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diff --git a/34987.txt b/34987.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..406349e --- /dev/null +++ b/34987.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8216 @@ +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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BLACKSMITH'S HAMMER *** + +***** This file should be named 34987.txt or 34987.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/9/8/34987/ + +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.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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