a protracted illness from which
+she was only recently recovered. The thinness of her cheeks imparted the
+appearance of abnormal size to her black and feverishly brilliant eyes.
+The melancholy of her physiognomy, coupled with a slight suggestion of
+despondency in her bearing, gave an irresistible charm to her person.
+Surprised at the cries and the clamor which she heard proceeding from
+the concourse ahead of her, from which she was still some hundred paces
+distant, she sent her equerry forward to ascertain the cause of the
+disturbance. He obeyed, and, arriving near a group of weeping women, was
+acquainted by them with the events that preceded. The equerry returned
+to his mistress and informed her that the bailiff of the Count of
+Plouernel had come to seize the teams and wagons of several peasants who
+were on their way to the temple in order to celebrate a wedding; that
+the bride's father was to be arrested for poaching; and that a quarrel
+had broken out between the peasants and the soldiers of the Crown
+Regiment who came to support the demands made by the Count's bailiff and
+the usher of the fisc. Seized with pity, Mademoiselle Plouernel whipped
+up her palfrey, and rode at a gallop towards the very center of the
+crowd, despite the humbly expressed apprehensions of her equerry.
+
+Succumbing to the influence of the terror which they felt for the
+soldiers, most of the peasants had responded but hesitantly to Tankeru's
+call of "Let us disarm the red-coats!" The consequence of their
+irresolution was that the three or four soldiers, who were at first
+disarmed, were able to recover their weapons, to charge upon the
+Bretons, several of whom they wounded with their bayonets, and
+immediately to disengage their sergeant. Seeing the turn affairs were
+taking, Tankeru yielded to the entreaties of his daughter and friends,
+clambered up the bluff that bordered the road, glided through the
+hedges, and took flight across-field. He was out of danger.
+
+The bailiff and the usher, on their part, had, since the start of the
+melee, endeavored to escape. They were in full flight when they
+encountered Mademoiselle Plouernel as she arrived at a gallop on her
+palfrey, which she immediately reined in upon recognizing them by their
+black habit and short cloak.
+
+"Bailiff!" cried Bertha, warmly, "I order you, in the name of the Count
+of Plouernel, my brother, to renounce the seizure which you have
+effected. I order you to set at liberty the poacher whom you arrested!"
+
+Aware of the recent arrival of Mademoiselle Plouernel at the manor of
+Mezlean, and seeing her accompanied by an equerry in the Count's livery,
+the bailiff did not question the young lady's identity. Respectfully
+bowing before her he answered:
+
+"Mademoiselle's orders shall be executed."
+
+"And you are the usher?" added Mademoiselle Plouernel, addressing the
+man of the fisc. "You also are to make a seizure against a poor family
+of peasants?"
+
+"Yes, mademoiselle--"
+
+"You shall relinquish your pursuit. How much is due you?"
+
+"_Item_, three francs; _item_, sixty-seven francs; _item_, seven francs,
+eight sous and six deniers; _item_, two hundred--I can state each item
+with costs and accessories."
+
+"Enough! Du Buisson, pay this man," said Bertha to her equerry, passing
+to him a purse which she took from her pocket.
+
+And turning again to the usher:
+
+"Having received the money, you shall discontinue your pursuit of these
+people."
+
+"Certainly, mademoiselle, and I shall immediately notify the sergeant
+who is charged to exercise the military constraint that I no longer need
+his services, and that he can return to his quarters with his soldiers."
+
+Judging Mademoiselle Plouernel's generous nature by these first
+evidences, and anxious to ingratiate himself with his master's sister by
+seeming also to take an interest in the peasants, the bailiff put in:
+
+"I feel bound to inform mademoiselle, in all justice, the vassals of
+monseigneur are not wholly to blame in the matter of the scuffle with
+the soldiers of the Crown Regiment. The reason of the trouble was a
+joviality of the sergeant's, who wished forcibly to embrace the bride.
+His joviality was altogether foreign to his office."
+
+"Oh! These men of war--they always take themselves to be in a conquered
+country," observed Mademoiselle Plouernel bitterly.
+
+And addressing the bailiff:
+
+"Go and fetch me the sergeant--I wish to speak to him;--instantly!"
+
+The bailiff departed to execute the order. A group of women and
+children, witnesses of the scene, and as touched as they were surprised
+by the generosity of Mademoiselle Plouernel--alas! the seigneurs and
+their families usually showed themselves harsh and contemptful towards
+the poor--showered blessings upon the young lady; they surrounded her
+horse; and, in the effusiveness of their gratitude, asked her the favor
+of allowing them to kiss her hands. Moved to tears by the attitude of
+the good people, Bertha answered them by pointing to the little girl
+who had performed the role of the "eglantine bud" at the nuptial
+ceremonies, and saying:
+
+"Bring yonder little girl to me."
+
+And leaning forward on her saddle and stretching out her arms to receive
+the child, she added:
+
+"In embracing this child, I am embracing you all, my dear women."
+
+The radiant mother raised her little girl up in her hands. Bertha took
+her, placed her on her pommel, and tenderly kissed the child's rosy
+cheeks. Charmed by these caresses, the child threw her arms around the
+neck of Mademoiselle Plouernel, who responded to the affectionate
+familiarity by embracing the child again, and again.
+
+Bertha then turned to her equerry:
+
+"Is there any money left in my purse?"
+
+"Yes, mademoiselle, there are seven louis left."
+
+Bertha took the purse, and putting it in the hands of the little girl,
+said: "Take this, dear child; the gift will alleviate the misery of your
+parents. Give them this purse."
+
+Giving the child a parting kiss, Mademoiselle Plouernel returned her to
+her mother, who, breaking into tears, knelt down upon the ground, and
+clasping her hands, cried:
+
+"Oh, our demoiselle! Blessings upon you! We shall ever love you!"
+
+"Yes, yes; blessings upon you, our demoiselle! We shall ever love you!
+Blessings upon you!" repeated and re-echoed a large number of women,
+their voices tremulous with admiration at the scene they had just
+witnessed.
+
+Little by little, and from mouth to mouth, the report of Mademoiselle
+Plouernel's magnanimity, and the charitable orders that she issued to
+the bailiff, spread among the peasants. Many of these, having joined
+their wives and children, stood in a circle around the young lady as the
+bailiff returned, followed by Sergeant La Montagne, who was pale with
+rage. The man's insolent brutality did not seem to be ready to bend
+before the rank of Mademoiselle Plouernel. No sooner had he arrived in
+her presence than he ejaculated:
+
+"By God's death, mademoiselle, I am neither a bailiff nor an usher! I am
+a sergeant in the Crown Regiment. I receive orders from my colonel only.
+Several of the rustics have dared to lay hands upon me, and to disarm
+me! They are now in the hands of my soldiers, who will take them to
+Vannes. If you love pretty sights, mademoiselle, I shall afford you the
+pleasure of seeing the brigands hang by the neck. It is the will of
+Sergeant La Montagne that those rustics be hanged!"
+
+Among the "brigands" whom the sergeant destined for the gallows, and
+whom his soldiers held prisoner a little distance from where
+Mademoiselle Plouernel was looking down from her horse upon La Montagne,
+but too far away to be seen by her, were Nominoe, Salaun and Madok the
+miller. Shocked at the swash-buckler's words, the young lady sat up
+erect in her saddle, haughty, angry, threatening, and her eyes sparkling
+with so much indignation that, despite his brazenness, the sergeant
+lowered his gaze.
+
+"Listen well to me," said Mademoiselle Plouernel incisively. "Your
+colonel, the Marquis of Chateauvieux, is now stopping at the Castle of
+Plouernel, with my brother. Your colonel is a man of honor. He will not
+tolerate the insulting of women by his soldiers, as you had the
+impudence to do a short time ago."
+
+"Mademoiselle," stammered the sergeant upon learning that his colonel
+was the guest of Mademoiselle Plouernel's brother, "I was only joking
+with the peasant girl."
+
+"You lie!" replied Mademoiselle Plouernel with severity. "You profited
+by the fear that your soldiers inspire in these good people to outrage
+the bride of this wedding. Remember this well--I shall send this very
+day one of my men to the Castle of Plouernel with a letter to your
+colonel; I shall inform him of your unworthy conduct, and shall request
+him to punish the same as it deserves to be. He will not deny me that
+satisfaction."
+
+"Oh! Mademoiselle will surely not seek to bring misfortune upon the head
+of an old soldier!" pleaded the sergeant, frightened at the threat.
+"These rustics tried to disarm me!"
+
+"They were in the right to avenge the outrage! Set them free--repair
+your fault. Only upon that condition shall I consent not to demand your
+punishment at the hands of the Marquis of Chateauvieux."
+
+La Montagne bit his moustache with repressed rage. It wounded his pride
+and his covetousness to free the prisoners who had disarmed him, and
+from whom he reckoned upon a ransom, before having them hanged.
+Moreover, he knew from a thousand precedents that he had nothing to fear
+from his colonel, who was utterly indifferent, as so many other
+seigneurs, heads of regiments, to the acts of violence committed by
+their soldiers upon bourgeois and peasants. But the sergeant also knew
+that the Marquis of Chateauvieux was a great gallant. It was impossible
+that he should refuse to punish an inferior officer if requested to do
+so by so beautiful a woman and one of such high rank as Mademoiselle
+Plouernel. These reflections caused the sergeant to raise his hat, and,
+bowing respectfully before Bertha, he said:
+
+"I shall obey the orders of mademoiselle. I shall liberate the
+peasants."
+
+The sergeant again bowed respectfully before Mademoiselle Plouernel, and
+said to himself in an undertone:
+
+"Breton brigands! You are about to triumph over my humiliation--but
+patience! I shall yet be revenged! Each one shall have his turn."
+
+La Montagne returned to the detachment which held Salaun, his son and
+Madok the miller prisoners, along with several others. When the scuffle
+with the soldiers began, Nominoe jumped off his horse, and leaving Tina
+in charge of his uncle, had disarmed one of the soldiers. Afterwards,
+seeing the struggle ended, he took his father's advice, and allowed
+himself to be pinioned. A short while after, the name of Mademoiselle
+Plouernel and the benedictions showered upon her by the peasants reached
+his ears. Nominoe grew pale; he rose on the tips of his toes and saw
+Bertha at a distance on horseback. His eyes filled with tears--soon his
+head drooped, and growing ever paler he stood as one petrified. From
+this spell he was awakened by the voice of a soldier, who said to him:
+
+"I am going to untie you--you are free--go to the devil!"
+
+"God be praised! You are given back to us!" murmured Tina, hardly able
+to restrain her joy and stepping toward her husband. "Oh! I feel reborn!
+A minute ago I thought I would die!"
+
+"My son, mount your horse, take your wife on the crupper, and let us
+depart! We have escaped a double danger," said Salaun, who was just set
+free, and who led by the bridle both his own mount and Nominoe's. But
+Nominoe, instead of obeying his father, fixed upon Tina a look of utter
+distress, and cried in heartrending accents:
+
+"Adieu! Adieu to you all! Never will you see me again!"
+
+With these words Nominoe leaped upon his horse with a bound, turned its
+head in the opposite direction, and, belaboring its flanks with his
+spurs, dashed up the bank at a gallop. He cleared the hedge, reached the
+skirt of the forest of Mezlean with mad rapidity, and disappeared within
+the wood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE MYSTERY AT PLOUERNEL.
+
+
+The Castle of Plouernel is located not far from Nantes on one side nor
+from Rennes on the other, and is one of the most magnificent residential
+palaces of France. It dates back to the Renaissance period, and presents
+a finished specimen of that style of architecture, the fancy of which is
+infinite and charming. Here, cupolas, elegant as Oriental minarets,
+contrast vividly with the pointed angle of high roofs; yonder,
+wide-arched galleries, resembling aerial bridges thrown over space, join
+one set of buildings to another; here, balustraded terraces seem
+embroidered in the living stone. It is a mass of richness and diversity,
+a dazzling efflorescence of architectural ornamentation from the
+exterior of the chimneys, each of which is a masterpiece of execution,
+down to the chimerical gutter-spouts and the stone setting of the doors
+and windows, sculptured in human figures, flowers, birds and the heads
+of monstrous animals, real and fabulous. And yet, Oh! prodigy of art,
+the inexhaustible variety of details, the fantastic irregularity of the
+different parts of the edifice merge into a whole that is instinct with
+loftiness and grace. Finally, about half a league away from that
+dazzling fairy palace--the facade of which runs over with sculptured
+designs gilded by the slanting rays of the sun, and brilliantly
+harmonizes with the azure of the sky above and the verdure of the woods
+round about--the eye catches on the crest of an arid and rocky ridge
+that rises almost perpendicularly, the ruins of the ancient feudal manor
+of Plouernel, semi-hidden under a vast wrappage of ivy. The
+indestructible dungeon only has defied the tooth of time. Its square
+bulk, blackened by the ages, rises to a height of over a hundred and
+twenty feet, still crowned by its old crenelated battlements and
+machicolations, and flanked at either angle with a turret from which the
+men on watch kept an eye upon the road and the river, the former of
+which wound its way to the right, the other to the left of the foot of
+the rock, at the summit of which, perched like a vulture's nest, rose
+the seigniorial lair.
+
+An avenue of centennarian elms, planted in four files, led up to the
+facade of the Castle of Plouernel, which rose from a wide and
+semi-circular "court of honor," surrounded by a colonnade surmounted by
+terraces. The elegant architectural hemicycle masked the stables, the
+kennels, the falcon cages and other out-buildings of the castle, and
+was, in turn, surmounted by an impost on which, woven into implements of
+war and of the chase artistically sculptured, was seen the coat-of-arms
+of Plouernel--three eagle's talons sable on a field gules--and, rising
+from among gracefully executed ornamentations, the lettering "Guy de
+Plouernel," the builder of the palace in the year 1559, according to
+the lapidary date graven above the armorial bearings.
+
+On this day, the bustle among a large number of valets, grooms, cooks
+and huntsmen who scurried over the court of honor on their way to one or
+other of the out-buildings, announced that the seigneur of the place was
+in the castle. Several soldiers dressed in the red uniform, and two
+sentinels on guard at the foot of the winding staircase, further
+indicated that the Marquis of Chateauvieux, the colonel of the Crown
+Regiment, was the guest of the Count of Plouernel, the latter having
+offered to his friend the colonel to quarter two companies of his
+soldiers in the numerous dependencies of the castle. Finally, at a
+distance, stablemen were seen putting some horses through their paces
+upon the fine grass of a lawn, beyond which, and as far as the eye
+reached, extended the tree-covered park, dominated to the east by the
+rocky ridge, at the top of which the imposing ruins and black dungeon of
+the ancient manor of Plouernel contrasted strikingly against the blue of
+the sky.
+
+The interior of this modern castle corresponded with its sumptuous
+exterior. Numerous servitors in livery crowded the marble-slabbed
+vestibule, to the left of which ran a gallery containing the portraits
+of the Seigneurs Neroweg of Plouernel. The oldest of these paintings,
+belonging to the Eighth Century, bearing unmistakable mark of Byzantine
+stiffness of execution, represented a Neroweg lady, Meroflede, the
+Abbess of Meriadek in Plouernel, of the days of Charles Martel. But
+seeing that the origin of this family harked back to the conquest of
+Gaul by the Franks, the father of the present Count, yielding to his
+pride of race, had supplied the lack of authentic portraits antedating
+the Eighth Century, by consulting his genealogy, and causing the
+lineaments of those of his ancestors, who lived during the first five
+centuries of the Frankish monarchy, to be retraced. Though not accurate
+portraits of their subjects, these paintings at least reproduced the
+several costumes of those past epochs. The first Neroweg, a leude of
+Clovis and count of the country of Auvergne by right of his sword, was
+represented in all the barbarism of the savage accoutrement of that
+Frankish warrior--hair of a coppery hue tied at the top of his head with
+a leather thong, and falling down loose over his back like the tail of a
+horse; long, red moustaches; clean shaven chin; and savage mien. The
+bust was half covered by a sort of dalmatica made of an animal's hide,
+and the warrior leaned his hand upon his "framee," or battle weapon.
+Among this long succession of portraits was one empty frame wrapped in
+black crepe. The absent picture was that of Colonel Plouernel, an
+honorable man, and one of the most valiant captains in the Protestant
+armies of the Sixteenth Century. But the colonel's great-grandson had
+struck him out of the family line, meaning thereby to brand in his
+person the Huguenot, a rebel to his King and to the Church of Rome. The
+portrait gallery led to a salon, on the other side of which was the
+apartment of Madam Tremblay, the aunt of the Count of Plouernel.
+
+The Marchioness was still the woman of the court which she was at the
+time of her journey to The Hague. She was conversing confidentially
+with Abbot Boujaron, who seemed to be deeply preoccupied. The two had
+not yet wholly gotten over the experiences of what they called their
+"accursed journey to Holland," where they came near being torn to
+pieces, but where they had, they said, "at least the satisfaction of
+knowing at first hand of the massacre of the two republican heretics,
+those De Witt brothers."
+
+It was a narrow escape, but the worthy pair succeeded in eluding the
+popular fury that exploded against the French party by leaving The
+Hague, again reaching the port of Delft--thanks to Serdan, who,
+nevertheless they held to be a fellow of felonious instincts--and there
+embarking on a neutral vessel bound for Havre, where they landed without
+further incident. From Havre the two went to Versailles, Mademoiselle
+Plouernel's flat refusal to accompany them to England having put an end
+to their project of a voyage to that country. Besides, the young lady's
+health was so much impaired that they would have been compelled to give
+up that journey even had she not opposed it. They took her along to
+Versailles.
+
+Upon their arrival there the Marchioness summoned Monsieur Fagon, Louis
+XIV's leading physician. That illustrious doctor declared that the young
+woman's illness was a mystery to him. Despite all his assiduous care,
+despite all the resources of his art, Bertha of Plouernel remained
+between life and death, her strength being undermined by a slow fever
+that rendered her almost unconscious, and that reduced her to the point
+of being but the shadow of her former self. In fact, she was taken to
+be at death's door, when an unexpected but favorable crisis set in, as
+unexplainable as the disease itself, according to Monsieur Fagon, and
+restored her to health. Her convalescence lasted more than six months.
+In the spring of the year Monsieur Fagon advised Bertha's aunt to send
+her to Brittany, assuring her that the girl's native climate would
+complete the cure. Accordingly Bertha was sent ahead to Plouernel under
+the escort of one of her brother's equerries, two of her aunt's women,
+and an old nurse, Marion, who had cared for her from childhood. When the
+Marchioness and her Abbot arrived there themselves, they found Bertha
+greatly restored. Her cheeks had resumed their rosy hue.
+
+It was about this very illness and recovery that the pair were anxiously
+conversing. "We now feel reassured on the score of your niece's physical
+condition," said Abbot Boujaron; "but--and this is the important
+point--what is your opinion concerning her moral condition? To me it
+seems there is much to be wished for."
+
+"The turn of her mind and nature has always been more than bizarre, as a
+consequence of the detestable bringing up that she received from her
+mother. But, since her illness, my niece's oddities have grown daily
+more marked so that, were it not for the reasons you know of, my nephew
+and myself would long ago have decided, with the consent of the King our
+master, to lock up in a convent the wayward minx who insists that our
+priests are imposters, that people do not die, and that we are re-born
+in flesh and bone to live onward in the stars!"
+
+"All of which, my dear Marchioness, is heresy, pure and simple; and
+worse yet--paganism of the first water. Besides that, there can be
+nothing more disorderly than Bertha's conduct. She receives with open
+arms the first tramp who presents himself at the castle's gate, under
+the pretext of giving alms; at the burg she is called _the good
+demoiselle_, a sort of indirect insult to her brother. It often happens
+that she mounts her horse in the morning, and does not return until
+evening, accompanied, it is true, by an old lackey and old Du Buisson,
+one of the Count's equerries. Other times she leaves alone on foot upon
+interminable promenades. To make a long story short, a few days ago,
+Bertha took the notion of going to the manor of Mezlean, that has long
+been uninhabited, and of remaining there forty-eight hours at a stretch.
+Since she returned from that excursion day before yesterday, she has not
+left her room nor her bed, claiming indisposition, and refusing to admit
+you, as well as her brother. All this, Marchioness, is more than odd; it
+verges on mental derangement. For that reason, your own and the Count's
+tolerance seem to me regrettable and unpardonable. An end must be put to
+this situation."
+
+"You know very well why we must seem tolerant. We are hoping to secure
+Bertha's consent to marry the Marquis of Chateauvieux, then her brother
+Raoul will be able to wed Mademoiselle Chateauvieux, in turn. My nephew
+attaches extreme importance to these matrimonial projects--the old Duke
+of Chateauvieux, the Marquis's father, enjoys an immense influence with
+the King. Due to the inheritance left to her by the Viscountess of
+Morincourt, Mademoiselle Chateauvieux is one of the richest matches in
+France. Now, then, however considerable Raoul's property may be, he is
+prodigal and luxurious to a degree. The bailiffs of his domains of
+Auvergne, of Beauvoisis and of Brittany make his vassals _sweat_, as
+they humorously express it, all that it is humanly possible to sweat
+them of. Two hundred and fifty-three thousand livres, good year or
+bad--more than a third in excess of what the same estates yielded at the
+time of his father--and yet my nephew is often reduced to such straits
+that he must resort to the money-lenders. From all this it follows that,
+if the King, as the Duke of Chateauvieux has formally promised us,
+confers upon my nephew the embassy to Spain immediately after his
+marriage, nothing less than the inheritance of the Viscountess of
+Morincourt will be needed to enable the Count worthily to represent his
+royal master at the court of Madrid."
+
+"No doubt, there is nothing more desirable or more opportune than that
+marriage, my dear Marchioness. But, you know what is the express
+condition for its fulfilment. It is a condition that only raises fresh
+perplexities."
