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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 57774 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
++-------------------------------------------------+
+|Transcriber's note:                              |
+|                                                 |
+|Obvious typographic errors have been corrected.  |
+|                                                 |
++-------------------------------------------------+
+
+
+_A Sheaf of Bluebells_
+
+_By Baroness Orczy, Author of "The
+Scarlet Pimpernel," "The Elusive Pimpernel," etc._
+
+[Illustration: Decoration]
+
+_TORONTO:
+WILLIAM BRIGGS
+1917_
+
+
+_Printed in Great Britain_
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAP.                                     PAGE
+    I.--THE MASTERS OF FRANCE                1
+
+   II.--THE RETURN OF THE NATIVES           11
+
+  III.--THE HERMITS OF LA VIEUVILLE         27
+
+   IV.--KINDRED                             42
+
+    V.--THE SPRINGTIME OF THE YEAR          59
+
+   VI.--THE LEGEND OF ST. FRONT             73
+
+  VII.--THE SILENT POOL                     78
+
+ VIII.--THE GENERAL                        101
+
+   IX.--THE COOING OF THE PIGEONS          117
+
+    X.--THE FOUNDRIES OF LA FRONTENAY      126
+
+   XI.--THE FIRST TRICK                    143
+
+  XII.--A FOOL AND HIS FOLLY               157
+
+ XIII.--AFTER A YEAR                       174
+
+  XIV.--THE TOOL                           188
+
+   XV.--A NOTE OF WARNING                  196
+
+  XVI.--THE IRREPARABLE                    212
+
+ XVII.--A LAST APPEAL                      227
+
+XVIII.--THE WORD OF THE MASTER             239
+
+  XIX.--THE PARTING OF THE WAYS            254
+
+   XX.--THE STRAW                          265
+
+  XXI.--THE CRASH OF THE STORM             279
+
+ XXII.--HEAVEN AND EARTH                   296
+
+XXIII.--AN HOUR'S FOLLY                    311
+
+ XXIV.--AFTER THE STORM                    324
+
+  XXV.--THE WHITE PIGEON                   344
+
+
+
+
+A SHEAF OF BLUEBELLS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE MASTERS OF FRANCE
+
+
+I
+
+Among the many petitions presented that year by émigrés desirous of
+returning to France under the conditional amnesty granted to them by the
+newly-crowned Emperor, was one signed by Mme. la Marquise de Mortain and
+by her son Laurent, then aged twenty-one years, and one signed by M. le
+Comte de Courson for himself and his daughter Fernande. Gaillard says in
+his memoirs of Fouché that the latter was greatly averse to the petition
+being granted; but that Napoleon, then on the point of starting for his
+campaign in Prussia, was inclined to leniency in this matter--leniency
+which roused the ire and contempt of the Minister of Police--the man
+who, of a truth, and above the Emperor himself, was virtual dictator of
+France these days.
+
+"A brood of plotters and intriguers," he said scornfully. "I should have
+thought your Majesty had had enough of those _soi-disant_ great ladies
+and gentlemen of Normandy and Brittany. I wouldn't have them inside
+these dominions if I had my way."
+
+It seems that this phrase: "If I had my way," highly amused the Emperor.
+Was it not a well-known fact that in all matters pertaining to the
+internal organization of the new Empire of France, Fouché ruled far
+more absolutely than did Napoleon? He knew more. He suspected more.
+Minister of Police and Minister of the Interior at this time, Fouché had
+made himself feared even--so it was said--by his imperial and capricious
+master.
+
+And so--the obscure secretary who was present at this interview tells
+us--the Emperor laughed, and for once Fouché did not have his way. On
+the eve of the campaign which was to culminate in the humiliation of
+Prussia and the Peace of Tilsit, the soldier-Emperor had a throe of
+compassion, of mercy, a shrugging of the shoulders which meant immunity
+from exile for hundreds of men and women--a home for countless wanderers
+in foreign lands.
+
+Fouché argued. "The Fouvielles I don't mind, nor yet Joubert, nor those
+Fumels. They won't do much harm. We might allow the Liancourts to
+return, though their property has been sold by the State, which always
+leads to trouble. But the Mortains!!! and the Coursons!!... Why! I would
+as lief grant the shades of Fox and Pitt a free permit to wander through
+France at will."
+
+But we may take it that for once his arguments were of no avail.
+Napoleon's clemency was extended to the Mortains, as it was to the
+Coursons--this we know, seeing that both the young Marquis and the Comte
+de Courson, his maternal uncle, figured so prominently in the events
+which this true chronicle sets forth to record. As to the cause of this
+clemency, or, rather, as to the cause of Fouché not getting his way this
+once ... well, 'tis our turn to shrug our shoulders.
+
+Had Fouché really desired to keep the Mortains and the Coursons out of
+France, Fouché would have had his way. Of this there can be no doubt,
+seeing that Napoleon left the country at the head of his army soon after
+the day when he had that interview with his Minister of Police, leaving
+the latter more absolutely master of France than he had ever been
+before; so why should Fouché not have had his way with the Mortains and
+with Baudouin de Courson and his daughter Fernande?
+
+Have we not cause for shrugging our shoulders? and for giving credence
+to the rumours which were current throughout France at this
+time--namely, that the dreaded Minister of Police had at this time begun
+to coquet with the Royalist party, as well as with the Jacobins and the
+English agents, with Talleyrand and with the Comte d'Artois--with any
+and every party in fact, who plotted against the master whom in his
+heart he had already betrayed.
+
+
+II
+
+The aforesaid obscure secretary who hath so aptly described the
+interview between the Emperor and Fouché, tells us that the latter,
+after he had bowed himself out of the Presence, returned to his private
+chamber in the ministry, and promptly sent for M. Dubois--then Chief
+Préfet of Police.
+
+"M. Dubois," he commanded, "I want the dossier of the Mortains and also
+of the de Coursons now at once. The Emperor is inclined to grant them
+leave to return ... but I don't know ... I must consider...."
+
+"I can tell you all about the Mortains and the Coursons without
+referring to their dossier," retorted Dubois gruffly.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"The ci-devant Marquise de Mortain...."
+
+"Not ci-devant any longer, M. Dubois," broke in Fouché with a suave
+smile. "The lady is Mme. la Marquise now ... you yourself are
+'Monsieur,' are you not? We have left the 'citizen' and 'citizeness' of
+our revolutionary era well behind us, remember, since our illustrious
+Master placed the crown of Imperial France upon his own head. France is
+an Empire now, Monsieur Dubois. There are no ci-devants any more, and
+quite a number of aristocrats."
+
+Dubois gave a growl of understanding. It was not easy for his rough,
+uncultured mind to grasp all the various subtleties of Fouché's irony.
+He hated Napoleon's all-powerful Minister, hated him all the more that
+Fouché's astute and tortuous mentality was beyond his comprehension and
+that he never knew whether the great man was laughing at him or not.
+
+"Well," he said finally, with a shrug of his wide shoulders, "Marquise
+or ci-devant I care not; but, anyhow, she is not a woman I would care to
+trust, and the Emperor is very ill-advised...."
+
+"The Emperor, my dear M. Dubois," once more broke in the Minister
+urbanely, "takes advice from no one. He starts next week for Prussia at
+the head of his army; he will return anon, having won fresh laurels for
+France and further undying glory for himself ... to-day he is inclined
+to clemency. Mme. la Marquise de Mortain and her son will be allowed to
+return to France, so will M. le Comte de Courson and his daughter
+Fernande; they will be allowed to retake possession of their château and
+of such of their lands as have not been sold by the State...."
+
+"The lands have all been sold," rejoined the préfet curtly, "to worthy
+farmers whom it were a scandal to dispossess...."
+
+"Are we dispossessing any one, my dear M. Dubois?" queried Fouché, with
+an indulgent smile directed at the other's Republican ardour--"any one,
+I mean, who happens to have bought confiscated land?"
+
+"Not yet," muttered the other under his breath; "but...."
+
+"As you were saying, M. le Préfet?..." here interposed the Minister more
+haughtily, "Mme. la Marquise de Mortain is a widow, I think."
+
+"Yes. For the second time."
+
+"She was first the wife of Bertrand de Maurel...."
+
+"Who would have been a good patriot had he lived."
+
+"We must imagine so," said Fouché, with a smile.
+
+"He died in '82--separated from his wife whom he hated."
+
+"But there was a child of that marriage."
+
+"Yes, Ronnay de Maurel, a loyal patriot ... a fine Republican...."
+
+"Shall we say a fine Bonapartist, my good M. Dubois?" said the Minister
+of Police significantly. "I like and trust Ronnay de Maurel. I would not
+like to see him tarred with the worn-out brush of the past decade."
+
+"Well ... Republican or Bonapartist--'tis all the same--what? I was one
+of those who voted for the proclamation and Ronnay de Maurel was
+another. First Consul for life, with all the splendours of past
+monarchies, or frankly Emperor of the French, there was not much to
+choose. You were an ardent Republican, too, at one time--eh, M. le
+Ministre?"
+
+"Quite so--quite so. But we were not speaking of mine unworthy self, but
+of Mme. la Marquise de Mortain and of her son Ronnay de Maurel."
+
+"Son, indeed!" retorted Dubois, with a gruff laugh. "M. de Maurel has
+been taught to execrate his mother. He was only four years old when his
+father died, but an uncle brought him up--old Gaston de Maurel--a
+magnificent patriot if ever there was one. Nothing of the whilom aristo
+about him ... eats peas with his knife and wears sabots and a blouse ...
+he voted for the death of the King ... just as you did--eh, M. le
+Ministre?"
+
+"Just as I did, my dear friend--and I am proud of it. Gaston de Maurel
+and I sat in the Assembly of the Convention as representatives of the
+people of France, and in the name of the people we decreed that the
+tyrant Louis Capet, known to the world as Louis XVI., King of France,
+should die upon the scaffold as a traitor to the nation which he had set
+out to govern. Gaston de Maurel may eat peas with a knife, but he
+rendered the Republic and the Directorate infinite services in quelling
+the so-called Royalist risings in his own province of Normandy."
+
+"Now he is old. Some say that he has not many months to live. Ronnay de
+Maurel dwells with him in his Château de la Vieuville, near Villemor.
+They both live like peasants in a couple of rooms in the sumptuous
+château. The old man is a miser: he has accumulated immense wealth in
+these past twenty years. Ronnay de Maurel, on the other hand, owns the
+sumptuous demesnes of La Frontenay, which he inherited from his father,
+together with the foundries, where he employs five thousand men and
+manufactures war material for the Grand Army. He is already one of the
+richest men in France--and he is his uncle's sole heir; when old Gaston
+dies the de Maurel riches will be uncountable...."
+
+"And he, too, eats peas with his knife," concluded Fouché, with a
+sardonic smile.
+
+"And hardly knows how to read and write," assented the préfet of police.
+"A succession of tutors at La Vieuville testify to the rough temper and
+the obstinate savagery of this descendant of aristos."
+
+"Yes, so I have been told," mused Fouché. "I understand that a de Maurel
+fought in the First Crusade, that another was Captain of Musketeers
+under Louis XIII.; but the present holder of the historic name is an
+ardent Bonapartist, as you say. He fought like a lion against the
+Royalists in Vendée; he crossed the Alps with Napoleon, and was wounded
+at Marengo and at Hohenlinden. At Austerlitz, where he accomplished
+prodigies of valour, an Austrian bullet lamed him for life. He is a
+Grand Eagle of the Legion of Honour. His religion is Bonaparte ... he
+knows no science save that of arms--reads no books and does not know the
+Carmagnole from the Marseillaise--he is illiterate, uncultured, almost a
+savage.... These are all facts, are they not, M. Dubois?"
+
+"Aye! Ronnay de Maurel is all that and more. He lives at La Vieuville,
+not ten kilomètres from Courson, where Mme. la Marquise, his mother,
+will now be taking up her abode. Oh!" added the préfet of police with a
+malevolent grin, "how those two will execrate one another!"
+
+"And watch over one another," commented Fouché with his enigmatic
+smile. "Ronnay de Maurel will act as a check on the intrigues which
+might be hatching presently in Mme. de Mortain's fertile brain."
+
+"Nothing--and no one can act as a check on that woman's love of
+intrigue," growled Dubois surlily. "She and her son Laurent will give us
+all plenty to do until...."
+
+He made a significant gesture with his hand against his neck. Fouché
+smiled. "We can always give them plenty of rope," he said. "How old is
+Laurent de Mortain?"
+
+"Twenty-one or two ... but he has fought against his own country since
+he was sixteen. Mme. de Mortain favours a marriage for him with Fernande
+de Courson, his cousin."
+
+"The daughter of Baudouin de Courson?"
+
+"Yes. His only daughter. He is Mme. de Mortain's only brother. Their
+properties adjoin."
+
+"I know. He, too, has been granted leave by the Emperor to return to
+France."
+
+"A whole pack of those confounded émigrés," once more growled the préfet
+of police--this time with a savage oath, "settled down in the most
+disaffected province of France. Joseph de Puisaye still at large ... the
+department seething with discontent ... everything ready for rebellion
+... the Emperor away.... Ah! we shall have a fine time down there, I
+reckon."
+
+"Bah!" quoth Fouché lightly, "they are not very dangerous now. For one
+thing, the Mortains, the Coursons and the whole pack of them are as poor
+as church mice. Their lands and farms have all been sold; the Mortains
+have not even a château in which to live."
+
+"The Château of Courson stands."
+
+"A dilapidated barrack."
+
+"Quite so--but large enough to harbour every rebel who chooses to hatch
+a plot against the safety of the Empire. The Mortains and Coursons will
+herd together there: Joseph de Puisaye, François Prigent and D'Aché
+will use it as their headquarters. From there their bands of brigands
+will be let loose upon both departments--highway robbery, intimidation,
+pillage and arson--those Chouans stick at nothing nowadays. England no
+longer supplies them with money for their so-called Royalist cause, and
+they must get money somehow. You remember their criminal outrage upon
+old M. de Ris, and their theft in his château of money, valuables and
+jewellery. You remember the murder of Andrein, the Constitutional Bishop
+of Quimper, and the abduction of the Bishop of Vannes--all for purposes
+of robbery.... Well, in my opinion, those exploits will sink into
+insignificance beside the ones which will be invented and organized in
+Courson under the presidency of Mme. la Marquise and her precious son
+and brother."
+
+M. Dubois, préfet of police, had, while he spoke, worked himself up into
+a passion of fury. He gesticulated wildly with both arms, shrugged his
+wide shoulders, and banged his fist from time to time upon the desk in
+front of him, so that the inkstand and the papers rattled unceasingly
+and M. le Ministre's nerves were irritated beyond endurance. Now M.
+Dubois had perforce to pause for want of breath. He drew his large
+coloured handkerchief from his pocket and mopped his forehead, which was
+streaming.
+
+"You exaggerate, my good M. Dubois," said Fouché soothingly. "You have
+an excellent colleague at Caen in the person of M. Vincent...."
+
+"Bah!" ejaculated Dubois contemptuously. "He is hand in glove with the
+Royalists."
+
+"And there's M. Caffarello, the préfet...."
+
+Again an expressive shrug of the shoulders from M. Dubois, who
+apparently had not much faith in the capabilities of his subordinates.
+
+"And in Ronnay de Maurel you will have a valuable adjunct," added the
+Minister, "unless...."
+
+He paused, then continued with seeming irrelevance:
+
+"Is Fernande de Courson pretty?"
+
+"She has a reputation for beauty," replied Dubois. "Why do you ask?"
+
+"Nothing ... nothing ... a passing thought ... a dart shot at random....
+You will have to keep your eyes very wide open, my good M. Dubois."
+
+"You may trust me to do that, M. le Ministre," rejoined Dubois, with a
+leer of comprehension; there was no subtlety about the suggestion, and
+he had understood it well enough this time.
+
+"There's not much of the lady-killer about Ronnay de Maurel," he added,
+laughing.
+
+"Perhaps not," rejoined Fouché dryly.
+
+"And he may rejoin the army, after all."
+
+"No. He cannot do that. The Emperor won't let him. He is far too useful
+in Normandy just now to be mere food for Prussian cannon."
+
+There was a pause. The préfet of police was tacitly dismissed. M. le
+Ministre drew some papers close to him, and his delicate, blue-veined
+hand toyed with the pen.
+
+"You don't want me any more?" queried Dubois abruptly. He was always
+thankful to shake the dust of the ministerial chamber from his feet.
+
+"Well ... unless you have anything else to report, my good M. Dubois,"
+rejoined Fouché pleasantly, "or any further information to impart to me
+about those Mortains--or the Coursons."
+
+"There's nothing else. But I wish to God that the Emperor would
+reconsider his decision."
+
+"The Emperor seldom reconsiders any decision, my dear Dubois ... once it
+is a decision. The Mortains and the Coursons have probably landed in
+France by now."
+
+"May they break their necks on the gangway," growled Dubois.
+
+"Amen to that," quoth Fouché lightly. "In the meanwhile, will you see M.
+de Réal on that subject and send special recommendations to the préfet
+and the commissary of police at Caen?..."
+
+"And to Ronnay de Maurel, I should say."
+
+"No," interposed the Minister peremptorily, "leave de Maurel alone. I
+will write to him myself."
+
+Such in substance was the interview between the Minister of Police and
+the chief préfet. The secretary, among whose papers was found the above
+account, goes on to say that M. Dubois, having taken his leave, the
+great man was busy for the next half-hour writing a letter with his own
+hand. With his own hand also he folded it, sealed it and addressed it.
+Then he handed it to his secretary with the express order that it should
+be sent to its destination by the next ministerial courier.
+
+The letter was addressed to M. le Comte Ronnay de Maurel, at his Château
+de la Vieuville, near Villemor, Département de l'Orne.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE RETURN OF THE NATIVES
+
+
+I
+
+"What devastation! What wanton devastation! Oh, those fiends! those
+cruel, callous fiends!"
+
+Mme. la Marquise de Mortain, for once in her life, was thoroughly
+unnerved. She was ready to cry ... but tears had not come to her eyes
+for the past twenty years; their well-spring had run dry under the
+influence of an unconquerable energy and of a glowing enthusiasm for a
+cause which, at any rate, for the moment was doomed. Mme. la Marquise
+did not shed tears when she first arrived on a cold, showery night early
+in May to what had been the luxurious home of her childhood. She did not
+cry when she wandered half aimlessly through the salons and apartments
+of the Château de Courson--all that was left to her brother of his once
+splendid patrimony--a mere barrack now where most windows were cracked,
+where the paper hung in strips from the walls and the ceilings painted
+by Boucher were stained with smoke and damp.
+
+It was just fourteen years now that the château had been standing empty
+and desolate--fourteen years during which snow, rain and tempest had
+worked their cruel way with shutters and window frames, with stucco,
+plaster and roofs. It was only the fabric itself--the fine solid stone
+walls of sixteenth century architecture which had remained intact--the
+monumental staircase, with its marble balustrade, the terraces and
+façades. True, the stone was stained by damp and mildew, and the ivy,
+which fourteen years ago had been a pretty and romantic feature of the
+copings, was now a danger to them through the vigour and rankness of its
+growth; but these were matters which could easily be remedied, and which
+in themselves enhanced rather than detracted from the picturesqueness of
+the stately pile.
+
+It was the aspect of the interior of the château which had wrung from
+Mme. la Marquise de Mortain that cry of bitter sorrow. Fourteen years!!!
+She herself had been staying at Courson when her brother was at last
+compelled to dismiss all his servants, and to flee from the country, as
+many an aristocrat had done already in order to save not so much himself
+as his family--his young children--from the terrible doom which daily
+appeared more inevitable. Baudouin de Courson was then a widower, his
+daughter Fernande was a mere baby. He himself intended and did join the
+army of the Princes at Coblentz, together with Arnould de Mortain, his
+brother-in-law; Mme. la Marquise, with her son Laurent and with little
+Fernande de Courson, found refuge and hospitality in England, as many
+fugitive Royalists had already done; and the Château de Courson remained
+for a while under the care of old Matthieu Renard and of his wife
+Annette--faithful servants of the family.
+
+M. de Courson had left some money with them to cover the strictly
+necessary expenses of upkeep, and he promised to send them more from
+time to time. He was so sure that this abominable Revolution would not
+last. God and the Allied Powers would soon avenge the murder of King
+Louis, and sweep the country clean from all these assassins and
+cut-throats. He would restore the Dauphin to the throne of his fathers
+and the loyal adherents of their King to their lands!
+
+Fourteen years had gone by since then. Military autocracy had succeeded
+the excesses of tyrannical democracy; the Directorate had supplanted the
+Republic; the Consulate had followed, and now Napoleon Bonaparte, the
+son of an obscure Corsican citizen, was Emperor of the French--conqueror
+of half Europe, master of the world--and the cause of the Bourbons
+appeared more hopeless than it had ever been before. Even the truculent
+Vendeans--the Royalists of Brittany and Normandy--had been pacified. It
+was no use fighting any longer. Cadoudal, the invincible champion of a
+lost cause, had perished on the scaffold, and his scattered followers
+were having recourse to robbery, arson and pillage, in order to collect
+funds for their needs, since England had ceased to pour money and
+treasure into their bottomless coffers.
+
+Matthieu Renard and Annette, his wife, had long since been forced to
+abandon the château. No money was forthcoming from Coblentz or from
+England. Food was dear and Matthieu still vigorous. He took up work with
+the farmers and cultivators who had supplanted his aristocratic masters
+on the domain of Courson. The decree of the National Convention of the
+1st of February, '92, had finally dispossessed of their lands those
+émigrés who did not choose to return to France; the land and farms were
+sold for the benefit of the State. Worthy bourgeois and peasants settled
+down on them and planted their cabbages in the former well-preserved
+enclosures of M. le Comte's pleasure grounds. Alone, the vast château,
+with its reception-rooms in _enfilade_, its numerous state-bedrooms,
+elaborate servants' quarters, stablings and coach-houses, proved
+unsaleable. It remained the property of the nation until the day when
+the soldier-Emperor with a stroke of his pen restored it to its original
+owners.
+
+It was little more now than an empty husk--swept clean by ruthless,
+thieving hands of every relic from the past--stripped of every object of
+value. When M. le Comte arrived, the tricolour flag was still waving on
+its staff up aloft, and across the stone façade was writ in large
+letters the great Republican device: "Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité!"
+
+Mme. la Marquise de Mortain, who accompanied her brother on his return
+to his home, as she had done in exile, had the flag torn down and the
+device erased; but it would take months of labour and a mint of money
+to restore the château to its former splendour; and labour was scarce
+these days when the Grand Army, fighting half Europe risen in coalition
+against the Corsican usurper, was taking heavy toll of the manhood of
+the country and winning undying laurels at Marengo and Austerlitz, in
+Italy and in Prussia. And even labour was less scarce than money.
+
+Mme. la Marquise, wandering through the dismantled salons and through
+the dank apartments eaten into by rust and damp, did not cry, nor did
+she wring her hands, but the hatred which had burned in her heart for
+fourteen years against the persecutors of her caste and the murderers of
+her King stirred within her with renewed violence, and she registered an
+oath that all the energy, the strength and the cunning which she
+possessed would more than ever be devoted to the undoing of the usurper
+and the triumph of the cause of her King.
+
+"And for this," she said to M. le Comte de Courson, who had viewed his
+devastated patrimony in moodiness and silence, "for this the château is
+admirably situated. The country round seems more lonely than it ever was
+before, the woods are more dense, the moors more inaccessible. The spies
+of that infamous Bonaparte can never penetrate to our villages. We are
+within easy reach of Brest and of the English agents, and the whole
+country is seething with revolt against the tyranny of militarism, the
+dearness of food, the excessive taxation. We have not come here,
+Baudouin," she continued vehemently, "in order to lament and to sit
+still under crying injustice and the rule of a base-born usurper. We
+have come in order to do and to fight. It is going to be war to the
+knife in Normandy once again, and let the Corsican and his crowd look to
+themselves. Cadoudal's bomb failed--daggers, poisons have failed....
+Bonaparte is surrounded and guarded by the most astute and the most
+unscrupulous police the world has ever known. Well, we'll bribe his
+guard and outwit his police. Never for one single hour of the day or
+night shall the usurper feel that his life is safe from lurking
+executioners! Daggers? poisons? We'll try them all again in turn. He has
+stuck at nothing--we'll stick at nothing; an eye for an eye and a tooth
+for a tooth; we'll meet murder with murder and pillage with pillage.