+
+"Yes, the Duke of Chateauvieux--a duke only by brevet, and, be it said
+among us, of poor material, considering his origin, seeing that his
+great-grandfather was only a domestic servant--the Duke of Chateauvieux,
+despite his influence with his Majesty, and his brevet title of duke,
+feels that he limps on the leg of birth. In order to dip his descendants
+in the antique luster of our house, he stipulates as an express
+condition of Raoul's marriage with Mademoiselle Chateauvieux, Bertha's
+consent to marry the Marquis. That, as you know, is the reason why Raoul
+and I, to put it plainly, are dependent upon my niece, and why we wink
+at her follies."
+
+"Well, Marchioness, do you know what, in my opinion, appears clear from
+all this?"
+
+"I listen, Abbot; open your mind to me!"
+
+"It will happen with the marriage of Bertha to the Marquis of
+Chateauvieux as happened with the contemplated mission to England."
+
+"How can you say that! My niece receives admirably the advances of the
+Marquis. She has given Monsieur Chateauvieux good cause to hope. She has
+said to him that she recognized the advantages of that double marriage,
+only she desired time to reflect more fully before deciding upon so
+important a step."
+
+"Oh! Marchioness, your niece is but doubling and twisting to the sole
+end of gaining time! She will not give her consent to the marriage."
+
+"Gaining time! Gaining time! And to what end? Can she expect a better
+match than the Marquis? Is he not, barring his obscure origin, an
+accomplished nobleman, and wealthy, besides? Is he not at home at court?
+Is he not, thanks to the favor that his father enjoys with the King, a
+colonel at the young age of twenty-five, and able to aspire even to a
+Marshal's baton? Think of it, Abbot--a Marshal's baton!"
+
+"Your niece snaps her fingers at Marshals' batons, and the wealth of the
+Marquis, to boot! Don't you yet know her? And, by the way of wealth, a
+certain occurrence comes to my mind. Did not Bertha, planting herself
+upon the custom of Brittany which insures to the daughters a part of
+the paternal and maternal inheritance, demand not only to know the
+amount of her share, but also to be put in possession, immediately, of
+her mother's jewels, which are valued at more than forty thousand ecus?
+Did she not, furthermore, cause the Count's intendant to deliver to her
+a thousand louis in advance, and does she not keep the money locked up
+in her casket together with the precious stones? These several
+proceedings have set my mind a-thinking."
+
+"Mere whims, to which we felt constrained to yield out of fear lest the
+brainless body decline the marriage!"
+
+"Well, Marchioness, what you consider the whims of a brainless body--in
+other words, this determination of having a considerable sum of money in
+her possession--is, in my opinion, on the part of your niece, an action
+that denotes thorough reflection, and the consequences of which may,
+perhaps, prove most disastrous, if, as I much fear, a thought that
+flashed through my mind last night has actually put me on the right
+track. That thought obsesses and pursues me."
+
+"What thought is that? Come, Abbot, be more explicit. Do not speak in
+riddles."
+
+"It is my opinion that Bertha is in love--crazily smitten!"
+
+"Bertha in love! Crazily smitten! Come, your mind is wandering!"
+
+"Oh, Marchioness! In that, I hold, lies the mystery. You may ask who the
+object is of her love--"
+
+The conversation between Madam Tremblay and the Abbot was interrupted by
+the blustering arrival of the Count of Plouernel.
+
+Raoul Neroweg, Count of Plouernel, then about thirty years of age, in no
+manner resembled his sister. In consequence of one of the most
+mysterious of the laws of nature, the Germanic type of the Frankish race
+reappeared in him as, repeatedly across the ages, it had reappeared in
+all its pristine purity in several of his ancestors. This son of the
+Nerowegs had hair and beard of a fiery red, white skin, sea-green eyes,
+and an aquiline nose, hooked like an eagle's beak. His rude and haughty
+nature was tempered by the gracefulness of the accomplished courtier. He
+was a sample of so many seigneurs of our times--greedy and prodigal,
+vainglorious and luxurious, without shame or heart, consumed by ambition
+and more still by the desire of drawing upon himself publicly the eyes
+of his master, and capable, in order to attain that purpose, of
+committing the vilest crimes. Accordingly, the Count had seen nothing
+but a natural expedient, and profitable to his own career, in the
+project of prostituting his sister to the King of England. This
+notwithstanding, the Count of Plouernel carried high his head with the
+pride of his name. Yet such is the moral aberration of the folks of the
+court that, in their eyes, the adulterous love of Kings, so far from
+soiling their sisters, their wives, or their daughters, honors, exalts,
+crowns, consecrates them. From that instant prostitution becomes august,
+infamy a sacred thing! The royal leman becomes a Madonna!
+
+Monsieur Plouernel was horrified at Bertha's ill will, and at her
+carrying her indifference to the fortune of her brother and to the
+service of her King to the point of refusing to give herself up to his
+Majesty Charles II of England. The young girl, already a conundrum by
+reason of the manner in which she looked upon the things of her times,
+was, after that latest performance, nothing but an insane woman in her
+brother's eyes, and fit to be locked up for the good of his house--a
+step that he would at one time undoubtedly have taken, were it not for
+the involuntary compassion he experienced at the sight of Bertha almost
+dying of a languishing malady. Later, when the Duke of Chateauvieux made
+overtures of a double alliance between the two families to Raoul, he did
+not hesitate an instant to pledge his sister to the young Marquis.
+Accident willed it that the Marquis was a young and handsome nobleman,
+although a debauchee, a drunkard and a gambler, neither worse nor better
+than so many others of his caste; but had he been old, ugly, a cripple,
+rotten of body and soul, the Count's action would not have been
+otherwise, nor would he have recoiled before any measures to compel his
+sister to submit to the marriage.
+
+When the Count of Plouernel entered Madam Tremblay's salon he was
+laboring under a violent irritation, caused by the information
+transmitted to him by his Mezlean bailiff in a letter that he had just
+received, advising him of Bertha's intervention in behalf of the vassals
+of his seigniory. He was pressed to meet the enormous financial
+obligations required by his ostentatious living at Versailles--his
+equipages, his jewelry, his banquets, his splendid balls, without taking
+into account his reckless gambling. Seeing the courtier's fortune
+consisted almost exclusively in his seigniorial domains, there was no
+way of increasing his revenues except by overwhelming his vassals with
+exorbitant imposts. The Count of Plouernel, as almost all the other
+members of his caste, neither felt, nor was able to feel, any pity for
+his vassals, whom he had the right to tax at pleasure. Were they not a
+conquered and disinherited race? an inferior species, standing midway
+between man and the brute? bent, broken and deformed by a ceaseless
+round of sorrows and toil? condemned by fate to labor and produce wealth
+for the benefit of their seigneur? The Count of Plouernel approved
+himself consistent with his race, his traditions and his times by
+exhibiting inexorable severity towards this _species_, which he
+sincerely and naively looked upon as an inferior race, and at all points
+unlike his own. Accordingly, in an angry voice, with flashing eyes, and
+holding out to the Marchioness the letter which he had just received,
+and that he crumpled with rage, he said:
+
+"Do you know, madam, what my sister was up to during her short sojourn
+at Mezlean? My Mezlean bailiff informs me that he was about to execute a
+seizure upon several teams belonging to certain recalcitrant vassals who
+were evading payment of the taxes that it pleased me to impose upon
+them, when my sister, happening to ride by along the road, took it upon
+herself to forbid my bailiff to carry out his orders, or even to arrest
+a scamp of a poacher who deserves to hang!"
+
+"That is unheard of! That is downright impudence!" cried the
+Marchioness.
+
+"Wait, madam, that is not yet all--my bailiff and an usher of the fisc,
+who also had a process against those clowns, being aware of their
+malignant disposition, secured the escort of a squad of soldiers from
+the regiment of the Marquis, who has set up his headquarters at Vannes,
+since the Duke of Chaulnes apprehends some trouble in the province.
+Well, madam! Would you believe such an excess of audacity possible? The
+clowns dared to rebel against the escort of the bailiff, and tried to
+disarm them!"
+
+"Why nephew! that is a very alarming piece of news. It is grave!"
+
+"The sergeant of the escort, a resolute man, soon had the upper hand of
+the canaille. He seized three of the ringleaders in the mutiny, and had
+them pinioned tightly by his soldiers. And what do you imagine my sister
+did? No, you will not believe such audacity possible!"
+
+"I suppose she begged mercy for them. Oh! I doubt not that she
+interceded in their behalf also--"
+
+"Worse than that, Abbot! She demanded their immediate liberation, and
+threatened the sergeant with the anger of the Marquis of Chateauvieux!"
+
+"Steps have to be taken in the matter of this poor insane girl."
+
+"I am all the readier for that, madam, seeing that, according to what my
+bailiff writes, my sister's intervention in these matters has produced
+detestable effects. My vassals, finding themselves encouraged in
+resisting the payment of the taxes, are now loudly clamoring that the
+imposts are exorbitant, and will not pay them! Finally, the most lawless
+of them, feeling encouraged by immunity, are no longer afraid to declare
+that the hay-fork of a Breton does not fear the bayonet of a soldier of
+the King; that if the latter are well armed, the peasants are more
+numerous; and that the fury of their despair will render them a match
+for the soldiers when the hour of revolt shall have sounded! It is a
+call to insurrection! To a popular revolt!"
+
+"An insurrection! A revolt!" cried the Marchioness, alarmed. "How dare
+the wretches talk of insurrection and revolt!"
+
+"We are relapsing into the Jacquerie!" put in the Abbot, raising his
+hands heavenward. "Jacques under Louis XIV! Under the Grand Monarch! In
+the Seventeenth Century! It must be the end of the world! Woe is us!"
+
+"Prompt and terrible punishment will, I still hope, my dear Abbot, bring
+these clowns back to their duty," answered the Count. "But my sister has
+encouraged the scoundrels. Her insane generosity has chosen for its
+object the very worst elements of all my vassals. The poacher and the
+recalcitrant vassal belong to a certain Lebrenn family, that numbers
+among its members two mariners of the port of Vannes--a brace of active
+and intriguing adventurers, who are strongly suspected of aiming at
+sedition, and of even having secret understandings with the republicans
+of Holland! They are both men of thought and action--most dangerous
+fellows!"
+
+"Marchioness," observed the Abbot, casting a meaning look at Madam
+Tremblay, "what did I tell you about that family, which our venerable
+Society of Jesus over a century and a half ago entered in its secret
+register as one of the most dangerous? My information evidently was most
+correct and accurate. An eye will have to be kept upon those people."
+
+"What do you refer to?" asked the Count of Plouernel. "What information
+can you have had concerning these people?"
+
+"We shall go over that more at our leisure, my dear Raoul. The details
+of the matter would now lead us too far away. Only be certain that you
+can not have a more pernicious family among your vassals than this
+identical Lebrenn family. We shall talk over the matter later. Suffice
+it now to say that they are the sort of people that must be suppressed.
+I may be able to render you some assistance in that direction; but I
+consider that the most urgent thing just now is to place your sister
+where it would be absolutely impossible for her to pursue the course of
+her eccentricities and follies."
+
+"Oh! Abbot, do you not know there is an obstacle, a serious one in the
+way?"
+
+"I know full well that your projects of a double marriage compel you to
+humor the brainless creature--but, one thing or the other: Bertha is
+either willing, or she is not willing, to lead the plan to a successful
+issue. Now, then, it is my opinion that she is not willing. Her
+determination is made."
+
+"You are in error, Abbot," said the Count of Plouernel. "Bertha does not
+object to the marriage."
+
+"But she demands time--to reflect! Not so, my dear Raoul? Well, then,
+all her delays have but one object in view: Bertha seeks to gain time in
+order to deliver herself without restraint to her follies, perhaps
+to--it is this that, above all, frightens me for the honor of your
+house--the bare thought frightens and terrifies me--"
+
+"What is the cause of your fear? Come, explain yourself!"
+
+"My dear Raoul, our poor Abbot thinks Bertha is in love."
+
+"Good God!" broke in the Count, stupefied. "Do you think so, madam?
+Bertha in love! Impossible!"
+
+"Everything leads to the belief that her love is an unworthy love, since
+Bertha surrounds it with profound mystery," the Abbot proceeded to
+explain. "Neither the Marchioness, nor yourself, nor I--I admit it--have
+until now been able to suspect, or even remotely guess who the object
+can be of this evidently monstrous passion. That such a passion does
+exist I make no doubt. All signs point in that direction."
+
+"Thinking the matter over, and recalling certain circumstances that now
+rise vividly to my mind, I share the Abbot's opinion," added the
+Marchioness. "Bertha must have availed herself of the freedom that we
+allowed her to abandon herself to some disgraceful choice. One of these
+days she will flee with her lover, and the honor of our house will be
+tarnished forever! A scandal, dishonor, shame to our family!"
+
+"The devil take it!" cried the Count of Plouernel. "If my sister should
+ever carry her disregard of all duty to the point of refusing a marriage
+that secures such great advantages to me, I swear to God! if the cause
+of her refusal be some disgraceful love, I shall immediately go and
+throw myself at the feet of the King, and request him to have the wretch
+locked up in the Prison of the Repentant Women where she will be treated
+with the utmost rigor."
+
+"Mademoiselle Plouernel consigned to the Prison of the Repentant Women!
+Oh, my dear boy, you can not mean that!" said Abbot Boujaron with devout
+unction. "No; no; that is out of the question! But what is sensible and
+proper is that your sister take the veil, and that the share of the
+inheritance due her according to the custom of Brittany, be assigned to
+the community that may receive the great sinner, to aid it in exercising
+its charitable works. Besides, believe me, my dear boy," added the
+Abbot, smiling, "it is not necessary that our sinner be confined in the
+Prison of the Repentant Women in order to be treated with the uttermost
+rigor, and be severely chastised in the flesh and in her pride--for the
+salvation of her soul."
+
+The Count of Plouernel lent but an inattentive ear to the prelate's
+words, and resumed in a towering rage:
+
+"My sister in love with some vulgar fellow! My marriage, upon which I
+raised so many hopes, thwarted by the ill-will of the wretched
+creature! Malediction! Let her tremble before my anger!"
+
+"My dear boy," said the Abbot to the exasperated Count, "there is a way
+of putting an end to these perplexities. Demand to-day, instantly, from
+Bertha a categoric answer--yes, or no--on her marriage with the
+Marquis."
+
+"Zounds! Abbot--I know beforehand she will say neither yes nor no."
+
+"That may be. But after you shall have urged her a last time, entreated,
+implored her in the name of your most cherished interests to decide this
+very day, would not her persistence in further delays prove to you that
+she is determined not to marry the Marquis, and that it is certain she
+is sacrificing him to some unworthy love?"
+
+"In that event--malediction! a curse upon her! A dungeon cell will
+overcome her resistance."
+
+"My dear boy, we must not curse anybody," remarked the Abbot piously;
+"but it is necessary that, without flinching, you perform the duties
+that devolve upon you, the head of your illustrious house. It is urgent
+that to-morrow, yes, not later than to-morrow, you prevent your sister
+by prompt and rigorous measures from dishonoring your name and herself.
+You have plenty of cells and dungeons."
+
+"I swear to God!" cried the Count of Plouernel, "if Bertha refuses to
+decide to accept the marriage--I shall be pitiless. Yes, and to-morrow
+we shall take the steps that may be necessary to safeguard our honor."
+
+The Count was interrupted in the flow of his threats by the entrance of
+a lackey who said to Madam Tremblay:
+
+"Monsieur the Marquis of Chateauvieux has presented himself at the door,
+and requests to be admitted before madam. May I introduce him, madam?"
+
+"Beg Monsieur the Marquis to enter," answered the Marchioness of
+Tremblay. "The dear colonel! How happy we are that he comes to pay us a
+visit!"
+
+And immediately after the lackey withdrew she added hurriedly:
+
+"Raoul, not a word to the Marquis about what we have been saying, before
+we have heard from Bertha."
+
+As the Marchioness addressed these words to the Count of Plouernel, who
+answered her with an affirmative nod, the Marquis of Chateauvieux
+appeared at the door of the salon, and saluted the company with the
+graceful ease of a courtier. Nevertheless, the colonel seemed troubled
+in mind; he held a letter in his hand.
+
+"Madam," he said, addressing the Marchioness, "I have news for you that
+grieves me doubly."
+
+"What about, my dear Marquis?"
+
+"This despatch that I have just received by a courier from Monsieur the
+Duke of Chaulnes, Governor of Brittany, orders me to join him
+immediately with the two battalions of my regiment which I am to collect
+on the way thither. A sedition, believed to have been fomented by the
+parliament, has broken out in Rennes. The King's authority is assailed;
+the citizens are up in arms; the whole populace is in rebellion. The
+Duke of Chaulnes does not feel safe."
+
+"Great God!" cried Madam Tremblay, no less alarmed than the Abbot.
+"What you are telling us, Marquis, is a most grave event."
+
+"All the graver," interjected the Count of Plouernel thoughtfully,
+"seeing this sedition seems to coincide with the recent rebellion of my
+own vassals of Mezlean. Would you believe it, Marquis, that canaille had
+the audacity of resisting your soldiers; the woolen caps tried to disarm
+your men!"
+
+"I have been informed of that occurrence by a letter from one of my
+subaltern officers, who was compelled on that occasion to release his
+prisoners upon orders from Mademoiselle Plouernel. As a consequence, I
+have had to recall that detachment, it being impolitic to leave my
+soldiers in a region where they had to submit to an outrage left
+unpunished. They will arrive here this evening. The honor of the
+regiment is compromised until the guilty parties are punished."
+
+"Believe me, my dear Marquis, I feel grieved at my sister's rash
+interference on the occasion."
+
+"Without stopping to consider the consequences of her act, Mademoiselle
+Plouernel yielded to a generous impulse for which I would not dare to
+blame her. But since I did myself the honor of pronouncing her name,"
+added the Marquis of Chateauvieux, "allow me, my dear Count, and you
+Madam the Marchioness, to address a request to you. I must leave the
+Castle of Plouernel within two hours; however insignificant may be the
+revolt of the ill-intentioned people of Rennes, whom I expect to
+chastise severely, civil war has its risks. The bullet from an old
+musket fired by a bourgeois not infrequently hits its mark as
+unerringly as that of our own soldiers. I do not know what fate awaits
+me in the conflict that is about to take place. Before taking leave of
+you, my dear Count, I entertain the liveliest desire not to be left in
+doubt concerning the favorable or unfavorable success of a double
+marriage that is the highest aspiration of myself and my father."
+
+"Dear Marquis," answered the Count of Plouernel with emphasis, "my aunt,
+the Abbot and myself were just considering the urgency of obtaining this
+very day a final answer from my sister, which I doubt not will be in
+accord with the desires of our two families. The untoward events that
+hasten your departure render the necessity for her answer all the more
+urgent. If she is what she should be, and what I doubt not she is, our
+chaplain will betroth you to-day to my sister in the chapel of the
+castle. It will be your induction into the family. I had so decided."
+
+"And after you shall have chastised the insolent bourgeois of Rennes, a
+thing that will be easy to do and will be done promptly, thanks to you
+and your soldiers, my dear Marquis," put in Madam Tremblay, feeling more
+at ease, "you will return to us. Monsieur the Duke your father and
+Mademoiselle Chateauvieux as agreed before our departure from
+Versailles, will come to Plouernel, where the festivities of the double
+marriage will be held with so much splendor and magnificence that they
+will be the admiration of all Brittany."
+
+"Above all, Monsieur the Marquis, induce the Duke of Chaulnes to hang
+high and dry as many bourgeois as he can," added Abbot Boujaron, who
+seemed less sure than the Marchioness of the speedy quelling of the
+sedition. "The minds of the scamps must be struck with terror. The
+repression must be merciless."
+
+"The customary severity of the Duke of Chaulnes should be an ample
+guarantee to you, Monsieur Abbot, that he will not flinch before the
+populace," was the Marquis of Chateauvieux's answer. "He will be
+inexorable."
+
+And, proceeding to address the Marchioness and the Count:
+
+"I can not express to you how touched I feel at your words! I can now
+hope for the best--unless the health of Mademoiselle Plouernel should
+prevent our betrothal. She has not left her room for two days, a
+circumstance that has desolated me; it prevented me from presenting to
+her my homage upon her return from Mezlean. I hope you can give me a
+favorable report of her health."
+
+"Reassure yourself, my dear Marquis; my niece's indisposition was caused
+only by the fatigue of the journey. It will in no wise prevent her from
+proceeding to the chapel to solemnize her betrothal, if, as I do not
+doubt, any more than my nephew, she consents to hasten the conclusion of
+the marriage. I shall immediately visit Bertha. I shall tell her that
+her brother and myself wish to converse with her; and I doubt not, dear
+Marquis, that the issue will fully meet your wishes and ours."
+
+Saying this the Marchioness of Tremblay proceeded immediately to
+Bertha's apartment. Mademoiselle Plouernel occupied the chamber that her
+mother formerly inhabited, contiguous to the library of the castle. As
+the Marchioness crossed this vast room she met Dame Marion, Bertha's
+nurse, who was devotedly attached to her. Madam Tremblay ordered her to
+notify her mistress that she wished to speak to her shortly.
+
+"She is probably still in bed," added the Marchioness. "She must rise
+without delay and dress herself to receive her brother, myself and
+Monsieur the Abbot. We have to speak to her upon matters of the highest
+importance."
+
+"Oh! Mademoiselle has risen and dressed herself more than two hours ago,
+madam."
+
+"That being the case, go and request Monsieur the Count and Monsieur the
+Abbot to come and join me in my niece's chamber."
+
+"Madam the Marchioness will not find mademoiselle in her chamber."
+
+"Where is she?"
+
+"Mademoiselle went out for a walk in the park, as she often does."
+
+"What! Gone out! And yesterday and this morning she pretended to feel so
+ill that she could not receive me?"
+
+"The weather is so beautiful that mademoiselle believed a walk would do
+her good. She went down and walked towards the park."
+
+"You lie! My niece did not go out!"
+
+"Madam the Marchioness can ascertain the truth for herself by walking
+into the room."
+
+"This sudden going out looks highly suspicious. Toward what part of the
+park did my niece go?"