+And, in the meanwhile, we'll fight--fight to the last man--fight with
+every resource at our command. Money we must have ... we'll loot and
+we'll rob and we'll burn.... They are all bandits, those revolutionary
+cut-throats; well, we'll be bandits, too, and cut-throats and assassins
+if need be, and we'll not cry 'peace' or 'halt' until Louis XVIII., by
+the grace of God, has come into his own again."
+
+Later in the day, fired by her own enthusiasm, lashed into fury by the
+sight of her ruined childhood's home, Mme. la Marquise was still making
+wild plans for the coming guerrilla campaign against the Corsican and
+his army. M. de Courson tried to pacify her with a few counsels of
+prudence.
+
+"At any rate, for the moment, my dear Denise," he said, "we must not
+brusque matters. We must let Joseph de Puisaye and Prigent make their
+plans quietly. Enough that for the moment they know that this house is
+at their disposal...."
+
+"Enough?" retorted Madame vehemently. "Nothing will be enough, save the
+death of that abominable Bonaparte. Oh!" she added, with a sigh of
+desperate impatience as she stretched out her arms in longing, "how I
+long to be even with that usurper and his crowd of vulgar sycophants!
+How I long to see him fawn for mercy and cringe at Versailles at the
+foot of King Louis' throne, whilst...."
+
+"We are not there yet, my dear Denise," quoth the Comte gently, "and you
+must remember that our party has become very scattered and very weak.
+Bonaparte has an enormous following at this moment. His victories have
+caused this blind and stupid nation to deify him. Indeed, the people of
+France look on him as nothing less than a god. His popularity is
+immense, his power unlimited. The loyal adherents of our rightful King
+are a mere handful now--a few of us of the old régime have remained
+true--a few unruly peasants have rallied to the fleur-de-lys. What can a
+few hundred of our men do against some thousands of Bonaparte's trained
+troops? And he has threatened to send a hundred thousand against our
+Chouans, if they should ever rise in a mass again."
+
+"Bah!" exclaimed Madame exultantly. "We'll oppose him with ten thousand
+whose ardour will outweigh his numbers."
+
+"He has threatened to burn down our cities."
+
+"We'll take refuge in our villages."
+
+"He'll burn our villages."
+
+"We'll seek shelter in the woods. Nay, my good Baudouin," added Mme. la
+Marquise firmly, "counsels of prudence come ill from you. You and
+Laurent will lead our brave peasants to victory--of this I am as
+convinced as that I am alive. And if we cannot fight in the open we'll
+fight in the dark; we'll oppose force with ruse and power with cunning.
+The brutal Corsican may, in the meanwhile, destroy the homes of
+peaceable citizens, or ruin the properties of worthy bourgeois who have
+nothing to do with this war; but as for us, he shall only find us when
+our brave little army is ready for him--and not before; and then we'll
+destroy him and his battalions one by one."
+
+It was impossible to resist for long the power and influence of Madame's
+wonderful enthusiasm. For her there was no lost cause--no hopelessness.
+Louis, the eighteenth of his name, was effectively King of France in her
+sight, whether the Corsican usurper chose to place an imperial crown on
+his own head or not; and God was bound by the decrees of His own laws to
+see that King Louis--King by divine right--did eventually sit upon the
+throne of his forbears after this unexplainable period of exile and of
+stress.
+
+
+II
+
+In the evening when, in the small boudoir which had been made habitable,
+the lamps were lit and a fire burned in the tall hearth, when the
+shutters were closed and chairs drawn nearer to one another, the place
+looked a trifle less desolate. Matthieu Renard and his wife Annette had
+thrown up their work under the farmers and cultivators whom they
+despised, and returned to serve the masters, whom even in their poverty
+they recognized as alone worthy of their services. Annette had cooked a
+good dinner, Matthieu had unearthed a bottle of wine from a disused
+cellar, which had almost miraculously escaped perquisition. The world
+did not appear so callous or so inimical as it had done earlier in the
+day.
+
+"What about Ronnay?" M. de Courson had asked as soon as Matthieu and
+Annette had gone and the doors were closed on the intimate family
+circle.
+
+"What about him?" retorted Mme. la Marquise. The sound of her eldest
+son's name grated unpleasantly on her ear.
+
+"Does he know you have arrived?"
+
+"Yes. I have written to him."
+
+"So soon?"
+
+"There was no object in wasting time. He and I will have to meet within
+the next few days. I want to get that first meeting over."
+
+"You have asked him to come here?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Do you think that he will come?"
+
+"He cannot refuse to pay his respects to his mother."
+
+M. de Courson shrugged his shoulders and stared moodily into the fire.
+
+"Have you heard anything fresh about Ronnay de Maurel, Baudouin?"
+queried Mme. la Marquise sharply. "Anything that I ought to know?"
+
+"Only what is common talk round the neighbourhood, my dear," he
+replied.
+
+"And that is?..."
+
+"That Gaston de Maurel has brought up his nephew--your son, my dear
+Denise--as little better than the workmen in his factories. Ronnay, it
+seems, is quite illiterate, and his manners are those of a peasant. The
+most violent democratic principles have been inculcated into him from
+childhood...."
+
+"Ever since the law freed me from his father's brutalities ..." broke in
+Madame coldly.
+
+"Exactly," assented M. de Courson, in an obviously conciliatory spirit,
+"when your husband died, my dear, his brother Gaston took up his work
+with the boy. You know the type of man Gaston de Maurel always was--the
+Revolution suited his temperament exactly. Cruel, vindictive, jealous,
+violent, he voted for the September massacres and for the execution of
+the King. Had Ronnay been old enough he, too, would have been a
+regicide."
+
+Mme. la Marquise shuddered.
+
+"And even you, Baudouin," she said, "have oft rebuked me for my hatred
+to the boy."
+
+"Your son, Denise, your own flesh and blood. Aye!" he added more
+emphatically, "so much your own flesh and blood; that he has your
+character in a great measure--your energy, your enthusiasm....
+Unfortunately he misapplies both...."
+
+"To crime and disloyalty."
+
+"Yes; there is the pity of it. He is a dangerous man, Denise," continued
+M. de Courson earnestly. "It were best to keep him at arm's-length."
+
+"At arm's length," retorted Madame hotly. "My dear Baudouin, are you
+serious?"
+
+"I have never been so serious in my life. I think that it is a boundless
+pity that you have already made overtures in the direction of the de
+Maurels. I would have left the whole pack of those revolutionary
+brigands severely alone."
+
+He spoke with unwonted energy, for in all matters of argument M. de
+Courson invariably gave in to his more energetic sister. But he felt
+strongly on the subject, and looked as if he were determined to assert
+his will this time, at any rate. But Mme. la Marquise was not prepared
+to give in, and she broke in once more, in her authoritative way:
+
+"I shall not leave the revolutionary brigands alone, my good Baudouin,"
+she said. "I mean to try and win my son Ronnay over to our cause...."
+
+"You are mad, Denise!" exclaimed M. le Comte.
+
+"Will you deny that he would be invaluable to us if he were on our
+side?" she argued.
+
+Then as M. le Comte remained silent, with frowning eyes fixed in deep
+puzzlement before him, she added with ever-growing energy:
+
+"Remember that Ronnay is passing rich, and that old Gaston cannot last
+long, so they say. I hear that he is dying. When he dies all his
+accumulated wealth, which is immense, will also go to Ronnay, who will
+certainly then be one of the richest men in France. Moreover, he already
+disposes of five thousand skilled men, and of the means of making
+engines and munitions of war. The men, so I am told, are devoted to
+him--except for a few malcontents. They look upon him as one of
+themselves; they would as soon follow him on our side as on that of
+Bonaparte. Think what that means, my dear Baudouin! Men and money to our
+cause! and we need both sadly. It means conciliating an ogre who no
+doubt is too stupid, too illiterate to have any rooted convictions of
+his own. Tell me!" she concluded, with a note of triumph at her own
+unanswerable argument, "were it not passing wise to make friends with
+such a man?"
+
+"Ah! if you could do that, Denise...!" quoth M. de Courson, with an
+impatient sigh and a dubious shrug of the shoulders. "But if your son
+Ronnay hath aught of the de Maurels in him, you will fail. Bertrand de
+Maurel was not amenable, remember, and you tried hard in those days to
+win him over to our side."
+
+Mme. la Marquise was silent for a moment or two. It was her turn now to
+stare moodily into the fire. Memory had carried her back to those early
+years of her marriage, when Bertrand de Maurel's dictatorial ways and
+crude love-making had caused her ever-rebellious spirit to chafe under
+his tyranny. Brought up under the strict régime of the time which made
+of the _jeune fille_ little more than a puppet to dance to the piping of
+her parents, Denise de Courson had hoped to find emancipation in
+marriage. Bertrand de Maurel, however, soon taught her that a husband's
+yoke can be more irksome than a father's. Where Denise hoped to find
+independence of thought and of action she found a tyrant whose
+democratic ideals amounted to bigotry; where she hoped to lead a free
+and intellectual life of her own, she found herself a slave to a system
+of philanthropy which was repugnant alike to her aristocratic sense and
+to her love of her own comforts. Bertrand de Maurel had mapped out for
+his young wife a life of usefulness and of sound influence among his
+dependents, and Denise loathed the very propinquity of those whom she
+was wont to call "the great unwashed." Bertrand had schemes for
+improving the conditions of labour, the housing of his peasantry, the
+production of the land. They were crude, embryotic ideas, perhaps, but
+they sprang from a mind attuned to the growing discontent of one class
+against the glaring injustice imposed upon it by the other; they sprang
+from a heart that was warm and sympathetic, if not always logical. He
+was at first only feeling his way toward a better understanding with his
+dependents, scenting the approaching danger of those horrible reprisals
+which were destined to remain a perpetual stain upon the history of the
+nation, and which a little conciliation, a little goodwill, a few more
+men like Bertrand and Gaston de Maurel might perhaps have averted.
+
+But with none of her husband's aims or his ideals had Denise the
+slightest sympathy. It was a case of hopeless incompatibility of
+tempers, further aggravated by irascible and imperious characters on
+both sides. Bertrand de Maurel had no more understanding of his wife's
+nature than she had of his; no more sympathy with her ideals and her
+train of thought. Perpetual bickering led to outbursts of passionate
+recrimination; an impassable abyss of divergent political views did the
+rest. Revolutionary and democratic ideals had already eaten into the
+soul of Bertrand de Maurel and of his brother Gaston; and with Denise,
+belief in the divine right of kings was an integral part of her
+religion. After five years of miserable and acrimonious conflicts
+separation appeared the only solution of an impossible situation. Denise
+shook the dust of La Frontenay from her aristocratic feet, leaving all
+her illusions behind her, together with the child born of this
+unfortunate marriage--a boy not yet three years old, whom she had
+already learned to hate.
+
+Ronnay had never been her child. As a tiny baby he was already the image
+of his father--with the same wilful and tyrannical temper, the same
+outbursts of passionate wrath, the same characteristic toss of the head
+that shook recalcitrant curls from the low, square forehead. Ronnay had
+his father's auburn hair, his father's deep-set eyes, which at times
+were almost black, at others of a deep violet-blue; he had his father's
+massive limbs and square-set jaw. Oh, yes! Ronnay was a true de Maurel.
+Not all the upbringing in the world, not all a mother's influence, would
+have trained the lad to walk in the footsteps of his aristocratic
+forbears. The word "democrat" was already writ plainly upon the sturdy
+form of the tiny child, as he toddled, unaided, through the sheds of his
+father's foundries, scorning the delicate feminine hands of nurse or
+governess, who would have guided his footsteps, clinging to the
+overseers and the roughly-clad workmen, who placed their tools in his
+little hands and showed him the way to use them. The spirit of democracy
+shone out of the lad's blue eyes when, standing between his Uncle
+Gaston's knees, he listened spellbound to marvellous tales of the
+tyranny of kings and of the heroic stand which was even then being made
+in the New World over the ocean far away by a nation which was resolved
+to be free.
+
+Yes, Ronnay de Maurel was, indeed, a true son of his father--a worthy
+nephew of Gaston de Maurel and the godson of La Fayette; he had nothing
+of the de Coursons in him. And in the years that ensued, when Gaston had
+voted for the death of his King and Ronnay had won his first laurels
+under the base-born Corsican adventurer fighting against his own kith
+and kin and against the King's most holy Majesty, Denise de Mortain--as
+she now was--often wished that some beneficent Fate had smothered her
+first-born at birth.
+
+
+III
+
+Mme. la Marquise roused herself from her meditations. There had been
+silence between her and her brother for some time, while her mind took
+this sudden incursion into the past; but at the further end of the room
+Fernande de Courson and Laurent de Mortain were whispering and laughing
+together. Madame turned and looked over her shoulder at the two young
+people; then she said abruptly and with seeming irrelevance to her
+brother:
+
+"Fernande is getting too old for all that childishness."
+
+"Childishness, my dear," said the Comte, somewhat bewildered at this
+sudden change in his sister's train of thought. "I don't understand...."
+
+"You can't wish her to become the butt of all the gossips in the village
+... which she will do if you allow this childish philandering to go on."
+
+"You mean Laurent?" he queried blankly.
+
+"Why--of course. Fernande is seventeen--Laurent has not a sou to bless
+himself with...."
+
+"For the moment," interposed the Comte. "When King Louis comes into his
+own again, Laurent will retake possession of his heritage...."
+
+Madame la Marquise shook her head impatiently.
+
+"Confiscated lands will never be restored," she said firmly, "not even
+by King Louis. The process would be too dangerous; it would kindle a
+fresh revolution. Those of us whose lands have been sold by that
+execrable Revolutionary government will remain poor and dispossessed to
+the end of our days."
+
+Baudouin de Courson looked keenly at his sister, still not understanding
+her sudden new mood.
+
+"Does that mean," he asked, "does that mean that the project of marriage
+between our children is not to come to pass?"
+
+"No, no," Madame broke in hurriedly; "I did not mean that, of course.
+You know, dear, that I could not have meant that.... You misunderstood
+me ... or I, mayhap, expressed myself clumsily. Pessimism led me too far
+... no wonder--eh, my dear Baudouin? The spectacle of our ruined home
+has grated harshly on my nerves. No, no! I did not mean that. King
+Louis,--may God guard him!--will richly reward those of us who have
+given up everything for his sake. There will be money compensation for
+you and money compensation for Laurent ... and, please God, the past
+splendours of Mortain will one day be revived ... but it will all take
+time ... years perhaps ... and, in the meanwhile, I think you should
+talk seriously to Fernande. She ought to be a little more circumspect,
+and not proclaim her affection for Laurent quite so openly as she has
+done hitherto."
+
+"Would it not be best, in that case," rejoined M. de Courson coldly, "if
+Fernande and I took up our abode elsewhere and left you in possession of
+Courson? We might go to Caen, perhaps, or to Brest.... We should still
+be in touch with you...."
+
+"Impossible, my good Baudouin," interposed Madame decisively. "You must
+remain here while our army is being organized; this place is most
+central--it shall be our headquarters. Already we have arranged that it
+shall be the meeting-place whenever any of our leaders wish to
+communicate with us. No, no, there can be no question of your going!
+Moreover...."
+
+"Yes?" he queried, seeing that she had paused, obviously hesitating
+whether to go on or not.
+
+"I don't see why I should not tell you of my project, my dear Baudouin,"
+she said quietly. "I propose to take up my abode at La Frontenay."
+
+"La Frontenay? I don't understand...."
+
+"There is no doubt that old Gaston de Maurel is dying. Ronnay is his
+heir. La Vieuville will then become his home.... Why should not La
+Frontenay become mine? It was my husband's."
+
+"But ..." stammered the Comte, reluctant to put into words the thought
+that was uppermost in his mind.
+
+"You mean," broke in the Marquise coldly, "you mean that Ronnay de
+Maurel has been taught to hate me as bitterly as did his father to the
+day of his death, as bitterly as does old Gaston de Maurel to this day.
+I know that; but, remember, my dear Baudouin, that there is nothing in
+the world which I would not do for the sake of our cause, and that, as I
+told you just now, it would be of immense help to us if Ronnay and I
+became good friends and I could take up my abode at La Frontenay. I
+should get the control of his house ... of his money, too, to a great
+extent. The château is vast ... three times the size of Courson; it has
+extensive cellars, which would be immeasurably useful for the storing of
+arms. Even if Ronnay desired to live there after Gaston's death rather
+than at La Vieuville, he still would probably be absent from time to
+time, and then the château would be entirely at our disposal.... Oh!"
+she added more warmly, "the advantages of my residing at La Frontenay
+are too numerous to name."
+
+"I don't deny it, but I fear me that you will find it difficult to get
+over your son's dislike ... and over his mistrust."
+
+"Difficult, I know. But not impossible. I must play my cards well ...
+that is all."
+
+"You must also remember, my dear Denise, that--even if you succeed in
+your designs, which I take leave to doubt--you will, first of all, have
+to make sure that Ronnay de Maurel has no thought of marriage. If you
+take up your residence at La Frontenay--if we are to make use of the
+château for our campaign--we ought to be certain that a young bride
+won't turn us out within the first few months if she found La Vieuville
+not sufficiently to her liking."
+
+Madame mused for a second or two in silence, then she said quietly:
+
+"I had thought of marriage in connection with Ronnay.... I must confess,
+in fact, that such an eventuality has very much entered into my
+calculations, but...."
+
+"But what?"
+
+"I'll tell you my project later on, my good Baudouin--not just now. But
+be assured that if my son Ronnay marries, it will be a wife of my
+choice. For the moment there is no danger of his turning his thoughts to
+courtship. If rumour has spoken correctly, he is little better than a
+savage, and if he has turned his sentimental thoughts to some village
+wench--as illiterate and rough-mannered as himself--why, she must be got
+out of the way, that is all."
+
+Baudouin de Courson said nothing more. He stared back into the fire, and
+to his mind also there came back some memories of the past. While his
+sister spoke with that air of authority which became her proud beauty
+and majestic figure so well, his thoughts had flown back to the dead
+husband--to Bertrand de Maurel, dictatorial and authoritative, too, the
+martinet who tried to drill this imperious woman into submission. No
+wonder that husband and wife had quarrelled! No wonder that the passion
+of a brief and romantic courtship had so soon changed to invincible
+hate!
+
+M. de Courson sighed. He loved and admired his sister, whose aims and
+ideals were akin to his own, whose stern virtues guided her every
+action; but all that he had heard about Ronnay de Maurel did not lead
+him to think for a moment that he would be amenable to his mother's
+tyranny. Rumour had described him as rude of manner, abrupt of speech
+and turbulent in his ways; nor had this description of his nephew
+altogether displeased M. de Courson. A wild creature is more easily
+tamed than one which is crafty and subtle, and where passions are most
+tumultuous there gentleness and love have easier access. But gentleness
+and love only--not tyranny. Ronnay de Maurel as an enemy might prove as
+dangerous as he was undoubtedly powerful. His active sympathy or even
+passive indifference would be of inestimable value to the Royalist
+cause; this M. de Courson was bound to admit. But he was equally
+convinced that it would require all a woman's tenderness and tact to win
+Ronnay over, and, even so, success was more than doubtful and the task a
+risky one at best. A spark of motherly love, a touch of womanly sympathy
+might succeed; peremptory ways, a harsh, authoritative manner was
+inevitably doomed to failure.
+
+What his sister's plans were with regard to this delicate matter
+Baudouin de Courson did not attempt to guess. Like all men of action, he
+was wholly unversed in that subtle knowledge of the feminine heart which
+no man has ever completely fathomed. Perhaps if at this moment he could
+have read what was going on in Denise's fertile brain, he might have
+been spared all the heartburnings which lay in wait for him in the near
+future; he and those he cared for might have been spared the coming
+bitter conflict 'twixt warring ideals; they might have been spared more
+than one abiding sorrow.
+
+But Mme. la Marquise did not choose to take her brother into her
+confidence then, and he did not try to penetrate her secrets. And thus
+were the Fates left to weave unmolested the threads of five people's
+destinies.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE HERMITS OF LA VIEUVILLE
+
+
+I
+
+At the self-same hour, whilst Denise de Mortain and her brother, the
+Comte de Courson, were discussing their future plans for rousing the
+country-side once more into open revolt, Gaston de Maurel and his nephew
+Ronnay were poring over a letter which was written in a bold and firm
+hand, and which a village courier had brought over from Courson an hour
+ago.
+
+The letter by now was little more than a rag, stained with finger marks,
+with corners torn off and contents blurred by constant crushing of the
+paper in hot, impatient hands.
+
+Gaston de Maurel sat in a huge arm-chair, his head leaning against a
+number of pillows which had been piled up behind his back; his eyes--the
+deep-set eyes of the Maurels--were fixed inquiringly, almost
+appealingly, upon the bowed head of his nephew, who, with elbows resting
+upon the table, was effectually shielding his face from the searching
+gaze of the invalid.
+
+The room in which the two men sat was one of the kitchens of the small
+old-fashioned Château of La Vieuville--the appanage of the younger sons
+of the house--granted to them in perpetual fief by the head of the
+family in the days when the de Maurels were Dukes of Montauban and held
+their lands direct from the King. Bertrand de Maurel, the last holder of
+the title, fired by democratic ideals, had cast aside what he termed an
+empty bauble, long before the wave of social equality had swept over the
+land. His younger brother Gaston had followed in his footsteps. A
+passionate and uncompromising Republican, he had voted for the death of
+the King--dispassionately and from a firm conviction that such a course
+was vital for the welfare of the nation; and thenceforward he divested
+himself voluntarily of every appurtenance and privilege of rank. He
+lived up to his convictions from the first day that he gave expression
+to them in the National Assembly; and from that time forth not one
+single contradiction, not one single concession to past traditions or
+past love of ease and luxury, marred the Spartan-like purity of his
+life. He mixed with the proletariat, lived with the proletariat; and the
+boy Ronnay, whom his dead brother Bertrand had committed to his care and
+wholly to his discretion, he brought up in the same thoughts, the same
+feelings, the same ideals as his own.
+
+Bertrand de Maurel had left his boy an immense fortune; Gaston
+administered it by turning the celebrated iron foundries of La Frontenay
+into a gigantic factory for the manufacture of munitions of war. That
+was the time when the people of France were called to arms by the
+Revolutionary Government against the whole of Europe. France demanded of
+all her children that they should give the best of what they had in
+order to help her to fight all the foreign nations who had banded
+themselves in coalition against her. Gaston de Maurel was in the
+forefront of those who gave their all. An incurable affection of the
+heart prevented his taking up arms for the Republic which he had helped
+to create; but he had talent, brains, money, influence, a genius for
+organizing and an inexhaustible fund of patriotism and self-sacrifice.
+At once he marshalled up for the benefit of the State all the vast
+industrial forces over which his brother's will had given him absolute
+control, until the day when Ronnay chose to take up the reins of
+government himself.
+
+He toiled side by side with the workmen in the factory. To each man he
+assigned his part, so that each man was able to do his best. He sorted,
+sifted, arrayed the manpower at his disposal, so that every individual
+in his turn was able to give of his best. And his own eye was
+everywhere. He methodized everything; he supervised everything.
+
+And--almost despite himself--he accumulated immense wealth, not only for
+his nephew, but also for himself. He, too, had inherited quite a
+substantial fortune from his mother, who was the sister and co-heiress
+of the Marquis de Rouverdain. His capital he lent to the State at
+interest, and he kept up the fabric of his Château of La Vieuville; but
+beyond that he spent nothing on himself. He only looked upon himself as
+the administrator of his nephew's patrimony--as the chief overseer of
+the Maurel foundries. People called him a miser, and he was that in a
+sense, for money in his hands perpetually begat money.
+
+The gossip of the village had it that Ronnay de Maurel hardly knew how
+to read and write. That, of course, was mischievous. The days of the
+Terror and the Revolution did not allow of grand tours abroad, of
+courses at the Sorbonne, or of dancing and deportment classes; but old
+Gaston taught Ronnay all that he knew himself, even though he brought
+him up as a peasant. The lad wore a peasant's blouse and sabots on his
+feet; he was ten years old before he tasted any meat, twelve before he
+opened a book. But when, at fifteen years of age, he joined the army of
+the Republic, he fought like a hero until that Austrian bullet disabled
+him; then he retired--a Grand-Eagle of the Legion of Honour, one of the
+twenty men in the whole of France whom the newly-crowned Emperor thus
+honoured and trusted most.
+
+It was at Austerlitz that Ronnay de Maurel got the wound which had lamed
+him for life. Napoleon sent him home to look after the de Maurel
+munitions factory, and, incidentally, to keep an eye on the hot-headed
+Royalists of Normandy, who were still brewing mischief against the new
+Empire and trafficking with the foreigners against their own country.