+
+"I could not say as to that, madam; mademoiselle took her gloves, her
+mask[6] and her taffeta hood to protect herself from the heat of the
+sun--and she left. That is all I know."
+
+"There is some mystery in this--you are hiding something from me."
+
+"I am telling madam all I know."
+
+"You are an accomplice in all the follies of Mademoiselle Plouernel, and
+it may happen that you will have reason to feel sorry for it!"
+
+"I obey the orders of mademoiselle the same as I obeyed the orders of
+Madam the Countess, her mother. That is my duty."
+
+"It is impossible that my niece, who only this morning claimed to be
+ill, can have gone out without some particular reason. You know the
+reason. Answer! What caused my niece to leave her chamber?"
+
+"I have already told madam. The weather is so beautiful that
+mademoiselle believed a walk would help her."
+
+"Enough!" ordered Madam Tremblay angrily, and casting a threatening look
+upon old Marion. "I shall remember your obstinacy. I shall find out the
+truth."
+
+The Marchioness hastened to rejoin the Count of Plouernel and the Abbot,
+who were no less surprised, alarmed and angry than herself at
+Mademoiselle Plouernel's unexpected outing. The Marquis of Chateauvieux
+could prolong his stay at the castle only a couple of hours, so that,
+if Bertha did not return before his departure the marriage would have to
+undergo a further postponement. Accordingly, not satisfied with sending
+several of his men in quest of his sister in all directions through the
+park, the Count himself took horse together with the Marquis of
+Chateauvieux in the hope of meeting Mademoiselle Plouernel; while,
+anxious not to be themselves idle in the search, Abbot Boujaron and the
+Marchioness of Tremblay went out in a carriage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+BERTHA AND NOMINOE.
+
+
+As has already been told, the ruins of the ancient feudal manor of
+Plouernel rose on the crest of an abruptly rising ridge that once was
+wholly stripped of vegetation, but that was since planted with trees,
+seeing it was one of the views from the new castle, the park of which it
+bounded from the north. The antique dungeon, like all fortified
+seigniorial castles of the middle ages, had a secret and subterranean
+issue which opened at a considerable distance from the manor itself.
+Thanks to this issue, the seigneur, who was always involved in feuds
+with his neighbors, could flee and elude his enemies if he found his
+lair on the point of being forced. The subterranean passage of the
+dungeon of Plouernel which was cut through the living stone by the labor
+of serfs, communicated, at its near end, with the floors that were
+constructed below the level of the ground, where were located the prison
+cells, the torture rooms, and the oubliettes of the manor, and, at the
+further end, with a precipitous slope at the foot of the mountain, at
+the top of which rose the dungeon itself. This outer issue opened just
+outside of but close to the park. One of the numerous gates of the park,
+the one nearest to the modern castle, opened on the outside upon an
+avenue, cut through the forest that belonged to the domain of the Count
+of Plouernel. To the right of the avenue, which ran into the highroad to
+Rennes, extended a thick wood of old trees, and about two hundred paces
+from the edge of the same, where the wood grew thickest, was the
+location of the outer issue of the underground passage from the dungeon.
+This issue, obstructed in the course of many centuries by underbrush and
+the slow rise of the soil, bore marks of having recently been cleared,
+although a curtain of ivy and wild trailing vines, that fell over a
+natural platform formed by a rocky projection upon which the tangled
+vegetation had taken root, was left to mask the entrance. Thanks to his
+family archives, Salaun Lebrenn was aware of this entrance to the
+dungeon, and he and his son having put themselves in touch with some of
+the Count's vassals--resolute men and leaders in the projected
+uprising--he had acquainted them with the secret passage that
+communicated with the open country, and which offered a safe place for
+the deposit of arms and munitions of war. The mouth of the passage,
+partially masked by the vines, lay about twenty paces from a clump of
+old trees that surrounded a little clearing carpeted with grass. In the
+middle of the clearing rose an enormous oak, so old, so very old, that,
+_crowned_ with age, as foresters say, its sap had dried out, and not a
+leaf greened its immense spread of branches. A living spring furnished a
+natural reservoir at the extremity of the clearing. A narrow path, worn
+across the copse of the wood by the hoofs of the does and stags who
+came during the night to drink at the spring, ran out into the road.
+
+At the hour when Mademoiselle Plouernel's family was searching for her
+in the park, Nominoe Lebrenn, standing with his back against the dead
+oak tree in the middle of the clearing, was a prey to profound anxiety.
+Pale, worn, with his head drooping, his eyes fixed upon the ground, and
+his arms crossed on his breast, he was saying to himself:
+
+"No, she will not come! Oh! now that this desperate attempt has been
+made, I recognize how insensate it was! To write to Dame Marion, to beg
+her to place in the hands of Mademoiselle Plouernel the letter that
+accompanied my note, to entrust the package to the gateman at the castle
+with the words: 'For Dame Marion,' and then run back to wait for her at
+this place! To believe that she would come! It is a crazy man's dream!
+No, she will not come."
+
+After a short pause Nominoe resumed:
+
+"Who knows but she may have lost her way! But the directions in my
+letter were accurate--'Take, to the right of the avenue, that runs from
+the park, the first path that leads to a clearing where rises a big dead
+oak near a running spring of water.' Oh, I know this wood! For the last
+two days I have prowled around it like a bandit! I also know that
+underground passage," added Nominoe, turning his head in the direction
+of the issue masked by the ivy and wild vines. "In that underground
+place have bleached the bones of one of my ancestors--a serf of a sire
+of Plouernel." With a start Nominoe continued: "Strange fatality! Woe
+is me! It is for a daughter of this race--a race that mine has so often
+cursed across the ages--it is for a daughter of the Nerowegs that I am
+consumed with delirious love--and soon, perhaps--but no! Go to! Set your
+hopes at rest, poor fool! She will not come. No, however generous her
+heart may be, she cannot forget that she is of noble origin, and that my
+family are vassals to her brother! No! she will not come--and if she
+did--would I dare to meet her gaze! Have I not virtually imposed this
+rendezvous upon her gratitude! Did I not write to her: 'He who at The
+Hague saved your life and your honor--waits for you--you will come if
+you have preserved the remembrance of the service he rendered you.' If
+she does come, will it not be with a haughty front and a severe mien?"
+
+Suddenly, as he turned his ear toward the wood, a tremor ran through
+Nominoe's frame. He quickly straightened up. His heart, that before
+heaved heavily, now stopped beating. His strength failed him. He
+attempted to take a step, but fell upon his knees on the grass and
+clasped his hands as in prayer. Mademoiselle Plouernel entered the
+clearing, holding her silken mask in her hand.
+
+What was his surprise and joy! The features of Mademoiselle Plouernel,
+so far from expressing the sentiment of wounded pride, revealed profound
+tenderness. She advanced with steady step towards Nominoe, who remained
+on his knees; pulled off her glove, and extended to him her charming
+hand that illness, alas! had thinned. Presently, her beautiful face
+suffused with a slight blush, she said without attempting to restrain
+the tears that enhanced the brilliancy of her large black eyes:
+
+"Thanks to you, Monsieur Lebrenn. You afford me at last the opportunity
+of telling you that never have I forgotten that on the coast of Holland
+you saved my life--and in The Hague you saved my honor! Yes, thanks to
+you," repeated the young girl in an accent of ineffable tenderness,
+while sweet tears slowly rolled down her cheeks. "I owe to you the only
+happy moment that I have tasted for a long time."
+
+Mademoiselle Plouernel's emotion, her words, her tone, the cordiality of
+her gesture as she extended her hand to Nominoe, threw him into such
+confusion that, remaining on his knees and contemplating the young girl
+with a sort of adoration, he tremblingly received the hand which she
+offered him, wet it with his tears, and pressed his burning front upon
+it. Sobs smothered his words.
+
+Bertha gently withdrew her hand from Nominoe's, saying in a moved voice:
+
+"Monsieur Lebrenn, rise--"
+
+And noticing a few steps from where they were a rock covered with moss,
+a sort of natural bench, the young girl added:
+
+"I am barely convalescent--my weakness is still great. I feel tired;
+allow me to repose on that rock."
+
+Nominoe rose, and obeyed a sign of Mademoiselle Plouernel, who, after
+seating herself, invited him to a place beside her. The girl remained
+silent for a moment and then proceeded:
+
+"Situations that seem difficult, and even false, become, I think, easy
+and right, thanks to straightforwardness of conduct. I shall be frank.
+You also will be sincere, Monsieur Lebrenn. You will answer all my
+questions."
+
+"I feel grateful to you, mademoiselle, that you judge me so favorably,"
+answered Nominoe. "You will find me straightforward and sincere in all
+things."
+
+"First of all, in order to render intelligible what may otherwise seem
+inexplicable to you, Monsieur Lebrenn, I must inform you that even
+before I owed my life--and then my honor--to you, I already felt a deep
+interest, if not in you personally, at least in all the members of your
+family."
+
+And in response to a gesture of surprise on the part of Nominoe, Bertha
+added:
+
+"I am acquainted with a part of your family legend."
+
+"You, mademoiselle! You are acquainted with our plebeian legends!"
+
+"Yes; thanks to a manuscript left to us by Colonel Plouernel, one of my
+ancestors."
+
+"Does that manuscript date back to the last century?" inquired Nominoe,
+struck by a sudden recollection. "Colonel Plouernel, a Huguenot,
+intended those pages for his son. Yes, indeed, our family narrative
+mentions the fact."
+
+"My mother discovered the manuscript in the library of the castle. My
+mother suffered a great deal, Monsieur Lebrenn; she was a woman of great
+understanding and of a large heart. Therefore, so far from embittering
+her disposition, her sufferings rendered her still more generous.
+Herself acquainted with sorrow, she sympathized all the more with the
+sorrows of others. A victim of iniquity, she felt tender compassion for
+the victims of all iniquity, and a vigorous hatred for all oppression.
+Although she was of patrician origin, and although the wife of the Count
+of Plouernel, my mother, ripened by misfortune and by reflection, being
+instructed by the revelations contained in your family narratives,
+embraced the convictions of the Huguenot colonel who was the friend of
+your ancestor Odelin Lebrenn, the armorer of La Rochelle. Oh, I have not
+forgotten a single incident of that interesting narrative."
+
+"What, mademoiselle! You remember that obscure name?"
+
+"That obscure name was the name of an honorable man and one of the brave
+soldiers of Admiral Coligny, wrote Colonel Plouernel in the pages that
+he destined for his son. You seem surprised at the accuracy of my
+memory, Monsieur Lebrenn," added Bertha with a melancholy smile; "and
+yet my recollections are not circumscribed to that incident alone. At
+this moment there is present to my memory the name of another of your
+ancestors--Den-Brao the mason, who, assisted by other serfs, cut the
+underground gallery, one of the issues of which you can see yonder."
+With these words the young girl pointed to the orifice of the vault cut
+in the rock, and added, with a shiver, "It is a mournful history, that
+history of your ancestor Den-Brao! He was starved to death in the
+passage his own hands had built."
+
+Nominoe and Bertha looked at each other in silence. Bertha proceeded:
+
+"Do you know why I now recall those narratives? It is that you may
+understand what a deep impression was bound to be produced upon my
+mother--and then upon myself--by the account contained in the manuscript
+of Colonel Plouernel. Yes, judge what we must have felt, especially when
+we learned that one of the descendants of that Gallic race was in our
+own days among the vassals of the seigniory of Plouernel, on the domain
+of Mezlean. 'Oh! my child,' my mother would say to me, 'is not this
+revelation of the iniquities and barbaric acts committed from century to
+century by your father's family upon the family of this poor vassal, a
+providential revelation? Should not such a revelation induce us to step
+upon the path of expiation for so many iniquities and barbarisms
+committed from century to century? Alas! Had I any power in this place,
+I would call around us the descendants of that family, who are to-day
+our vassals; I would strive to appease their resentment with acts of
+kindness, and with delicate consolation. I would be their protectress,
+their friend.'"
+
+"Oh, generous heart!" exclaimed Nominoe, touched to tears. "How else
+could it be, but that, brought up by such a mother, Mademoiselle
+Plouernel, you should prove worthy of her!"
+
+"Never shall I forget her lessons and her example. Finally, at the time
+that a sudden illness carried my mother away, she and I were on the
+point of going to Mezlean, in order to visit the leasehold peasant
+Gildas Lebrenn, who, as I subsequently learned, is your father's
+brother. That excursion never took place. I lost my mother, I had to
+leave Brittany. I went to Versailles with my aunt. Perhaps you learned
+from your friend, Monsieur Serdan, the object that, without my being
+made privy to the plot, was contemplated by those who were taking me to
+England?"
+
+"Yes, mademoiselle; it was that which enabled Monsieur Serdan to
+discover the loftiness of your sentiments and the grandeur of your
+nature."
+
+"The oddness of our meeting has caused you extreme surprise; is it not
+true, monsieur? Well, imagine what my feeling must have been when, at
+The Hague, I, Bertha of Plouernel," the young girl proceeded, fixing her
+beautiful eyes upon Nominoe, "learned that he who had saved my life, and
+who, subsequently, at the price of his blood, saved my honor, was
+descended from that very family to whom mine had so much to atone
+for--when I discovered that my savior's heart was as great as his
+courage--when it was granted to me to know--to appreciate you."
+
+The accents of Mademoiselle Plouernel's voice, and the expression of her
+face as she uttered these last words, denoted such tenderness, such
+nobility, such affection--the silence into which she immediately
+relapsed seemed so significant to Nominoe, that a sudden thought flashed
+through his mind. Despite his own modesty, despite his diffidence in
+himself, despite the seemingly insane improbability of the hope that
+caused his heart to bound--he believed himself loved. The intoxication
+of bliss emboldened him. In a tremulous voice he cried:
+
+"And you, mademoiselle, imagine what my feelings must be at this moment,
+when I hear you recall to my memory the running conflict between our two
+families across the ages--and then to hear you pronounce the words of
+atonement and reparation! In what can that reparation consist? Despite
+myself--an insane hope enters my heart. Alas! I know but too well that
+my hope is insensate! Pronounce my sentence!"
+
+"What do you hope?" asked Bertha in a firm voice.
+
+"No; I should never have the courage to tell you--I dread to arouse your
+just disdain--your mockery--your anger--"
+
+"If I could disdain you, would I now be near you? The future of us both
+is too somber for me to think of mocking! You promised sincerity to me."
+
+Nominoe grew paler than he was before; he lowered his head; he murmured
+in a trembling, desperate, passionate voice:
+
+"I love you! I love you to distraction!"
+
+"I also, Nominoe, love you!" answered Mademoiselle Plouernel solemnly.
+"Yes," she proceeded, holding her head high, and serene; "I love
+you--with all my soul--I fear not to make the admission."
+
+"Oh, joy in heaven!" cried the young man, falling upon his knees and
+clasping his hands before Bertha. "You love me! I am not the sport of a
+dream! You love me?"
+
+"Yes, I love you; I tell you so without blushing, because I hold you
+worthy of such a love, Nominoe! 'Joy in heaven!' did you say? Oh, you
+spoke truly. Our joys will be celestial--our future looks dark here on
+earth--but yonder--yonder, where, according to the belief of your
+fathers, we shall live anew, body and soul--yonder our future will shine
+in splendor. You seek to fathom the meaning of my words, Nominoe! Rise,
+sit down here beside me, listen to me! You shall be made acquainted with
+all my thoughts."
+
+Racked by doubt and hope, intoxicated by the confession of Mademoiselle
+Plouernel, discouraged, almost frightened by her last words, Nominoe
+rose silently, approached again the moss-covered bench, and sat down
+beside Bertha, who proceeded:
+
+"The first time I saw you was in the midst of a storm that threatened to
+engulf our vessel, and dash it against the coast of Holland. I preserved
+my self-possession despite the threatening danger--because I do not fear
+death. Thus I could follow your manoeuvres with inexpressible interest.
+I admired your devotion. I was touched by your youth. Shortly after, as
+our vessel rode safely at anchor, I had the opportunity of appreciating
+your nature and the dignity of your character by the answer you gave to
+the offer of remuneration made to you by the Abbot, our traveling
+companion. I then thought I would never see you again, Nominoe!
+Nevertheless, I felt happy at being bound to you by the bond of
+gratitude. Since that day your image took its place in my heart!"
+
+"Oh! Since that day also, your image has been ever present in my
+thoughts. How was I ever to forget the moment when, as I approached
+your brigantine in the hope of saving it, I saw you at the poop of the
+vessel so beautiful, so calm, smiling at the tempest! It was to me a
+dazzling vision! Alas! often did the vision reappear in my dreams!
+Finally, when on that same day, I read in your eyes the grief it caused
+you to see the humiliation that I had to suffer--I divined the benignity
+and the nobility of your heart! Your remembrance became still dearer to
+me! Oh! I loved you passionately!"
+
+"I believe you, Nominoe! Why should not the feelings that you
+experienced have been as strong as the feelings experienced by myself?
+Then came that unhappy, that frightful day when, wounded by gunshots,
+you came near perishing in order to shelter me from dishonor," continued
+Mademoiselle Plouernel with a tremulous voice and eyes moist with tears;
+"in short, the day when I learned--Oh, providential coincidence!--that
+my savior belonged to that vassal family whose history I knew. The
+discovery, coming, as it did, upon the heels of the shocks of that same
+day, quite overthrew me; it dealt me a last blow. Nevertheless, when,
+after Monsieur Serdan had furnished us with the conveyances to leave The
+Hague, he gave me warrant to entertain the hope that your wounds would
+not prove fatal, and with a few heartfelt words praised you in a way
+that filled my soul with bliss, I recovered heart. I swear to you,
+Nominoe, had I not at that moment felt prostrated by the first symptoms
+of a grave illness that was to prey upon me for a long time; had my mind
+not been upset and my strength exhausted by so many violent emotions, I
+would not have left The Hague that night without first seeing
+you--without expressing to you all the gratitude and admiration that
+your generous conduct evoked in me. But all the springs of my spirit had
+snapped; I could only weep--sterile, cowardly tears!--in that I left you
+in that city; dying, perhaps; a victim of your devotion to me! We
+departed for France. The fatigues of the journey, coupled with a slow
+fever, left me in an almost desperate condition when we arrived at
+Versailles. For two or three months I hovered between life and death.
+Thanks to the care of able physicians and to my youth, I finally emerged
+from the desperate state in which I languished. It seemed to me that I
+awoke from a frightful dream--by little and little the events in The
+Hague and of my return to France came back to me. Those recollections,
+rendered as they were doubly dear to my heart by our separation, awoke
+within my breast a sentiment towards you more tender than mere
+gratitude. I loved you, Nominoe! In doing so I yielded above all to the
+irresistible attraction of the thought that I loved in you the
+descendant of that family that had so long been persecuted by my own. My
+love became an atonement for the past! I saw something providential in
+the events that had thrown us together! Did I not owe life, honor, to
+you, the descendant of those vassals who had themselves been so often
+smitten in their lives, in the honor of their daughters and of their
+wives, by my ancestors! Oh! Nominoe, if you only knew with what fervor I
+thanked God for having inspired me with the desire of taking for my
+husband, I, a daughter of Neroweg the Frank, a son of Joel the Gaul! Was
+not the atonement of the daughter of the oppressors a just one to the
+son of the oppressed? Was not the marriage, that would consecrate the
+union of the conquered race with the conqueror, a natural one? Was not
+that love celestial that had its source in justice? I felt happy at the
+thought of that fusion of our two races!"
+
+Words are impotent to express certain emotions. His visage bathed in
+tears, Nominoe remained silent. Suddenly a voice from afar, fresh and
+pure--the voice of a young girl--began to sing or rather to recite to a
+slow and melancholy rythm, one of those bardings or national Breton
+songs, some of which, popular still in these days, go back to the oldest
+possible antiquity. The singer was taking her sheep to pasture upon one
+of the shaded slopes of the ridge, at the crest of which rose the ruins
+of the feudal dungeon. The sweet voice, thinned by the distance, seemed
+to descend from the skies. At the sound of the first lines of the song,
+despite his emotion, Nominoe felt thrilled; he listened a moment, and
+said to Mademoiselle Plouernel:
+
+"Strange coincidence! That chant, traditional in Brittany for centuries
+and centuries, recounts the death of a young girl of our family in the
+days of the conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar."
+
+"The death of a young girl!" echoed Mademoiselle Plouernel with an
+indefinable smile.
+
+The last couplet of the song barely reached the ears of Bertha and
+Nominoe because the shepherdess was climbing the slope as she sang, and
+soon her voice was lost in space. Mademoiselle Plouernel had listened to
+the chant with profound attention, clasped hands, and eyes raised
+heavenward.
+
+Awaking from her revery and addressing Nominoe with an agony, the cause
+of which he was unable to explain, Bertha said to him:
+
+"Is the legend of the brave and sweet Hena, the Virgin of the Isle of
+Sen, the daughter of your ancestor Joel, also preserved in your family?
+The virgin who sacrificed herself to appease the anger of Hesus?"
+
+"Yes, mademoiselle; it is one of the legends of our family. To the
+narrative is attached a little gold sickle, a sort of symbolic and
+sacred piece of jewelry that female druids wore in their belts."
+
+"So it is, Nominoe! I remember that in his manuscript Colonel Plouernel
+says that to each of your family narratives there is attached some
+trinket that is almost always symbolic and was left by the author of the
+story, and that, in that way, from generation to generation, the humble
+and antique collection of your family relics was gathered. Monsieur
+Plouernel mentions among others a little silver cross, left by your
+ancestral grandmother Genevieve, who witnessed the execution of Jesus of
+Nazareth in Jerusalem! What mementoes! What magnificent mementoes!"
+
+Bertha relapsed into a pensive mood, and then asked:
+
+"Tell me, Nominoe, are the sacred stones of Karnak, mentioned in the
+ballad of Hena, the Virgin of the Isle of Sen, the same that are seen to
+this day?"
+
+"They are the same; and already in the days of Julius Caesar their
+origin was lost in the night of remote ages."
+
+"I visited those stones during my recent trip to Mezlean. They are
+gigantic; their colossal avenues extend to the very edge of the sea,
+which breaks at their feet! Their granite ribs have defied the ages!
+They are at this hour what they were on the day when your ancestress
+offered her innocent life to the gods, in order to appease their anger,
+and save Gaul from the foreign invader! Sublime devotion! Its memory is
+perpetuated down to our own days! Oh, Nominoe! My proud family boasts of
+the antiquity of its stock and the nobility of its origin! How much
+older and truly noble is yours! It is you, my friend, it is you who
+would _stoop low_, as they say, if this union, that I have dreamed
+about--"
+
+And answering a gesture of the young man, Bertha added:
+
+"Did I not tell you, Nominoe--our joys will be celestial, not
+terrestrial! Providence so wills it--you must submit to the providential
+decree. We must know how to resign ourselves, my friend."
+
+"Bertha, I implore you, have mercy upon my feverish brain. What is
+happening to me hurls me into a sort of vertigo. I know not whether I am
+dreaming, or whether I am awake. I doubt what I see, what I hear, what I
+feel! A moment ago you pronounced the word marriage. Despite myself I
+yielded to the intoxication of an insane hope. Oh, truly insane!"
+
+"I have not yet finished my confessions to you, Nominoe. That ballad,
+the thoughts it awakened in me; the memories that it recalled to your
+mind, interrupted our conversation. Listen further. I saw in our
+marriage an atonement, a reparation of the wrongs that your family
+suffered from century to century at the hands of mine. In the measure
+that my health improved, that project grew to a rooted thought. But
+doubts and misgivings assailed me. First of all, you might not love
+me--perhaps, on learning that I was a daughter of the Nerowegs, you
+might entertain an instinctive aversion for me, one of those racial
+antipathies that often are invincible, and, unhappily, but too well
+justified. I often doubted whether you could love me. Again, when I
+considered this marriage in the light of the world's prejudices, deep
+abysses of difficulties seemed to yawn before my eyes. Nothing
+frightened me away--I continued to love you bravely, Nominoe. Long did I
+cudgel my brains in the effort to overcome so many obstacles, above all
+to ascertain whether you remembered me at all. Finally my ponderings
+arrived at the following conclusions: I would, first of all, make
+certain of the nature of your feelings towards me, by addressing myself
+directly to you with the tranquility of a straightforward heart and a
+pure soul. You were a sailor of the port of Vannes, your father told me;
+other members of your family were vassals of the domain of Mezlean, and
+leasehold peasants of Karnak. Consequently, I had to return to Brittany.
+There I would be certain of an opportunity to meet you. My fate and
+yours would then be ascertained and determined. This decision put an end
+to the anxieties that had long beset me, and operated a wholesome
+reaction in my health. My recovery made rapid progress. In the spring of
+this year, the physician to whom I communicated my desire to return to
+Brittany not only approved, but added that my native climate was alone
+able to finish my cure. As my aunt and my brother could not then leave
+Versailles, they let me depart for Plouernel in the escort of an old
+equerry and accompanied by my old nurse Marion, a good and worthy woman
+who never left my side. She is honest, faithful, devoted and of Breton
+extraction; her family lives in Vannes. Immediately upon my arrival at
+Plouernel I ordered Marion to write to one of her relatives and beg him
+to inquire, whether Monsieur Lebrenn and his son, mariners of the port
+of Vannes, were still residents of the town. Marion received answer that
+you and your father were away, but were soon expected back. I waited. At
+about this time--I must conceal nothing from you--my brother came to
+Plouernel. The plans he had formed concerning myself, at the time of our
+projected journey to England, had extinguished all the affection, all
+the esteem I entertained for him. I told him so one day; since that,
+self-esteem and a sense of personal dignity prevented me from again
+touching upon the subject with him. But court people are so constituted
+that they speedily forget one unworthy act in the commission of another.
+Although all the new plans of my brother were honorable, compared with
+the first, yet were they stamped with his characteristic and profound
+selfishness. He wished to marry me off. The ambition and greed of
+Monsieur Plouernel saw considerable advantage in the marriage that he
+now proposed. However great the strain upon my candor, I did not
+formally reject his new projects. Thanks to this seeming readiness on my
+part, my brother showed himself tolerant towards what he calls my
+eccentricities. In that way it happened that, learning of your return to
+Vannes from Marion's relative, I could, without encountering the Count's
+opposition, undertake a trip to Mezlean, accompanied by my nurse and the
+old equerry. It was on the road to the burg that I saw you again for the
+first time--when--when--I met--"
+
+Mademoiselle Plouernel could proceed no further. Tears streamed from her
+eyes. Her tears, her silence, the heaving of her bosom, betrayed such
+painful emotions that Nominoe turned suddenly pale and shuddered. Only
+then did he remember what in the confusion of his thoughts he had
+forgotten until that moment--that he was leading Tina to the altar as
+his bride when he met Mademoiselle Plouernel, and that she could not
+choose but be informed of his wedding. Overwhelmed at that thought, he
+dared not raise his eyes to Bertha; he felt his last hopes melting away!
+He dropped from heaven to the earth.
+
+After a pause Mademoiselle Plouernel recovered control over her
+emotions, wiped her tears, and proceeded:
+
+"Nominoe, this was my purpose in going to Mezlean: I meant to write to
+you and request you to come to the manor. The wish, so natural a wish,
+of expressing my gratitude to you for the services you had rendered me,
+justified the step. I expected you to respond to my invitation, I
+relied upon my sincere and penetrating love to discover at our very
+first interview whether you shared the sentiments that you inspired in
+me, and whether the loftiness of your heart was equal to my
+expectations. If so, I was to make to you the admission that I made to
+you so shortly ago, and I meant to add: 'Nominoe, I am master over my
+person--my family's unworthy conduct towards me has forever snapped the
+bonds that held me subject to its wishes, it has snapped all the bonds
+of deference to them; I offer you my hand; I know that, in France, a
+pastor may fear to consecrate our union, dreading the resentment of so
+powerful a house as mine; let us pledge ourselves to each other to-day;
+let us exchange our pledges in the presence of God and of your father;
+to-morrow we shall depart with him from Vannes for England on board of
+the vessel that he owns; once in London a magistrate will marry us; I
+shall not speak of my property; it may be confiscated from me; but I
+have my mother's jewelry and a sum large enough to secure to us a modest
+comfort; we shall live in England in case we should think it too risky
+to return to France; would you prefer to face such risks rather than
+expatriation? I love you, I am brave, your wishes shall be mine,
+Nominoe'--That was my plan, such were my ardent wishes! Accordingly, on
+the day following my arrival at Mezlean, I was on my way to the burg for
+the purpose of ascertaining your residence and addressing my letter to
+you, when I encountered a nuptial procession which the soldiers of the
+King had stopped--and--the very moment when I learned that that nuptial
+procession was yours, Nominoe--yours--I saw you fleeing at a distance,
+distractedly fleeing, to the painful astonishment of your father and
+your bride. The cause of your flight was unexplainable to me; but that
+did not matter; your heart was no longer free--the charming beauty of
+the young girl whom you are to marry justifies your love for her! I
+returned to Plouernel the day after our meeting. I arrived broken with
+grief. I had not left my room since my return when, this morning, Marion
+delivered to me your letter--and I came. Now you know it all, Nominoe.
+Perhaps, in the course of this interview, I wrongly reproached you with
+insincerity when you protested the constancy of your love for me. You
+are an honorable man, incapable of having meant to deceive the young
+girl who is to be your wife. And yet, you claim to have always loved me!
+Well! I believe you! Did I not believe you, my confession would have
+remained forever buried in my heart! Yes, the human soul is at times so
+strange a mystery, that another affection may have found its place
+beside your love for me--a love that you looked upon as a dream. But, at
+least, the remembrance of your love will remain sweet and dear to you,
+because it will have been noble and pure. On my part, Nominoe, the
+remembrance of you will also remain ever dear to me, because it was you
+who inspired me with a generous thought, a thought of justice and
+reparation. Yes, when, according to our common belief, we shall meet
+again in yonder other worlds, we shall meet with countenances radiant
+with celestial bliss. I said to you, my friend, our joys are not to be
+of this world."
+
+Nominoe raised his face bathed in tears, and, making an effort to steady
+his voice:
+
+"Listen to me, in turn--above all, mademoiselle, I implore you--believe
+in my sincerity--"
+
+"Nominoe, call me Bertha. The fraternal familiarity will be in the
+nature of a consolation to me."
+
+"Oh, God! Is it your purpose to render my despair still more distressful
+by reminding me, with such a token of familiarity, of the happiness that
+I have forfeited!" exclaimed Nominoe amid heartrending sobs. "Pardon,
+Bertha, pardon me such an answer to the touching proof of your
+affection; but if you only knew, alas! how much I suffer! Since that
+journey to The Hague I have loved you, loved you passionately! Do you
+know, Bertha, what it was that rendered that love irresistible? It was
+an attraction exactly the counterpart of that which drew you to me. Yes,
+however singular, however unexplainable it may seem, I loved in you,
+above all, the daughter of the Nerowegs! Yes, that hopeless love, that
+insane love, promised only disappointment, grief, suffering, and
+annihilation to me! And yet it had for me the fatal charm of the void,
+that drags us to an abyss! I felt at once I know not what sad and tender
+sentiment by loving in you the descendant of the race that, since
+earliest childhood, I had learned to curse! You were in my eyes an angel
+of pardon and of concord! Oh, Bertha! However legitimate hatred may be,
+it is so bitter, and pardon so sweet! In you I spoke your ancestors free
+from guilt! So far from considering you one with their iniquities, I
+considered them one with your virtues! Yes, you redeemed the wicked of
+your race, as Christ redeemed the world by his virtues, his kindness,
+his evangelical grace!"
+
+"Nominoe! How proud I am of my love for you!" cried Mademoiselle
+Plouernel with indescribable ecstasy, and moved to the profoundest
+depths of her soul by Nominoe's words and the accent in which they were
+uttered. "Oh! I was not mistaken when I said to you, our love draws its
+inspiration from sentiments too celestial, ever to be of this world."
+
+"In this world, as in the next ones where we shall proceed to live, our
+love, I feel it, will last through all eternity! Its source is too lofty
+ever to be untrue to itself--it is providential. On the very morning of
+my marriage, at the moment when I was to proceed to my bride's house to
+lead her to the temple, I learned of your arrival at Mezlean. I was
+unaware of, I could not even suspect your intentions. Nevertheless, an
+invincible presentiment came over me! I wished to break off my wedding!
+Betrothed to my cousin almost from childhood, I had loved her as the
+future companion of my life, until my return from The Hague. But ever
+since I met you I have lived only for the intoxicating passion, the
+fatal passion, the folly of which I realized but too well. In the
+meantime the day for my marriage with my cousin approached. I confess
+it, the fear of dealing a painful blow to the poor child by breaking a
+union that was planned so long, the fear of grieving my father, then the
+further thought that surely I would never again see you--finally, the
+hope of finding in the sweet delights of the family hearth oblivion for
+an insane love, induced me to consent to the marriage."
+
+"All is now clear to me, Nominoe," put in Mademoiselle Plouernel with a
+sigh of ineffable relief. "Oh! I believe you; I feel happy in believing
+you."
+
+"When I saw you again, Bertha, on the road to Mezlean, I lost my
+head--an irresistible power carried me away--I fled demented. During
+that night I wandered like one insane in the forest. Presently my
+agitation subsided, I contemplated the reality. My marriage with my
+cousin was no longer possible--it was absolutely impossible."
+
+"Impossible?" echoed Mademoiselle Plouernel with a tremor. "Why
+impossible, Nominoe?"
+
+"Because I am a man of honor! Because no human power could now induce me
+to marry that poor child, now that I know, Bertha, that you love me. I
+therefore left Mezlean without seeing my family; I had not the courage
+to face their indignation. I came to Plouernel, obsessed with the hope
+of an interview with you, and then, Bertha, I swear before God, who
+hears and judges me--"
+
+"Nominoe, before God, who hears and judges us, answer me," said
+Mademoiselle Plouernel solemnly, so to speak transfigured with the
+radiance of unutterable hope. "Are you firmly resolved to persist in the
+rupture of your marriage?"
+
+"No human power can compel me to a marriage that would render my cousin
+and myself wretched."
+
+"And are you resolved to expatriate yourself?"
+
+"Yes. I never again would dare to see my father, who would curse
+me--who, perhaps, has already cursed me!"
+
+"When do you propose to leave?"
+
+"To-day," answered Nominoe swallowing a sob. "I shall engage myself as a
+sailor at Nantes, on some vessel sailing to the Indies. We shall never
+again meet here below, Bertha!"
+
+Mademoiselle Plouernel remained steeped in silent reflection. Presently
+she asked abruptly:
+
+"Is there near Nantes, along the coast, any small and little-frequented
+port where one may embark secretly?"
+
+"Yes, St. Renan," answered Nominoe, raising his head and looking at
+Bertha with surprise; "St. Renan, near the mouth of the Loire."
+
+"Are you sure you could find there a vessel that could attempt the
+passage to England?"
+
+"St. Renan is a fishermen's port; their vessels are decked, and are
+excellent sailers; they can cross the channel with ease."
+
+"How long would it take to reach the place from here on a good horse?"
+
+"From seven to eight hours, including stops. The horse would have to be
+rested on the hills."
+
+"Is the road that leads to St. Renan a frequented one?"
+
+"Very slightly; it is only a cross-road."
+
+"Can one take ship at St. Renan at any tide?"
+
+"No; only when the tide is high."
+
+"At what hour could one embark to-morrow?"
+
+"At this part of the month the tide must be high between eleven and
+twelve at night. One would have to be at St. Renan at midnight."
+
+"Could you, between now and to-morrow," asked Bertha, "procure a
+carriage drawn by a good horse?"
+
+"Yes," answered Nominoe, hardly able any longer to resist the
+intoxication of a hope that caused his heart to beat to the breaking
+point.
+
+"There will be wanted, besides," said Mademoiselle Plouernel, "two
+mantles with hoods attached, of the kind worn by peasant women.
+Nominoe," she proceeded, controlling her voice which, however, vibrated
+under the strain of the emotions that agitated her soul at that solemn
+moment, "to-morrow, at three o'clock in the afternoon, wait for me a
+hundred paces from here, at the road of the Cross, with the carriage
+that you will drive. Do not forget the two hooded cloaks--one is for me,
+the other for Marion. The hoods will hide our faces. My leaving the
+castle at full daylight, and at the usual hour for my promenade, will
+awaken no suspicion. We shall then start instantly for St. Renan, where
+we shall set sail for England, and there, Nominoe," added Bertha, giving
+herself finally over to the impulse of her love and breaking out into
+tears of celestial sweetness, "our marriage--shall be consummated."
+
+"Your mask! Put your mask on! There is someone coming! Great God, my
+father!" cried Nominoe, perceiving Salaun Lebrenn and Serdan as they
+cautiously emerged from the underground gallery that led to the ruins of
+the dungeon of Plouernel.
+
+Mademoiselle Plouernel hastened to hide her face in the silken mask
+that she had laid down beside her at the start of her interview with
+Nominoe. The latter, stupefied at the sight of his father and Monsieur
+Serdan, remained silent and in consternation, while Bertha, masked,
+standing motionless, her arms crossed over her palpitating bosom awaited
+anxiously the issue of the unexpected encounter.
+
+Despite the anger that his face revealed, Salaun Lebrenn could not
+restrain a sigh of relief at seeing his son, concerning whom he had been
+racked with anxiety since the day of his disappearance. Serdan
+contemplated with inquisitive and suspicious eyes the masked woman whom
+they found in a tete-a-tete with Nominoe, not far from one of the park
+gates of the Castle of Plouernel. Reassured upon his son's fate, Salaun
+was about to give a loose to his indignation, but the presence of the
+unknown masked woman restrained him. While asking himself who the woman
+could be and what relations she could have with Nominoe, he said to the
+latter in a peremptory tone, accompanying the words with a gesture of
+authority:
+
+"Follow us, my son! Your uncle and I must speak with you."
+
+"Father, please let me know where I shall meet you. I shall place myself
+at your orders at sunset."
+
+"Follow me instantly!" replied Salaun imperiously. "Come on the spot!
+What we have to say to you will brook no delay."
+
+"It is hard for me to disobey you, father--but at this moment I can not
+accompany you," answered Nominoe, stepping towards Bertha. "I can not
+leave the lady alone--later I shall obey you. I shall go to whatever
+place you may please to appoint."
+
+"You dare resist your father's orders--unhappy boy!"
+
+"Father, do not insist--it is useless--I will and must stay here."
+
+"Heaven and earth!" cried Salaun, beside himself with rage at his son's
+refusal--"man without faith and without honor!"
+
+"Oh! Enough! For mercy's sake, father!" retorted Nominoe in a hollow
+voice, turning pale with both pain and anger at hearing himself insulted
+by his own father in the presence of Mademoiselle Plouernel.
+
+But she, taking the young man's hand, said to him in a low and suppliant
+voice:
+
+"Obey your father!"
+
+"Lebrenn! For heaven's sake, collect yourself!" put in Serdan,
+continuing to eye Bertha attentively. "It is imprudent to allow yourself
+to be carried away by your just indignation--before a strange woman."
+
+"That strange woman!" cried Salaun, interrupting his friend. "That
+strange woman!" And taking with a menacing mien a step towards
+Mademoiselle Plouernel: "Woman without honor! It is you who corrupted,
+you who drove my son to perdition! Who are you? Answer me, wretch that
+you are!"
+
+"Oh! God have mercy! Such an insult to her! to her!" cried Nominoe, and,
+dashing forward towards Salaun: "Father, you know not whom you are
+speaking to. Not another word!"
+
+"A threat! And to me!" exclaimed Salaun, exasperated. "A threat, when
+you should drop at my feet repentant and suppliant--cowardly assassin!"
+
+"Assassin! I!" stammered Nominoe, thunderstruck at Salaun's aspect,
+while the latter, more and more enraged, addressed Mademoiselle
+Plouernel:
+
+"Infamous creature--you are the accomplice in the murder!"
+
+"Murder?" repeated Nominoe, stupefied.
+
+"Yes; murder; the murder of Tina, your bride--"
+
+"Great God! Father! What is that you are saying!" cried Nominoe,
+shuddering with horror. "Tina, my bride--"
+
+"You killed her, wretch! You killed her by deserting her!" answered
+Salaun in a voice broken with sobs. "She died--the poor child is no
+more."
+
+"Down on our knees before your father! Let us weep over the dead on our
+knees, Nominoe!" said Mademoiselle Plouernel, throwing her mask far
+away. "Let us weep for the ill-starred Tina."
+
+And pale, her face in tears, overwhelmed with grief and almost fainting,
+she fell down, like Nominoe, upon her knees before Salaun, while Serdan,
+jumping back a step, cried out:
+
+"Mademoiselle Plouernel! In this place!"
+
+Salaun, recognizing, as Serdan had done, the young girl whom he had not
+seen again since leaving The Hague, remained speechless. Remembering how
+he had admired the loftiness of the young girl's sentiments, he now
+regretted the vehemence of the language he had just used towards her.
+Now, no longer doubting the love with which she inspired Nominoe, he
+understood the cause of his son's irresolution on the very morning of
+the wedding, and why he had fled like one demented, when the nuptial
+procession was about to resume its march to the temple. Upon these
+thoughts, this other followed: His son loved a daughter of the Nerowegs!
+a descendant of that race that the descendants of Joel had so often
+cursed across the ages! And yet, the beauty and the tears of
+Mademoiselle Plouernel, now prostrated at his feet, moved Salaun despite
+himself, especially when Bertha said to him in heartrending accents:
+
+"I was not aware of the death of Nominoe's bride, when, a minute ago, I
+say it without blushing, I offered my hand to your son."
+
+"You?" cried Salaun, hardly believing what he heard. "You, mademoiselle!
+A Plouernel!"
+
+"This union of one of the descendants of Joel with a daughter of Neroweg
+was, in my estimation, to repair the iniquities that for centuries my
+family whelmed yours with."
+
+"Noble and generous heart!" cried Serdan.
+
+Salaun remained silent and pensive. Nominoe, still upon his knees beside
+Bertha, and overcome with sorrow by the death of Tina, dared at this
+moment to raise his moist and suppliant eyes to his father. His looks
+seemed to say:
+
+"Do you still deem me so guilty for loving Mademoiselle Plouernel?"
+
+"It is upon my knees, monsieur, that I expected to confess to you a love
+that I, nevertheless, feel proud of! But, alas! this love has caused the
+death of an innocent girl! Therefore, also, it is upon my knees that I
+wish to ask your pardon for that misfortune, seeing that, although
+unwittingly, yet, Oh, just heavens! I am not a stranger to it! Now,
+Nominoe, rise!" added Bertha, herself rising with dignity. "Your father,
+I doubt not, has restored me to his esteem. For this esteem I am
+grateful to you, monsieur; I shall not be unworthy of it," observed the
+young girl, answering a gesture of approbation from Salaun.
+
+And turning towards Nominoe, who had also risen from the ground, she
+proceeded in a trembling and resigned voice, and endeavoring to control
+the pangs of her soul:
+
+"Our marriage, even with the approval of your father, is henceforth
+impossible, Nominoe! The remembrance, the shadow of that ill-starred
+girl would always rise between us!" said Bertha shuddering.
+
+But proceeding with a poignant smile:
+
+"Courage, my friend! Thanks to God, our life is not confined to the life
+of this world! At this moment, when I take my leave of you, I say to you
+not adieu! I say till we meet again, Nominoe! Perhaps, although still
+very young, I may precede you to one of those mysterious worlds where my
+mother awaits me--and whither that sweet girl, your bride, has taken
+flight! Oh! At least, I shall be able to meet their eyes without fear, I
+shall then tell all to them. And the day when, departing from this
+earth, you will come to join us, the hearts of all us three will fly to
+meet your spirit! Till we meet, then, my friend! Alas, my presentiments
+did not deceive me. My love was kindled in sentiments too celestial to
+be for this world;--having come from yonder, on high, it must reascend
+to its divine source!" and Bertha pointed Nominoe heavenward with a mien
+of sublime simplicity.