+Ronnay de Maurel returned to La Frontenay covered with honours, but
+eleven years' campaigning in Italy and on the Danube, under General
+Bonaparte, did not tend to the softening of manners or the acquisition
+of social graces. In the early days of the Republic and the
+Directorate--and even of the Consulate--campaigning meant fighting often
+on an empty stomach, nearly always with insufficient clothing; it meant
+tramping shoeless through the snows of the Alps or sleeping shelterless
+on the sodden bog-lands of Belgium. It meant living in comradeship with
+all the scum of humanity which the Republican Government had scraped
+together, in order to compose an army numerous enough to stand up
+against the overwhelmingly superior forces arraigned against France. It
+meant all that and more for many years; and when de Maurel obtained at
+twenty-six the grade of general of division--for promotion was
+over-quick then under the eye of the greatest war-lord the world has
+ever known--and donned the gorgeous uniform of an officer of high rank
+in the Imperial army, he knew neither how to enter a drawing-room, nor
+how to kiss a lady's hand. He knew less than did the sons of the more
+prominent overseers of his own factory; his manners were more
+uncouth--his speech more rude.
+
+Having laid aside his fine uniform as general of division, he once more
+took up the peasant's blouse and the sabots which his Uncle Gaston--on
+his part--had never laid aside.
+
+The days of democracy were at an end; the Imperial Court vied in
+brilliancy with the royal courts of long ago, but Ronnay de Maurel saw
+nothing of it. He had never been to Paris, and when he had stood face to
+face with his Emperor, both were covered with the grime and smoke of
+battle, both had their clothes half torn off their backs, both had muddy
+boots and unwashed hands.
+
+"You fight our enemies with both hands, General," Napoleon had said to
+de Maurel on that occasion; "with one you wield a sword, with the other
+you make our cannon balls. In you France has two citizens--our beloved
+country two sons."
+
+Yes! the days of democracy were at an end, nor had old Gaston de Maurel
+ever aught to do with the new days of splendour. He had continued to
+live in two rooms of his beautiful château, both on the ground-floor and
+away from the main façade; to these rooms one of the small back doors
+gave access; he lived like a workman, he fed and dressed and toiled like
+a workman.
+
+One evening there was a knock at the back door. Gaston went to open it,
+for he only had an old woman from the village to cook his dinner for him
+and to make his bed, and she had gone back home an hour ago. On the
+threshold stood a man in a tattered uniform covered with tarnished gold
+lace; on his breast was the highest insignia of the newly-created order.
+Uncle and nephew shook one another silently by the hand. No warmer
+greeting passed between them. That evening Ronnay de Maurel shared his
+uncle's frugal supper, and the next morning saw him at the factory,
+having already taken over the command of the gigantic undertaking of
+which henceforth he became sole master.
+
+And from that same day onwards a tall, massive figure, with head erect
+and deep-set, violet eyes fixed upon the horizon far away, could be seen
+every morning at break of day wending its way across the fields from the
+château to the factory, a matter of three kilometres, in all
+weathers--wet or fine, snow or rain, in the teeth of a gale or of
+blinding sleet--a woollen cap upon his head, his bare feet thrust into
+sabots. The country-folk, as he passed them by, would nudge one another
+and murmur "The General!" and would point to his left leg, which he
+dragged slightly as he trudged across a newly-ploughed field.
+
+
+II
+
+"If you go, my lad, mark my words, you'll rue it to your dying day. That
+woman is dangerous, I tell you."
+
+The sick man spoke as forcibly, as emphatically as his growing weakness
+would allow; he brought his emaciated hand down upon the table with
+extraordinary vigour; his eyes, hollow and circled, were fixed upon his
+nephew, who still held his head persistently buried in his hands.
+
+"I am not one to turn my back on danger," said de Maurel after a while,
+"and I must obey the Minister's orders."
+
+"The Minister of Police does not know your mother, Ronnay," rejoined the
+invalid insistently.
+
+"It is because he does know her--or, at any rate, because he suspects
+her--that he wants me to keep an eye on her and her doings. I cannot do
+that very well if we are to persist in this open enmity."
+
+"Aye! in open enmity!" exclaimed the old man, whilst a look of bitter
+rancour crept into his hollow eyes. "Open enmity," he reiterated firmly,
+"that is the only correlation possible between us and a de Courson."
+
+"The Minister thinks otherwise," responded Ronnay dryly. "And from what
+he says, so did the Emperor. My mother apparently thinks otherwise, too,
+else she had not sent for me so soon. She says that she desires speech
+with me. I'd better, in any case, hear what she hath to say."
+
+"Oh, I can tell you that, my boy, without your troubling to go all the
+way to Courson to hear it. Your mother, my good Ronnay, has realized
+that you are passing rich; she has heard that I am dying, and that after
+my death your wealth and influence will vie with that of any man in
+France. She wants to see if she can cozen you into placing it at her
+service."
+
+"I am not easily cozened," muttered de Maurel stubbornly, "and fear of
+her wiles is not like to make me disobey the Minister's orders."
+
+"You will do as you like, my lad," rejoined the invalid dryly; "you are
+as self-willed and as obstinate as your father was before you. And I can
+do nothing save to warn you."
+
+"Warn me of what?" queried Ronnay impatiently. "Am I a child that I
+cannot be trusted to look after myself?"
+
+"You are a child in many ways, my dear General. A child in this, that
+you are no match for the pin-pricks which your lady-mother knows so well
+how to deal."
+
+"I care nothing for women's pin-pricks. My hide is tough and
+smooth-tongued stabs will glide off me like water off a duck's back. If
+my lady-mother is disagreeable, I can be disagreeable, too. If she
+refuses to be friends, I need never set foot inside her doors again."
+
+"Oh, she will not refuse to be friends with you, my lad! Have I not said
+that Mme. la Marquise de Mortain knows her eldest son to be wealthy and
+influential? She will not refuse to be friends with a man who might
+prove useful to her in her many and varied intrigues. Your lady-mother,
+my good Ronnay, will pour honey and sugar on you, I have no doubt of
+that. 'Twas not against an open enmity on her part that I desired to
+warn you."
+
+"Against what, then?"
+
+"Against her protestations of goodwill and of love."
+
+"Love?" commented de Maurel, with a shrug of his broad shoulders. "I am
+not like to listen to protestations of love. But what use is there to
+argue the matter at such length, Uncle Gaston?" he added, with obvious
+exasperation. "Have I not read you the Minister's letter and told you
+that my mind was made up? How could I act otherwise when--as the
+Minister tells me--the Emperor himself, ere he left for Prussia, desired
+me to try and make friends with the de Coursons?"
+
+"Friends!" ejaculated the invalid, and a sardonic grin almost distorted
+for the moment his thin, pale face. "Friends!"
+
+Then he continued more calmly: "There is no friendship possible, my lad,
+between us and the de Coursons. I know that I may as well be talking to
+that bedstead over there as to you. You say your mind is made up, and
+you have all your father's obstinacy and more. You will go to Courson,
+in spite of what I say. You'll go and you'll weep bitter tears of
+repentance for the rest of your life; of that I am as convinced as that
+I have one foot in the grave and am dragging the other one in as fast as
+may be. I am sick and weak; some will tell you that old Gaston de Maurel
+is already in his dotage; but you are the one being in the world whom I
+care for now, and I am not going to let my weakness get the better of
+me, and allow you to run your stupid head against a stone wall which
+will bruise, if it will not crush you, without raising my feeble voice
+in protest."
+
+"You but waste your precious breath, Uncle Gaston," rejoined de Maurel
+more gently. "I am nothing if not a soldier, and I'd as soon think of
+cutting off my right hand as to ignore my Emperor's wishes. When he
+pinned the Grand-Eagle of the Legion of Honour upon my breast, he gave
+me the highest proof possible of his belief and trust in me. I cannot
+fight for him for the present, with this accursed maimed leg of mine;
+but I should be a coward and a cur were I to disobey his responsible
+Minister in so small a matter. Be assured, Uncle Gaston, that no harm
+will come to me. No harm can come to any man through friendship with his
+mother, even if she be a de Courson."
+
+"Oho! you think so, my lad, do you?" retorted the invalid, with a
+cynical laugh. "All the harm in the world, which not an ocean of tears
+could ever wash away, came to your father, because he fell in love with
+Denise de Courson. My brother Bertrand worshipped that woman!" continued
+old Gaston, and from his enfeebled frame he seemed to gather force as he
+spoke, with white, marble-like finger uplifted, and eyes which already
+had looked closely on death fixed upon the bronzed face of his nephew.
+"He poured out the full measure of his lavish heart at her feet, the
+full measure of his keen intellect. His dream--God forgive him for a
+blundering fool--his dream was to associate her in all the schemes which
+he had devised for the welfare of his dependents. She scorned his
+ideals, she ran counter to his aims. She was an aristocrat--in the worst
+acceptance of the word--to her finger-tips. She hated--yes,
+hated--everything that was poor and dependent and ignorant. She hated
+the people for whom your father schemed and toiled; she poured ridicule
+on all his efforts; with a flick of her be-ringed fingers she would have
+destroyed the whole edifice of his often misguided but always generous
+philanthropy. Whatever he did, she immediately opposed--on
+principle--her principle--the principle that humanity began with the
+chevaliers, with the privileged few who had a handle to their name. For
+her the proletariat, the bourgeoisie, the toilers and the workers were
+all so much scum, whose very touch would pollute the hem of her gown.
+The life and welfare of one of her husband's peasantry was of less
+account to her than the health of her pet dog. Oh, there were women like
+that in the old régime--and men, too, my boy! Else, think you that so
+bloody a revolution as the one which the people of France have made
+would ever have swept an entire caste off the face of the land? There
+were women and men in those days--before the Revolution--who would see,
+and did see, their fellow-creatures starving at their doors, who saw
+them half naked with hardly a roof above their heads, and would not
+raise a finger to help them. There were men and women like that--'tis no
+use denying it. And they made the Revolution--not we. The death of their
+King upon the scaffold, the outrage to their Queen, was their
+making--not ours. The Bourbons stood for all that was callous and
+purse-proud and disdainful. They had to go, so had those on whom a
+people bubbling over with wrath and thirsting for revenge succeeded in
+laying a hand. Your mother was one of those who escaped. She has since
+married another aristocrat--de Mortain--a fool and a fop, and has
+brought up a son who no doubt would like to carry on her principles
+through another generation. But that woman broke your father's heart as
+surely as the guillotine ought to have broken her aristocratic neck.
+True, Bertrand was obstinate and self-willed and passionate. Would he
+have loved his wife as he did had he not been passionate? Would he have
+toiled for the welfare of his dependents through scorn, opposition and
+ridicule had he not been self-willed? True, that one day, exasperated
+beyond his powers of self-control, he struck that cruel, callous
+creature who deserved neither his consideration nor his chivalry. True,
+he did that, and earned for ever after the contumely of his aristocratic
+connections; but he also earned his freedom, for Denise left him after
+that, and thereby rendered him the one service she ever did in her life.
+Now that woman has returned to France--returned in order to work
+mischief in this peaceful corner of Normandy. On this I would stake my
+life. And she wants to get you into her toils--you and your influence
+and your wealth. She will smile on you, my boy, as she once smiled on
+your father; but in her heart she will hate you because you are his son;
+she will despise you for your rough ways and inelegant speech; she will
+laugh at you behind your back, she will vilify you and cover you with
+ridicule. And in the end, she will either break your heart if you remain
+strong, or tarnish your honour if you show the least sign of weakness.
+Avoid her, my lad, as you would the plague. There is no peace, no
+happiness where Denise de Courson holds sway...."
+
+
+III
+
+The invalid fell back against the pillows. The long, sustained effort
+had well-nigh snapped the last feeble thread of life on which he hung.
+Ronnay had not interrupted him. He knew that the old man was passing
+weak--that he was well-nigh spent, yet he let him talk on. Old Gaston
+had spoken in short, jerky sentences, interrupted by the indrawing of
+his breath or short attacks of coughing. He had never before this spoken
+to Ronnay about his mother--never before had he allowed himself to be
+carried away by the flood of his own rhetoric. But he looked upon the
+threatened reconciliation as a calamity for the nephew, whom in his own
+rough way he loved better than anything else on earth; and out of that
+love--which had always remained unspoken--he had drawn the strength
+which had enabled him to speak this last forceful and deliberate
+warning.
+
+But Ronnay had often been proclaimed before now the true son of his
+father, and old Gaston, in the course of his panegyric upon his dead
+brother, had owned that Bertrand de Maurel had been obstinate and
+self-willed. Perhaps the invalid had spoken so passionately and
+lengthily because he knew--with that keen knowledge which so often comes
+to the sick--that he was making no impression upon Ronnay's fixed
+determination, and while he spoke there had crept into his dim eyes a
+look that was almost one of appeal. Ronnay had listened in silence; it
+would have been cruel to have refused to listen to a sick man's
+impassioned entreaty. But the obstinacy which had helped to wreck his
+father's life had been transmitted in a full measure to himself; and
+Fouché--clever, astute Fouché--had used the one argument which was
+unanswerable, when he appealed to de Maurel's loyalty.
+
+"Go to Courson, my dear General," the Minister had writ with his own
+hand, "go as soon as your mother bids you come. You would be rendering
+the State an inestimable service if you would keep an eye on the doings
+of all these repatriated émigrés in your department. That they are up to
+some mischief I need not perhaps impress upon you. They have been
+raising money in their own lawless fashion in that part of Normandy for
+some time now. Pillage, highway robbery, arson and intimidation are
+rife. I believe that the Royalists are trying to raise another army
+which might give us an infinity of trouble--and, in any case, will cause
+the shedding of a deal of innocent blood. The Château de Courson is so
+admirably situated and adapted for the headquarters of those sort of
+intrigues. I entreat you, therefore, during the absence of our Imperial
+Master in Prussia and at his own earnest desire, which I herewith
+transmit to you, to keep in touch with your relatives there, so that you
+may, by your influence and presence, avert the mischief which I feel to
+be brewing in those quarters. I know that by asking you to do this, I am
+imposing an uncongenial task upon so gallant a soldier as yourself, and
+demanding of you a heavy sacrifice; but I understand from His Majesty
+that you require some rest for another six months at least, after the
+serious wound which that Austrian bullet dealt you at Austerlitz; but
+that after those six months you will be able to resume your command and
+to join him in Poland in the winter. Until then, my dear General, may I
+claim your priceless services against a foe no less insidious and hardly
+less powerful than the one you so gallantly helped our Imperial Master
+to subjugate."
+
+That was the letter which had taken the Minister of Police over half an
+hour to prepare. Oh, clever and astute Fouché! How thoroughly you
+understood the science of making men the engines of your will! Here was
+Ronnay de Maurel, who had earned for himself undying laurels on fields
+where every man was brave and worthy of distinction, ready--at your
+bidding--to throw himself into a maze of intrigue where his uncultured
+mind was bound to be at once at a hopeless disadvantage. But Fouché had
+made appeal in the name of France, and the democrats of this age, who
+had emerged chastened and purified from out the withering fire of a
+sanguinary Revolution, had in their hearts a boundless store of love for
+their country who had suffered so much.
+
+Gaston de Maurel had spent much of his reserve of strength in trying to
+counteract the effect of Fouché's letter in his nephew's mind. Long
+before he had said all that he meant, he knew that he had failed.
+When--some time after he had finished speaking--Ronnay still remained
+silent, the invalid, half prostrate after the exertion, threw back his
+head and broke into a strident laugh.
+
+"I might have saved my wind--eh, Ronnay?" he asked, panting.
+
+Ronnay made no reply.
+
+"I suppose you'll go to-morrow?" continued old Gaston.
+
+"Yes," replied the younger man curtly, "I'll go to-morrow."
+
+"As you are now?"
+
+"As I am now."
+
+Again the invalid laughed, but the laughter was choked in a spasm of
+coughing. Without another word Ronnay de Maurel rose and readjusted the
+pillows behind the sick man's head. Gaston was still chuckling inwardly
+to himself; his dim eyes, feebly glittering now with a glance of
+mockery, wandered restlessly over the massive and uncouth figure of this
+soldier of Napoleon. Ronnay de Maurel--General of Division in the most
+marvellous army the world has ever known--looked at this moment very
+like an overgrown, over-developed product of industrial Normandy.
+Ungainly in his movements, with that dragging gait which always appeared
+more accentuated whenever he laboured under fatigue or excitement,
+untutored of speech, unversed in every one of the gentle arts which mark
+the preux chevalier, or the squire of dames, Ronnay was not like to find
+favour in his mother's eyes. His linen blouse was stained with the grime
+and smoke of his foundries, his hair was wont to rebel against the
+conventional tie at the nape of the neck, his hands were rough, his
+nails unpolished. How the fine, if impecunious, entourage of Mme. la
+Marquise de Mortain would sneer at this handiwork of democratic France!
+
+Ronnay felt the invalid's mocking glance, but he was far too
+indifferent to all that it implied even to wince under it.
+
+"I may put on a clean blouse," he said, with a smile which suddenly lit
+up his face like sunshine after a storm.
+
+Gaston de Maurel gave a curious little sigh, and--if the whole
+countryside had not known him for a hard, unemotional man--one might
+almost have said that a look of tenderness had suddenly crept into his
+sunken eyes as their glance embraced the ungainly figure of his nephew.
+Ronnay was so singularly unfitted to cope with the difficulties which
+were about to beset him. He was so little versed in the arts and graces
+wherewith his mother of a certainty had already set out to cajole him.
+His untrained mind was not up to the intrigues which were as the breath
+of life to these aristocratic ladies, who had thrown themselves into the
+whirlpool of their tottering cause. Ronnay was just a soldier--untaught,
+unenlightened. Since the age of fifteen he had known no life save that
+of camps, learned no lessons save those taught on battlefields and in
+the face of the enemy. He had learned neither self-control nor
+dissimulation. His untamed spirit would rebel against all the pin-pricks
+which his mother and her associates would know so well how to deal him.
+
+Poor Ronnay! The invalid sighed again, this time somewhat less bitterly.
+The smile which still lingered round his nephew's rugged face had told
+him much. It told him that out of the maelstrom of a checkered and
+turbulent life Ronnay had rescued one priceless gift which had remained
+his own--a subtle sense of humour, which mayhap would cause him to
+suffer many things less acutely than he otherwise would have done.
+
+There was silence after that between the two men. Each was busy with his
+own thoughts, and when anon they talked together again, the subject
+uppermost in both their minds was not broached by either of them again.
+Matters of business, of the factory, of the new dwellings on the estate,
+absorbed the conversation, and half an hour later the invalid was ready
+for bed. And, more tenderly than any mother could have gathered her baby
+to her breast, Ronnay de Maurel picked up the invalid out of his chair
+and carried him in his powerful arms gently into the next room, where he
+laid him on his bed, undressed him and washed him--an office of mercy
+which he had performed for the old man every evening since he came home
+from Austria and laid aside his fine uniform for the peasant's blouse.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+KINDRED
+
+
+I
+
+The very atmosphere of the old Château de Courson had become
+electrical--excitement was in the air. Even Mme. la Marquise, that
+perfect pattern of aristocratic sang-froid, had been unable to sit still
+all morning.
+
+She wandered restlessly from room to room; she held long conversations
+with her son, with her brother, with Fernande--even with old Matthieu
+Renard and with Annette.
+
+"I expect my son, M. de Maurel," she said to the worthy couple, who, of
+a truth, could not understand why it was not the most natural thing in
+the world for a mother to receive her son. "He may come over at about
+noon and may stay to have dinner with us. Watch over your cooking, my
+good Annette--see that everything is very plain but thoroughly good."
+
+"_Bien, bien_, Mme. la Marquise," nodded Annette, who, womanlike, was
+more ready to become impregnated with that fever of excitement which
+pervaded the château than was sober old Matthieu. "You may be sure that
+I will do my best. I saw the General when first he came home from the
+war...."
+
+"Not General, my good woman," interposed Madame la Marquise haughtily;
+"my son is no General in the army of a parvenu. He is Comte de Maurel,
+Duc de Montauban, and bears no other grade or title; and all the
+democratic governments in the world cannot strip him of his rank."
+
+Now that Ronnay had so quickly--if somewhat coldly--acceded to her
+request for an interview, Mme. la Marquise's imagination went galloping
+on the wings of fancy.
+
+"We'll convert him yet," she said to her brother. "You'll see, my dear
+Baudouin! I'll make that unrelenting democrat dance to my piping before
+long. Once I have succeeded in drawing him away from that old fiend
+Gaston's influence, I'll twirl him round my little finger."
+
+M. de Courson gave a slight shrug. He was doubtful as to that. Madame
+promptly turned to her son.
+
+"Laurent, you are prepared to make friends with your brother, are you
+not?" she said, in a tone almost of entreaty.
+
+"If he will meet me half-way," retorted Laurent, not too genially. He
+had been taught from his babyhood to hate his elder brother, not only
+for the latter's political convictions, but because of the wealth which
+an indiscriminating Fate had chosen to pour down at his feet. It was
+difficult for a young and impetuous creature like Laurent de Mortain to
+adapt himself quite so readily to his mother's new mood.
+
+"At any rate, promise me that you will not quarrel!" added Mme. la
+Marquise with unwonted earnestness.
+
+At ten o'clock in the forenoon Madame decided that she would receive her
+son in the noble--if somewhat dilapidated--reception-room where a few
+gilt-legged fauteuils and the satin-wood parquet floor bore mute
+testimony to past dignity and grandeur. Half an hour later she wandered
+out upon the terrace, from whence, she thought, the aspect of the
+neglected and overgrown garden would of a certainty touch the heart of
+the visitor and incline him to generosity.
+
+At eleven o'clock she thought that the small boudoir--the only living
+room which she and her family had in use at the present moment--would
+shame the wealthy son by its air of poverty and of simplicity. At
+half-past, she was once more inclined to favour the reception-room, and
+at noon she was back in the boudoir, discussing the question with her
+brother and with her son, when a heavy and halting footstep was heard in
+the corridor outside, and the next moment the door was thrown open and
+Ronnay de Maurel appeared upon the threshold.
+
+
+II
+
+He had certainly put on a clean linen blouse, but a blouse it was--just
+the same as those which his own employés wore at their work--of a faded
+shade of blue, with wide sleeves and low, turned-down collar, out of
+which rose his straight, firm neck, strong as a bull's, and crowned by
+the square, massive head, which he threw up as he entered, with a
+gesture that implied defiance. He certainly had discarded sabots; a pair
+of heavy jack-boots reached just below his knees, and dark cloth
+breeches encased his powerful thighs. His thick brown hair was held in
+at the nape of the neck with a black ribbon, hastily tied. And--pinned
+to his blouse--he wore the ribbon of Grand-Eagle of the Legion of
+Honour, the highest distinction the new Empire could confer.
+
+Madame's first sensation on seeing her son was one of horror. She had
+heard tales of Ronnay de Maurel's uncouthness, of his rough clothes and
+his bad manners, but in her mind she had--almost
+involuntarily--associated all these rumoured rude ways of his with a
+certain picturesqueness, a rough grandeur which she thought would appeal
+to her.
+
+But there was nothing either picturesque or grand about this ugly
+apparition which had so summarily thrust itself into her presence. With
+a genuine sinking of the heart Mme. la Marquise took in at a glance
+Ronnay's uncomely appearance, the well-nigh repellent scowl which
+disfigured his face, the heavy frown across his brow, his hands
+discoloured by toil and by inclement weather--in fact, the whole of the
+inelegant, not to say forbidding, aspect of this man whom a while ago
+she had hoped to win over to her side.
+
+And that this coarse, boorish creature was her son she could, alas! not
+doubt for a moment. He appeared before her as the living image of the
+man whom she had hated so bitterly throughout his life, and whom she had
+never wholly succeeded in eradicating from her memory. In Ronnay she saw
+the Bertrand of long ago, the heavy figure, the leonine head, the firm
+neck, and obstinate jaw; she saw the unruly hair which rebelled against
+comb or tie, she saw the eyes beneath the square, straight brow, which
+appeared of a violet-blue in repose and flashed dark, almost black, in
+anger. And in Ronnay de Maurel, too, she saw at this moment the man who
+in the past had tyrannized over her, had contradicted her at every turn,
+had struck her ... that once ... on that unforgettable day, when at last
+she was able to regain her freedom.
+
+And all the hatred which she had felt for Bertrand throughout all these
+years, and which for a few brief hours she had tried to forget, was
+suddenly reawakened at sight of the man whose whole demeanour as he
+faced her at this moment seemed to proclaim the triumph of the
+proletariat which she had never ceased to despise.