+
+Nominoe, his father, and Serdan listened to Mademoiselle Plouernel with
+inexpressible emotion, while Madok the miller came out of the
+underground gallery, looking hither and thither with precaution. An
+instant he remained motionless with surprise at the sight of Serdan and
+Lebrenn conversing with Mademoiselle Plouernel, whom he had seen on the
+road to Mezlean on the day of Tina's wedding. Casting thereupon a look
+of somber reproach upon Nominoe, seeing he now met him again for the
+first time since the nuptial ceremony at which he filled the role of
+"Brotaer," the miller beckoned to Salaun to step aside and said to him
+in an undertone:
+
+"What is the _demoiselle_ doing here? She is as good as her brother is
+wicked, but--she is a daughter of Plouernel."
+
+"And our men?" inquired Salaun interrupting Madok, and not considering
+the moment opportune for answering his question. "Have they arrived? Did
+they bring the arms that were promised us, the pikes, muskets and
+ammunition?"
+
+"Yes, they brought the last load of arms concealed among faggots and
+green branches. They went down into the underground gallery through the
+ruins of the dungeon. They report everything ready for to-night in the
+parishes. The tocsin is to sound with the rising of the moon. A
+package-carrier who went through Plouernel left the news that the people
+of Nantes and Rennes have risen in revolt, and that fighting is going on
+in the suburbs. The troops are getting the worst of it."
+
+"That I knew," answered Salaun. "We must not be found behindhanded. Wait
+here for me; I shall return immediately."
+
+Salaun walked back to his son and Mademoiselle Plouernel, who said to
+him in a voice that she strove to render firm:
+
+"Monsieur Lebrenn, I shall now return to the castle; to-morrow I shall
+depart for the manor of Mezlean, where I desire to live in absolute
+seclusion. I shall not see you again, Nominoe; but at least I carry with
+me in my solitary retreat your father's respect, and the remembrance of
+a love that I am proud of, because it sprang from a generous sentiment.
+In offering my hand to your son, Monsieur Lebrenn, I meant to do a
+worthy act."
+
+"Infamy and treason! Her hand to a vassal!" suddenly broke in a voice
+that shook with rage. "Malediction upon the miserable woman!"
+
+And emerging from the copse behind which they had for an instant lain
+concealed, there suddenly appeared upon the clearing the Count of
+Plouernel and the Marquis of Chateauvieux.
+
+After having explored the avenues of the park, the Count had come across
+several of his forester guardsmen, from whom he inquired whether they
+had seen Mademoiselle Plouernel. They saw her, was their answer, about
+two hours ago, walking in the direction of one of the park gates, which
+they found open; great was their surprise upon first noticing on the
+dust of the road the imprint of Bertha's little feet; but their surprise
+redoubled when they saw the tracks of the young girl running towards the
+narrow and shaded path that led to the clearing. Agitated by a vague
+presentiment, the Count alighted from his mount, the Marquis did
+likewise, and the Count ordered one of the equerries who accompanied him
+to run back immediately, and by all means to return with the forester
+guardsmen, whom he had just met. Thereupon the Count of Plouernel and
+the Marquis of Chateauvieux, leaving their horses in charge of another
+equerry, dived into the copse, followed the path and, arriving at the
+clearing, stood petrified at the sight of Bertha conversing with
+strangers. Finally, as they listened they caught the last words that
+Mademoiselle Plouernel was addressing to Salaun Lebrenn on the subject
+of her love for Nominoe. Informed by his bailiff that two members of the
+Lebrenn family, a vassal family of his own domains, and mariners of the
+port of Vannes, were pointed out as mutinous and dangerous people, the
+Count was fired with an incontrollable fury at hearing his sister admit
+her love for a miserable mariner of the vassal race. The love, at which
+the Count's family pride rose in revolt, furthermore dashed the
+projected double marriage that he pursued. He now could explain to
+himself the cause of Bertha's continuous delays in giving her consent
+to her marriage with the Marquis of Chateauvieux. The latter, no less
+wounded in his vanity than the Count of Plouernel felt wounded in his
+family pride, shared his friend's fury and followed him, when, unable
+any longer to control himself, the Count dashed into the clearing.
+
+The Count of Plouernel drew his sword and with the flat of the blade
+struck Nominoe across the face, crying:
+
+"Vile clown! That is for your having dared to raise your eyes to
+Mademoiselle Plouernel--while you wait to be hanged from the gibbet!"
+
+Such was the violence of the blow that although it was given with the
+flat of the sword blood spurted out of Nominoe's cheek and forehead. He
+emitted a terrible cry, and clenched his fists, but noticing a traveling
+cutlass hanging at Serdan's side he seized it and precipitated himself
+upon the Count of Plouernel.
+
+"Count!" shouted the Marquis of Chateauvieux, also drawing his sword,
+"let us kill the vassal like a dog!"
+
+Salaun ran to the help of his son, who was attacked by two adversaries
+at once; jumped at the neck of the Marquis of Chateauvieux; threw him to
+the ground; and, despite all the resistance that he offered, disarmed
+him; while Nominoe, after dexterously parrying a blow aimed at him by
+the Count of Plouernel, struck back so heavily with the reverse of the
+cutlass upon the Count's wrist that his hand was paralyzed and dropped
+the sword. All this happened with the swiftness of thought. Despite the
+Count's conduct towards her, Mademoiselle Plouernel emitted a cry of
+terror at the sight of her brother engaged in a hand-to-hand conflict
+with Nominoe. At the risk of being struck by both in the heat of the
+combat, she rushed forward to separate them. Trembling at the danger
+that the young girl ran, Serdan threw his arms around her and held her
+back. The girl uttered a piercing cry, staggered, became ashen pale; her
+head fell backward, she fainted away overcome with terror, and would
+have dropped to the ground but for Serdan holding her up and seating her
+gently upon the grass with her back supported by the old oak tree.
+Mademoiselle Plouernel had lost all consciousness. In the midst of the
+tumult, the forester guardsmen whom one of the Count's equerries had
+gone in search of as ordered by his master, stepped upon the scene,
+armed with their muskets and hunting knives.
+
+"To me, guardsmen! Arrest these assassins! Do not kill them, I shall
+bring them to justice!" cried the Count of Plouernel, whom the blow of
+Nominoe's cutlass had rendered helpless, and who held his bleeding and
+mutilated right hand in his left, while Nominoe himself, seeing Bertha
+lying unconscious at the foot of the old dead oak, flung away his
+cutlass, and thinking only of Mademoiselle Plouernel, threw himself upon
+his knees beside the young girl.
+
+At the call of their seigneur, the guardsmen, to the number of eight,
+rushed upon Salaun Lebrenn and Serdan. Disarmed by Nominoe, the latter
+could offer no effective resistance to the men who sought to seize him.
+Salaun, however, drawing his mariner's sword, returned thrust for
+thrust to the guardsmen who attacked him, and called out to his son, who
+was on his knees beside Bertha:
+
+"Up, Nominoe! Defend yourself! Let us defend ourselves!"
+
+Salaun's voice expired upon his lips. He was knocked down by a heavy
+blow, dealt from behind with the butt of a musket by one of the
+guardsmen while he fought two others in front, one of whom he succeeded
+in wounding. Serdan was also floored, and then pinioned with the
+shoulder straps of the guardsmen, the same as Salaun, who had dropped to
+the ground dazed by the blow which he received. Finally, Nominoe,
+delirious with grief, was, upon a sign from the Count of Plouernel torn
+from Bertha by the foresters. His mind seemed to wander. He allowed
+himself to be bound without offering any resistance whatever.
+
+"Monseigneur," a lackey came and said to the Count of Plouernel, "Madam
+the Marchioness and Monsieur the Abbot took a carriage to join in the
+search for mademoiselle; they met the equerry who was bringing the
+forester guardsmen; their carriage is near by; Madam the Marchioness
+sent me to receive monseigneur's orders."
+
+"Go and tell Monsieur the Abbot that I request him to come here without
+delay. We need his services," the Count of Plouernel answered the
+lackey.
+
+And addressing the Marquis of Chateauvieux:
+
+"My friend, you will have to help the Abbot to transport my sister to
+the carriage. I shall join you there--I can hardly hold myself on my
+feet; I am losing so much blood that I am afraid I shall faint."
+
+Then, finally, turning to the three prisoners, who stood with lowering
+brows, motionless and silent, and firmly bound, the Count cried:
+
+"Bandits! Murderers! I am vested with low and high judicial powers in my
+seigniory. You shall be tried to-night--and hanged to-morrow."
+
+"Marquis, were there not four of these brigands? I only see three. What
+became of the fourth?"
+
+"Indeed, it seems to me there were four of them--one of them had a white
+vest on," answered the Marquis of Chateauvieux, remembering having seen
+Madok the miller, who, at the approach of the forester guardsmen
+disappeared in the thickest of the wood.
+
+"Monseigneur," said one of the foresters to the Count, "as we entered
+the clearing we saw a man flee through the copse; he was probably the
+companion of the prisoners, the one you are missing."
+
+"The wood will have to be beaten and the bandit found--he shall be
+hanged with his accomplices."
+
+Abbot Boujaron arrived at that moment. He looked bewildered. He was
+informed of the tragic adventure and helped the Marquis of Chateauvieux
+to transport to the carriage Mademoiselle Plouernel, who, pale and
+inert, seemed dead but for the convulsive tremors that shook her frame
+from time to time. She was laid down upon the cushions of the carriage
+near the Marchioness. The Count took a seat beside his sister, and the
+carriage returned to the castle at full speed.
+
+Bertha was taken to her own apartment and locked up with her nurse. She
+was not to come out again but to be consigned to a cloister by orders of
+the King. Before nightfall, Serdan, Salaun Lebrenn and his son, whom the
+foresters led off, were separately imprisoned in the cells of the
+manor--the sumptuous Renaissance palace was furnished with its
+subterranean prisons, the same as the ancient feudal dungeon, seeing
+that the seigneur of the Seventeenth exercised, like his ancestor of the
+Eleventh Century, the functions of high and low judicial magistrate.
+Reassured on the score of the wound received by the Count of Plouernel,
+the Marquis of Chateauvieux hastened to obey the orders of the Governor
+of Brittany, who summoned him to Rennes without delay, together with the
+two companies of his regiment; but he left, however, with the Count, for
+the latter's security, the detachment of Sergeant La Montagne, which he
+had summoned to Plouernel the day before.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+EZ-LIBR.
+
+
+It was close on midnight. The moon, now on the wane, had just risen in a
+cloudless sky. Hardly had the silvery crescent lifted itself above the
+horizon when the parish bells, spread over an area of about ten square
+leagues round about the burg of Plouernel sounded the tocsin at their
+loudest. At the signal, a troop of peasants armed with hatchets,
+hay-forks, scythes and old halberds, and preceded by a sort of vanguard
+consisting of fifty men armed with muskets, sallied out of the burg of
+Plouernel. They followed in silence the long avenue that led to the iron
+gate of the court of honor before the castle. At the head of this
+vanguard marched Gildas Lebrenn, the leasehold peasant of Karnak, Madok
+the miller, three leasehold peasants of the domain of Plouernel itself,
+and Tankeru. Tankeru carried, flung over his shoulder, his heavy
+blacksmith's hammer into the head of which he had cut the Breton words:
+EZ-LIBR--To Be Free. His arms were bare; in the pocket of his leathern
+apron was a roll of paper partly visible above the edge. The light of
+the moon illumined Tankeru's face. In two nights the sturdy man's hair
+had turned grey. His features were hardly recognizable since Tina's
+death. Despair had left its stamp upon them. He stopped at about a
+hundred paces from the iron gate of the castle, and said to Madok in a
+hollow voice:
+
+"We swore to Salaun Lebrenn that we would follow his advice and place
+justice on our side before coming to blows, and to submit the Peasant
+Code for the approval of the Seigneur Count. Perhaps he has already
+hanged Salaun; but, dead or alive, Salaun has our word. We shall keep
+it! Tell our men to stop at the avenue. We shall enter the castle
+unarmed."
+
+The order was given and executed. The vanguard, together with the troop
+of armed vassals, halted under the trees of the avenue. Tankeru and his
+five companions advanced to the iron gate, which closed the entrance to
+the court of honor and stood between two pavilions, where the gateman or
+porter was housed. The vestibule and all the windows on the first floor
+of the castle could be seen brilliantly illuminated. Tankeru drew near
+the gate and called:
+
+"Halloa! Porter! Porter! Come out!"
+
+The porter, clad in a rich livery, came out of one of the pavilions, and
+approaching Tankeru, inquired:
+
+"Who goes there? What do you want?"
+
+"We want to speak with your master, and on the spot. Open the gate of
+the castle."
+
+"You, clown?" answered the porter, with the insolence of a lackey, as he
+spied through the iron bars the blacksmith and his companions, all of
+whom were poorly clad. "Go your ways! Go, barefooted rabble! If you
+don't, I shall take my cane and come out--and then, look to your backs!"
+
+"If you do not open, I shall force the gate!" cried Tankeru to the
+porter, who started to return to his pavilion grumbling.
+
+Tankeru seized his hammer in both his hands, swung it, and with one blow
+snapped the lock of the gate. It flew open. The frightened porter ran
+towards the winding staircase of the castle, shouting:
+
+"Help!"
+
+The six vassals entered the court of honor, and walked across it at a
+rapid pace. Suddenly Tankeru stopped. His eyes had caught sight of three
+gibbets, recently reared, as shown by the fresh earth that was thrown up
+at their feet. He called Gildas's attention to the instruments of death,
+and said:
+
+"We arrive on time! The gibbets are intended for Salaun, his friend
+Serdan, and--"
+
+The blacksmith did not mention the name of Nominoe. His features
+contracted and assumed a frightful expression. The robust man smothered
+a sob, clenched with convulsive rage the handle of his heavy hammer, and
+pursued his march a few stops ahead of his companions.
+
+The frightened gateman rushed into the vestibule of the castle where a
+large number of other lackeys were playing cards. Among the gamesters
+was Sergeant La Montagne and his corporal. The soldiers of his
+detachment, tired out with their recent tramp, were resting in one of
+the adjoining out-buildings.
+
+"A number of vassals have forced open the gate!" shouted the porter as
+he tumbled in. "They demand to see monseigneur immediately! Go and tell
+the Count, and ask his orders!"
+
+One of the lackeys ran off to carry the news to his master. The Count
+was at that moment discussing with his bailiffs, Abbot Boujaron and the
+Marchioness of Tremblay the sentence that was to be pronounced upon the
+three "murderers" early next morning. At first stupefied at the audacity
+of his vassals, the Count bounded up with indignation, and left the
+hall, followed by his bailiffs and Abbot Boujaron. As the Abbot crossed
+the vestibule he perceived Sergeant La Montagne, stepped towards him,
+and gave him a few hurried instructions in a low voice. The sergeant
+forthwith called to him his corporal, and both left the antechamber by
+an inside staircase. With his arm in a sling, followed by his bailiffs,
+and surrounded by a bevy of gallooned lackeys carrying torches in their
+hands, the Count of Plouernel presented himself upon the stairway of the
+castle at the moment when Tankeru was ascending the lower steps. The
+blacksmith and his friends had reached the middle of the stairs when the
+Abbot said in an undertone to the young Count of Plouernel:
+
+"Gain time--a quarter of an hour, or if but ten minutes. The sergeant
+has gone out to wake up the soldiers and arm them, together with the
+forester guards. We shall bag the whole pack."
+
+The Count of Plouernel nodded with his head approvingly to the Abbot,
+and addressed his vassals in an angry tone:
+
+"Wretches, who forced the gate of my court! What do you want? What do
+you come for?"
+
+"You shall know in a minute, monseigneur," answered Tankeru in a firm
+voice as he drew the scroll of paper from the pocket of his leathern
+apron. While so doing, he ascended the steps that separated him from the
+landing where the Count of Plouernel stood, and handed him the writing:
+"Read this, if you please, monseigneur."
+
+"What is this silly paper that you hand me, rustic?"
+
+"It is the PEASANT CODE, monseigneur. Our code, the code of the poor, of
+the rustics, as you call us, Count of Plouernel."
+
+"In other words, ye clowns, you presume to discuss!"
+
+"Monseigneur," replied Tankeru, "we here are six honorable men who are
+delegated by your vassals of Mezlean and Plouernel. In that writing,
+which contains the Peasant Code, we humbly present our grievances, and
+we endeavor to lay down, as clearly as is in our power, the rules that
+it may please you to observe towards us, monseigneur, from this day on.
+It is in great humbleness that we present our code to you, monseigneur."
+
+"A code! Rules dictated by this rustic rabble!" stammered the Count of
+Plouernel, beside himself with rage. "The audacity! Is it insolence,
+carried to a climax? Is it folly? Or are these clowns simply drunk? Go
+back, rustics! Back to your work!"
+
+"Humor the miscreants," whispered the Abbot to the Count; "entertain
+them, gain time; the soldiers and the foresters must be here soon--we
+must bag the whole pack."
+
+"Indeed, my clowns. You present your grievances?" proceeded the Count of
+Plouernel, thus admonished, with supreme disdain not unmixed with
+stupefaction. "So you have drawn up rules that it may please me to
+observe towards you! The grievances of this plebs must be droll to
+read!"
+
+"We have taken the liberty, monseigneur, to submit our grievances to
+you. We are at the end of our endurance; this must change! In short, we
+demand of you no longer to be treated worse than draft animals; we
+demand of you, monseigneur, no longer to be driven with sticks applied
+to our backs; we demand of you, monseigneur, no longer to be overwhelmed
+with taxes imposed at your _good pleasure_; we demand of you,
+monseigneur, no longer to be thrown into prison, whipped with switches,
+sent to the galleys, or hanged if we kill your stags, or your boars,
+when they enter our fields and ravage our crops; finally, we demand of
+you--but read the paper, monseigneur, and you will see that all we ask
+is Justice--read the Peasant Code! Accept it; it will not ruin you--far
+from it! But then at least, we and our families would no longer die of
+hunger, neither worse nor better than foundered horses! We shall still
+continue to work for you from dawn to dusk, monseigneur, you will still
+have the larger share, we the smaller;--but then you would allow us to
+live as the creatures of the good God should live! Accept the Peasant
+Code, monseigneur; sign it; be, then, faithful to your signature, and
+we will be faithful to our agreement--it will mean peace--a good peace
+for you and for our families."
+
+"Ho! Ho!" broke in the Count of Plouernel, whom the audacity of his
+vassals threw into all manner of wrathful transports. "So, then, if I
+accept your code, we shall have peace? Whence it follows that, in case I
+refuse--please complete your sentence!"
+
+"'Sdeath! It will then be war, monseigneur! And, take notice, it will
+then be your fault, not ours," answered Tankeru resolutely. "Finally, in
+order to cancel the whole bill, we demand of you that it may please you
+to set free three prisoners whom you are holding in the castle. You
+intend to have them hanged. Well, monseigneur, you must deliver them to
+us, if you please; they must be set free--without further delay. If
+not--"
+
+"If not?" cried the Count of Plouernel at the end of his patience. "If I
+refuse to set the prisoners free, what will you do? Please answer,
+miserable fellow! What will you do? I would like to know!"
+
+"'Sdeath! Monseigneur, we shall set them free ourselves! We shall open
+the war. It will be you who will have made the choice!"
+
+"This is too much!" cried the Count of Plouernel. But suddenly breaking
+off and listening to windward, he turned to the Abbot and asked: "Is not
+that the ringing of the tocsin that I hear from afar?"
+
+"Yes, monseigneur," observed Tankeru in a hollow voice that now waxed
+threatening. "With the rise of the moon, the tocsin was rung in all the
+parishes of your seigniories of Plouernel and Mezlean--it is now ringing
+at Rennes--at Nantes--at Quimper, where the fight is on. Everywhere the
+revolt is on--war everywhere--in case our seigneurs refuse to accept the
+Peasant Code. Decide on the spot!"
+
+And pointing with his hand in the direction of the avenue to the castle,
+where the troop of armed vassals was assembled, the blacksmith added:
+
+"All the people of Plouernel and other parishes are yonder under arms;
+they are waiting for your answer, monseigneur! It will be peace, if you
+sign the Peasant Code and deliver us the prisoners; if not--fire and
+flames!--it will be war! War without mercy towards you, as you have been
+towards us, merciless and pitiless."
+
+"Sergeant! Kill these rebels with your bayonets, or the brigands down
+the avenue will hear the fire of your muskets and run to their help!"
+suddenly ordered the Count of Plouernel addressing Sergeant La Montagne,
+who, at the head of his men and hidden in the dark, had noiselessly
+crept along the facade of the castle. "This way, foresters!" added the
+Count in a ringing voice. "The castle is going to be attacked! Kill,
+kill the malignant rustic plebs--kill them all!"
+
+"Run the clowns through! Let not one escape! Head and bowels! They tried
+to disarm us on the road to Mezlean!" cried Sergeant La Montagne. "This
+is our revenge! Prick them through and through! Death to the rustics!"
+
+At the word of command the soldiers suddenly rushed forth upon the
+staircase, charging Tankeru and his companions with their bayonets.
+
+While the soldiers turned to obey the order to massacre the vassals upon
+the stairway of the castle, Nominoe was awaiting death in his cell,
+whither the forester guards of the Count had taken him. The bailiff of
+the seigniory, assisted by his registrar, had proceeded to interrogate
+the prisoner, who was charged with a murderous attempt, followed by
+wounds, upon the person of the very high, very powerful and very
+redoubtable seigneur, etc. Nominoe remained silent, declining to answer
+any of the bailiff's questions. The only words he uttered were to
+inquire about the condition of Mademoiselle Plouernel. Not considering
+it fit to impart the information to the prisoner, the officer of justice
+once more urged him to consider that his refusal to answer the charges
+against him was equivalent to a confession of guilt on his part, and
+that the crime, in which he was caught red-handed, was punishable with
+death. The prisoner was to appear early the next morning at the bar of
+the seigniorial tribunal, together with his two accomplices, guilty like
+himself of attempted murder, also followed by serious wounds upon the
+person of the very high, very powerful and very redoubtable seigneur,
+etc. The execution of the sentence was immediately to follow the
+judgment. The three gibbets were to be erected that same night. Nominoe
+persisted in his silence. Thereupon the bailiff and the registrar took
+their departure, and he was left alone.