+
+She made no sign to welcome him. Her eyes scanned him from top to toe
+with what she intended to be a withering glance--a mute reproach at his
+total lack of respect towards her, which his rough clothes and neglected
+hands implied. But Ronnay de Maurel seemed quite unconscious both of his
+own appearance and of the effect it had upon his lady mother. He
+advanced further into the room and quite unceremoniously slammed the
+door to behind him.
+
+"You sent for me, Mme. la Marquise," he said quietly and unconcernedly,
+"and I have come at your bidding. Will you tell me as briefly as you
+can what it is you desire to say to me?"
+
+The man's indifference, his callous attitude, put the final touch to
+Madame's exasperation. The look in her eyes became more trenchant, more
+withering than before. She drew herself up to her full height, which was
+considerable, and folded her arms over her breast.
+
+"When M. le Comte de Maurel, Duc de Montauban," she said, "has learned
+how to present himself before his mother, I will speak to him and not
+before. Baudouin," she added loftily, turning to her brother, "I think
+that I may rely on you to teach this ... to teach my son the first
+lesson of respect which he owes to me. Laurent, the door!"
+
+Laurent hastened to obey. He held open the door, through which Mme. la
+Marquise de Mortain now passed out, holding herself very erect--the
+personification of outraged dignity.
+
+
+III
+
+De Maurel had taken refuge in a distant corner of the room. He was
+gazing in utter bewilderment at the retreating figure of his mother. Her
+tirade had evidently puzzled rather than angered him, for his deep-set
+eyes were full of vague questionings as they wandered from the face of
+his uncle to that of his young step-brother.
+
+"Our lady-mother," he said at last, when Laurent had once more closed
+the door, and the frou-frou of Madame's skirts no longer could be heard
+swishing softly down the corridor, "our lady-mother seems somewhat
+wayward in her moods. Yesterday she sent for me post-haste--to-day she
+turns her back on me."
+
+"Can you wonder?" broke in Laurent hotly. "Your conduct is
+outrageous...."
+
+"My conduct?" rejoined de Maurel. "Why? What have I done? I scarce
+opened my mouth...."
+
+An exclamation of wrath and of contempt escaped Laurent's quivering lips
+... a hot retort was obviously on the tip of his tongue. M. de Courson
+was only just in time to avert an avalanche of wrathful words which may
+have led to a sudden, irretrievable quarrel. He interposed between the
+two men with the perfect courtesy and tact of a high-born gentleman
+receiving an honoured guest.
+
+"My good de Maurel," he said, holding out his slender, aristocratic hand
+to his nephew, "it is close on a quarter of a century since we have met,
+and it is a pleasure to me to welcome you at Courson. Do you know that I
+am your godfather, an honour which I share, if I remember rightly, with
+M. le Marquis de la Fayette? I hope that you will always think of me in
+that capacity and accept my help and counsel in all matters where the
+experience of a man of the world may be useful to you."
+
+Somewhat tentatively--more like a naughty child who is being coaxed into
+good humour--Ronnay de Maurel took that thin, white hand which was being
+held out to him. He could have crushed it in his own toil-worn one.
+
+"I thank you," he said curtly, "I am too old now for help or counsel,
+and my life has been spent in fighting for my country. I have no use for
+the experiences of a man of the world, by which, I suppose, you mean a
+dandy of drawing-rooms, a courtier or a sycophant."
+
+"No, no, I did not mean that," rejoined M. de Courson conciliatingly.
+"It is not necessary to be a dandy, nor yet a sycophant, in order to win
+the regard of one's own kindred--those of one's own caste.
+Unfortunately, it had not occurred to me to give you a word of warning
+ere you came to meet your mother ... in this guise."
+
+"In this guise!" echoed de Maurel roughly. "What hath my guise to do
+with my coming here? My mother sent for me. Surely she did not do that
+in order to look at my clothes."
+
+"Good God, man!" here interposed Laurent sharply, "is this bland
+simplicity of yours a pose or what? Do you really pretend not to know
+that a workman's attire is not a suitable one wherein to present
+yourself in the salons of the Marquise de Mortain?"
+
+"The Marquise de Mortain was once Mme. de Maurel. I did not come here in
+order to present myself in her salon, but to speak with my mother and at
+her wish."
+
+"You might have washed your hands and slipped on a decent coat in order
+to do that," rejoined Laurent, who, forgetting his mother's entreaties
+of a while ago, was letting his ebullient temper gradually overmaster
+his prudence.
+
+But de Maurel, too, seemed to have come to the end of his small stock of
+patience.
+
+"Have done, boy, with that nonsense," he retorted roughly, "I am not a
+man of patience. I owe nothing to the lady, remember, who has long since
+forfeited the name of 'mother' as far as I am concerned. I came at her
+bidding, and against my better judgment--the son of my father can have
+nothing in common with the Marquise de Mortain."
+
+"An you turn to insult ..." exclaimed Laurent hotly.
+
+"There is no insult in an unvarnished fact. Mme. la Marquise de Mortain
+cares less about me than I do about an ill-conditioned cur. And if she
+desires to see my clothes, I can send her a suit fashioned by a tailor
+and stay at home myself the while."
+
+"_Pardieu_, de Maurel," quoth M. de Courson with a laugh, "I had heard
+tales of your tenacity and of your self-will, but none of a certainty
+that do justice to the truth. Come, man! you surely will not allow petty
+obstinacy in so trifling a matter to interfere with the amity which
+should exist between your mother and yourself and towards which she
+hath, you must admit, met you already more than half way."
+
+"But, _nom de Dieu_!" rejoined de Maurel gruffly, "what do want me to do
+_enfin_?"
+
+"Let me take a message to Mme. la Marquise from you," replied M. le
+Comte, "craving her pardon for your want of respect to her this
+forenoon.... There is no shame in humbling one's pride before a woman
+and...."
+
+Then, as de Maurel, moody and wrathful, made no immediate rejoinder to
+the proposal, M. de Courson added more lightly: "Well, what say you?"
+
+"That I've neither mind nor leisure to lend myself to Mme. la Marquise's
+whims and fancies," retorted de Maurel, whose obstinacy was growing in
+proportion with the impatience and arrogance of his kinsmen.
+
+"Nor decent clothes to wear, I warrant," broke in Laurent, as he felt
+his temper flaring up into fury against this ill-bred creature, who
+seemed wholly unconscious of his enormities. "Uncle Baudouin," he added,
+with a sneer, "do not, I pray you, waste your time in trying to instil
+some semblance of good manners into this oaf. One would think he had
+sprung out of the gutter...."
+
+"Hold on, boy!" interposed de Maurel, with a sudden hoarseness in his
+voice, and a clenching of his mighty fist till the knuckles shone like
+ivory through the flesh. "Have I not said that I am not a man of
+patience...?"
+
+"'Tis I who am not a man of patience," retorted Laurent. "Think you I
+can bear much longer the studied insult to us all which your attitude
+implies? Think you that because we are poor you can treat us as you
+would hesitate to treat the meanest peasant on your land? Is your
+apparel a pose or what? You cannot be as ignorant of the usages of good
+society as you pretend to be. After all, we have all been in exile--we
+have lived apart from those of our own breeding, of our own caste, but,
+in spite of our misfortunes we have kept up in our hearts the traditions
+of courtesy and gentle manners which were handed down to us all by our
+fathers--aye, to us all!" he added vehemently, "to you as well as to us.
+You bear one of the noblest names in France, and you pretend to have
+forgotten the most ordinary elements of respect due to the sex which
+hath every claim on our chivalry. Where, in Heaven's name have you been,
+man? Where have you spent your life that you could so far forget the
+traditions of your race?"
+
+De Maurel had proclaimed himself to be a man devoid of patience. Yet he
+had listened attentively to every word that his young brother said. He
+had acquired throughout a hard, self-denying life the supreme virtue of
+silence; he knew--no one better--how to listen. Therefore he did not
+break in on Laurent's tirade. He listened to it to the end, and did not
+even wince at the sneers which his younger brother hurled very freely at
+him. But now that the latter had finished speaking, Ronnay came a step
+or two nearer to him, and drawing himself to his full height, he said,
+with perfect, outward calm:
+
+"Where I spent my life, brother mine? Will you let me tell you, since
+you do not know? My childhood I spent in the old Château of La
+Vieuville, where my uncle Gaston took care of me since my father died
+and my mother had abandoned me in order to pursue her own aims in life,
+which were not those of the man to whom she had sworn fealty at the
+altar...."
+
+"Silence, man!" interposed Laurent excitedly. "I'll not have you vilify
+my mother, whom...."
+
+"I vilify no one," riposted de Maurel quietly. "You have taunted me with
+the query as to how I have spent my life, and you _must_ listen to my
+explanation. My uncle Gaston brought me up as best he could. His life
+was spent in the service of his country; he had but little time to
+devote to my education. Our country then, my good brother, required the
+services of all her children, since those of our kindred and of our
+caste were inciting half Europe to take up arms against her. My boyhood
+I spent helping with my feeble might in the work of defending France
+against the invasion of alien enemies who were bent on destroying her,
+because forsooth they disagreed with her political ideals, and had no
+sympathy with the aims of an entire people, goaded into rebellion by
+centuries of tyranny. I was twelve years old when my uncle Gaston de
+Maurel converted my father's iron foundries into huge factories for the
+manufacture of steel and of gunpowder, wherewith to fight the foreign
+foe abroad and the traitor at home ... aye! twelve years old, my dear
+brother, when my hands ceased to be white and slender and aristocratic
+in shape and colour, and became stained and rough ... unwashed you
+called them just now. At the age when boys of my caste learn how to
+dance and to strum on a spinet, to point their toes and kiss the ladies'
+hands, I learned how to fashion saltpetre out of grit and how to
+transmute church bells into cannon balls. At fifteen I knew how to wield
+a sword and how to handle a gun. My manhood has been spent in camps, in
+the armies of the finest military leader that hath ever led men to glory
+and to victory. When France was attacked from the north and the south,
+from the east and from the west by Austria and Prussia, by Italy and
+England and Russia and Spain, a young general of artillery, not yet
+twenty-three years of age, led her triumphantly from victory to victory
+till the sacred soil of our beautiful country was swept clean of every
+foe. I followed that young leader wherever he went. I fought under him
+at Toulon, I followed him to Austria. I crossed the Alps in his train. I
+fought and bled under his eye for the honour of France and the glory of
+her flag. I starved with him in Egypt; I froze with him in Poland; I
+stood by his side at Austerlitz when the Austrian sued for peace. At
+first we marched and fought in wooden shoes, or with hay-ropes tied
+round our feet; at dead of winter we fought half naked with bast-mats
+slung round our shoulders. But we fought like men and kept whole Europe
+at bay. No, my good Laurent, I did not learn how to enter a salon, or
+how to turn a pretty compliment before ladies, but I know how to dispose
+an army corps when the enemy is in sight. I do not know how to wave a
+scented handkerchief in the air, but I do know how to meet a resolute
+foe in a hand-to-hand combat. My life has been spent in ridding France
+of foreigners, and of traitors, of idlers and slackers and useless
+good-for-nothing sybarites, and in the process my hands have remained
+rough and stained. I am a cripple now--not for always, I hope--and I
+wear a workman's blouse, because I have become a workman since I no
+longer can be a soldier. As soon as I can walk straight again I'll be
+back to fight under the Tricolour flag of France--to fight against the
+foreign enemy--to fight against treachery at home--to fight for the
+rights of manhood and citizenship, with unquenchable spirit and dogged
+determination, and continue to spend my life, as I have done up to now,
+until, please God, mine will be the glory to shed my last drop of blood
+for France!"
+
+He paused--for want of breath mayhap--for, indeed, his rugged eloquence
+was carrying him away on the wings of his fervour and his burning
+patriotism. M. de Courson and Laurent de Mortain had listened to him in
+sullen silence. Once or twice Laurent had made an effort to interrupt,
+but de Maurel spoke very loudly and forcibly, and the other perforce had
+to remain silent. Once or twice he affected to smother a yawn, and he
+would have given much to be able to turn his back on this ranting
+demagogue--as he inwardly termed him--and to leave him to continue his
+ravings in solitude. But, in spite of himself, something held him back.
+There was a certain forcefulness, a certain directness as well as pride
+in Ronnay de Maurel's impassioned harangue which compelled attention,
+even if it did not call for respect. Laurent de Mortain--and M. le Comte
+de Courson also, for that matter--were soldiers and patriots, too. There
+was much in them which was every whit as fine and brave as the soul of
+de Maurel which was finding expression in his eloquent words. It was
+only the divergence of ideals which stood between these Royalists and
+the man who they considered had been a traitor to his caste.
+
+There was the pity of it! The miserable, irretrievable pity! The
+children of France were at deadly enmity with one another; their
+different political aims had caused an abyss to form between them, which
+nothing now could bridge over. There was a total lack of understanding,
+and, alas! the many outrages perpetrated on both sides had rendered the
+breach for ever impassable. M. de Courson and Laurent de Mortain saw in
+de Maurel the product of the spirit of regicide, of the sanguinary
+revolution which had committed the most brutal excesses the civilized
+world had ever seen; and Ronnay de Maurel saw in his kinsmen only the
+incarnation of that spirit which had not been content to fight for the
+cause of its traditions, but had treacherously sold the country to the
+foreign foe, had brought foreign armies within the sacred boundaries of
+France, had sought the aid of foreigners to gain victory for its arms.
+
+And these three men, in whom flowed the same blood of kinship, stood now
+confronting one another with something like deadly hatred flashing in
+their eyes. The two brothers, indeed, presented a strange contrast:
+Laurent, slender and graceful, with smoothly-dressed dark hair crowning
+a face full of charm and delicacy, with hands white and soft, with
+clothes that fitted his elegant young figure to perfection; and Ronnay
+de Maurel, tall and ungainly, in rough blouse and heavy boots, with
+rugged face bronzed by campaigning in all weathers and furrowed long
+before its time, with eyes of a deep blue, that appeared almost black
+beneath the straight, square brow and firm mouth set in hard, obstinate
+lines. Indeed, it was not six years that lay between them in age, but a
+whole century--a century of thoughtlessness, of easy-going tyranny, of
+selfishness on the one hand, and one of rebellion and self-will on the
+other, and there was a century of suffering and of wrongs to be avenged
+on either side.
+
+
+IV
+
+It seemed, indeed, as if nothing now could avert an immediate quarrel
+between the two brothers. The breach between them had been widened by
+bitter words on both sides, and if at this juncture it came to open
+enmity between them, that breach mayhap would never be patched up again.
+M. de Courson, as usual, tried to play his part of peace-maker. In his
+heart of hearts he could not help but give a certain measure of
+admiration to de Maurel's fearless exposé of the situation. He himself
+being innately loyal, recognized and appreciated loyalty in others. He
+did not want to see a quarrel between the brothers now. His sober
+judgment still clung to the desire for conciliation, and he still clung
+to the hope that this semi-educated boor could be tamed into something
+that was not only presentable, but also useful to the cause which he and
+his kindred had so much at heart.
+
+Therefore he made one more effort to interpose in a conciliatory spirit
+between these two smouldering tempers.
+
+"It was not your brother's intention, my good de Maurel," he said, "nor,
+I vow, was it mine to cast aspersions upon your manhood or your valour.
+Your tirade--an you will permit me to say so without offence--was,
+therefore, quite superfluous, since it had no bearing upon the subject
+which we were discussing...."
+
+"Namely, your want of respect to our mother," concluded Laurent
+wrathfully.
+
+"Nay!" retorted de Maurel curtly. "Methought that we were chiefly
+engaged in discussing my clothes."
+
+"Until you chose to cast aspersions on Mme. la Marquise de Mortain,
+which I for one will not tolerate."
+
+"If I have said aught to offend Mme. la Marquise," said Ronnay curtly,
+"I'll crave her pardon.... I had no intention to offend."
+
+"Yet you do, man, you do," riposted Laurent hotly; "not only with your
+words, not only with your clothes, but by flaunting before her eyes that
+badge of infamy which you wear upon your breast."
+
+"Laurent!" interposed M. de Courson quickly, for unobservant and obtuse
+though he was, he had not failed to note that de Maurel's face had
+suddenly become extraordinarily livid in hue, and that the breath came
+and went through his tightly clenched teeth with a curious, hissing
+sound.
+
+"Nay, M. le Comte," he broke in slowly after a while, "I pray you do not
+try and stem the flow of my brother's eloquence. Meseems that the next
+few moments will clear the somewhat close atmosphere of Courson from a
+veritable fog of misunderstandings. I was under the impression that my
+linen blouse and muddy boots had alone offended Mme. la Marquise's
+aristocratic glance; it seems that there's something more about my
+person which hath not found favour in her sight."
+
+Laurent, at these words, uttered in a husky voice as if the man were
+choking, broke into a strident laugh, and with uplifted hand he pointed
+to the crimson ribbon on Ronnay's blouse.
+
+"Eminently suitable in colour," he said with a sneer, which suddenly
+sent the hot blood rushing back to the other's pale cheeks, "and well
+chosen by a baseborn adventurer to commemorate all the innocent blood
+which his treachery and vanity have helped to shed."
+
+There came a quick flash in de Maurel's eyes, which the younger man
+would have been wise to heed. "Hold on, man! hold on!" he said, still
+speaking slowly and with seeming calm, "ere your profane mouth utter a
+sacrilege! This ribbon was pinned upon my breast on the glorious field
+of Austerlitz by the man whose valour and glory have won undying laurels
+for France--by the patriot who swept the soil of our beautiful country
+clean from foreign foes ... and whom an adoring nation hath proclaimed
+its Lord and Emperor."
+
+Laurent threw back his head, whilst a glance of withering scorn shot
+from his fine eyes and swept the uncouth figure of his soldier brother.
+
+"Lord and Emperor!" he exclaimed. "Hark at the miserable besotted fool!
+at the traitor! the regicide! Lord and Emperor forsooth! the base-born
+son of a vulgar father--a Corsican adventurer and knight of industry,
+who is clever enough to gull a wretched nation into kissing the rod
+which God hath devised for its punishment...."
+
+"Silence!" thundered de Maurel, and with a quick movement forward he
+gripped Laurent by the wrist. "Silence, you dolt! you fool! Another word
+and I force you down on your knees to crave pardon in your stupid heart
+for the impious nonsense which your insentient tongue hath uttered.
+Silence, I say!"
+
+"Silence!" retorted Laurent, who by now had lost complete control over
+his nerves and whose voice sounded shrill and cracked. "Nay! why should
+I be silent, when the whole of Europe cries anathema against the
+usurper? Shame on you, my brother, shame! for parading your own
+dishonour upon your breast."
+
+"Dishonour?"
+
+"Aye, dishonour! What else is it, I pray, but the livery of traitors, of
+regicides and of murderers? Legion of Honour the Corsican has dared to
+call it--and you, it seems, are one of his Grand-Eagles ... but we who
+are loyal to France and to our King, we proclaim it the Legion of
+Dishonour, and you and such as you a herd of devouring vultures. Shed
+your livery of shame, my brother, ere I smite you with it in the face."
+
+De Maurel up to now had been perhaps more bewildered than infuriated by
+the ravings of this young madman; but now, ere he had time to realize
+what Laurent was doing, and before M. de Courson could interfere, the
+young Marquis had, with a quick and almost savage gesture, gripped the
+crimson ribbon on his brother's breast and torn it violently from the
+blouse. The next moment he threw it with an exclamation of loathing upon
+the floor. A cry as of an enraged bull came from de Maurel's throat, and
+his two hands--the hard, strong hands of the toiler--fastened themselves
+like clamps of steel upon the young man's shoulders.
+
+"On your knees, on your knees, you blasphemous malapert," he said, as
+with well-nigh brutal strength he gradually forced Laurent down. "On
+your knees! You shall lick the dust for this monstrous sacrilege....
+Your unhallowed hands shall not touch that sacred badge ... with your
+lips you shall pick it out of the dust ... you...."
+
+"Let me go!" cried Laurent hoarsely. "Uncle Baudouin, _à moi_!"
+
+"On your knees!" reiterated de Maurel fiercely.
+
+He was possessed of immense strength. Laurent, despite his every effort
+to free himself and to remain defiant, felt his knees giving way under
+him. The pain in his shoulders and his back, caused by that iron grip,
+turned him sick and faint, whilst M. le Comte's attempts at interference
+were obviously of no avail. Insults and protests died upon his lips; he
+saw the stern, dark face which was bending over him as through a veil of
+mist ... that mist soon became of a crimson hue ... like blood. Laurent
+felt all the tumultuous blood of his race rushing through his veins; his
+head was swimming, his ears buzzing, and he saw red ... a sea of red in
+front of his eyes. His hand with a last convulsive gesture wandered to
+his hip, and was buried for a moment under his coat. The next moment it
+reappeared with a hunting-knife in its grasp.
+
+
+V
+
+"Laurent, in the name of Heaven, think of what you are doing!"
+
+The call, soft as that of a frightened bird, came from the door
+immediately behind Laurent. He was down on one knee at that moment, with
+one hand he was steadying himself against the floor, the other, holding
+the large hunting-knife, was raised ready to strike. For one second
+only; the next the grip on his shoulders was relaxed, the dark face,
+distorted with wrath and contempt, seemed to fade away into the dim
+distance, and he fell back half swooning against a heavy chair close by.
+
+At the sound of that agonized woman's cry de Maurel's grip on his
+brother's shoulders had suddenly relaxed. He looked up, and for a moment
+it seemed to him as if he were gazing on something unreal; there was a
+veil in front of his eyes, and he could see nothing clearly, not even
+the apparition in the doorway ... a slender apparition clad all in white
+... the exquisite form of a woman--a mere child--dressed in a white gown
+cut low round the shoulders, in accordance with the prevailing mode;
+her neck, shoulders and arms were bare; her tiny head was crowned with a
+wealth of fair hair, which clustered in unruly curls round the perfect
+oval of her face; her eyes, with large pupils dilated now with fear and
+horror, were of an unfathomable blue. She had been carrying a sheaf of
+bluebells in her arm, the spoils of the woodland round Courson; but at
+the awful sight which greeted her as she pushed open the door of the
+boudoir, the flowers fell from her hands and now lay scattered in a
+delicious tangled mass of blue--like the colour of her eyes--at her
+feet.
+
+As Ronnay de Maurel slowly straightened out his herculean figure, the
+details of the exquisite picture before him reached his perceptions one
+by one. He saw the delicate hands stretched out toward him with a
+feminine gesture of protection; he saw the dainty feet encased in
+sandals, which looked as if they scarce would touch the ground; he saw
+the full, red lips still parted with that cry of horror which she had
+uttered, and the eyes of that unfathomable blue like the sea in the Bay
+of Genoa, fixed upon him with puzzlement not unmixed with awe.
+
+The vision cleared and he became conscious that it was reality. He heard
+M. de Courson saying with a sigh of relief: "Fernande, thank God! you
+came just in time." He saw the exquisite apparition hurrying to Laurent
+and helping him to rise. Never in all his life had he seen anything so
+ethereal and so pure--and suddenly he became conscious of himself--of
+his rough clothes and his stained hands; he could have called to the
+inanimate objects in the room to close in upon him and to bury him out
+of sight. Like a wild animal at bay, he gave a rapid furtive glance
+around; his eye alighted on the bit of red ribbon which a boy's impious
+hand had torn from his breast. This he picked up, swiftly, stealthily;
+then holding it tightly in his clenched hand, he turned without another
+word, without another look, and fled precipitately from the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE SPRINGTIME OF THE YEAR
+
+
+I
+
+An hour later Mme. la Marquise de Mortain had been put in possession of
+all the facts which related to Ronnay de Maurel's quarrel with his
+brother and of his hasty exit from the château. Laurent had recovered
+from his sudden access of madness, and was not a little ashamed that
+Fernande had seen him at the very height of his outburst of fury against
+his brother, when fratricide was in his eye and in his uplifted hand. M.
+de Courson preserved a non-committal attitude. He was bound to maintain
+that de Maurel had been unduly provoked, yet owned that he was guilty of
+a grave social solecism in wearing the badge of the usurper in the house
+of his kinsfolk who were loyal adherents of the King. He thought the
+whole episode a grave pity, since it had undoubtedly jeopardized, if not
+entirely upset, every plan for ultimate conciliation.
+
+"You promised me, Laurent," said Madame, with a frown of impatience,
+"that you would not quarrel with your brother."
+
+"He exasperated me beyond endurance," retorted Laurent moodily, "and I
+consider that the manner in which he appeared here in Courson was an
+insult to us all."
+
+It became very noticeable after a while that Fernande offered no opinion
+upon the brooding catastrophe which her timely interference alone had
+averted. At the midday meal, whilst every phase of the momentous
+interview with de Maurel was being discussed by the others, she remained
+strangely self-absorbed and silent. She was eating her dinner with a
+childish and hearty appetite, but whenever she sipped her wine, she
+looked over her glass and through the window opposite with eyes that
+seemed to dance with inward merriment and with elfish mischief, and
+whilst her father and her aunt talked and argued and conjectured, a
+whimsical smile played round the corners of her full, red lips.
+
+"Something seems to have tickled your fancy, Fernande," said Laurent at
+last with some irritation, when on two separate occasions the young girl
+failed to reply to a direct question addressed to her by him.
+
+"Something has," Fernande replied demurely.
+
+"May we know what it is?" queried Mme. la Marquise. "The situation," she
+added tartly, "has become so grave for us all that, personally, I fail
+to detect any humour in it."
+
+"That's just it, _ma tante_," rejoined Fernande gaily. "You fail to
+detect any humour in to-day's occurrence, so does father--so does
+Laurent. That is just what seems to me so ludicrous. The situation may
+be grave, but it is also very funny, and whilst you were all lamenting
+over it I was turning it over in my mind how best we can utilize it to
+our advantage."
+
+"You are far too young, Fernande," interposed M. le Comte dryly, "to
+turn over any grave situation in your mind."
+
+"Let us allow, then, that I have said nothing," retorted Fernande, with
+the same demure casting down of her eyes, which implied that a fund of
+worldly knowledge was concealed behind her smooth, white brow.
+
+"Nay, my dear Baudouin," rejoined Mme. la Marquise sharply, "'tis like a
+father to belittle his own child's wisdom. I for one am over-ready to
+listen to advice wherever it may come from. I feel so guilty about the
+whole affair, for I fear me that we have gravely compromised the
+interests of His Majesty by quarrelling hopelessly with my son.
+
+"I had made such firm resolutions," she added with a sigh, "to
+conciliate him, to make friends with him if possible. His help--or,
+failing that, his neutrality--would have been of such immense value to
+our cause. I had dreams of establishing myself at La Frontenay, of using
+the place as an arsenal--as headquarters for our leaders ... of
+suborning or winning over the workmen at the factory.... I am
+heart-broken at the thought that my own foolishness hath all in a moment
+destroyed my best laid schemes."
+
+"Nay, _ma tante_," here broke in the young girl, with an elfish toss of
+her dainty head, "your schemes have not yet gone agley, that I can see.
+My cousin Ronnay--he is my cousin, is he not?--has of a truth departed
+hence in high dudgeon--but surely he can be brought back?"
+
+"Never!" asserted M. de Courson emphatically.
+
+And Mme. la Marquise shook her head. "No one can gauge the obstinate
+temper of a de Maurel--and Ronnay is the living image of his father. It
+was a delicate business to get him to come here at all. I declare that I
+am at my wits' ends how to bring him back."
+
+For a moment or two Fernande de Courson was silent; a gentle glow
+suffused her cheeks, her eyes danced with mischief, her whole face was
+lit up with inward merriment.
+
+"Will you let me try?" she asked suddenly.
+
+"You, Fernande?" exclaimed Mme. la Marquise. "What in the world can you
+do in the matter?"
+
+"Quite a great deal, _ma tante_," replied Fernande with that demure
+little air, which sat so quaintly upon her laughter-loving face.
+
+"Ronnay de Maurel," here interposed M. de Courson, "is not bait for a
+feminine fisher. If you have thoughts of casting your nets in that
+direction, my child...."
+
+"I for one would protest," broke in Laurent hotly.
+
+"Protest against what?" queried the girl, and she turned wide, inquiring
+eyes on the young man, eyes in which injured innocence, unfettered
+mischief and provoking coquetry were alike expressed.
+
+"Against your sowing seeds of hope of ... of ..." stammered Laurent with
+a scowl; "against your exercising your arts on that lout, who no doubt
+is filled with self-conceit, and might imagine things which...."
+
+Fernande leaned back in her chair, and her rippling childlike laugh
+roused the echoes of the ancient walls around.
+
+"Oh, you funny, jealous old Laurent!" she said breathlessly. Then seeing
+that the young man still looked morose and wrathful, she went on, with a
+quick turn to seriousness: "You are childish, my dear cousin. Let me
+begin by reminding you that your jealousy is not only unjustifiable but
+singularly out of place. The interests of His Majesty being at stake, it
+behoves us all to sharpen our wits by mature reflection, rather than to
+dull them by senseless outbursts of temper. _Ma tante_ declared just now
+that M. de Maurel's wealth and influence would be of inestimable value
+to His Majesty, and yet owned that she was at her wits' ends how to
+bring him back repentant or reconciled to Courson. Well, where _ma
+tante_ owns to having failed, I still believe in success; and though
+father says that I am too young to turn a grave situation over in my
+mind, I am convinced that I can turn the present one to our advantage."
+
+"But how, my dear child?" sighed Madame dejectedly, "how?"
+
+"I don't know yet," rejoined Fernande, "but I would dearly love to try."
+
+"To try and do what?" queried Laurent, who was by no means mollified.
+
+"To make the bear dance to my piping," replied Fernande archly.
+
+"That is what I could never allow."
+
+"If _ma tante_ grant me leave," quoth Fernande dryly, "you, my dear
+cousin, will not be asked to give your consent."
+
+"Fernande!" exclaimed the young man, in a tone of passionate reproach.
+
+"There! there!" she said gently, "do not look so glum. It was you,
+remember, who talked of sowing seeds of hope in the impressionable field
+of M. de Maurel's fancy.... Father and _tante_ Denise spoke of the
+necessity of making friends with that untamed bear, and I...."
+
+"Yes? You, Fernande?" queried Laurent, his glowering eyes fixed moodily
+upon the exquisite face that smiled so tantalizingly upon him.
+
+"I," she said lightly, "have no other wish save to bring back that same
+untamed bear to heel, and to make him pay his respects to _ma tante_; to
+bring him back to Courson, not once but often and willingly, until we
+are all the best of friends."
+
+Then as her sally was greeted by a shrug of the shoulders from her
+father, a sigh of despondency from her aunt and a further scowl from
+Laurent, she continued more earnestly:
+
+"Surely, if M. de Maurel's friendship is so important to the interests
+of His Majesty as _ma tante_ and father think, it is worth while making
+an effort to gain it. No harm can come in trying. If I fail we shall be
+no worse off than we are now."
+
+"You will fail, my dear," concluded Mme. la Marquise, with her usual
+authoritative decision. "You will fail. No de Maurel has yet succumbed
+to a woman's charm unless interest or obstinacy prepared him for the
+fall."
+
+"Well, in this case obstinacy mayhap will prepare M. de Maurel for the
+fall. Laurent," added the young girl, turning once more to her cousin
+with merry, glowing blue eyes, "will you take me in a level bet that
+this day month Ronnay de Maurel will dance to my piping like a tamed
+bear? He will at my suggestion ask you and _ma tante_ to take up your
+quarters at La Frontenay, he will close his eyes to everything that we
+don't wish him to see. His money and his influence will be at our
+disposal. With his help we'll dethrone that impudent Bonaparte whom at
+present he worships and who has dared to seat himself upon the throne of
+France, and we'll bring His Majesty King Louis XVIII. back to his own
+heritage again."
+
+She rose to her feet, and with mock solemnity she held up her glass.
+"Long live Ronnay de Maurel!" she said, "by the grace of God and the
+machinations of Fernande de Courson the most loyal adherent His Majesty
+has ever had."
+
+Then she placed her small white hand on Laurent's shoulder.
+
+"I entreat you not to look so glum, dear cousin," she said, with that
+tender earnestness which at times lent to her dainty face an additional
+and contrasting charm. "Your own courage and loyalty will have their
+due; the courage and loyalty of all those who have sacrificed everything
+for King and country will have their just reward. But, remember, that
+the prospects of the cause which we all have so much at heart are none
+too rosy just now. We may despise Bonaparte for an usurper and impudent
+knight of industry, but we must grant that he is passing clever, and
+that he holds the allegiance of the nation at this moment in the hollow
+of his hand. We cannot go with flying banners through the villages and
+towns of Normandy and rally enthusiastic recruits to our armies; we
+shall have to go very warily to work and meet cunning with cunning ere
+we succeed. We want M. de Maurel's wealth, we want his influence. You
+knew that this morning, dear Laurent; _ma tante_ knew it and desired it
+passionately. Yet you both quarrelled with him within half an hour of
+his arrival here."
+
+"He insulted my mother," broke in Laurent hotly. "He...."
+
+"I know he did," she rejoined quietly. "He is a bear--one with a sore
+head and an ill temper. But even flies must needs be caught with honey.
+You all think me very babyish and stupid, I know! Father says that I am
+too young even to weigh a serious situation in my mind. Well, that may
+be so, I don't know. But childish instinct hath oft been a guiding star,
+where hoary-headed wisdom has groped in the dark, and in any case,
+there is no one in the whole of France who has the cause of our King
+more at heart than I have."
+
+"We all know that, my child," said the Comte gravely; "it was far from
+me to impugn your loyalty."
+
+"Only my wisdom--eh, father mine? But 'tis not wisdom that is required
+now. Wisdom has quarrelled with Ronnay de Maurel--guilelessness shall
+bring about the reconciliation. M. de Maurel's wealth shall be placed at
+the service of the King on the faith of Fernande de Courson!"
+
+"God hear you, my child!" concluded Mme. la Marquise fervently.
+
+
+II
+
+After that the conversation drifted to other subjects. Laurent remained
+morose until the end of dinner and Fernande made no effort to cheer him
+up. In the late afternoon she wandered out into the open. The garden was
+a mere tangle of weeds and overgrown shrubs; there were neither lawns
+nor parterres, but it smelled good of fresh earth and spring rains, of
+wet young leaves and opening blossom.
+
+Fernande had slipped a coarse gardening apron over her white gown and,
+gardening tools in hand, she set to work to disentangle a fragrant hedge
+of hawthorn and lilac from a mass of encroaching weeds. Despite the
+sorrowful outlook in her young life, despite the cares and heavy
+thoughts which weighed upon her father and her friends and
+kindred--almost despite herself--she felt singularly gay and elated. It
+was not the fashion to be merry in the circles of these émigrés who had
+just returned to their devastated homes, through the clemency of the
+Corsican usurper; tempers had to be sober and looks demure. The cause of
+the King had to be fought again; thoughts of danger, of conspiracy and
+self-sacrifice--aye! even of crime--all in a just cause--were in the
+air. Women, men, young girls and boys were prepared to shed the last
+drop of their blood in order to restore the Bourbons to their heritage,
+even though the nation had ceased to want them, and to oust from his
+self-constituted throne the soldier of fortune--the Emperor, who to many
+was still the little corporal, and who was the idol of France.
+
+These aims were so high and so serious, that levity appeared out of
+place. Mme. la Marquise never smiled, M. de Courson was a pattern of
+seriousness, Laurent was ofttimes self-absorbed and always thoughtful,
+and Fernande--when her natural gaiety, her youth and healthful spirits
+caused inward laughter to bubble up and a song to rise to her
+throat--would take refuge in the tangled garden and share her joy in
+life with the birds.
+
+She was fond of the solitude, the quietude of those avenues of limes,
+wherein the call of mating birds alone disturbed the silence that
+reigned around. Fernande was very young still--little more than a child,
+scarce out of the school-room, wherein the only lesson of life which she
+had learned was that of loyalty to a degenerate cause, of sacrifice to
+ideals and political aims which she really was far too inexperienced
+thoroughly to understand. Her heart was full of the aspirations of a
+healthy young being who sees life lying a rose-coloured dream stretched
+out before her, of a desire for a happiness at which she could only
+vaguely guess, for joy and gaiety, for poetry and for beauty. And it was
+full, too, of that vague longing for love which stirs the sensibilities
+of every woman the moment she steps across the threshold of childhood.
+But of this Fernande de Courson was no more conscious than is the
+rose-bud when it opens its sweet-scented corolla to the kiss of the sun.
+Ever since her fair curls had been dressed to the top of her head she
+had looked on Laurent de Mortain as her future husband. Never in so many
+words had she plighted her troth to him, but she knew that she loved him
+with a tenderness that no other emotion in her could surpass. He was so
+handsome, and his voice had a delicious tremor in it when he spoke her
+name. No other man had touched her heart as he did, no words of love
+spoken by other lips--and she had heard many--had caused the same
+delicious blush to rise to her cheeks. She was never so gay as when,
+hand in hand, with Laurent, she could wander through the peaceful lanes
+of Devonshire in far-off England, even though the shadow of poverty and
+of exile had already darkened her young life. She was never so happy as
+when Laurent sat or knelt beside her, and in impassioned tones spoke to
+her of the future, when the sombre cloud of anarchy and rebellion would
+be lifted from fair France, and he and she together would enjoy the
+delights of repatriation, of home and comfort and peace.
+
+Yet in spite of all this, in spite of her deep love for Laurent and her
+delight in his company, Fernande on this late afternoon of early May was
+conscious of a slight feeling of impatience when she suddenly spied him
+coming towards her from the terrace. Her head was so full of exciting
+and riotous thoughts that she longed for solitude so that she might
+co-ordinate them. The project which she had so boldly formulated a while
+ago of bringing Ronnay de Maurel back to heel like a repentant cur, had
+of a certainty been the result of impulse, but not of a thoughtless one.
+It had its origin in the flash from his dark eyes as they met hers for
+one second across the uplifted arm of a would-be fratricide. During that
+one second Fernande, with that swift intuition which some women possess,
+had read each varying emotion as it became reflected in their depths:
+wrath, puzzlement, bewilderment--then that gradual softening of the
+sinister scowl, the changing hue of the orb from black to a deep violet,
+the look of self-consciousness and of shame. Fernande had seen the
+pathetic and furtive glance cast on the stained blouse and the toil-worn
+hands; she had seen the stealthy grasp of that bit of crimson ribbon,
+the one brief flash of pride wherewith the outraged soldier clasped the
+insignia of glory to his breast.
+
+And from out that one peep into a man's troubled soul Fernande had woven
+her project of winning him to the cause which was so dear to her heart.
+
+
+III
+
+The project being still immature, Fernande had wandered out into the
+garden with the intention of thinking out its preliminary details; she
+was not attuned to Laurent's society just then. In her heart she knew
+that he disapproved of her plan; that his jealousy--which at all times
+was on the qui-vive--would flare up at the first bond of harmony which
+she would succeed in effecting with Ronnay de Maurel. Indeed, she would
+have need of all her sharp wits and her feminine wiles to bring the two
+brothers together again and yet to avert a quarrel more deadly than the
+first.
+
+For the moment she was intent on her work, and not prepared to listen to
+Laurent's tender reproaches. The weeds were many, and despite the
+earliness of the year had already become rank. She had been humming a
+little ditty quietly to herself: "Et ron et ron! petit Pataplon! Il
+était une bergère!" But now, when she heard Laurent's footsteps on the
+path behind her, the song died upon her lips. She made pretence not to
+hear his coming, nor did she turn her head in his direction until he
+called her name:
+
+"Fernande!"
+
+Even then she appeared too busy to do more than respond quite calmly:
+"Yes, Laurent. Is that you?"
+
+Then, as he remained silent, and seemed to have come to a halt
+immediately beside her, she continued serenely:
+
+"I am sorry if you want me to come for a walk just now. I must finish
+clearing this piece of hedge. Will you go and get a hoe and lend me a
+helping hand?"
+
+"I will in a moment," he replied, "but not just yet. I must speak to
+you, Fernande--just for a few minutes.... Will you turn to me and put
+down those tools a while? Upon my soul, it is passing serious ...
+Fernande!" he reiterated more earnestly, seeing that with strange
+obstinacy the young girl still kept her head resolutely bent to her
+work.
+
+But at his insistence she threw down her tools and straightened her
+young figure. "What is it?" she queried as she faced him, with a mocking
+glance in her blue eyes.
+
+He took her hand, which for just the space of a second she tried to free
+from his grasp.
+
+"Fernande," he said in a tender tone of appeal, "you are not angry with
+me, are you?"
+
+"Angry? You foolish Laurent!" she retorted gently. "Why should I be
+angry?"
+
+"You did not mean all that you said at table?" he insisted.
+
+"What did I say?"
+
+"You implied by your words that ... that it was not within my rights to
+control your actions."
+
+"Well," she asked, holding her tiny head a little to one side, and
+giving him an arch look of coquetry from beneath her long lashes, "is
+it?"
+
+"Fernande," he entreated.
+
+"Well, what is it?"
+
+"You don't know how you hurt me, when you speak so flippantly. If you
+only knew how every word from your dear lips sinks into my heart! The
+cruel words make it ache so that I could cry out with the pain ... and
+one sweet word from you makes me so happy that I would not exchange this
+earth for the most glorious corner of paradise."
+
+"Dear, foolish Laurent!" she sighed. Indeed, her heart was, as usual,
+inexpressibly touched by his ardour. She could see that his eyes were
+moist with unshed tears. She allowed him to take both her hands and to
+draw her nearer to him; she did not protest when anon his arm stole
+round her waist, and he buried his face against her shoulder. Indeed,
+she felt a wonderful fondness at this moment for the companion of her
+youth, the playmate of her childhood in the far-off days in England,
+when they were all poor and wretched together and had only each other
+to cling to, to trust, to look to for solace and for sympathy. She felt
+his burning kiss upon her neck, and with her small hand she stroked his
+hair and patted his cheek with a tender, almost maternal gesture.
+
+The day was fast drawing in. The softness of the night--of a spring
+night laden with the fragrance of opening buds and ripening
+blossom--wrapped the sweet tangle of young growth in its embrace. The
+lilac and the hawthorn were weighted with April rain, overhead the
+branches of a young lime quivered in the evening breeze ere it sent down
+a shower of scented drops upon the two young people who were clinging to
+one another in the pure embrace of budding love. The mating birds in the
+branches of the old elms had already gone to rest; from far away came
+the monotonous croaking of frogs and the soft call of the wood-pigeons
+from the tangled woodland close by.
+
+"Fernande," reiterated Laurent with growing intensity, "you do love me,
+do you not?"
+
+And nothing could have been more tender, nothing more serene than her
+reply, and the kiss wherewith she just touched his hair:
+
+"Of course I love you, dear Laurent. You have so often asked me that.
+Why do you ask again?"
+
+"Because I want to make sure of you, Fernande," he retorted vehemently,
+as both his arms closed round her now. "I want to make sure," he
+reiterated passionately. "I would give my soul to know what goes on
+behind that exquisite, white forehead of yours. Oh, of course you are a
+child: you don't understand--you cannot--the torture which the serenity
+of your blue eyes inflicts on me at moments like this, when I long to
+kiss you and yet feel that your sweet lips will not answer to mine with
+the same thrill of passion which has gone nigh to searing my soul."
+
+"Dear Laurent," murmured Fernande with tender indulgence. She disengaged
+herself quite gently from his arms, and then coolly divested herself of
+her gardening apron.
+
+"There," she said gaily, "it is too dark to go on weeding. We'll go for
+a walk, dear cousin, an you have a mind. Dear, foolish Laurent! I
+believe you are ready to cry! Why, on such a lovely spring evening as
+this I feel as if I could run singing and shouting through the woods!
+Come with me to the lake. I feel sure the fairy pigeons will be cooing
+to-night, and the white dove rise from its watery prison, never to be
+captured again. You know the legend, dear cousin, do you not? Old
+Matthieu told it me in his quaint, halting way. Come to the lake and
+I'll tell it you. Perhaps we'll see the white pigeon. If we do, it means
+that we have found lasting happiness...."
+
+"More like we'll only hear the grey ones," he rejoined with a sigh.
+"Yes, I know the legend of the fairy pigeons--but they are not like to
+foretell happiness for any of us just now."
+
+"Father is very anxious," she mused.
+
+"So are we all. We are arming the countryside as fast as we can, but we
+have so little money ... so few opportunities for drilling the raw
+village lads in the use of arms, so little place wherein to keep our
+stores. Fouché's spies are everywhere. One does not know whom one can
+trust. Oh, if we had La Frontenay and Ronnay de Maurel's wealth at our
+disposal, King Louis would be back in France ere the leaves which are
+now unfolding have fallen from the trees."
+
+"You shall have both. That is to be my affair."
+
+"But...."
+
+"Nay!" she broke in a little impatiently; "but methought you had the
+cause of our King at heart. Are you going to allow petty jealousy to
+stand in the way of success?"
+
+"I would give my life for our cause, Fernande," he retorted firmly. "You
+know that. But," he added, with one of those sudden waves of passion
+which had the power through their very might to raise a responsive
+thrill in the young girl's heart, "God help me! I do believe that if I
+had to choose 'twixt my duty to my King and my love for you, I would
+forget everything for the sake of my love."
+
+Darkness was closing in around them, and they wandered together through
+the broken-down monumental gates of the park, in the stone ornaments of
+which thrushes and finches had built their nests. An intoxicating scent
+of lilac was in the air; Laurent's arm was round his beloved, and she
+leaned against his shoulder. The gathering gloom lent him courage; he
+poured into Fernande's shell-like ear the full phial of his impassioned
+eloquence, and for once it seemed to him as if she responded with all
+the fervour of her young soul. The danger which encompassed him, the
+duty which he set out to fulfil, the spirit of self-sacrifice which
+caused him to give up a life of ease and of pleasure for stern adherence
+to his ideals--all helped to render him dear to Fernande; and when,
+leaving the park behind them, they wandered in the woods, where at their
+feet the dead leaves of yester year made a soft carpet whereon they
+walked, and where overhead soft, almost imperceptible twitter of birds
+proclaimed the spring of the year, Laurent suddenly raised her face to
+his and mutely asked for that first kiss which would transform a girl's
+tenderness into a woman's love.
+
+She looked up into his eyes and thought him handsome and brave, and when
+his lips at last sought hers, she gave caress for caress with all the
+selflessness born of springtime, of youth, of a passionate yearning for
+happiness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE LEGEND OF ST. FRONT
+
+
+It all occurred when the world was very young indeed, and when knowledge
+and civilization had not yet penetrated to this far-off corner of
+romantic Normandy. In those days--oh, it was long before the house of
+Capet had ceased to reign in France--long before St. Louis had taught
+his subjects that spiritual power came from God alone--it was long
+before the noble lord Archbishop of Caen preached the First Crusade
+against the Turks--in those days then, there lived in what was then the
+hamlet of Villemor a man who was deeply versed in the sculptor's art.
+The tales of the country-side have it that he could fashion men and
+beasts out of stone with such marvellous skill, that none could
+distinguish God's own living work from that accomplished by this, one of
+His most humble creatures.
+
+So clever, indeed, did he become in his art, that the priests and monks
+of the district became alarmed, fearing that this man's skill was
+instigated by the devil, and that unless something was done to exorcise
+Satan, that Spirit of Evil might take up his permanent abode in the
+hamlet of Villemor. One day the good Jean Front--such was the sculptor's
+name--carved from out a block of stone a group of pigeons; the birds
+were grouped around a fountain, and on the ground below could be seen
+the grains of maize wherewith an unseen hand had apparently been feeding
+them. So exquisite was this work, that those who were privileged to see
+it could almost have sworn that the birds moved along on their tiny
+feet, that they arched their graceful necks, pecked at the grains of
+maize and drank at the water of the fountain. Indeed, the pigeons
+appeared so alive, that many declared that they could hear them coo, and
+all vowed that they were ready to fly away.
+
+Now the goodly Abbot of Villemor had no liking for such devilish arts;
+but he also was troubled by the sin of curiosity. Assembling the most
+learned monks of his order around him, he declared his intention of
+going forth into the hamlet, and of seeking out that mysterious
+artificer, whose fame was spreading beyond the confines of the fief. In
+state then, his gold-broidered mitre on his head, his staff in his hand,
+my lord Abbot sallied forth on a fine June morning to betake himself to
+the hamlet of Villemor. Behind him walked the Prior and other
+dignitaries of the Abbey, singing canticles and swinging censers, for,
+of a truth, the devils hate the smell of incense, which is the emblem of
+prayer when it rises straight up to God.
+
+The legend goes on to say that my lord the Abbot was greatly shocked at
+sight of the sculptor's handiwork. There were the pigeons of a
+truth--feathers, feet, beaks, eyes and all--just the same as the Creator
+Himself would have fashioned them.