+
+"To die!" pondered Nominoe. "I am about to die. Or rather, I am about to
+be re-born yonder! Oh! I would greet that new life with a shout of joy,
+were it not for my sorrow at departing from this world at the very
+moment when there is about to break out the revolt of which my father is
+the soul, and which, under his direction, might have led to the
+overthrow of the royal power itself. This is what attaches me to life."
+
+Absorbed in his meditations, Nominoe had not noticed that for a
+considerable space of time the sound of a number of bells, though
+weakened by the distance, reached him through the air-hole of his cell.
+Suddenly a tumultuous noise that drew nearer and nearer attracted his
+attention. With the noise of the tumult was speedily mingled the
+detonations of musketry fire, frequent and well sustained, and but
+irregularly answered. Little by little the musketry discharges ceased.
+The turmoil seemed hushed. A long silence ensued--and, presently, a
+reddish glint of flames penetrated through the air-hole of the cell,
+reflected itself upon the opposite wall, and speedily threw the same
+into a flamboyant glare. It was the war upon the castles that broke out!
+Peace to the huts, war to the palaces!
+
+"The vassals have attacked the feudal manor--they have seized it--they
+are in the halls! They are now setting it on fire!" cried Nominoe,
+ecstatic with joy. But immediately struck by an opposite train of
+thought: "Good God! What will become of Bertha!"
+
+A prey to distracting anxiety, Nominoe dashed himself against the thick
+and iron-studded door; vainly he sought to break it down with his
+shoulders. Presently loud cries reached his ears. They proceeded from a
+throng of people, who, rushing by the air-hole of his cell, shouted
+aloud to one another:
+
+"The prisoners must be here! This way! this way! break open their cells!
+The fire is spreading! Save the prisoners! Save the prisoners!"
+
+"God be blessed! Perhaps I may yet see Bertha--and save her once more!"
+cried Nominoe.
+
+Encouraged by this thought, Nominoe approached his lips to the key-hole
+and called out:
+
+"Friends! This way! This way!"
+
+"Here I am!" answered the voice of Tankeru. "I have heard you! I am
+coming!" And turning the key, which was left by the jailer in the lock
+outside, he opened the door. The blacksmith stepped into the cell of
+Nominoe.
+
+Tankeru looked ashen pale. He bled. He had received two bayonet
+thrusts--one in the arm, the other in the thigh. When, with felled
+bayonets, the soldiers charged upon the delegates of the vassals, the
+blacksmith, armed with his hammer, a fearful weapon in his hands,
+succeeded in beating his way through the soldiers and joined his
+companions who were waiting for him outside the gate. Immediately
+placing himself at the head of the vassals' troop, he marched back with
+them upon the castle and successfully conducted the assault. The
+forester guards, the soldiers, the Count's hunting men, concealed behind
+the embrasures of the windows on the ground floor, directed a plunging
+fire against the assailants. Many of these fell mortally wounded. The
+survivors rushed up the wide stairway with Tankeru at their head. The
+door of the vestibule was beaten down; a stubborn and bloody combat
+immediately ensued inside the edifice. Victory fell to the vassals.
+Heated and furious with the ardor of the battle, these threw down and
+smashed whatever they could lay hands upon in the sumptuous castle.
+Tankeru and several other peasants proceeded immediately to search for
+Serdan, Salaun and Nominoe. A fleeing lackey who was caught, pointed out
+the building in which the prison was situated, and tendered his services
+to the vassals as a guide while he begged for his life. He led them to
+the jail. It was then that Tankeru heard Nominoe's voice and stepped
+into his cell.
+
+At the aspect of Tina's father Nominoe forgot the anxious thoughts that
+but a moment before were assailing him, and fell back terror-stricken as
+if a living remorse had suddenly risen before him. With features
+distorted by fury, the blacksmith bounded forward, raising his hammer,
+over the head of him whom he held responsible for the death of his
+daughter.
+
+"Strike!" said Nominoe without moving, and lowering his head with
+resignation. "Strike! It is your right."
+
+The blacksmith lowered his hammer, remained for a moment steeped in
+thought, and then said with icy calmness:
+
+"You shall die; but, before you do, you shall know how my daughter
+died!"
+
+Again the blacksmith paused, and again proceeded:
+
+"Listen, murderer. On the day of the wedding, as you know, I took flight
+upon seeing that the attempt to disarm the soldiers miscarried. After
+dark I returned to my house; I knocked at the door; my mother opened it.
+She was pale; she was sobbing. I asked what was the matter--as yet I
+knew nothing. She answered: 'It is all over. Nominoe has fled. He said
+to Salaun and Tina that they would nevermore see him. The child was
+brought home in a swoon. A short while ago she regained consciousness.
+She is upstairs. She is spinning at her wheel as if nothing had
+happened. She does not speak. She does not weep--she frightens me--I
+fear the poor girl has gone crazy.'"
+
+"Oh, God!" murmured Nominoe, hiding his face, in his hands. "Poor child!
+Poor--poor child!"
+
+"Upon hearing these words from my mother," Tankeru proceeded without
+seeming to hear the painful wail that escaped Nominoe, "at these words
+from my mother, I was at first seized with a vertigo. The blood rushed
+to my brain; I fell seated upon a bench; my head reeled. Presently I
+could think again. I said to myself--it is done for my daughter, grief
+will kill her! I went upstairs. Tina, seated before her wheel, spun. Her
+eyes were fixed; her cheeks were purple; heavy drops of sweat rolled
+down her forehead. When I came in, her eyes were turned in my
+direction--she did not budge--she did not recognize me. I believed she
+was crazy; sobs choked me. I called to her--'Tina! Tina! My child!' No
+answer; no look of recognition--nothing! nothing! I left her to my
+mother's care, and ran to Vannes in quest of a physician. I trembled
+with fear lest he should arrive too late. I informed the physician of
+what had happened. He took horse, and followed me. I ran afoot faster
+than he on horseback. I knocked again at our door, and entering I asked
+my mother: 'Is she dead?' 'No,' she answered, 'she had a spell of
+weakness, but, upon recovering, she recognized me. I wished to undress
+her to lay her to bed. She wept and begged me not to take off her
+wedding clothes. She is now on her bed.' We ran upstairs with the
+physician. We found her lying on her bed with her nuptial headdress and
+clothes. She had grown so pale that I shivered. This time she recognized
+and stretched out her arms to me. She endeavored to rise; her strength
+failed her. I approached close to her pale face; she embraced me--her
+lips were icy--also her cheeks. I realized on the instant that she was
+expiring. I felt as if my heart was being wrung--I screamed with actual
+pain! My mother drew me away. I had forgotten the physician. He
+contemplated my daughter for a long time; he touched her hand, her
+forehead; and then he motioned to me to leave the room with him. The
+sudden shock that my daughter had sustained caused all her blood to rush
+to her heart; a blood vessel had burst; she was dying. That was what the
+physician said to me. I returned to Tina's room. She endeavored to
+smile--what a smile!--and she said to us, to my mother and me: 'Give me
+your dear hands, and leave them in mine till the end.' She pressed them
+gently, and a little later said: 'Oh! that warms me up.' Poor dear
+child, her hands were so cold! her little hands were already so cold
+that they froze the very marrow in my bones. I sought to comfort her.
+She shook her head and said to my mother: 'Do you see grandma, do you
+now agree that heaven does send us tokens to prepare us for misfortune?
+The black crow of this morning? The little dead dove? Do you remember?
+No--God did not wish me to be the wife of Nominoe. We exchanged
+rings'--and she raised to her lips the ring that she wore on her
+finger--'I was his wife, and see me, now, his widow before his death. He
+married me only out of kindness, but the Lord God did not want that
+marriage. May His will be done! May Nominoe be happy! Father, you must
+pardon him, as I pardon him the sorrow that, despite himself, he has
+caused us. It is not his fault. Had he been able to love me with a
+husband's love he would have loved me. Pardon for him--it is the last
+request of your daughter Tina. She also asks you to bury her in her
+bridal robe, with her ring and her nuptial ribbons. Good father, adieu!
+Grandma, adieu. Leave your hands in mine--I die--'"
+
+Tankeru could not finish the sentence. His voice, which trembled more
+and more as he proceeded, utterly broke down. Sobs convulsed his frame.
+In the tenderness of his grief he forgot for a moment the revengeful
+rage that transported him, and he himself repeated the supreme last
+words of Tina--the pardon that with her last breath she implored for
+Nominoe! The latter, utterly overwhelmed with the distressful report of
+Tina's last hours, listened to it in mournful silence. So profound was
+his grief, so sincere his remorse, that he never thought of his anxiety
+concerning the fate of Mademoiselle Plouernel. Suddenly Tankeru's tears
+ceased to flow. With them also ceased his tenderness. Only his despair
+now remained. His fury was rekindled; he picked up the hammer that had
+fallen at his feet, swung it in the air and rushed upon Nominoe crying:
+
+"I have informed you of the sufferings and the agony of your
+victim--now, assassin, die!"
+
+The heavy hammer of the blacksmith rose to drop upon the head of
+Nominoe. The latter jumped aside, threw his arms around Tankeru's neck,
+embraced him effusively, and said in a voice choked with tears:
+
+"I do not fear death! Not that! But, believe me, my death would one day
+weigh heavily upon your conscience! You loved my mother so dearly! Tina
+has pardoned me, and she asked you to have mercy upon me! You see my
+tears, my remorse--you loved me once--your heart is good--uncle!
+uncle!--do not kill me! Eternal remorse would pursue you for the act!"
+
+The touching words of Nominoe, his tender embrace, the memory of his
+sister, the last words of Tina, the paternal affection he had always
+felt for his nephew disarmed Tankeru. The hammer slipped from his hand
+and fell at his feet.
+
+At that moment Serdan and Salaun Lebrenn, whom the vassals had freed,
+entered precipitately into the cell. Serdan cried out:
+
+"Flee! Flee! The fire is reaching the building!"
+
+Having overheard his son's words in answer to Tankeru's threat to kill
+him, Salaun took the blacksmith's hand and pressing it warmly in his
+own, said:
+
+"Brother, I swear to God! Despite the immensity of the wrong that he has
+done, Nominoe does deserve, if not your pardon, at least your pity!"
+
+"The fire! The fire!" cried several peasants who had descended into the
+prison to deliver the captives, and who, having regained the stairs, now
+ran through the gallery of cells. In view of the increasing danger, the
+blacksmith, Salaun and his son dashed across the black clouds of smoke,
+picking their way by the ruddy reflections which the conflagration
+projected upon the steps of the staircase through the prison gate, that
+looked like the mouth of a roaring furnace. Nominoe followed close upon
+the steps of his father and the blacksmith who preceded him. Despite the
+imminence of the danger that he ran, the youth's thoughts now returned
+to Mademoiselle Plouernel. In heartrending accents he muttered:
+
+"Oh, woe! Oh, woe! The fire is consuming the castle. What may have
+become of her? Where may Bertha be?"
+
+"She is safe!" answered Serdan, who, happening to walk close by the side
+of Nominoe, had overheard him. "The peasants informed us that, once
+masters of the castle, their companions took care of their _good
+demoiselle_. A carriage was quickly hitched to a team of horses, and
+Mademoiselle Plouernel departed with her nurse and an equerry to
+Mezlean. The Marchioness, terror-stricken, died of apoplexy."
+
+Tankeru, Serdan, Salaun Lebrenn and Nominoe made their escape through
+the underground staircase of the prison building. The building itself
+was now ablaze, the same as all the out-houses appertaining to the
+castle. Their roofs fell with crash upon crash within the walls that
+had partly crumbled in the conflagration, and shot up long streamers of
+fire and sparkling embers. Seeing that the castle itself did not contain
+the mass of combustible materials of all sorts with which the out-houses
+were filled, it offered a longer resistance to the conflagration. Off
+and on a tongue of fire would be seen expiring in the midst of smoke
+that was still escaping from the windows on the ground floor; the panes
+of glass had exploded noisily and the frames were charred black. But the
+fire spared the upper floors where the vassals still pursued their work
+of devastation, throwing out of the windows pieces of furniture, looking
+glasses, bedding, books, pictures. Debris of all kinds was heaped in the
+center of the court of honor, and the insurgents turned the heap into a
+huge bonfire that lighted the three gibbets which were erected for
+Salaun, Serdan and Nominoe, but from which now dangled the lifeless
+bodies of the Count of Plouernel, Abbot Boujaron and Sergeant La
+Montagne, all three objects of the implacable hatred of the people--the
+_seigneur_, the _priest_ and the _King's soldier_.
+
+Informed of the death of his brother Gildas who was massacred together
+with the other delegates of the vassals, Tankeru excepted, Salaun looked
+for and found the body, and laid it in a grave that he dug with the
+assistance of Tankeru, Serdan and Nominoe. That funeral duty being
+fulfilled, Salaun said to them, as he sadly contemplated the scene of
+wreck and ruin which they had been unable to prevent:
+
+"Oh, my son! my friends! Had we been free, we would have succeeded in
+preventing these acts of savagery that are so fatal to our cause! Alas,
+it is now too late! What is the mysterious law that causes the
+re-vindication of human rights ever to drag excesses in its wake! The
+vassals of the Count of Plouernel first submitted their grievances
+humbly to him, and presented the surely legitimate demands which they
+formulated in the Peasant Code. Had the Count listened to their claims,
+he would have done an act of humanity and justice, and he would have
+preserved his privileges. By yielding to the peasants' wishes, and
+discontinuing to look upon his peasants as beasts of burden, that man
+would have shown himself not only just, but also intelligent in his own
+interest. If these wretched people were spared the homicidal privations
+that, before taking them to their graves, gradually sap their health,
+undermine their strength, and render them unfit for continued toil, they
+would have yielded more wealth to him, and would have rendered more
+fruitful the seigniorial domains. But no! In his pitiless egotism, the
+Count of Plouernel answered the peasants' prayers with disdain, with
+insult, with murder! They thereupon grew furious, enraged. They returned
+blow for blow, death for death; gave themselves over to frightful acts
+of reprisal; killed their seigneur; and now ravage and burn down his
+castle! It will cost the brother of the Count of Plouernel a good deal
+to repair the disasters of this single night--twenty times more than it
+would have cost the Count to ease his vassals for a century and more of
+the taxes that oppressed them. Alas! This is not an isolated instance
+in history. Did not the seigneurs and their bishops proceed in the same
+manner during the Middle Ages towards those communes which our ancestor
+Fergan the Quarryman was one of the most intrepid to defend? The
+communiers also began with humble supplications to their seigneurs, or
+their bishops, to alleviate their taxes. But both seigneurs and bishops
+ordered their men-at-arms to mow down the 'villains' and 'clowns.' And,
+thereupon, 'clowns' and 'villains' rose in revolt, and, arms in hand, at
+the price of their blood, and after taking signal vengeance, conquered
+the franchises and the charters--the safeguards of their freedom! Even
+during the last century, did not the Reformers first request humbly that
+they be granted the right to exercise their own cult? But the Church and
+the Crown answered their prayers with the pyre and wholesale massacres.
+And thereupon the Reformers in turn, rose in revolt, and, after a half
+century of bloody religious wars, the Edict of Nantes finally
+consecrated and confirmed the four edicts of tolerance which the
+Huguenots had conquered, arms in hand. And yet, as our ancestor
+Christian the printer said in the days of Francis I, a simple decree of
+two lines only, recognizing in all the right to exercise their cult,
+while respecting the cult of others, would have avoided the dreadful
+catastrophes that Catholic intolerance brought upon France for over
+fifty years. What is the reason that all civil, political or religious
+reform can be conquered only at the price of blood and of frightful
+disasters? Alas! simply because the nobility, the clergy and royalty
+look upon all attempt to curb or clip the rights, that they consider
+sacred, as an outrage, as theft, and as the ruination of the land;
+because they never will consent voluntarily to curtail their privileges,
+these being the source of their power and their wealth; because, even
+did they grant some measure of reform under the pressure of necessity,
+they would strive to withdraw what they conceded, the moment they
+thought the danger was over."
+
+"But, at least, however violent the reaction against the reforms that
+are granted, something always remains; some gain always is left,"
+observed Nominoe. "It is only by this process, slowly, painfully, and
+step by step, that human progress pursues its course across the ages."
+
+"Oh!" broke in Salaun. "Without this deep-rooted faith in the
+irresistible progress of humanity, a progress that is as evident as the
+sun's light, what would man be? A sport of accident, a blind creature,
+fated to wear himself out with impotent efforts in the midst of eternal
+darkness! No; no. You did not wish that, Oh, God of justice! You have
+pointed out a sublime goal to man! His free will chooses the path, be it
+slow or swift, easy or painful, peaceful or bloody. Your sovereign will
+is bound to be accomplished, it is in process of being
+accomplished.--And now, my friends, seeing we were not able to prevent
+these dreadful acts of reprisal, let us rally the peasants. Our troop
+will be swollen by accessions from all the parishes that are now in
+revolt. We shall march upon Rennes in order to bring assistance to the
+people and the bourgeois there in arms. The other chieftains, at the
+head of the peasants of the districts of Nantes and of Quimper, will,
+on their part, carry succor to their respective cities in revolt. From
+that moment, the victorious insurrection, mistress of Brittany as it is
+of Guyenne, of Languedoc, of Saintonge and of Dauphine, will impose the
+PEASANT CODE upon the clergy and the seigniory, and its national reforms
+upon Louis XIV!--THE LAND SHALL BELONG TO THOSE WHO CULTIVATE IT."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE MANOR OF MEZLEAN.
+
+
+The manor of Mezlean, located at a considerable distance from the burg
+of the same name, lies about half a league from the druid stones of
+Karnak, which rise on the border of the ocean in long and wide avenues
+of gigantic pillars.
+
+About a month had elapsed since the burning of the Castle of Plouernel.
+It was night. Bertha's nurse, old Marion, was mechanically spinning at
+her wheel in the spacious lower hall of the manor that was so long
+uninhabited, and the antique furniture of which dated from the reign of
+Henry IV. Near Marion, on a table, stood a copper lamp with three jets.
+
+"It is going on three weeks that old Du Buisson, mademoiselle's equerry,
+has been on the road, and he is not yet back," mused Marion uneasily to
+herself. "Can he have met with some accident? If not, I wonder what news
+he will bring from down there! One hears nothing here at Mezlean of what
+goes on in Brittany. A company of soldiers marched into the burg this
+morning. They can have found there only women, children and old men,
+besides some few other people who took no part in the revolt." And
+shuddering at the thought, Marion added: "Oh, what a night, what a night
+was that on which the peasants attacked the castle! I thought my poor
+Bertha's last hour had sounded when I saw them invade our apartment,
+arms in hand! But not at all. 'You are our _good demoiselle_, as good as
+your brother is wicked,' said they to Bertha. 'You have nothing to fear,
+demoiselle. But leave the place; take along everything you want. We
+ordered your domestics to hitch up a carriage. They are waiting for
+you.' And mademoiselle took a little portrait of her mother, a casket
+containing some money and jewelry, and a manuscript written by Colonel
+Plouernel. I hurriedly packed up a few bundles, and we left the castle.
+Alas! They were at that moment hanging Monseigneur the Count, Monsieur
+the Abbot, and the sergeant. 'Mercy! Mercy for my brother!' cried my
+poor Bertha piteously, falling upon her knees on the staircase, from the
+top of which she saw Monseigneur the Count, pale and bleeding,
+struggling against the vassals who were dragging him to the gibbet! It
+was too late! Mademoiselle's voice was not heard by the peasants in the
+tumult. We finally arrived here with a coachman and a lackey. Old Du
+Buisson escorted us on horseback, riding beside the door of the
+carriage. Mademoiselle sent the men back with generous expressions of
+her gratitude, keeping only Du Buisson and myself in her service,
+besides the porter and his wife. I trembled when I saw my poor Bertha
+relapse after so many shocks, into a serious illness. But thanks to God,
+I was mistaken. For a few days she had a high fever as the consequence
+of her despair at the horrible death of her brother. But slowly she
+recovered her health. I must admit that, since her last great illness at
+Versailles, she never has been better--she is now more beautiful and
+fresher than I have ever seen her. She seems calm and happy. All that
+should set me at ease. And yet--sad presentiments assail my heart. I can
+not overcome them."
+
+At this point Marion broke off abruptly, listened toward the hall door
+and said:
+
+"I hear steps. Who can it be that is coming in at this hour?"
+
+The door opened, and Du Buisson entered.
+
+"God be blessed! At last you are back, Du Buisson! Well, what news do
+you bring?"
+
+"Bad news, my dear Marion. Bad news from everywhere!"
+
+"Good God! Then Monsieur Nominoe Lebrenn, the poor young man--?"
+
+"He must have fared like so many others. I found it impossible to
+discover any traces of either him or his father. Whether he is dead or
+alive, I can not tell."
+
+"Oh, my poor Bertha! My poor Bertha! How much is she to be pitied!"
+
+"Fortunately mademoiselle is a brave woman. Moreover, she entertained
+but slight hopes of my succeeding in the mission that she charged me
+with. I did my best. How is mademoiselle's health?"
+
+"Excellent, my dear Du Buisson!"
+
+"Heaven be praised!"
+
+"Every day mademoiselle takes a long walk along the seashore in the
+direction of the stones of Karnak. She seems to have taken a liking for
+the spot. When she returns home she takes up the manuscript of Colonel
+Plouernel, and starts to read. Especially in the evening, she remains
+for hours at a stretch in a revery, contemplating the sky. She looks sad
+every time the stars are veiled by the clouds."