+
+"So! Ho! Thou impious malapert!" or words to that effect, we are told,
+did the holy man hurl at the unfortunate craftsman. "Darest thou to
+fancy thyself the equal of thy Maker?"
+
+Whereupon poor Jean Front seems vigorously to have protested that such
+sacrilegious thoughts had never entered his head, and that, on the
+contrary, his only desire was to dedicate his skill to the service of
+God.
+
+But this humility wholly failed to satisfy the learned Abbot.
+
+"Such skill as thou hast," he thundered in his holy wrath, "thou couldst
+not of thyself acquire. 'Tis the devil hath taught thee ... 'tis the
+devil hath given thee the strength to defy God by arrogating unto
+thyself the power to multiply the creatures of His hand!"
+
+There appears to have ensued a somewhat lengthy argument between the
+noble Abbot and the humble artificer as to the provenance of that power
+which of a certainty passed comprehension. The Abbot maintained that
+such power could only come from the devil, seeing that it was, as it
+were, in direct competition with God, whilst the unfortunate sculptor
+maintained that God Himself had blessed his work and given him the skill
+to accomplish it. I imagine from the ancient story--which is far too
+long to set down here in its entirety--that the learned Abbot was
+distinctly getting the worst of the argument, when a brilliant idea
+occurred to him, wherewith he hoped, once for all, to confute the
+vainglory of this skilful braggart and save himself from the humiliation
+of being worsted in the wordy warfare.
+
+"Prove to me," he said firmly, "that the devil hath had no hand in thy
+work. If God is on thy side, He will surely stand by thee in thy need,
+for, of a truth, if thou hast consorted with the devil, it will be my
+duty to see thy body burned at the stake in order that thy immortal soul
+may be saved from the fires of Hell!"
+
+This was obviously a quandary for the poor village sculptor. But,
+according to the old legend, he seems to have been possessed of that
+faith which moveth mountains--or, rather, pigeons; for he then and there
+dropped on his knees and prayed fervently to God to give some sign that
+these stone pigeons had been fashioned for His glory. Whereupon we are
+told that the air, which up to now had been still, became stirred with a
+breath which was as the most balmy, most sweet-scented breeze from
+Heaven, and for miles around, though even the leaves of the aspen did
+not quiver, there was a sound as of myriads of wings, and all of a
+sudden the stone-pigeons fashioned by Jean Front the artificer spread
+out their wings and flew upwards from their stone pedestal. For a moment
+they circled round and round the head of their maker, then they rose up
+to the blue ether above, and took flight in the direction of the woods
+beyond La Frontenay.
+
+The air became still once more. But the holy Abbot and all his monks had
+been vastly frightened by this manifestation. They declared more
+emphatically than ever before that this was devil's work, and then and
+there they seized upon the unfortunate sculptor, and having
+anathematized him and exorcised the devil out of him, they built up a
+stake in the market square and burned him to death.
+
+But it is a recorded fact--one vouched for by many eye-witnesses, and
+who, indeed, would care to doubt it?--that at the very moment that poor
+Jean Front was put to torment, the pigeons, which up to now had been
+seen hovering above the trees, gliding through the summer air, their
+wings outspread, their feathers gleaming in the sunshine--suddenly fell,
+as if turned back to stone, with vertiginous rapidity into the silent
+pool which lies hidden in the woods of La Frontenay. And it is equally a
+fact, vouched for by equally reliable witnesses, that at the precise
+moment when poor Jean Front's soul fled from his martyred body, a
+snow-white pigeon flew out of his mouth, and spreading its wings, it,
+too, flew above the woods of La Frontenay and then fell straight into
+the pool.
+
+So true is this, that the great Abbot and his monks returned to their
+monastery greatly perturbed, and that within the year the Abbot lay
+dying, his soul tortured with remorse at the wrong which he had done. So
+true is it, that ere he died that same holy man made a pilgrimage to
+Rome, and laid before His Holiness the Pope his testimony of the miracle
+performed by Jean Front, the sculptor of Villemor; so true, in fact,
+that the humble artificer became a canonized saint and performed many
+miracles every whit as marvellous as that of making pigeons which took
+unto themselves wings on that memorable day in June.
+
+But ever after it was averred that all those who were threatened by some
+dire calamity, by grief or by death, would hear beside the silent pool
+of La Frontenay the pigeons of St. Front cooing softly from out the
+depths. It is also averred that if God, in His goodness, purposed to
+send lasting happiness to tread on the heels of sorrow, the white pigeon
+would rise from out the pool; it would spread its wings until they
+gleamed in the sunshine ere it took flight to the empyrean above.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE SILENT POOL
+
+
+I
+
+The woods were unusually still. Not a sound broke the delicious hush
+which lay over this summer's morning, when Fernande de Courson made her
+way stealthily through the tangled undergrowth, avoiding the trodden
+paths and the clearings, flitting in and out among the trees like some
+young elf at play. The mischievous light which was scarcely ever wholly
+absent from her eyes was more apparent to-day than it had ever been
+before. She was wearing a white dress; her arms and shoulders were bare,
+and on her way she had gathered an armful of bluebells, there where they
+grew thickest with long stalks and giant bells, on the fringe of the
+wood.
+
+It was still very early in the morning, so early that the bluebells were
+dripping with dew, and the sun came slanting in through the trees,
+making the vivid green of tiny elm and birch leaves gleam like emeralds
+and suffusing the gummy tips of the young chestnut with a vivid crimson
+glow. The carpet of last year's leaves made a soft swishing sound under
+the girl's feet; from the branches overhead the birds peeped down on the
+intruder with quaint inquisitiveness in their tiny, beady eyes, and now
+and then there would come a louder rustle, a murmur through the trees as
+a frightened squirrel hopped from bough to bough, fleeing at the
+approach of the human foe. But the human foe, clad all in white, and
+with the morning sun touching her fair curls with living gold, did not
+pause in order to gaze up at white-throat or finch; she did not hearken
+to the call of the mating linnet, nor did she watch the squirrels in
+their flight. She had heard something last night which had caused her to
+rise very early this morning and to start out for a walk in the woods,
+armed with a sheaf of bluebells and a very arsenal of feminine wiles.
+
+A week had gone by since she had pledged her faith that she would make
+the untamed bear of La Vieuville dance to her piping. Since then she had
+quietly but with marvellous perseverance studied the ground whereon she
+desired to lay her trap for the catching of the unwary beast. During
+that week she had had to endure some ridicule from her father, a few
+gibes from her aunt, and renewed scowls from Laurent. But she was not to
+be deterred, and none of her kinsfolk--not even Laurent--had the least
+idea what was going on in that young head, nor what mischief was brewing
+behind the mocking glance of her blue eyes.
+
+Fernande de Courson had spent that week trying to find out something
+definite about "the General's" habits and movements during the day. That
+had been an easy task. Anyone in the district could have told her that
+the hero of Austerlitz and Hohenlinden, and of a hundred other fights,
+toiled down from the Château of La Vieuville up on the height to his
+foundries in the valley below, every morning at seven o'clock, and
+returned home again every evening at nine. That he took a short cut
+across the fields between the edge of the wood and the foundry, walking
+rather slowly across the rough ground, and dragging his wounded leg
+slightly toward the end of his journey.
+
+Any one could have told Fernande de Courson that Ronnay de Maurel could
+be found every day and all day, either in one of the workshops or else
+in the small office which he had fitted out for himself, and from whence
+he supervised the administration of his huge estate and of the works
+which supplied the Emperor's army with the material wherewith to conquer
+the world and subjugate the enemies of France. Any one, too, could have
+added that when "the General" was not at the foundry, he was sitting in
+the back kitchen of the Château of La Vieuville, trying to cheer in his
+rough way the monotonous hours of a confirmed invalid.
+
+All these facts Fernande had learned in four-and-twenty hours. It took
+her a week to find out something more. That something was the fact that
+"the General" was mightily fond of shooting, and that during the winter
+he had often been seen with a gun on his shoulder and a dog at his
+heels, at break of day, roaming through the moors and forests of La
+Frontenay, dragging his wounded leg at the close of two or three hours'
+hard tramping, and often returning with a young deer slung across his
+shoulders, or a few snipe, or pheasant, or golden plover swinging round
+his belt. But in the springtime of the year, when the close season set
+in and the gun had to be laid aside, M. de Maurel did not discontinue
+his wanderings, and there were many who averred that at break of day
+"the General" could still be seen wending his way towards the woods, his
+dog at his heels, his breakfast in his wallet. People said that he was
+overfond of pushing as far as the silent pool, which was close to the
+boundary that separated the domain of La Frontenay from that of Courson.
+
+"They say that his heart is always with the army," so Fernande's
+informer told her, "and that he goes daily to the silent pool, in order
+to listen if the pigeons of St. Front are cooing--for, indeed, 'tis a
+sure sign, Mademoiselle, that if the pigeons coo, great sorrow or
+disaster, or even death, awaits the one who hears them; and to the
+General sorrow and disaster to himself only means sorrow and disaster to
+the Emperor. They say that he sits for hours beside the pool, and if he
+does not hear the pigeons, he goes away satisfied."
+
+It was in Villemor itself that Fernande had gleaned this information.
+She had driven in one day in Père Lebrun's carriole, sitting upon the
+pile of vegetables which he was taking into the town. Père Lebrun was a
+cultivator who owned a bit of land of his own whereon he grew cabbages
+which he sold when and how he could; he also owned an old nag and a
+broken-down carriole, and once a week--when the weather was
+propitious--he drove into Villemor--a matter of eight kilomètres--and
+combined pleasure with business, by going to see his sister, who lived
+in the village of La Vieuville, on the way to Villemor. This Fernande
+learned while she sat on the pile of Père Lebrun's cabbages. She had
+desired to be driven into the town for the sake of a few commissions
+which she had to do there; but thoughts of Ronnay de Maurel were never
+absent from her mind now, and as soon as the pointed roofs of La
+Vieuville came in sight, she led Père Lebrun to talk of the inmates of
+the old château. And Père Lebrun was as ready for gossip as is a peach
+to fall from the tree when it is ripe. One word set him going, and he
+had a great deal to tell of old M. Gaston's eccentricities and
+miserliness, as well as of "the General" and his queer, rough ways. But
+though he spoke much, he could only quote hearsay, and Fernande was
+waxing impatient, when Lebrun suddenly told her that his sister Adèle
+Lapin did the ménage daily at the château, and that all his information
+about the two eccentric dwellers thereof came from her.
+
+Whereupon Fernande discovered that her commissions in the town would
+easily keep for another day, and, moreover, that riding in a carriole on
+the top of a pile of cabbages made her sick. She demanded to be put down
+at the door of Mme. Adèle Lapin, declaring that she would wait there
+until Père Lebrun had finished his business in Villemor and came to pick
+her up at his sister's house before driving back to Courson.
+
+The result of this change of plans was a wealth of information gleaned
+from Mme. Adèle's voluble talk. She knew all about old M. Gaston, who,
+indeed, was very ill, and all about "the General," who was as savage, as
+morose and as shy as a bear. But Lapin, her husband, worked at a farm
+the other side of the La Frontenay woods, and when he went to his work
+at break of day, he nearly always met M. Ronnay tramping through the
+thickets, and once or twice he had seen him sitting beside the silent
+pool. Other people had seen him, too, and they said that he sat so still
+that undoubtedly he was listening for the cooing of the pigeons of St.
+Front.
+
+And Fernande de Courson drove home that afternoon in Père Lebrun's
+carriole feeling like a soldier on the eve of battle. She hardly spoke
+to anyone the whole of that evening, and Laurent had serious cause to
+complain of her lack of responsiveness. She pleaded fatigue from her
+expedition and went early to bed. But the next morning she was up
+betimes and tramping soon after sunrise in the direction of the woods of
+La Frontenay.
+
+
+II
+
+Women have often, as a sex, been comprehensively accused of not being
+truthful--of being full of deceit or at best of guile. It is averred
+that women will stoop to ways and means for gaining their own ends which
+men will disdain to utilize for theirs. Be that as it may, this
+chronicle, not being a dissertation, nor yet an argument one way or the
+other, but a faithful transcription of events, it behoves us to say that
+Fernande de Courson did sprain her ankle just as she was skirting the
+silent pool and treading through the tangle of wild iris and budding
+meadowsweet; also, that the sprain caused her acute agony; that the
+water of the pool looked deliciously cool and healing, and that she had
+no other thought at the back of her mind but the desire to alleviate the
+pain, when she took off her shoe and her stocking, soaked her
+handkerchief in the cold water and then laid it as a compress round her
+ankle.
+
+To say that Ronnay de Maurel was at the time very far from her thoughts
+would perhaps be putting it a little too strongly; but he was far
+enough--shall we say?--from her immediate mental vision to cause her
+considerable surprise by his sudden appearance through the thicket,
+right in front of her, whilst she was reclining full length on a carpet
+of moss with the sheaf of bluebells held to her face and an impish glint
+of sunlight playing with the tendrils of her fair hair and with the tips
+of her bare toes.
+
+Now de Maurel, had he seen her before she caught sight of him, would
+undoubtedly have beaten a precipitate retreat. But he was apt to walk
+along buried in his own thoughts--thoughts of Prussian or Italian
+campaigns for the most part--and seeing little but the dome of leaves
+above him, or the squirrels that ran away at his approach; nor did he
+expect to see anyone beside the pool. At times, certainly, a labourer or
+a charcoal burner, or a couple of children violet-poaching, would cross
+the small clearing at the far end of the water; but, as a rule, he had
+the place to himself, and loved it for its loneliness and its solitude.
+
+Whilst Fernande not only did expect to see someone here, but after the
+pain in her foot had become easier, every one of her senses became on
+the alert to catch the sound of a footfall that might be drawing nigh.
+She heard the approach of a heavy footstep from quite a considerable
+distance; it was unmistakable, because of the slight dragging sound
+caused by one leg being weaker than the other.
+
+She had only just the time to arrange her gown in its most becoming
+folds, to decide on the exact position of the sheaf of bluebells and of
+her outstretched arm, and to assure herself that the sunlight was,
+indeed, playing with her hair and with her toes in just the manner she
+desired.
+
+Then she closed her eyes and waited.
+
+There is nothing on earth more difficult or more tantalizing to do than
+to wait with eyes closed while something is going on around which one
+would give the world to see. Twenty times and more in the space of a
+few minutes did Fernande positively ache with the longing to open her
+eyes. She heard the heavy, unequal step approaching, she heard the
+smothered exclamation which proclaimed impatience at seeing someone in
+possession of the lonely spot ... she heard the stealthy approach of her
+quarry--the pause not a step or two away from her, and almost felt the
+hot breath which came and went from his nostrils as he stooped in order
+to look at her.
+
+But she had the strength of mind to wait until she was quite sure that
+dark, scowling, inquiring eyes were close to her face; then she opened
+her own.
+
+At once the man drew himself up and retreated as if the glance from
+those blue eyes had struck him in the face. Yet there was nothing very
+formidable in the pathetic, white-clad figure reclining there upon the
+moss, and with its poor injured foot swathed in a half-dried bit of
+gossamer rag. Fernande watched the retreating ogre until he had fairly
+turned to go; then she said in a quaking voice, and with a sigh that
+would have rent a heart of stone:
+
+"Oh, I'm in such pain!"
+
+Then she closed her eyes again.
+
+There was a pause, during which even birds and squirrels seemed to have
+passed the word "Silence!" round. Only a slight flutter among the young
+leaves overhead disturbed the perfect stillness of this fateful moment.
+Fernande's entire hope of success rested on the efficacy of her last
+heartrending appeal.
+
+For a second or two the ogre appeared to hesitate. Then a halting voice
+broke the spell of expectancy which had fallen over the woods.
+
+"Can I be of any help?"
+
+And the dragging, heavy footstep was once more audible as it approached
+quite close to her. Again Fernande sighed, more woefully than before.
+
+"Alas!" she moaned, "I am utterly helpless. But...."
+
+She raised herself upon her elbow, looked round her in perfect
+bewilderment, passed her hand once or twice over her forehead, and
+finally made up her mind to allow her blue eyes to rest on de Maurel.
+
+"M. de Maurel!" she murmured, with the most profound astonishment that
+human voice can possibly express.
+
+"Mademoiselle," he responded with obvious embarrassment, "I chanced to
+be passing by.... You seem to be in pain.... Is there aught that I can
+do?"
+
+"There is, Monsieur," she replied unblushingly. "I fear that I have
+broken my ankle. I am in great pain, and very far from home. My name is
+Fernande de Courson...."
+
+"I know that, Mademoiselle," he broke in simply.
+
+"We are cousins," she suggested demurely.
+
+"At your service."
+
+"Then I pray you help me to get up."
+
+Had Ronnay de Maurel been asked to hoist up on his shoulder a cannon
+which weighed a couple of tons, he would have felt less puzzled how to
+proceed than he did now, when an exquisite thing which looked as if it
+might break at the slightest touch asked him to help her to raise
+herself from the ground.
+
+He was, as usual, dressed in blouse and rough breeches. He had no cap on
+his head, and his feet were encased in heavy riding-boots. For a second
+or two he looked round him with pathetic helplessness, as if he expected
+the dwellers of the forest to come to his aid in this awful dilemma. But
+no one came, and the lovely creature, whose tiny bare foot looked like
+an exquisite flower, was appealing--oh, so piteously, for help!
+
+"Alas, Monsieur!" she said, "an you'll not come to my assistance, I
+shall have to wait till some chance passer-by prove more full of pity
+than you. It is six kilomètres from here to the Château of Courson and I
+am breakfastless."
+
+Her voice--the tone of which appeared to Ronnay de Maurel like the
+singing of a nightingale--broke in her plucky effort to keep back the
+tears of mortification and of pain. He suddenly felt like a brute to
+stand by and see her suffer so.
+
+"I wish I could help you, Mademoiselle," he said tentatively, "but I am
+so clumsy, so rough. I should spoil your gown and...."
+
+"Eh, _mon cousin_," she retorted, "I would sooner have a spoiled gown
+than remain here till noonday. Give me the support of your arm and I
+will try to raise myself. Perhaps, with the aid of your stick, I might
+then be able to hobble home."
+
+Thus admonished, Ronnay de Maurel, stooping low, held out his arm, and
+the exquisite creature placed one tiny hand upon it, then coolly bade
+him hold the other. Mechanically he obeyed, thinking all the while that
+the lovely fingers--slender and velvety like the petals of a lily--would
+be crushed to pieces in his grasp.
+
+But they remained unscathed, and every succeeding moment he felt her
+hold tightening upon his arm, whilst a delicious fragrance as of spring
+air laden with blossom seemed to come from her entire person, and the
+soft tendrils of her fair hair brushed against his cheek like a fairy's
+kiss.
+
+"I don't think that I shall be able to walk," said Fernande ruefully, as
+she clung more firmly with both her hands to his arm.
+
+"Will you try?" he suggested. "Lean on me and let me support you. Don't
+be afraid. Perhaps if you held the stick with one hand and...."
+
+"And," she interposed decisively, in perfectly matter-of-fact tone, "if
+you will put your arm round my waist, I think that perhaps...."
+
+He did as he was told, and felt the whole weight of her lissom body
+against his arm.
+
+"There, now," she said, "if I can put my foot to the ground...."
+
+She tried. But the movement wrung a cry of pain from her lips. She fell
+back against the broad shoulder which was so conveniently held for her
+support and leaned her head against it. She closed her eyes as if ready
+to swoon. De Maurel was ready to anathematize Heaven for perpetrating
+such wanton cruelty against a being so perfect and so frail.
+
+A pair of blue eyes that were swimming in tears were turned dolefully up
+to him.
+
+"I fear me that I shall have to remain breakfastless, after all,"
+murmured Fernande, with lips that quivered like those of a child about
+to cry. "I pray you leave me, dear cousin. You cannot afford to waste
+your time over the ailments of an insignificant person like me. Perhaps
+you may find some one in the village good enough to take a message over
+to my father by and by, asking him to send Père Lebrun's carriole
+hither. But oh! I pray you haste! I shall be so desperately hungry ere
+the carriole come."
+
+"Mademoiselle Fernande," rejoined de Maurel earnestly, "you have, I've
+no doubt, every excuse for looking upon me as an ill-mannered cur, but
+none, I think, for imagining that I am an inhuman wretch. Nothing would
+induce me to leave you here ... in this lonely spot ... alone and in
+pain...."
+
+"But how am I to get home, dear cousin?" she queried, darting a glance
+on him from under the fringe of her dark lashes that would have
+tantalized a saint.
+
+"An you will grant me leave," he said simply, "I will carry you."
+
+"Carry me?" she exclaimed. "Why, it is six kilomètres to the château!"
+
+"If it were twenty I could carry you thither," he interposed with that
+quaint smile which was wont to lighten his stern face like sunshine on a
+troubled sea.
+
+Strangely enough and quite unaccountably, Fernande felt a quick blush
+rising to her cheeks under the look which accompanied that smile.
+
+"Why," he added simply, "you weigh less than a bird."
+
+"Less than one of the pigeons of St. Front, perhaps," she retorted
+gaily.
+
+"They were of stone," quoth he dryly.
+
+"Ah! you know the legend, too?"
+
+"Of course," he said. "I was born at La Frontenay."
+
+"Have you ever heard the pigeons cooing, then?"
+
+"Yes," he replied curtly. "Once."
+
+"When was that?"
+
+"The day," he said, "before an infernal bomb was hurled by an assassin
+at Napoleon Bonaparte, the idol of France, and his precious life was
+only saved by a miracle."
+
+Fernande had been leaning with both hands upon de Maurel's arm all this
+while; but at these words, which he spoke with renewed roughness, she
+drew back quickly as if she had been stung. Strangely enough, she
+appeared quite able to stand on her injured foot now, and equally
+strangely he failed to notice this. For a second or two a look that was
+nothing short of hate crept into her eyes, and the flush which rose to
+her cheeks was one of hot anger and of defiance.
+
+He did not flinch under her gaze, even though he would gladly have
+recalled the foolish speech which had escaped his lips and which
+obviously had wounded her. Indeed, he could not help but see that the
+allusion to the aborted conspiracy against the life of Bonaparte planned
+by the Royalists of Normandy had stung her pride to the quick, and
+already he was cursing himself for a clumsy lout, and trying to find in
+his limited vocabulary words wherewith to win her pardon.
+
+But for the space of a few seconds, at any rate, he knew that she stood
+before him in avowed enmity, and Fernande had to close her eyes lest he
+should read in them that hatred and contempt which she felt and which
+she knew that she would always feel for this traitor to his King and to
+his caste. She had to force herself to remember the rôle which she had
+set herself to play, to force herself to think of this abominable
+regicide as a tool for furthering the very cause which he was now
+helping to crush; and there was a marvellous fund of energy and of
+enthusiasm lurking in the heart of this child--a marvellous power of
+duplicity and of self-control, there where her patriotism and her
+ideals guided her.
+
+As she closed her eyes the hot flush fled from her cheeks, leaving them
+pale and transparent, and with a pearly shadow cast over them by the
+drooping fringe of her lashes.
+
+"Mademoiselle Fernande," exclaimed de Maurel, overwhelmed with shame and
+contrition at his own brutality.
+
+But already Fernande had recovered her self-possession; and even before
+the first words of abject self-abasement had passed his lips, she
+uttered a low moan of pain and tottered as if about to fall. She would
+have fallen--no doubt most gracefully--had not his arm proved to be once
+more so conveniently near.
+
+"'Twas cruel, _mon cousin_," she murmured feebly, "to speak such words,
+whilst I am too weak to raise my voice in defence of those I love."
+
+"Mademoiselle Fernande," he said appealingly, "I said just now that I
+had never given you cause to call me an inhuman wretch. Until a while
+ago I could have asserted on my soul that I had never been cruel to a
+woman in my life. Now you see me shamed beyond endurance. Will you
+believe me when I say that I would give twenty years of my life to unsay
+the thoughtless words I spoke just now? Mademoiselle Fernande, will you
+deign to forgive a poor wretch who hath never had a knowledge of soft
+words, but who would sooner have bitten out his tongue ere he uttered
+the senseless ones which have so justly angered you?"
+
+Ronnay de Maurel's head was bent, in utter humility and remorse, while
+he spoke, or he could not have failed to note the look of triumph which
+shot out of the girl's eyes from beneath her half-closed lids, or the
+swift sigh of satisfaction which escaped her parted lips.
+
+"We'll call those words unsaid, dear cousin," she said softly. "I know,
+alas! that between your political aims and our own there is an abyss of
+divergent ideals! You and your party have the power now--we are humbled
+and helpless--and must, therefore, rely on your generosity not to
+embitter the joy which we felt when we trod once again the soil of our
+beloved country, after years of poverty and of exile."
+
+"Protestations would come ill from me," he murmured. "You would scorn
+them--and justly, too--after my unwarrantable transgression."
+
+"You will have to be patient with us, _mon cousin_. We may have erred in
+the past, we may be foolish and misguided now, but you must try and
+remember always that every one of our actions is guided solely by our
+love of France--by the burning patriotism which helped us to endure
+exile and untold misery for the sake of our beliefs and of our
+aspirations. Mistaken we may be; but until you have heard the advocacy
+of our cause, I pray you do not judge us as harshly as you have
+obviously been led to do."
+
+"Mademoiselle Fernande...."
+
+"Nay, dear cousin, let us not dwell on that sad subject any longer. See!
+the sun is high in the heavens--the birds are singing a deafening anthem
+of joy ... and," she added archly, "I am still breakfastless."
+
+Again de Maurel had to chide himself for a clumsy and selfish lout. For
+himself he would gladly have continued to dwell on the sad subject,
+seeing that it was being argued by an exquisite creature with the
+rosiest of lips and the most enthralling voice he had ever heard, even
+whilst she leaned her ethereal form against his arm, and cast an
+occasional look on him from out a pair of eyes as limpid and as blue as
+the sky. But the word "breakfastless" once more struck him with remorse.
+To think that this beautiful and diaphanous being could suffer hunger,
+discomfort, even pain, seemed to him the most monstrous outrage in the
+whole scheme of creation.
+
+"God forgive me," he said, "for a thoughtless dolt. I was forgetting the
+flight of time. Now, Mademoiselle Fernande, if you will trust yourself
+to me...."
+
+"Do you really mean," she queried, "that you will carry me all the way
+to Courson?"
+
+"If you will let me."
+
+She threw him a mute glance of gratitude, which somehow seemed to addle
+his brain in a manner which he thought strangely unaccountable, but not
+altogether unpleasant.
+
+"Oh, my flowers!" she suddenly exclaimed ruefully. "I had taken such
+trouble to pick them!"
+
+The sheaf of wild hyacinth was lying in a disordered mass of blue at her
+feet.
+
+"_Mon cousin_, I pray you pick them up for me!" she added with a pretty
+tone of appeal.
+
+At once he was down on his knees; it seemed practically impossible that
+he should disobey the slightest of her commands, and, mechanically, he
+gathered together the bunch of bluebells and handed it up to her. He was
+strangely awkward in the accomplishment of this task, and when he looked
+up to her again, a mischievous light was dancing in her eyes.
+
+"You think me a clumsy oaf, I'll warrant," he said, while that ghost of
+a smile which became him so well lit up his face in response. "'Tis the
+first time in my life I've waited on a lady, and...."
+
+As she took the flowers from him her fingers closed for a moment over
+his hand.
+
+"'Tis most gallantly you do it, Sir Knight," she said graciously.
+
+She held the sheaf of flowers in both her arms and buried her face in
+the tangle of blue. It was amazing how little pain the sprained ankle
+was causing her at this moment; nothing more perfect or more graceful
+could be imagined than the picture which she presented, standing thus in
+her white gown beside the silent pool, with the spikes of the wild iris
+framing her knees, behind her a background of tender green and russet
+branches. Her broad-brimmed hat hung against her shoulder, and its black
+velvet ribbon, tied round her neck, enhanced still further the perfect
+whiteness of her throat.
+
+"God's masterpiece, indeed!" thought Ronnay de Maurel, as, despite
+himself, his eyes would feast themselves on the exquisite apparition,
+wandering in rapt admiration from the golden crown of her fair hair to
+that tiny bare foot which stood half buried in a bed of moss.
+
+Suddenly he perceived that her white dress was soiled, there where it
+had come in contact with the sleeve of his blouse. He could have cursed
+loudly in an agony of contrition, and in a moment a hot flush of intense
+mortification spread over his forehead. He would have given worlds to be
+able to strip off that horrible blouse before he ventured once more to
+touch that fragrant and delicate creature, whose airy white robe his
+work-stained hands had sullied. Unfortunately he was not certain whether
+his shirt was not in holes. Never in his life had Ronnay de Maurel felt
+so deeply shamed.
+
+"I am afraid ... I ... I fear," he stammered, and looked down ruefully
+on his hands and blouse.
+
+"That you have dirtied my frock," she broke in with a laugh. "Well, you
+know, dear cousin, that our meeting was impromptu, else, I am sure, you
+would have donned more suitable attire. Believe me, that in moments of
+pain an invalid takes no heed of a kind healer's clothes. _Allons!_" she
+added gaily, "will you carry me pick-a-back, or...."
+
+"In my arms, if you will permit."
+
+Indeed, he lifted her from the ground as if she were a weightless fairy
+or a bird.
+
+"Will you deign to put one arm round my shoulder?" he said. "There! Is
+that comfortable?"
+
+"Quite," she murmured, as she snuggled like a white kitten against him.
+
+"You are not afraid?"
+
+"Afraid?" she exclaimed. "Of what?"
+
+To this query he made no reply, but started on his way. It was six
+kilomètres to Courson, through the woods first, and then across the
+fields. To Ronnay de Maurel ever afterwards it seemed as if the distance
+had been less than one. Leaving the pool on his right, he struck the
+footpath among the trees, treading softly and warily on the carpet of
+leaves and moss, lest his clumsy, dragging gait should cause her pain.
+She lay quite quiescent in his arms, holding the sheaf of bluebells so
+that it lay between her face and his. The dewy petals brushed against
+his cheek and mouth, and he was conscious of the delicious fragrance
+which filled his nostrils and of the cool dewdrops which moistened his
+lips. Her face he could not see, only the pellucid tendrils of her hair,
+as the soft breeze that murmured through the woods made them flutter in
+the sunshine. And he could see the little foot, half swathed in its
+gossamer bandage, each delicate toe so like the petal of a rose. He felt
+neither weight nor fatigue; he would have walked thus through life,
+thinking that it had suddenly become marvellously fair. Once or twice he
+asked her if she was comfortable, and she always answered: "Very
+comfortable, I thank you!" But she never asked him if he were fatigued.
+She knew that he was not. Once, when he put the question, he was not far
+from Courson, and the wood was already far behind, and through the veil
+of bluebells he could just see that her eyes were closed. He thought
+that she slept. From the earth close to his feet a lark rose, singing
+its joyous anthem, and fluttered upwards into the heavenly blue above.
+
+
+III
+
+It took Ronnay de Maurel two hours to reach the village of Courson. The
+château was half a kilomètre further on. Never had he cursed its
+circular, pointed roofs as heartily as he did to-day. He would have
+liked to push them to the outermost confines of the earth.
+
+"Where are we now?" Fernande asked softly.
+
+"Very near home," he replied.
+
+"I must have been asleep."
+
+"I hope you have."
+
+"And you are not tired?"
+
+"No, I am not tired," he said curtly.
+
+All the while that he had tramped with his burden through the woods and
+across the fields, he had felt contented with only the squirrels and the
+birds around him to mock him for his heavy gait, his stained blouse and
+muddy boots. The sight of the first cottage of Courson suddenly took all
+the zest out of his spirit. Self-consciousness returned, and with it his
+full measure of wrath against his kinsfolk, whom of a truth he had no
+mind to meet again--not while his fatigue, of which he suddenly became
+conscious, and the additional mudstains on his clothes after the long
+tramp, placed him at such obvious disadvantage. Their presence, he felt,
+would jar upon his mood to a degree which he felt he could not endure.
+
+Fernande, who had been silently watching him from behind the bunch of
+bluebells, saw the scowl which gradually gathered on his brow and chased
+away that strange rapt look and the sunny smile, which she had noted
+with such satisfaction every time that she contrived to catch a glimpse
+of his face. Her womanly instinct had been so unerring up to now, the
+success of her undertaking so assured, that she had no mind to mar it by
+a false move in the end.
+
+"_Mon cousin_," she said suddenly, just as de Maurel, avoiding the main
+village street, had struck through an orchard and along a by-path, which
+led to a postern gate in the boundary wall of the château, "_mon
+cousin_, by your leave, an you'll take me as far as the Lodge, I could
+try and walk up the avenue to the château--alone."
+
+"But there's no one at the Lodge," he said, "and the avenue is over
+long."
+
+"Annette will be at the Lodge," she argued; "she goes thither every
+morning to air the rooms. The door will be open. I could slip in.... No
+one would see us...."
+
+Now that she suggested just what he would have liked to do, he was ready
+with opposition.
+
+"I should not like to leave you. You might be in pain again," he said.
+
+"Oh, my ankle is much better! It has had two hours' rest. I can wait at
+the Lodge till Annette comes."
+
+Mechanically he had obeyed, and turned back in the direction of the main
+gates of the park. The Lodge--a small stone pavilion--was just inside
+the gates.
+
+"We don't want to be spied from the château, do we, _mon cousin_?" added
+the young girl, whilst a ripple of laughter, musical as the song of a
+lark, helped to chase away the last lingering remnant of de Maurel's
+moodiness. "_Ma tante_ would be vastly shocked, for my hair is
+dishevelled, and my gown wet and stained. Laurent would be angry and
+father would scold...."
+
+She paused and suddenly uttered an exclamation of dismay.
+
+"Holy Virgin! what have I done?"
+
+"What is it?" he asked. "Mademoiselle Fernande, what is it? Are you in
+pain?"
+
+"No. No, it is not that. My foot is so much better ... but ... but...."
+
+She seemed ready to cry, and just now he felt that he would curse loudly
+and long if he saw her in distress.
+
+"In Heaven's name, Mademoiselle Fernande," he implored, "I entreat you
+to tell me what troubles you."
+
+"My shoe and my stocking," she murmured in a weak, trembling voice. "I
+left them beside the pool."
+
+Ronnay de Maurel literally gave a gasp of horror. A calamity such as
+this seemed to him to be beyond the confines of possibility.
+
+"Beside the pool!" he exclaimed aghast. "Impossible!"
+
+"How impossible?" she retorted impatiently. "I haven't my shoe and
+stocking on, have I?"
+
+He took a peep at the bare, rosy toes, which vied in delicacy with the
+apple-blossom overhead.
+
+"You certainly have not!" he replied.
+
+"Well? And have you got them in your pocket, _mon cousin_?"
+
+Sighing with regret, he vowed that he had not.
+
+"Then I must have left them by the pool," she concluded.
+
+"I'll go and fetch them," he said at once.
+
+"And walk another dozen kilomètres to-day?"
+
+"When shall I bring them?" was all that he said by way of rejoinder.
+
+"Well, it will have to be soon ... that is if you really think that you
+wouldn't be too tired to go and fetch them.... But, you know, Mme. la
+Marquise is so rigid in the matter of decorum ... she will be so angry
+when she hears that I have lost my shoe ... and she will scold me ...
+and...."
+
+We may take it that de Maurel was far too unversed in the usages of
+feminine amenities to notice how hopelessly the lovely creature in his
+arms was floundering in the mazes of her own rhetoric; he was obviously
+far too unsophisticated to suggest that if Mme. la Marquise was, indeed,
+so rigid in the matter of decorum, she would hardly approve of his
+walking in at Courson one day with her niece's shoe in one pocket and
+her stocking in the other. Just for a moment Fernande had a slight qualm
+of anxiety. She had engineered this final move in her campaign on the
+spur of the moment, and she had not had the time to think it out in
+detail. But, indeed, her fears were futile. De Maurel did not even
+notice the glaring discrepancy in the tale of Mme. la Marquise's
+supposed attitude towards the proprieties. As a matter of fact, the
+thought that Fernande should be scolded for having lost her stocking was
+so horrible, that his one idea now was a longing to get to the Lodge, to
+deposit his fair burden--if possible in Annette's charge--and then to
+start running at once, as fast as his wounded leg would allow--in search
+of the two precious articles.
+
+The calamities which might overtake Fernande in the interval--her
+father's wrath, her aunt's reproaches--were so awful to contemplate,
+that poor Ronnay felt a cold sweat breaking out upon his forehead.
+Fortunately the incident did not weaken the power of his arms. He
+reached the Lodge without untoward accident; the gates, luckily, were
+open and there was no one about. Fernande declared that she was now not
+only able to stand, but also to hobble as far as the Lodge parlour, and
+to sit quietly there until Annette arrived, when she would forthwith
+proceed to the château, where, no doubt, every one was devoured with
+anxiety about her.
+
+How thankful was de Maurel that the park of Courson was so lonely and
+deserted. He would have hated it if prying eyes had been nigh when, with
+infinite precaution, he lowered his precious burden to the ground. It
+was terrible to see how he had crushed her gown, and, alas! the
+bluebells hung their tiny heads in a very drooping fashion.
+
+"I thank you, _mon cousin_," she said, as leaning against the stone
+pillar of the porch she held out her hand to him. He knew quite well
+that he ought then to have taken that little hand, which was as white
+and delicate as a snowflake, and that he ought to have kissed the tips
+of those flower-like fingers. But had he not boasted a brief while ago
+that he did not know the art of kissing a lady's hand? This was so true,
+that at this moment, when he would have bartered his life for the
+pleasure of pressing his lips against that hand, he could only murmur a
+few meaningless and clumsy words. His whole bearing became awkward and
+ungainly; he was self-conscious, furious with himself, angered against
+that world which had shut him out from its reserved precincts.
+
+He threw one quick look of appeal to the young girl, encountered her
+glance of indulgent mockery, muttered a hasty farewell, and then turned
+abruptly on his heel.
+
+Fernande remained standing in the porch until the tall, massive figure
+with the curious, dragging gait had disappeared beyond the gates of the
+park; then--oh, shame! unblushing shame!--she executed a pirouette upon
+that sadly injured foot. She stretched out her arms with a gesture of
+triumph, and threw back her head, filling her lungs with the
+intoxicating air of this glorious spring morning. Her eyes were dancing
+with glee, the quick breath came and went through her full, parted lips,
+and there was a glow of excitement upon her cheeks.
+
+
+IV
+
+The paths were too rough for Fernande to attempt to go back shoeless to
+the château, so she waited in the porch, leaning against the pillar, in
+the same attitude wherein she had received de Maurel's final clumsy
+farewell; she waited with her own triumphal thoughts for company, for
+close on half an hour, when she suddenly spied Laurent walking briskly
+down the drive toward the Lodge.
+
+She called to him and he uttered a cry of obvious relief.
+
+"We were all getting so anxious," he shouted breathlessly, as soon as he
+was near enough to make himself heard. "It is nearly eleven o'clock.
+Matthieu said that he saw you walking through the orchard soon after
+daybreak. Where have you been, Fernande?"
+
+"I went for a walk in the woods," she replied simply; "incidentally I
+sprained my ankle. Look!" she added, holding up her skirt and pointing
+her bare foot at him.
+
+"Ye gods!"
+
+"You are quite right there, Laurent," she said earnestly, "the gods had
+much to do with my sprained ankle. In fact, they have been busy with me
+all the morning."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I will tell you what I mean, as soon as I have a stocking and a shoe
+upon this foot--and not before. So if you are devoured with curiosity,
+my dear cousin, I pray you find Annette and tell her to bring me the
+wherewithal to clothe my injured foot with decency. It is getting blue
+with cold."
+
+"Yes, yes!" he retorted. "I'll go immediately; but do tell me first, I
+entreat...."
+
+"I'll tell you nothing till my foot is clad," she responded firmly.
+
+Now Laurent de Mortain was pastmaster in the knowledge of feminine moods
+and caprices, wherein his elder brother was so woefully ignorant. He did
+not stop to argue the point. That something unusual had happened,
+besides the sprained ankle, was, of course, plainly writ on Fernande's
+glowing cheeks and in her glittering eyes; but that she did not mean to
+tell him anything about it for the present was equally plainly marked
+round the lines of her obstinate little mouth. Therefore, Laurent, with
+a shrug of his shoulders and a muttered: "As you will!" at once turned
+on his heel and walked rapidly back towards the château in obedience to
+his lady's commands.
+
+And Fernande was once more left alone in the porch of the Lodge, gazing
+after the retreating figure of a man. In this instance she could watch
+an elegant and graceful retreat--a springy gait, the knightly bearing of
+a well-groomed head. She could not help but compare the two brothers,
+greatly to the advantage of Laurent--vastly to the detriment of the
+uncouth creature whose stained and shabby blouse had soiled her white
+gown.
+
+"I said that the bear would soon be dancing to my piping," she mused,
+"and he is standing on his hind legs now, ready to begin...."
+
+"But," she added, and here her thoughts became confused and unruly, "the
+bear would not have gone to fetch Annette; he would have put his great
+strong arms round me and carried me to the château. And oh! how I should
+have hated him for it!" she concluded, with a little shudder as she
+smoothed out the creases in her muslin gown.
+
+
+V
+
+All that Fernande vouchsafed to say, once she was duly shod, was that
+the Château of Courson might expect the visit of M. le Comte de Maurel
+that self-same afternoon. Mme. la Marquise was incredulous and M. de
+Courson angry. Laurent looked very glum and remained silent and morose
+all through dinner.
+
+"_Mais enfin_, Fernande," he had asked a score of times, "what actually
+did happen?" And a score of times he had received the same answer:
+"Nothing has happened to anger you, dear cousin. I met M. de Maurel in
+the woods and suggested to him that he should renew his visit to us. To
+this suggestion meseemed that he agreed. He may come this afternoon ...
+but he is rude and obstinate ... so who can tell?"
+
+When he pressed her for fuller explanations, she gave him a curt answer
+and a haughty little look, two things which poor Laurent never could
+bear patiently.
+
+Mme. la Marquise thought that Fernande was over-confident. "Your wish is
+father to your thought, my child," she said. "Why should Ronnay come at
+your simple bidding?"
+
+"I don't know why he should, _ma tante_," rejoined the young girl
+imperturbably, "but somehow I think that he will."
+
+And in order to proclaim her faith in her own prophecy, she went and
+changed her soiled gown after dinner for an entirely fresh and very
+dainty one.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE GENERAL
+
+
+I
+
+Mme. la Marquise's incredulity with regard to her niece's assertion
+lasted well into the afternoon. She could not bring herself to believe
+that de Maurel's hostile attitude towards all the inmates of Courson,
+which he had so steadily maintained since his first unfortunate visit,
+could have undergone such a material change in so short a time.
+
+She had looked on Fernande's childish boasting as mere nonsense, and
+during the past week had been eating out her heart in vain regret and
+remorse at her own folly, her own insentient pride, which had
+undoubtedly precipitated the catastrophe, and turned into an open feud
+what had, after all, only been a kind of skulking neutrality before.
+Mme. la Marquise was quite sure in her own mind that if she had been
+present throughout the interview between the two brothers, she would
+have known how to avert the quarrel. Once it had occurred, she felt that
+nothing would ever bridge it over. The short glimpse which she had that
+day of Ronnay de Maurel had told her plainly that he was, indeed, the
+son of his father--endowed with the same passionate and violent
+temperament and the same obstinacy. Some latent impulse--or perhaps mere
+idle curiosity, she thought--had prompted him to come the once. But
+unfortunately he had been made unwelcome, and Madame la Marquise knew
+that he would resent this most bitterly, and that he would prove as
+irreconcilable as her husband had been, as old Gaston de Maurel still
+was.
+
+Was it likely, therefore, that he would surrender at a word from a mere
+girl, and come and eat that humble pie at Courson which was bound to be
+very distasteful to him? Madame thought not; and in this she proved
+herself as ignorant of male temperament as her son was of feminine
+wiles. But Fernande was so positive that M. de Maurel would come, that
+something of her confidence communicated itself to the others. Her
+appearance in a new frock of delicate muslin, with tiny puffed sleeves
+and the shortest of waists, the folds of her long skirt clinging very
+closely to her girlish figure, finally brought Madame's incredulity to
+an end, and though nothing was done this time in preparation of M. de
+Maurel's coming, the excitement which pervaded the château was none the
+less acute.
+
+The weather continued to smile the whole afternoon. It had been the
+warmest day of the young year, and Madame--still pretending that she was
+not expecting her son--ordered Annette to bring some semblance of order
+in the vast circular veranda that overlooked the park. In olden days
+this veranda had been a favourite spot on warm afternoons; the view
+between the stone pillars right over the ornamental water and the
+English garden beyond was magnificent. In those days the flagged floor
+was covered with soft carpets, chairs and lounges stood around, with one
+or two card-tables and stands for wines or coffee. Now there were
+neither carpets nor lounges; a few garden seats of stout wood had alone
+survived the years of disrepair. But after Annette had scrubbed the
+floor and the chairs, after Madame had ordered a table or two to be
+brought out and light refreshments to be disposed on them, after she had
+spread a couple of gaily-coloured Paisley shawls--remnants of her own
+depleted wardrobe--over the seats, the place looked inviting enough, and
+nothing could spoil the view across the park, right over an apple
+orchard aglow with blossom to the distant wooded heights beyond.
+
+Madame took her seat beside the coffee-urn, her knitting in her hand. M.
+de Courson, feeling unaccountably restless, joined her after a while,
+making pretence to read the _Moniteur_--a week old--which a courier from
+Paris had brought that morning. Soon afterwards Laurent and Fernande
+were seen coming round the ornamental water. They came up the stone
+steps to the veranda, Fernande's unconcerned prattle and her merry laugh
+raising the echoes of the old walls.
+
+Laurent was moody, as he always was when his brother's name was so much
+as mentioned; but Fernande was in the highest possible spirits, even
+though she masked her gaiety behind a look of sober demureness.
+
+Everyone's nerves were on the jar. The paper rattled in M. de Courson's
+hands; Madame's knitting needles clicked jerkily.
+
+Laurent sat with his two hands tightly clasped between his knees,
+staring down most of the time at Fernande's little feet, which were
+stretched out before her. They were encased in a delicious pair of
+heelless black alpaca sandals, with satin ribbons criss-crossing over
+the instep and tied in a bow just above the ankle. Her fingers were busy
+with a delicate piece of embroidery, and she was expounding her views to
+Laurent on the subject of the rearing of chickens.
+
+
+II
+
+At half-past three Annette came rushing from the house on to the
+veranda.
+
+"The General!" she cried excitedly. "He is just coming up the avenue.
+Matthieu sent me to ask if Mme. la Marquise will receive him."
+
+Madame looked up from her work and turned cold, reproving eyes on
+worthy, perspiring Annette.
+
+"The General?" she queried calmly. "I know no General in the King's
+army who is like to pay me a visit to-day."
+
+Whereupon Annette, thus rebuked, was covered with confusion, from which
+it took her some time to recover.
+
+"I beg a thousand pardons, Mme. la Marquise," she stammered ruefully, as
+she wiped her hot, red hands on her apron. "I have known the Gen--I mean
+M. de Maurel all these years, and ... I ... I was meaning that...."
+
+"That what, my good woman?" asked Madame tartly.
+
+She appeared very detached and haughty, but Fernande, who shot one of
+her keen, mischievous glances at her aunt from beneath her long lashes,
+noted with vast amusement that though Madame was not working for the
+moment, the knitting needles in her hands were clicking audibly one
+against the other.
+
+"I mean, Madame la Marquise, that M. le Comte de Maurel is coming down
+the avenue," Annette was at last able to blurt out. "Will Mme. la
+Marquise receive him?"
+
+"Of course I will receive M. le Comte," replied Madame with perfect
+dignity. "Tell Matthieu to show M. le Comte up here."
+
+"Yes, Madame la Marquise," murmured Annette, who felt a little awed by
+the atmosphere of pomp which had so unaccountably descended on the old
+veranda and its inmates, and to which she--poor soul!--was wholly
+unaccustomed. "And Matthieu says, Madame la Marquise, what is he to do
+about the horse?"
+
+"The horse?"
+
+"The Gen ... I ... I mean M. le Comte is on horseback and the stable
+roof fell in six years ago."
+
+"My good Annette," here interposed M. de Courson with marked
+irritability, "do not worry Madame la Marquise with such trifles. Surely
+Matthieu can look after a horse for an hour or so while a visitor pays
+his respects up here!"
+
+"Well ... Matthieu says," muttered Annette, whose temper was none too
+equable at any time, "that he cannot come up and announce a visitor and
+look after a horse at one and the same time."
+
+An exclamation of impatience came from Laurent as he rose from his seat.
+
+"Why all this pother, I wonder?" he said. "I'll go and see after the
+man's horse. One of his own vanners, I suppose. He must look funny on
+horseback with that linen blouse of his flopping round him in the wind."