+
+"She must have been impatient to see me back?"
+
+"Yes. As far as I could judge from a few words that she dropped to me,
+she is awaiting your return to take some kind of action. What it may be
+I do not know."
+
+"Perhaps she contemplates leaving France for a while, and traveling
+abroad."
+
+"I do believe she is thinking of a voyage. More than once did
+mademoiselle say to me we were here only transiently."
+
+"At any rate, the important point is that she is much less melancholy,
+and her health is good--not so?"
+
+"Yes, her sadness seems to have vanished, and her health is excellent.
+And yet, Du Buisson, I often feel greatly alarmed about mademoiselle; it
+seems to me some misfortune is approaching--sad thoughts assail me day
+and night."
+
+"What can be the cause of these presentiments of evil?"
+
+"I hardly dare tell you. You would take me for a fool--you would laugh
+at me, I fear."
+
+"Nothing that concerns our young mademoiselle can cause me to indulge
+in levity, Marion. Speak out, I pray you."
+
+"Well, shortly after your departure, my poor Bertha, who was barely over
+her fever, still seemed quite sad. One day mademoiselle was speaking to
+me with her usual kindness of heart about my family in Vannes, and she
+asked me whether none of my relatives needed any financial assistance. I
+answered her that my brother, a small trader, found in his business
+enough to meet the personal wants of himself, his wife and children;
+and, in the hope of amusing mademoiselle, I added that my brother and I
+expected from one moment to another a windfall of incalculable value.
+Mademoiselle very soberly asked me what I meant. I answered that one of
+our cousins, an old man almost dotish, was, as so many others have been
+doing of late years, _blowing_ in order to find the 'powder of
+projection'--"[7]
+
+"What, Marion! Did this _blowing_ fad penetrate to the very heart of
+Brittany? Are there here also people who indulge in such vagaries?"
+
+"Unfortunately so. The cousin whom I refer to is one of those fools. He
+inherited a little patrimony, and sank it all in alembics and chemical
+retorts. All the while, the old fellow is ever more convinced that he is
+on the track of that famous powder with the help of which everything,
+just everything, can be changed into gold. I was retailing this nonsense
+to mademoiselle in the hope of amusing her, when I perceived that she
+suddenly grew quite serious, and said to me there was more truth than
+people generally thought for in the wisdom of the alchemists; that she
+was curious to pay a visit to the blower; and she wound up saying that
+we would go the very next day to Vannes."
+
+"So, then, mademoiselle took the nonsense seriously! That is
+surprising--but it does not justify your alarm."
+
+"I also was very much surprised, I must confess; and my surprise
+increased greatly when, just before stepping into the carriage to go to
+Vannes, I saw mademoiselle open her casket, take out some gold and
+precious stones, and put them into a little satchel that she carried. We
+arrived at the suburbs of Vannes. The carriage stopped before an
+isolated house in which the dotish fellow lives. I found him surrounded
+by his furnaces, and announced to him the visit of mademoiselle. She
+went in, told me to wait for her outside, and she remained quite long
+alone with him. Does not that yet strike you as singular?"
+
+"Go to, Marion! You are trying to hint at magic. To be sure
+mademoiselle's visit to the old fool is singular. But that does not
+indicate magic."
+
+"I am coming to the point. I was waiting for mademoiselle in the
+necromancer's vestibule when suddenly he came out looking wild, ran out
+to the nearest house, and speedily returned carrying--a big black cat!"
+
+"Oh! Oh! I begin to see! The black cat is the cabalistic animal _par
+excellence_! And what became of the black cat?"
+
+"I do not know--but what is quite certain is that about an hour later
+mademoiselle came out of the blower's den beaming with happiness and
+joy. Her feet did not seem to touch the ground. In short, the
+expression on her face had changed to the point that I asked myself, and
+often ask myself still, whether that man may not have resorted to some
+witchcraft that could so suddenly metamorphose my poor Bertha. I must
+also tell you that she did not bring back to Mezlean the gold pieces and
+precious stones which she took from her casket. Whether it is that,
+knowing from me that the old man is penniless, she meant to help him, or
+whether it is that she was made to pay through the nose for some
+charm--I do not know. But, no. She is too sensible to be duped by such
+juggler's tricks."
+
+"My poor Marion, all the black cats in the world will not make me
+believe in sorcery. But I am struck by the change that you say came over
+mademoiselle's spirits after her visit to the blower, especially if the
+change has been permanent, as you claim it is."
+
+"And so it is. Since that day, mademoiselle has never looked sad, nor
+care-worn, as formerly. She seems to await your return impatiently in
+order to take a decision connected with some voyage. Finally, when she
+speaks to me of her deceased mother, Madam the Countess, and she does so
+quite often--that is another matter that perplexes and alarms me a good
+deal--mademoiselle occasionally expresses herself in language that
+implies she expects to meet her soon. On such occasions the eyes of my
+poor Bertha become so brilliant that I cannot face their light; her face
+radiates celestial beauty; she looks transfigured, as I said to you
+before, and--"
+
+Marion broke suddenly off and said to the old equerry:
+
+"Hush! Here is mademoiselle."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE PEASANTS' DEFEAT.
+
+
+Mademoiselle Plouernel entered the apartment walking slowly. She looked
+fresher, more beautiful than ever. She was dressed in white. The old
+equerry bowed respectfully and said to her, who upon seeing him, uttered
+a cry of surprise:
+
+"I did not hurry to present myself before mademoiselle because the
+tidings that I bring are of the saddest."
+
+"Leave us alone, Marion," said Mademoiselle Plouernel to her nurse. "I
+must see Du Buisson privately for a moment."
+
+Marion left the room, and Bertha kindly addressed the equerry:
+
+"I am all the sorrier for the trouble I have put you to, Du Buisson,
+seeing that it was to prove fruitless;" and seating herself, the young
+girl added: "Do not remain standing; you must feel tired after your long
+journey."
+
+Out of deference for his mistress the old man hesitated to obey. Bertha
+repeated:
+
+"Take a seat; I want it."
+
+Du Buisson sat down. Bertha proceeded:
+
+"Then you bring me back my letter?"
+
+"Here it is, mademoiselle," answered the old man. "I could not find the
+addressee," and taking a letter out of his wallet, he passed it over to
+Bertha, who laid the folded and sealed paper on a table beside her,
+saying:
+
+"So then you found it impossible to ascertain the whereabouts of
+Monsieur Nominoe Lebrenn? Could you gather no information concerning
+him?"
+
+"None, mademoiselle! When I left Mezlean I learned that the troop of
+insurgent peasants took the road to Rennes, was greatly augmented by
+contingents from the parishes which it traversed, and must have numbered
+about twenty thousand men, more or less well armed. It was a veritable
+army. Monsieur Nominoe Lebrenn, his father and Monsieur Serdan had
+brought the body under considerable disciplinary order. Nevertheless,
+all their efforts to the contrary, not a few disorderly acts were
+indulged in at the castles and rectories. The peasant army moved all the
+while towards Rennes. I hoped to encounter it at Guemenee. But there I
+learned that envoys of Monsieur the Duke of Chaulnes, Governor of
+Brittany, had arrived at that town ahead of the insurgents and announced
+to the inhabitants that the new royal taxes were repealed, that the
+parliament of Brittany was to assemble at Vannes, that it would register
+the Peasant Code, that the vassals also were to be exonerated from
+paying the royal taxes, and that thenceforth they were all to be
+protected against any further extortions and maltreatment by the
+seigneurs and the curates. The promises made by the emissaries of
+Monsieur the Duke of Chaulnes caused great jubilation among the
+peasants. They declared that, having obtained what they wanted, the war
+was ended, and they would return home to their respective parishes. So
+far from sharing the confidence into which the peasants were lulled,
+Lebrenn and Serdan urged upon them the necessity of not disbanding and
+not laying down their arms; they assured the peasants that they were
+being deceived, and that the plan was to dissolve their army by means of
+mendacious promises, and then to fall upon and crush them. Indeed, the
+promises were but a snare and a lure. But the lure seduced the peasants,
+who were homesick for their huts, their wives and their children. In
+vain did their chiefs urge them to march upon Rennes, the usual place
+for the parliament to hold its sessions, and support the assembly in its
+defiance of the King."
+
+"And the advice was not heeded?"
+
+"No, mademoiselle. The vassals, delighted at the realization of their
+aspirations, answered that it was impossible to suppose Monseigneur the
+Governor would vilely lie to them. They broke ranks and struck the roads
+home in separate bands, proclaiming everywhere along their passage that
+the Peasant Code was accepted by the seigneurs and the curates. Great
+rejoicing reigned in all the parishes of Brittany. Everywhere bonfires
+were lighted. Upon learning at Guemenee of the dispersion of the
+insurgents, I inquired after their chiefs. I learned that Monsieur
+Salaun Lebrenn, his son and Monsieur Serdan had proceeded to Rennes. I
+went thither. The masses of the people, especially the bourgeoisie,
+being less credulous than the peasants, remained in arms, the same as
+at Nantes, awaiting the opening of the parliament promised by Monsieur
+the Duke of Chaulnes. While at Rennes I looked for the Lebrenns and
+Monsieur Serdan. Later I learned they had departed for Nantes. Thither I
+wended my way. Upon arriving at Nantes I learned that a body of ten
+thousand troops, commanded by Monsieur De Forbin, had just entered
+Brittany in order to crush the rebellious parliamentarians--were they
+bourgeois or peasants. On the following day the town of Nantes was
+occupied by two regiments of infantry, supported by artillery and
+cavalry. The executions commenced. On the first day forty-seven leading
+bourgeois were hanged, and eleven men of the common people, who were
+marked as seditious, broken alive on the wheel."
+
+"My God!" cried Mademoiselle Plouernel horrified. "How much blood! How
+much blood!"
+
+"The city was mulcted of one hundred thousand ecus, the sum to be
+delivered to the troops within forty-eight hours. Thereupon a decree of
+the Governor of Brittany was posted pronouncing sentence of death upon
+all those who would afford refuge to the chiefs of the insurrection. At
+the head of the list of the chiefs, whose heads were pronounced forfeit,
+were the names of Salaun and Nominoe Lebrenn."
+
+"I am not surprised," put in Bertha calmly. "And at Nantes neither were
+you able to find any traces of Monsieur Lebrenn and his son?"
+
+"No, mademoiselle. From that moment it seemed to me there was nothing
+left for me to do but to return and inform you of the miscarriage of my
+errand. But, alas! as I crossed Brittany, what a lamentable spectacle!
+Pillage, desolation, gallows--everywhere! The soldiers treat Brittany
+like a conquered country, and demean themselves in the identical manner
+that they did in Flanders. Their acts of rapine and cruelty transcend
+description. I saw along the roads almost as many gibbets as trees! The
+peasants are tortured and then butchered. Those who flee to the woods
+are tracked, hunted and killed like wild beasts by the soldiers! They
+spare neither old men nor children--the women are outraged. In short,
+such is the terror that reigns in the country that yesterday, as I
+crossed Lesneven, which was just occupied by a company of soldiers, I
+saw a score of peasants throw themselves upon their knees, clasp their
+hands, and offering their throats, cry out pitifully to the soldiers:
+'Cut our throats, if you wish, but do not make us languish in torture!'
+Finally this morning, at Karer, a lot of drunken soldiers roasted a
+child alive!"
+
+"Enough! That's horrible!" cried Mademoiselle Plouernel, shivering. "Oh,
+great century! Oh, Grand Monarch! Blessed be the hour when I shall
+depart from this land, the scene of so many horrors and so many
+infamies!"
+
+"Is mademoiselle going on a voyage?"
+
+"Yes," answered Bertha with an indefinable smile; "yes, I contemplate
+undertaking a long voyage."
+
+"May I hope that mademoiselle will keep me near her? I am old, but
+devoted."
+
+"I know your devotion, good and faithful servitor. It matches Marion,
+my nurse's. Nevertheless, I could hardly think of taking you with me,
+either you, or her."
+
+"Is it possible!" exclaimed the old man, tears coming to his eyes.
+"What! Are we not to accompany mademoiselle? But, good God! I may ask
+without presuming too much, where will mademoiselle find more faithful
+servants, or more devoted to her? We must implore mademoiselle to keep
+us near her, in her service."
+
+"Can you imagine that, if I were to keep any servants, I would look for
+others than yourselves?"
+
+"But, mademoiselle," persisted Du Buisson, stupefied, "mademoiselle can
+not think of traveling alone!"
+
+"Exactly! That surprises you? I can well understand that it does. And
+yet, it is so. I need not add that I shall provide for your old age, my
+good Du Buisson."
+
+"Oh, I hope mademoiselle does not think that my private interest--is
+what concerns me--"
+
+"Your disinterestedness, Du Buisson, is equal to your probity and
+zeal--I know it. For that very reason it will be an agreeable duty on my
+part to recompense your long services. That is not yet all. I shall
+leave you--you and Marion--charged with a mission that, I am sure, you
+will be thankful to me for entrusting you with. I can entrust it to no
+worthier hands. The large number of executions, which, by order of Louis
+XIV will turn Brittany into a vast cemetery, will make many widows, many
+orphans. Before my departure I shall leave with you a considerable sum
+in gold and valuables. You and Marion shall use the same towards
+alleviating the distress of the poor families whose breadwinners will
+have perished and--"
+
+Marion burst into the room. She was pale and trembling. In a broken
+voice she said:
+
+"Oh, mademoiselle! What a singular occurrence!"
+
+"What is the matter, nurse?"
+
+"I hardly dare tell you! My God, you will be so much surprised! It will
+be so strange to you--I am all upset!"
+
+"What is the matter?"
+
+"Margarid, the porter's wife, came up to the house to announce to me
+that someone knocked at the gate, that she opened, a person appeared and
+asked to speak--"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I told Margarid to let the person come in; he did--I saw him. It
+is--Nominoe Lebrenn."
+
+"Heaven be praised! Thanks, Oh Lord, thanks!" cried Mademoiselle
+Plouernel, clasping her hands tightly and raising her eyes moistened
+with joyful tears. Immediately after her first transport of gladness,
+Bertha said to Marion in a voice that trembled:
+
+"Bring him to me. Let him come."
+
+Marion left, and Bertha returned to her old equerry:
+
+"You will not forget my recommendations regarding the sum that I destine
+for the widows and orphans--whom the savage soldiers of the Grand
+Monarch will have made."
+
+"Mademoiselle's wishes shall be carried out," answered the old man,
+bowing.
+
+He left the room; almost immediately after Nominoe entered the hall. His
+clothes were dusty; he threw his wallet and traveling stick upon an arm
+chair. He stood alone before Bertha.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+UNITED.
+
+
+Mademoiselle Plouernel stepped buoyantly towards Nominoe, reached out
+her hand to him, and said delightedly:
+
+"At last I see you again!"
+
+"How beautiful she is! My God, how beautiful she is!" the young man
+murmured involuntarily, standing in ecstasy before the young girl whose
+hand he held in his own. Never before, not even at The Hague, was he
+dazzled by the radiant beauty of Bertha as now. For a moment he remained
+as if in a transport--enraptured--in ecstatic adoration.
+
+Soon the intoxicating emotion was succeeded by a bitter presentiment in
+Nominoe's heart. He knew himself to be passionately loved by Bertha. She
+must have suffered a thousand cruel pangs at the thought of the perils
+that he ran since they last met, above all at the thought of the wreck
+of the marriage which she had so long looked forward to. And yet, so far
+from finding her dejected, pale, emaciated by grief and despair, she
+stood there blooming with freshness and beauty. Love has a penetrating
+eye. Mademoiselle Plouernel divined the secret thought of Nominoe, and
+addressing him with a charming smile, said:
+
+"Be frank, my friend, you find me too beautiful, do you not?"
+
+"What is that you say, Bertha!"
+
+"Admit it, pallor would better suit my cheeks than the tint of the rose.
+Recent tears should dim the brilliancy of my eyes. An expression of
+despair should compress my lips. Instead--my eyes shine brilliantly, my
+cheeks are red, and a smile sits upon my lips. Nothing in me betrays the
+pangs of despair; I look brimful of confidence, of calm and serene hope.
+What can I say to you, Nominoe?--my face can dissemble as little as my
+heart. Only a minute ago, before your arrival, I was happy; I see you
+again, my happiness is doubled. My words, my appearance, astonish you,
+because you left me broken with grief. Here," added Mademoiselle
+Plouernel taking from the table the letter which her old equerry had
+just returned to her; "read this; you will then understand what seems
+unexplainable to you. I sent to you a man whom I trust; he was to
+deliver this letter to you; he followed your traces to Guemenee, to
+Rennes, to Nantes; nowhere could he find you."
+
+The young man took the letter; Bertha stepped out of the hall for a
+moment and quickly returned carrying a rather heavy casket. She laid the
+latter upon the table where also stood some writing materials, and
+traced a few lines with a firm hand. She then folded the two sheets; on
+the one she wrote--_To my dear and good Marion_; on the other--_To my
+faithful Du Buisson_. While Bertha was thus engaged, Nominoe informed
+himself of the contents of the letter that she had handed to him. A
+tremor ran through his frame and his moist eyes turned to Bertha. "What
+a heart! What courage! As brave as she is beautiful!" he muttered to
+himself, and resumed his reading. When he finished he carried the letter
+to his lips. Tears covered his face. He stepped forward, transfigured.
+His countenance became, like Bertha's, radiantly serene. He raised his
+head; his tears ceased to flow; a smile flitted over his lips; he
+collected his thoughts, and said to Mademoiselle Plouernel, who stepped
+towards him:
+
+"Bertha, the future dazzles me like your beauty; but two words about the
+past: The insurrection is suppressed; Serdan is dead; my father! my
+father has gone and now is reborn, and lives yonder--but, alas! I could
+not bid him my supreme adieu, and close his eyes."
+
+"When did that misfortune happen?"
+
+"At Nantes, where we stopped, together with Serdan, we hoped to be able
+to rekindle the energy of the population of the town, and counteract the
+defection of the peasants. But the promises of Monsieur Chaulnes had
+made their dupes in Nantes also. Hence arose a fatal division between
+those of the inhabitants who laid down their arms, and those who wished
+to remain under arms. In the midst of the discord Nantes was occupied by
+a strong armed force. To attempt resistance would have been folly. The
+executions started. My father, Serdan and myself were signalled out as
+the chiefs of the sedition. From the moment the King's troops occupied
+Nantes the town gates were watched. We could not leave the place. Some
+devoted friends offered us a place of refuge, but we had to hide
+separately. I left my father and Serdan. They were discovered in their
+hiding places. Serdan, who was fallen upon as he lay asleep, was
+arrested. The next day he was hanged. My father at least escaped such an
+inauspicious death. Entrenched in his room and well armed, he defended
+himself until he fell. The next day the Governor's decree was proclaimed
+to the sound of the trumpet pronouncing sentence of death upon all who
+thenceforward gave aid or comfort to the heads of the sedition. From my
+place of concealment I could hear the proclamation distinctly. I wished
+to surrender myself, in order to free my host from the responsibility
+that rested upon him. Besides, I was tired of life. The miscarriage of
+our insurrectionary plans, the death of my father, of Serdan, of Tina my
+bride--the certainty of your love, Bertha, the prospect of being reborn
+in the invisible world, everything drove me toward what is called death.
+I only regretted not having seen you once more on this earth. Frightened
+at my determination to surrender myself, my host opposed it warmly.
+Finding me set upon my purpose, he offered me a means of escape that he
+considered safe, although singular. The cemetery of the Protestants of
+Nantes lies outside of the walls, as a sign of contempt. It is now
+forbidden to the Reformed pastors to accompany a corpse to its last
+resting place. My host proposed to place me in a coffin. Two men were to
+transport me out of town, as if they were carrying a Protestant corpse
+to the grave. The plan was carried out. In that manner I was enabled to
+leave Nantes. Obsessed with the wish of seeing you I came to Mezlean,
+traveling only by night, and occasionally stopping at some solitary
+peasant's hut, or hiding in the forest. In that way I succeeded in
+coming to you. And now, Bertha, let us forget the past, let us think
+only of the present. A dazzling future discloses itself to my eyes."
+
+Nominoe was interrupted by the sudden entrance of Marion, who, a prey to
+violent anxiety, cried out from the threshold:
+
+"An officer of the King! and soldiers!"
+
+"What does the officer want?" asked Bertha without stirring.
+
+"To search the manor, instantly, he says, for a criminal. The porter
+refused to open the gate without your orders, mademoiselle; the officer
+threatens to use force."
+
+"Heaven and earth! They will not take me alive!" cried Nominoe, drawing
+his dagger partly out of its sheath. "The soldiers of the Grand Monarch
+will not enjoy the pleasure of arresting me--I shall escape their
+gibbet."
+
+"Keep cool, my friend; keep cool," replied Mademoiselle Plouernel,
+stepping towards the door of the hall with a tranquil smile. "Come,
+nurse."
+
+"Bertha," asked Nominoe, "where are you going?"
+
+"I am going to ask the officer whether he has completely lost his
+senses. What! Armed men demand, at this advanced hour of the night, to
+search the house of Mademoiselle Plouernel, when she is at home! No, no!
+I shall induce the noble officer to postpone his search for to-morrow. I
+feel certain the officer will feel happy to accede to my wishes."
+
+"And suppose the officer should persist in forcing his way in?"
+
+"Mademoiselle, there is a safe way of escape," said Marion anxiously.
+"The passage that leads from the close to the orchard runs under the
+path that skirts the walls of the garden; once in the orchard, the
+fields and the seashore can be safely reached."
+
+"Mademoiselle!" the old equerry in turn ran in crying bewildered: "The
+soldiers have entered the yard and are trying to beat down the house
+door with the butts of their muskets."
+
+"The door is thick; the walls of the close are high; we still have the
+passage to the orchard," observed Bertha calmly, and she added almost
+mirthfully: "If, contrary to my expectations, and after having _heard_
+me--I shall say nothing of after having _seen_ me--the officer should
+persist in his savage conduct, then I shall return here instantly, and
+we shall have time to carry out our project, Nominoe. I have penetrated
+your thought. It is in accord with mine."
+
+As Mademoiselle Plouernel uttered these last words she cast upon Nominoe
+a glance that intoxicated him. She left the hall followed by Marion and
+the old equerry and went to the manor door.
+
+Left alone, Nominoe exclaimed in a transport of joy:
+
+"She knows my mind! Oh, God be blessed for having brought me back to
+Mezlean! The minutes are numbered! I must now hasten to fulfill my
+father's wishes in the matter of our family narratives and relics. On
+the eve of the insurrection he deposited them at Vannes with a faithful
+and devoted friend, the only relative we have left in Brittany."
+
+Nominoe drew a thick package from his pocket, laid it beside him, and
+rapidly covered several leaves with a fine and close writing.
+Mademoiselle Plouernel re-entered the hall, and smilingly said to
+Nominoe:
+
+"We were wholly wrong, my friend, in doubting the gallantry of the
+officer. 'Is it not true, monsieur,' I asked him, 'that it is not your
+intention to invade to-night the dwelling of a young lady, who is alone
+in her house with her nurse and an old grey-headed equerry? To-morrow it
+will be daylight. The gate of the manor shall be thrown open to you. You
+shall then search for your criminal. Place your sentries at the gate.
+Surround the walls, if you fear escape in that quarter. To-morrow I
+should be happy to express to you my appreciation of your courtesy, and
+to the best of my powers I shall do you the honors of my house.' Our
+man," Bertha added, "lost himself in apologies; he postponed for
+to-morrow his visit to the manor, and asked my pardon for the liberty he
+would take of placing sentrymen at the gate and at the wall of the close
+in order to render all escape impossible. Thereupon I bade the officer
+good evening--and here I am back again."
+
+"But now, my friend," Bertha proceeded in a more serious tone, after a
+pause, "in an hour it will be daylight. Before that hour shall have
+elapsed we must take and carry out a resolution that has been long
+decreed. You must have been convinced thereof by the letter which I
+wrote to you. And, once upon this subject, I must say that, even if the
+death of your bride had not rendered our marriage impossible, it became
+so by reason of your encounter with my brother. You struck him with a
+sword; I could not accept your hand, now that it is reddened with my
+brother's blood. Above all, however legitimate the revolt was, it caused
+his death, and you were one of the chiefs of the uprising. An abyss
+separates us in this world, Nominoe. Back in this manor after the
+burning of the Castle of Plouernel, I faced the reality without
+weakness. Our separation, the barriers that rendered our union
+impossible, weakened in nothing my love. That can not be affected by
+earthly causes. But my existence--sorely tried by so many misfortunes,
+by so many and cruel disappointments, even in the bosom of my own
+family--was becoming intolerable to me. Our marriage being broken off,
+my life lacked purpose. Then came the passionate desire to see my mother
+again, and shall I confess it to you?--an invincible, a devouring
+curiosity regarding the worlds where our lives are continued, body and
+soul: a curiosity that bordered on vertigo, when, back at Mezlean, and
+seated here in the evening with my eyes fixed upon the sky, I
+contemplated the myriads of stars, where our re-births are effected, as
+infinite in number as all eternity. All these reasons determined me to
+leave this world, to the end of rejoining my mother and waiting for you,
+Nominoe, there where we shall meet again those whom we have loved. My
+determination being taken, I wrote to you, I wished to bid you good-bye
+and receive a word of farewell from you. My emissary departed in quest
+of you. Soon a metamorphosis operated itself in me. The burning
+insomnias, the painful anxieties that had so long been undermining my
+health and exhausting my strength, ceased in the face of the certainty
+that soon I should meet again my mother, and soon my enchanted eyes will
+have opened to the marvels of the new worlds! This assurance gave me the
+needed peace of mind. My health recovered rapidly; my days passed in
+ineffable reveries while waiting for the return of the messenger who
+carried my letter to you. And yet, at times, I felt a sort of hesitation
+with regard to the manner in which I was to undertake that voyage, which
+seems so distant, and yet lasts but the length of a breath. I went
+almost every day to Karnak, where your ancestress Hena, the Virgin of
+the Isle of Sen, immolated herself centuries ago, offering her blood as
+a sacrifice to the gods of Gaul. I delighted in strolling along that
+deserted beach that the winds and waves ever beat against. Occasionally,
+I clambered up the highest of the Karnak rocks, the top of which offers
+a sort of platform, and I thought of leaping from there into the waves
+the foam of which seethes at the foot of the boulder. Other times I
+thought of imitating your ancestress Hena; I thought of cutting with a
+firm hand the slender thread that fetters our existence here below. But
+one day Marion accidentally informed me that one of her relatives
+_blew_--besides that he was ruining himself in the attempt to discover
+the philosopher's stone. I knew that those _blowers_, being experts in
+alchemy, often find in their alembics things that they do not look
+for--subtile poisons, sudden and frightful in their effects, which our
+sad days have, alas! often seen employed with disastrous results. Among
+other things these alchemists have discovered what is called the _powder
+of succession_. I went with Marion to Vannes, where the good man
+resides; I promised him a liberal reward if he would prepare me a mortal
+beverage, one that was certain and that left the victim in full control
+of his senses up to the last moment. Attracted by the prospect of gain,
+the blower set his retorts over the fire, and, in order to prove to me
+the efficacy of his liquid, left the room and quickly returned with a
+black cat in his arms. 'Just watch the effect of my philter,' said the
+blower to me, 'watch!' and before I had time to object to the
+experiment, he poured a few drops of the liquid into the mouth of the
+poor animal. The cat immediately lay down quietly. Her eyes remained
+clear, brilliant and alert. She stretched herself out with easy
+playfulness. But by little and little sleep seemed to overcome her, she
+lay down on one side; made a few slight motions--and expired peacefully,
+without the slightest tremor or symptom of pain. The alchemist had told
+me the truth! I took my newly acquired treasure with me. The certainty
+of a death that was so easy and sweet capped my sense of security,
+confidence and safety. Finally, returning to Mezlean this very night, my
+messenger informed me of the fruitlessness of his search for you,
+Nominoe. The revolt, of which you were one of the leaders, has provoked
+frightful reprisals. Brittany swims in blood. I decided to depart before
+to-morrow from this homicidal earth. I gave my last instructions to my
+old servitors. Under the pretext of contemplating a long voyage, I
+enclosed my testament in this casket."
+
+Mademoiselle Plouernel paused. Only then did she notice that Nominoe,
+who was seated in an attitude of deep meditation, with his forehead
+resting upon his hand, was writing with the other. Until that moment the
+casket had concealed from Bertha's eyes the motion of his hand.
+
+"Nominoe!" said Mademoiselle Plouernel in a tone of kind reproach, "I
+thought you were listening to my words--what are you writing there?"
+
+"I am writing down your words, Bertha."
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"To join them to this," and Nominoe held up the envelope which he had
+laid upon the table.
+
+"What does that package contain?"
+
+"It contains the account of our love, which we may both be proud of. It
+is the narrative of what has happened to us, dear Bertha."
+
+"And for whom do you destine that account?"
+
+"For the descendants of the Lebrenn family," answered Nominoe, reading
+from one of the pages of his manuscript:
+
+     "Oh, sons of Joel--you who some day will read these lines traced by
+     me, Nominoe Lebrenn, at this supreme hour, at the manor of Mezlean,
+     under the eyes of Bertha of Plouernel--fail not to remember that
+     angel of goodness and of concord, and, in her name, forget, pardon
+     the injuries that her family has done to ours. Be merciful! Neither
+     vengeance nor reprisals!"
+
+"Noble heart!" answered Bertha with eyes moist with tears, and
+contemplating Nominoe with an expression of boundless love.
+"Accordingly, you are resolved, like myself, firmly resolved, to leave
+this sad earth for another dwelling place?"
+
+"Even if an infamous death, from which only voluntary death could snatch
+me, did not await me to-morrow, my most ardent wish would be to
+accompany you, Bertha, upon this mysterious voyage."
+
+"But to whom are you going to deliver the story of your life? To your
+father's brother, Gildas Lebrenn, the leasehold farmer of Karnak?"
+
+"We dug the grave of Gildas, who was butchered by the King's soldiers on
+the staircase of the Castle of Plouernel."
+
+"Will you then bequeath it to the father of your bride, your mother's
+brother?"
+
+"Tankeru, the blacksmith, was arrested day before yesterday in his
+house, taken to Vannes, and broken alive on the wheel, along with Madok
+the miller. The inoffensive Paskou the Long, the 'Baz-valan' of my
+nuptials, was not spared either--he was hanged, like so many thousands
+of other insurgents!"
+
+Nominoe rose, took up and opened his traveling wallet, and drew from it
+the iron head of a heavy blacksmith's hammer.
+
+"Look at this, Bertha! This shall be joined to our family relics--sad
+and painful relics of a serf family."
+
+"What sort of a hammer is that? It carries, cut into the iron head the
+Breton words _Ez-Libr_."
+
+"They mean _To Be Free_. It was the device of Tankeru the blacksmith.
+He used this hammer as his weapon during the insurrection. I arrived
+this morning before dawn in the forest of Mezlean, feeling greatly
+alarmed over the fate of Tina's father. I went to his house early this
+morning. I calculated upon waiting there for nightfall, not daring to
+draw near Mezlean by daylight. I found at Tankeru's house only his
+desolate old mother. Tankeru had been arrested. Distracted with despair
+she informed me of her son's execution. My eyes alighted upon his hammer
+which lay near his extinct forge. I took its iron head. The blacksmith's
+hammer shall be joined to our symbolic relics. The manuscripts and the
+relic are to be forwarded to a relative, an artisan at Vannes, who will
+transmit them to his children. One of them will, perhaps, continue our
+plebeian annals by writing the history of Mademoiselle Plouernel and
+Nominoe Lebrenn."
+
+Nominoe then proceeded to write and to read as he wrote:
+
+"I, Nominoe Lebrenn, write this on the 17th of July, 1675, at the manor
+of Mezlean, one hour before dawn. Bertha of Plouernel is standing beside
+me. In a few minutes we shall leave the manor, which is surrounded by
+soldiers. The passage that leads from the close to the orchard runs
+under the road along which the sentries are on watch."
+
+Nominoe stopped writing and asked Bertha:
+
+"I understand it will be easy for us to reach the fields and the
+seashore after we are in the orchard?"
+
+"Very easy, my friend. The owners of this manor had the vaulted passage
+dug under the road in order not to have to cross it every time they
+wished to go to the garden. The high walls that surround it will shelter
+us from the sight of the soldiers. The door that leads to the fields can
+be easily opened."
+
+"When we leave the orchard," Nominoe proceeded to write, "we shall
+hasten to the seashore. The stones of Karnak rise there. The night is
+clear; the moon shines. Guided by the mellow light of the planet, Bertha
+and I, holding each other's hands, will climb the stairs of the ancient
+rock consecrated to the sacrifices, the druid trysting place, where ran
+the blood of Hena, the Virgin of the Isle of Sen. When Bertha and I
+shall have reached the platform of the granite rock, then, in the
+presence of the immensity of the sky and the ocean, the illimitable
+expanses of which will spread before our eyes, we shall kneel down, and
+joining our voices, say to the God of justice:
+
+"'We could not be joined in this world--we decided to be joined in
+death! in death, the mysterious dawn of our eternal re-birth! This
+expiatory union of a daughter of the conquering Franks with a son of the
+subjugated Gauls being impossible in the sight of man, we consecrate it
+before Thee. Our two souls are merged into one. May it please Thee, Oh,
+Almighty! that it may be likewise henceforth with our two races which
+have so long been enemies! May it please Thee to cause the one to regret
+the iniquities it has committed for these many centuries, and the other
+to pardon them! May it please Thee to cause this revolt, to which the
+oppressed were driven by an excess of hardships, to be a lesson to the
+vanquishers. May it please Thee so to ordain it that this shall be the
+last time blood is shed in these impious conflicts! May it please Thee
+that in the future the children, whether of the conquerors or the
+conquered, be forever equal in rights, equal in duties, equal in
+justice, and be like brothers in a broad humanity, Oh, God our Father!
+Freedom, equality, fraternity--the Universal Republic!'
+
+"Having finished our prayer, Bertha and I--"
+
+"Your pen, my friend!" said Mademoiselle Plouernel. "Give me your pen!"
+
+And leaning over the table she wrote at the bottom of the page which
+Nominoe had begun:
+
+"I, Bertha of Plouernel, close the narrative of what is to happen in a
+few minutes. Our prayer being finished, Nominoe and I, both upon our
+knees and filled with confident joy, will approach our lips to the magic
+philter which is to give us admission to the starry spheres; we shall
+soon thereupon feel our souls untrammeling themselves from their
+terrestrial wrappage, and fly radiant towards the Infinite. Death is but
+the separation of the body from the soul."
+
+As Bertha was tracing these last lines the clock of the manor struck
+three in the morning.
+
+"Nominoe," said Mademoiselle Plouernel, "let us make haste; it will not
+be long before daylight. Place this paper and the iron hammer head in
+your traveling wallet. We shall leave them upon the table, addressed to
+the person that you may designate. My old servant will forward it to
+him, as I shall instruct him by a last word from my hand," she added, as
+she wrote the instructions to Du Buisson.
+
+While Nominoe placed the papers and the iron hammer head in his wallet,
+Bertha opened her casket, took from it a little flask filled with a
+bluish liquid, hid the same in her bosom, wrapped herself in a silk
+mantle, and reaching out her hand to Nominoe, said with a celestial
+smile:
+
+"Come, my friend, let us depart for those mysterious worlds that none
+knows--and which we shall know at the hour of our re-birth!"
+
+"Let us depart, Bertha!"
+
+Mademoiselle Plouernel and Nominoe Lebrenn left the hall of the manor of
+Mezlean to descend into the underground passage.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The sky above is beautifully serene. The dew of night impregnates the
+atmosphere of this delightful summer's night with a delicate freshness.
+The approaching dawn is paling the stars, and tingeing the eastern
+horizon purple. The silence of the solitude is alone disturbed by the
+imposing murmur of the sea, calmly and sonorously rolling upon the shore
+where rise the stones of Karnak, sacred stones of ancient Gaul! gigantic
+pillars of a temple that has the firmament for its dome! Their ten long
+avenues converge towards the colossal sacrificial altar. Glory to the
+God of Gaul!
+
+The horizon is reddened by the first fires of day. The crests of the
+long stretched waves of the azure ocean become transparently ruddy. The
+sands of the beach glisten like golden dust. The sun flares up; its rays
+seem to envelop the sacrificial altar with a dazzling aureola; above,
+the birds are singing their morning symphony.
+
+On the altar, lifeless, close to each other, their arms interlaced in a
+supreme and chaste embrace, lie Bertha of Plouernel and Nominoe Lebrenn.
+Their beauty survives their death throes. With a smile upon their lips
+and their eyes half shut, they seem to slumber wrapped in peaceful
+repose. Their immortal soul has left their earthly bodies; it has fled
+to reincarnate itself in a new body, a body appropriate to the world
+that is to be their dwelling place, like the traveler who dons lighter
+clothing when journeying in a milder climate.
+
+
+
+
+EPILOGUE.
+
+
+Bertha and Nominoe live at this hour, body and soul, spirit and matter,
+in those starry worlds where none of us on earth has been, where we all
+will go--after having accomplished our mission on earth.
+
+My son believed I was dead, having, indeed been left for dead at Nantes
+by the soldiers against whom I defended myself to the utmost. Even my
+host took me for dead. He was engaged in procuring my burial when a
+movement that I made revealed to him that I still lived. Nursed by my
+friend with fraternal care, I recovered from my wounds and remained
+concealed in my place of refuge until the day when I embarked secretly
+at Nantes on an English vessel that took me to London. From there I
+crossed over into Holland, where a shipowner entrusted me with one of
+his vessels. Finding myself exiled from France, I requested my relative
+at Vannes, with whom the narratives and relics of my family were left
+for safe-keeping, to forward them to me by a Breton vessel. I found the
+relics increased by Tankeru's blacksmith's hammer and the archives by
+the sheets of paper left by Nominoe. With the aid of the letter and of
+my own recollections, I, Salaun Lebrenn, completed the preceding story,
+which I joined to those left to me by my ancestors, and which I shall
+transmit to my descendants.
+
+Alas! Perhaps I must blame myself for the death of my son. I neglected
+to fortify his mind against suicide by teaching him that it is not
+allowed to us to forestall the hour of our deliverance, and that those
+who endeavor to escape the trials of this life are punished by God
+either by separating them, if they expected to be united after death, or
+by condemning them to reincarnation on earth.
+
+Alas! my expiation of the negligence has continued during these many
+years of exile. May the trials that I underwent disarm the just anger of
+God, and soften the punishment reserved for my son, before his final
+union in the spirit world with her who loved him to the point of dying
+with him.
+
+We are now in the year 1715, and I in the ninety-first year of my life,
+after having resided here in Holland since the year 1675, and where, in
+1680, I married Wilhelmina Vandael, the widow of the shipowner in whose
+employ I was. In this year Louis XIV, the execrable King of France,
+died. His reign continued to the end a veritable scourge to the nation.
+Insurrections followed insurrections, and were smothered in their own
+blood. Religious persecutions followed upon religious persecutions. The
+Edict of Nantes by which Henry IV put an end to the religious wars that
+lasted half a century, was revoked, and the country was again a prey to
+desolating religious intolerance.
+
+The death of Louis XIV will certainly put an end to the religious
+persecutions; at least will mitigate them. Thousands of Protestants,
+banished from France by the reign of terror, will, no doubt, now return
+to their own country. That pleasure will not be mine. I am too feeble
+with years to undertake such a voyage. But if, happier than myself, you,
+my son Alain, should ever return to the cradle of your race, never lose
+sight of the fact that our family has everything to fear from the
+Society of Jesus, whose influence seems to be on the ascendant in almost
+every country.
+
+To you, my son Alain--the son of my old age and my exile--I now bequeath
+these legends and relics of our family. I bequeath them to you, the
+younger brother of my son Nominoe, ever lamented, ever wept. Even now my
+eyes are blurred with tears when I recollect the double suicide of
+himself and Bertha of Plouernel.
+
+May you, my son Alain, be able to transmit these legends and relics to
+your descendants! May you soon be able to leave the Republic of Holland,
+the asylum and refuge of exiles, and return to France. May you witness
+the realization of the prophecy of Victoria the Great--the downfall of
+the monarchy, the liberation of Gaul!
+
+May you, son of Joel, live to see the dawn of the day when our country,
+casting off the foreign name imposed upon her by the Frankish conquest,
+will re-assume her old name--the _Republic of the Gauls_, and will
+shelter herself under the glorious folds of her own ancient red flag,
+surmounted by the Gallic cock!--Commune and Federation!
+
+Finally, in the event that, having no children, you may be unable to
+transmit the plebeian legends of our family to your direct descendants,
+you shall bequeath them to one of the two surviving branches of our
+family.
+
+The first is that of the Renneponts, an ancestor of whom married at La
+Rochelle, towards the end of the Sixteenth Century, the daughter of
+Odelin the armorer, son of Christian the printer. I have had no news
+from the Rennepont branch of our family for many long years. You will
+have to inquire after it in La Rochelle, where, until the end of last
+century I knew them to reside.
+
+The other branch of our family is that of the Gerolsteins, sovereign
+Princes in Germany, and descendants of Gaelo the pirate, the grandson of
+our ancestor Vortigern, who met our ancestor Eidiol, the dean of the
+Parisian skippers, in the Tenth Century, on the occasion of the siege of
+Paris by the Northmans. The Princes of Gerolstein continue to reign in
+Germany, and have remained faithful to the Protestant religion since the
+time when it was embraced by Prince Charles of Gerolstein, who was the
+friend of Coligny, and whose son fought at the battle of Roche-la-Belle
+by the side of our ancestor Odelin, the armorer of La Rochelle.
+
+Either to the Gerolsteins or the Renneponts our family archives and
+relics will be left by you, in the event of your not living onward in
+your posterity.
+
+Along with these legends, I bequeath to you and your descendants our
+family hatred for the Church and for Royalty.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] All attribute to themselves the glory of success; reverses they
+impute to only one.
+
+[2] The above details of the torture of Cornelius De Witt, who had the
+fortitude to recite this strophe in the midst of atrocious sufferings,
+are scrupulously exact. See Basnage, _History of the United Provinces_,
+vol. II, p. 171.
+
+[3] For letters written by eye-witnesses of these atrocities, see
+Basnage, _History of the United Provinces; Events of the Campaign of
+1672_, published at The Hague, 1675: _The Cry of the Martyrs_, published
+in the same city, 1673; etc., etc.
+
+[4] It is simply impossible to give the shocking details of their
+disfigurement.
+
+[5] Facts like these would seem incredible by their savage barbarity,
+did not authentic witnesses confirm them, almost daily, under the reign
+of the Grand Monarch. "The military constraint arrived in the town to
+the sound of bell and drum; then was furnished the melancholy spectacle
+of the house being demolished, the stones, the beams, the lumber, the
+iron publicly sold, because the owner had failed to pay his tax, etc.,
+etc."--_Vauban, La Dime Royale_, vol. 1, chap. X. See also the _New Code
+of Taxes_, or the _Collected Ordinances_, Paris, 1761, article on
+Military Constraints; Forbonnais, _Researches in Finance, etc._
+
+[6] Even at the end of the Eighteenth Century women among the nobility
+still often wore masks, especially in the country, to preserve the
+freshness of their color from the tan.
+
+[7] In the Sixteenth Century, all the chemists who were engaged in the
+search for the philosopher's stone, a myth then much in vogue, were
+dubbed "blowers," because of the continual play of their bellows in the
+operation of fusing metals.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Blacksmith's Hammer, or The
+Peasant Code, by Eugene Sue
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