+
+He crossed the veranda, ready to follow Annette. The worthy woman,
+having shrugged her fat shoulders and thrown up her hands with an
+expressive gesture of complete detachment from the doings of her
+betters, started to shuffle back the way she came. But before either she
+or Laurent had reached the wide glass portières which gave on the
+principal State apartments of the château, a firm tread, with a curious
+drag in it and accompanied by the click of spurs, was heard to cross the
+hall and then to resound on the parquet floor of the vast reception-room
+which led directly to the veranda.
+
+"Too late, _mon cousin_," said Fernande in her tantalizingly demure way.
+"M. de Maurel has apparently been too impatient to await your welcome.
+He...."
+
+She paused--the next words dying upon her lips--her hands poised in
+mid-air holding her work and the embroidery thread. Even she could not
+repress a slight gasp of astonishment as Ronnay de Maurel's tall figure
+appeared under the lintel of the door.
+
+
+III
+
+He wore the uniform of a General of Division in the army of the
+Emperor--the uniform which he had last worn at Austerlitz, and which he
+had since laid aside for the blue linen blouse. He carried his
+_chapeau-bras_ under his arm, and there was, indeed, nothing visible now
+of the slouchy attire which had so offended against Madame la Marquise
+de Mortain's ideas of what was picturesque. The gorgeous uniform,
+though worn and patched, became the tall, massive figure admirably, and
+though the gold of collar and epaulettes was so tarnished that it looked
+almost black, and the cloth of tunic and breeches so faded that their
+original dark green colour was almost unrecognizable, they lent a
+certain barbaric splendour to this last descendant of an ancient lineage
+turned democrat from conviction and temperament. From out the tall,
+stiff collar, covered with tarnished gold, the neck rose erect and firm,
+and the shoulders were squared as on parade. Ronnay de Maurel had halted
+on the threshold, and with a rigid military salute had greeted the
+assembled company. Instinctively, and on the spur of the moment, M. de
+Courson had risen in order to greet the new-comer; he now advanced with
+hand extended. Madame la Marquise could scarce believe her eyes; a
+change had, indeed, come over the uncouth figure of a week ago. Her cold
+and quizzical eyes took in at a glance all that was fine and picturesque
+in her eldest son's demeanour. The gold-embroidered tunic pleased her,
+despite the stains on it caused by the grime and smoke of powder, and a
+quick look of compassion, which was almost furtive, so unwonted was it,
+crept into her grey eyes when they caught sight of the large stain and
+the obvious patch in the left leg of his breeches--there where the cloth
+had been torn away, when a bullet from the Austrian gun had laid this
+splendid soldier low.
+
+As Ronnay came forward Madame rose slightly from her seat.
+
+"It is a pleasure to see you, my son," she said graciously.
+
+She gave him her hand, which he did not take. Obviously he did not see
+it, nor yet M. de Courson's kindly gesture. But he took Laurent's hand.
+The awkwardness which he felt was manifested in all his movements and in
+the few vague words of thanks which he uttered. Then suddenly Fernande's
+clear, young voice rang out merrily through the constrained atmosphere
+which de Maurel's appearance had produced on everyone present.
+
+"Eh, _mon cousin_," she said gaily, "am I then so small or so
+insignificant that I alone am not worthy of your regard?"
+
+She did not move from her seat, but this time de Maurel was not slow
+either in coming to her side or in taking the tiny hand which she held
+out to him. With a clumsy gesture, though without the slightest
+hesitation, he raised it to his lips. Laurent smothered an exclamation
+of wrath; but into Madame la Marquise's cold, grey eyes there came a
+sudden light of satisfaction.
+
+"Will you not sit down, my son?" she said, with a well-bred air of
+condescension. "I trust that you have come to pay us a nice long visit.
+My brother-in-law is no worse, I hope?"
+
+She pointed to a chair which, though at some distance from Fernande,
+would afford the sitter a clear view of the charming picture which the
+girl presented. That something more than a mere casual rencontre had
+taken place between her eldest son and her niece she no longer doubted;
+the child went up in her estimation at once, for obviously she had
+played her cards well. Nothing would suit Madame la Marquise's plans
+better than that de Maurel should evince an ardent admiration for
+Fernande de Courson; and if that admiration warmed into love--well, so
+much the better for the cause of the King. The bear was certainly
+beginning to dance, thought Madame, whilst the smile of satisfaction
+lingered round her lips and her thoughts went off roaming in the realms
+of fancy. Laurent would have to console himself with a rich heiress for
+the loss of his charming fiancée. At best, Madame herself did not
+greatly favour the match. M. de Courson had not a sou wherewith to endow
+his daughter, and Madame la Marquise had oft expressed her doubts as to
+His Majesty--even when he came to his throne again--being ever rich
+enough to compensate all his loyal adherents for the losses which they
+had sustained. Laurent was so handsome, that any rich girl would only
+be too proud to regild his escutcheon for him in exchange for all the
+advantages which his gallant bearing and his sixteen quarterings would
+bestow upon her. Indeed, everything was shaping out for the best.
+Madame, while talking platitudes to de Maurel to which he only listened
+with half an ear, was able to note with practised eye every symptom of
+profound attention which he bestowed on the slightest word or movement
+from Fernande.
+
+In her mind she had already appraised the enormous advantages that would
+accrue to the King's cause if a marriage between a de Courson and this
+wealthy adherent of Bonaparte could be effected. Madame la Marquise de
+Mortain belonged to a generation which had often seen petticoat
+government ruling the destinies of nations. And though--Ronnay being
+what he was, the true son of his father, and having perhaps inherited
+his father's temperament as well as his democratic ideals--she could not
+fail to appreciate the possibility of a de Courson once again reducing a
+de Maurel to complete, if short-lived, slavery.
+
+
+IV
+
+"You have not suffered from the result of your accident, Mademoiselle
+Fernande?"
+
+"Not at all, _mon cousin_, I thank you."
+
+A pause. Then a pair of blue eyes were once more raised from what seemed
+very absorbing work.
+
+"The woods round La Frontenay are very beautiful, _mon cousin_."
+
+"Very beautiful, Mademoiselle."
+
+"I had never visited the silent pool in the early morning before."
+
+Another pause, necessitated by an intricate stitch in the embroidery.
+
+"The silent pool is a very romantic spot, do you not think so, _mon
+cousin_?"
+
+"I know so little about romance, Mademoiselle."
+
+"The woods will teach you, _mon cousin_."
+
+"I would be grateful."
+
+"Laurent and I often wander in the woods--don't we, Laurent?"
+
+Laurent, sitting on the edge of the stone balustrade, with his arms
+folded over his chest and a sinister scowl upon his face, did not
+vouchsafe an answer to the direct query.
+
+"We have been as far as the silent pool," continued Fernande
+unconcernedly.
+
+"It is a short walk from Courson," rejoined de Maurel.
+
+"A very long one, I think ... over six kilomètres."
+
+"Over six kilomètres.... Yes."
+
+"Therefore, we have never been further than the pool."
+
+Yet another pause. Madame la Marquise had resumed her knitting. M. de
+Courson tried not to appear ill at ease, and Laurent, whose exasperation
+became more and more obvious every moment, jumped down from the
+balustrade and began pacing up and down the veranda, hoping thereby to
+keep his nerves under control.
+
+"But from the distance I have seen the smoke of your foundries, _mon
+cousin_," again resumed Fernande, wholly unperturbed.
+
+"!!"
+
+"I have never seen the interior of a foundry in my life."
+
+"It is not a romantic sight, Mademoiselle."
+
+"_Oh, que si, mon cousin!_" she retorted with sudden seriousness. "There
+is nothing more romantic than to see a man toiling with his body and
+with his brain, using his intelligence and the power which his mind has
+given him, in order to overcome the many difficulties which God has laid
+in his path, in face of the great natural advantages which He has
+assigned to His brute creation. And then to see hundreds of men all
+working together in the same way and for the same end--working in order
+to wrest from Nature her manifold secrets and enchain them in the
+service of Man. Oh, it must, indeed, be a very inspiring sight, and one
+I would dearly love to see!"
+
+She had spoken with an air of quaint earnestness which became the
+spiritual aspect of her personality to perfection. De Maurel had
+listened to her with grave intentness, his brows knit together as if he
+was afraid to miss some hidden meaning in her words. Laurent, on the
+other hand, had found it difficult to contain himself while she
+delivered herself of her somewhat pompous little speech. Now before his
+brother could reply he broke in with a harsh laugh:
+
+"An inspiring sight, mayhap, but also a mightily unpleasant smell.
+Smoke, grime, dirt," he added tartly, "mingled with perspiring humanity,
+make up a sum total of unpleasant odours which you, Fernande, would be
+the first to resent if my brother Ronnay were so foolish as to accede to
+your whim."
+
+"You must leave me to judge, my dear Laurent," retorted Fernande, with
+one of her demure little pouts, "as to what I would resent and what not.
+Well, _mon cousin_," she added once more, turning to de Maurel, "you
+hear what Laurent says. Are you going to be sufficiently foolish to
+gratify my curiosity?"
+
+"Nay, do not appeal to Ronnay, dear cousin," rejoined the young man
+testily. "He hath no liking for women's company. Rumour hath it that the
+foundries are encircled by a wall beyond which no feminine foot hath
+ever trod, and anxious wives are not even allowed to bring hard-working
+husbands their dinner. 'Tis said that all the jail-birds in France are
+employed in forging cannon and manufacturing gunpowder, and that the
+overseers have to stand over them with flails and loaded muskets, for
+fear that the spirit of insubordination which is always rampant should
+break into open riot, and the foundries of La Frontenay be blown up
+sky-high by rebellious hands."
+
+De Maurel had waited with outward patience and in his own calm somewhat
+sullen way until his young brother had come to an end with his tirade;
+then he interposed curtly:
+
+"Rumour hath lied as usual."
+
+"You cannot deny, anyhow," retorted Laurent, "that all the deserters out
+of the army are made to slave in your factories."
+
+"There are not enough deserters in the armies of France to keep a single
+foundry going," rejoined de Maurel simply. "But these days, when foreign
+enemies threaten the country on every side, we cannot afford to keep
+even jail-birds idle. So we employ them in the powder factory, where the
+work is hard and full of danger, and where accidents, alas! are
+frequent. But the pay is good, and men who have a crime upon their
+conscience can redeem their past by toiling for their country, who hath
+need of their brain and of their muscle. Many pass out of the workshops
+into the army, and the Emperor had no finer soldiers than a company of
+our jail-birds, as you call them, who fought under my command at
+Austerlitz."
+
+He paused, for, as usual, every reference to the army and to his
+Emperor, whom he worshipped, was apt to stir his blood, so that his
+words became less sober and less measured. And he had come here this
+afternoon with the firm determination not to lose control over himself
+as he had done the other day.
+
+"If Mademoiselle Fernande desires to see the foundry," he said quite
+quietly after a while, "I will accompany her and show her all that there
+is to see."
+
+"If accidents in your works are frequent, my good Ronnay," rejoined
+Laurent, who was vainly trying to conceal the irritability of his
+nerves, "'tis obviously not fit that our cousin should visit them."
+
+"I would not take her there where there is any danger," retorted de
+Maurel curtly.
+
+"There is always danger for a refined woman in the propinquity of men
+who have been nurtured in class-hatred. The sight of a delicate and
+aristocratic girl is like to rouse the same resentment in your
+jail-birds that led to the atrocities of the Revolution. Fernande would
+certainly run the risk of insults, if not worse. I for one marvel at
+you, my dear brother, that you should think of exposing our cousin to
+the danger of hearing the blasphemous and obscene language which I am
+told is the only one spoken inside the foundries of La Frontenay."
+
+"There is neither blasphemous nor obscene language spoken inside my
+workshops when I am present. If Mademoiselle Fernande deigns to entrust
+herself to my guidance, I'll pledge mine honour that she shall neither
+hear nor see a single thing that may offend her eyes or her ears."
+
+"But, indeed, _mon cousin_, I am over-ready ..." began Fernande, when
+Madame la Marquise interposed in her wonted decisive way:
+
+"Hoity-toity!" she said. "Here are you young people discussing projects
+which obviously cannot be put into execution without the consent of your
+elders. 'Tis I and my brother who alone can decide whether Fernande
+might go to visit the foundry or not. Nor hath M. le Comte Gaston been
+consulted as to his wishes in the matter."
+
+"My uncle would raise no objections," said Ronnay moodily. "The
+inspection of the foundry is open to the public...."
+
+"'Tis not a case of objections, my son," rejoined Madame with quiet
+condescension; "nor is your cousin Fernande to be classed among the
+public to whom casual permission might thus be given."
+
+De Maurel frowned and that old look of churlish obstinacy once more
+crept into his face.
+
+"I don't understand what you mean," he said.
+
+"Yet 'tis simple enough, my good de Maurel," interposed M. de Courson in
+his turn. "There are certain usages of good society which forbid a young
+girl to go about alone in the company of a man other than her father or
+her brother."
+
+"Surely you knew that?" queried Laurent ironically.
+
+"No, I did not," replied de Maurel curtly. "Why should not Mademoiselle
+Fernande come with me to visit my foundries, if she desires to see
+them?"
+
+"Because ... because ..." said Madame somewhat haltingly, obviously at a
+loss how to explain to this unsophisticated rustic the manners and
+usages of good society.
+
+"I would see that she came to no harm."
+
+"I am sure of that, _mon cousin_," quoth Fernande with a little sigh and
+a glance of complete understanding directed at de Maurel. "I should feel
+perfectly safe in your company."
+
+"Fernande!" exclaimed Laurent hotly.
+
+"There, you see?" she said, with a shrug of her pretty shoulders. "_La
+jeune fille_ is a regular slave to a multiplicity of senseless
+conventions. Do not argue about it, _mon cousin_, it is quite useless.
+_Ma tante_ will hurl the proprieties at your head till she has made you
+feel that you are a dangerous Don Juan, and unfit to be left alone in
+the company of an innocent young girl like me."
+
+"Fernande!" This time the exclamation came from Madame la Marquise, and
+it was uttered in a tone of stern reproach.
+
+"A thousand pardons, _ma tante_! please call my words unsaid. And you,
+_mon cousin_, I entreat take no heed of the sighings of a young captive
+chafing against her fetters. Indeed, I am a very happy slave and only
+resent my chain on rare occasions, when it is pulled more tightly than
+suits my fancy. Otherwise my gaolers are passing lenient, and I am given
+plenty of liberty, so long as I indulge in it alone; and when in the
+early morning I take my favourite walks in the woods, I am even allowed
+to wander as far as the silent pool and listen to the pigeons of St.
+Front, unattended by a chaperone."
+
+Fernande, while she spoke, appeared deeply engrossed in disentangling a
+knot in her embroidery silk; this, no doubt, accounted for the fact that
+her words came somewhat jerkily, and with what seemed like deliberate
+slowness and emphasis. Laurent, lost in the whirl of his own jealousy,
+watched her less keenly than he was wont to do. Certainly he did not
+notice the glance which accompanied those words--a glance which de
+Maurel, on the other hand, did not fail to catch. It was directed at
+him, and was accompanied by an enigmatical little smile which he was not
+slow to interpret--so much guile had a pair of blue eyes already poured
+into the soul of this unsophisticated barbarian! Twenty-four hours ago
+he would have been intolerant of a young woman's diatribe on the subject
+of conventions, with which he had neither sympathy nor patience; to-day
+he heard in it certain tones which for him were full of meaning and of a
+vague promise.
+
+The feeling, too, that this exquisite creature took him, as it were,
+into her confidence, that she implied--by that one glance of her blue
+eyes--that a secret understanding existed between her and him, was one
+that filled him with an extraordinary sense of happiness--of detachment
+from everything else around him--of walking on air, and of seeing the
+blue ether above him, open to show him a vision of intoxicating bliss.
+
+
+V
+
+The minutes after that went by leaden-footed. Ronnay de Maurel was
+longing to take his leave, to ride home as fast as he could, and in the
+privacy of his bare, uncomfortable room to think over every minute of
+this eventful day, and to anticipate as patiently as possible the hour
+when it might reasonably be supposed that an angel would take its
+morning walk abroad. Madame la Marquise made great efforts to keep the
+ball of conversation rolling pleasantly; but she found it difficult
+owing to the fact that de Maurel scarcely opened his lips again.
+Fernande, too, had become silent and tantalizingly demure. Her aunt
+thought that she was sulking owing to the veto put upon the proposed
+visit to the foundries. Madame would have wished to reopen that subject,
+for, of a truth, she would not have been altogether averse to going
+over to La Frontenay or La Vieuville, or even to bearding old Gaston de
+Maurel in his own lair; but Ronnay, after his one suggestion that he
+would take Fernande over the works, did not again renew his offer.
+Laurent, too, had become indescribably morose, and for once in her life
+Madame found it in her heart to be actually angry with her beloved son.
+Obviously the rapprochement with the de Maurels would be impossible if
+Laurent remained so persistently on the brink of a quarrel with his
+brother.
+
+Though after a while Annette brought wine and biscuits on a tray, and M.
+de Courson and Madame la Marquise performed miracles of patience in
+trying to remain genial, the atmosphere became more and more constrained
+every moment.
+
+Fortunately, after a while de Maurel appeared quite as eager to go as
+was his mother to be rid of him. He rose to take his leave, and beyond
+making a clumsy bow in the direction where Fernande was sitting, silent
+and industrious, he took no more intimate farewell of her than he did of
+the others. This had the effect of allaying in a slight measure
+Laurent's irritation. He even unbent to the extent of accompanying his
+brother to the gates of the château, an act of courtesy in which M. de
+Courson also joined.
+
+But the moment that de Maurel's back was turned, and the steps of the
+three men had ceased to echo through the house, Fernande threw down her
+work and ran over to her aunt. She stood before the older woman, holding
+herself very erect, her little head held up with a remarkable air of
+dignity, her hands clasped behind her back.
+
+"_Ma tante_, tell me," she said abruptly, "for, of a truth, I have
+become confused--which of the two things in life do you prize the
+most--the cause of our King or the fetish of social conventions?"
+
+"Fernande," retorted Madame sternly, "meseems that for the past day or
+two you have taken leave of your senses. I will not be questioned in
+this fashion by a childlike you...."
+
+"_Ma tante_," broke in the young girl solemnly, "I entreat you to
+believe that I am asking no idle question. I beg of you most earnestly
+to answer the question which I have put to you."
+
+"The question hath no need of answer. It is answered already. And you,
+Fernande, are impertinent to put the question to me."
+
+"Nevertheless, _ma tante_, I ask it in all seriousness, and I beg for an
+answer in the name of the cause which we all hold dear."
+
+"If you put it that way, child," rejoined Madame coldly, "I cannot help
+but reply: you are foolish and impertinent, and I almost feel bemeaned
+by pandering to your foolishness."
+
+"_Ma tante_," pleaded Fernande insistently.
+
+"What is it you want me to say, _enfin_?"
+
+"Tell me plainly and simply, _ma tante_, which you prize most: a few
+hollow conventions or the success of our arms in the cause of our King."
+
+"Tush, child! of course you know that I prize the cause of our King
+above all else on earth."
+
+"And you are ready to make any sacrifice for its success?"
+
+"Of course I am! What nonsense has got into that childish head of yours,
+I wonder?"
+
+"One moment, _ma tante_. Tell me one thing more."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"In your opinion, do you think that every one of us should be ready for
+any sacrifice that might help to further the cause of our King?"
+
+"Of course, child. I trust you are prepared to make whatever sacrifice
+the cause of the King may demand from you. I know that your father is
+more than prepared, and so is Laurent."
+
+"And so am I, _ma tante_," said Fernande firmly. "Therefore, one day
+soon I'll go to meet M. de Maurel in the woods of La Frontenay, and
+together we'll visit the Maurel foundries--all in the name of the King,
+_ma tante_."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE COOING OF THE PIGEONS
+
+
+I
+
+But it was close on a fortnight before Ronnay de Maurel saw Fernande
+again. He went every morning to the silent pool, soon after break of
+day, and every morning he waited for her until the sun was high in the
+heavens, and he was obliged to go back to his work. He spent his time in
+gazing into the pool or listening to the murmur of the woods. He knew
+the note of every bird, he knew where each tiny couple had built its
+nest; he watched the crimson tips of the young chestnut unfold and turn
+to bronze and then to green; he read every morning in the book which God
+hath laid out in springtime for every one of His creatures to read. He
+also spent a considerable amount of time in gazing at a silk stocking
+and a tiny sandal shoe, which happily he thought Fernande had forgotten
+to claim. He would draw these treasures from out the breast pocket of
+his blouse and hold them in his hands and toy with them, and gaze till a
+mist would come to his eyes and a curious, impatient sigh would come
+through his parted lips.
+
+But he never tired while he lay in wait for the beautiful fairy-like
+creature who had so graciously intimated to him that one day she would
+come. It never occurred to him to give up waiting for her; that was not
+his nature. The same dogged obstinacy of the de Maurels, which had
+driven Denise de Courson well-nigh distraught, brought Ronnay daily to
+the spot where he knew that he must one day meet Fernande.
+
+Often he would wax impatient and at times anxious, but never weary; nor
+did he ever lose hope. He would grow anxious when two days went by and
+he could glean no news of her; then perhaps that self-same afternoon he
+would tramp over after work as far as Courson and hear from one or other
+of the villagers that they had seen Mademoiselle walking to church or in
+the orchard, or else, mayhap, he himself would catch a glimpse of her
+through the gates of the park or in the carriole of Père Lebrun, and he
+would go home satisfied.
+
+And he would wax impatient when the sun was specially bright overhead
+and glinted through the trees till every tender fibre of moss looked
+like a tiny emerald, and the wings of the dragon-flies glistened with
+myriads of iridescent colours as they skimmed the surface of the pool.
+Then he would long for Fernande with a longing which was akin to
+physical pain; he longed to point out to her the play of the sun upon
+the tender leaves of the alder, and show her just where the
+white-throats had built their nest.
+
+Then one day the sun rose behind a veil of rain-clouds, and all morning
+the sky was overcast. It had rained heavily during the night, and a
+boisterous wind stirred the branches of the trees and shook down from
+them the cold showers of raindrops that had lingered on the leaves. De
+Maurel had started out later than usual. He had no hope of meeting
+Fernande on such a grey day, when the clouds overhead still threatened
+and no gleam of sunshine came to cheer.
+
+Yet this was the very day which she had selected for her walk in the
+wood. He saw her the moment he reached the clearing. She was moving
+slowly between the trees towards the pool. She had thrown a shawl over
+her shoulders and a hood over her hair; from between its folds her fair
+young face peeped out somewhat sober and demure.
+
+Directly she saw him she gave a little cry of surprise and held out her
+hand to him.
+
+"'Tis strange to meet again, _mon cousin_," she said lightly, "and on
+such a day as this. Brr!" she added, with a little shiver as with the
+other hand she drew the shawl more closely round her shoulders, "I am
+perished with cold. It seems more like December than May."
+
+She noticed, with a little smile of satisfaction, that he was not slow
+this time in taking her hand, or clumsy in raising it to his lips.
+
+"From what you said, Mademoiselle Fernande," he said in his abrupt way,
+"I knew that you would come one morning. Was I like to stay away?"
+
+"From what I said?" she retorted with perfect surprise. "Why! What did I
+say, _mon cousin_?"
+
+His direct and searching look brought a hot flush to her cheeks. Yet she
+did not know why she should blush, and was greatly angered with herself
+for letting him see that she was, of a truth, covered with confusion.
+
+"_Ma tante_ gave me leave to visit the foundries of La Frontenay," she
+said, with a quaint assumption of dignity, "so I came this morning,
+thinking, mayhap, that you would remember your promise to conduct me
+round the workshops ... and that perchance I might meet you here."
+
+"I came here every morning for the past fortnight," he rejoined simply.
+"I hoped that you would come."
+
+"I had to wait," she said unblushingly, "till _ma tante_ gave me leave."
+
+"I am sorry," he said curtly.
+
+"Sorry? Why?"
+
+"I loved the idea of meeting you here ... in secret ... unknown to any
+one...."
+
+For some reason which she could not have accounted for, this--his first
+really bold speech--angered her, and she retorted coldly:
+
+"I would not have come at all, if Laurent had not approved."
+
+"Ah! It was Laurent then who gave you leave?"
+
+"Yes," she replied, "it was Laurent."
+
+Somehow she felt strangely out of tune this morning, and wished heartily
+that she had not come. For one thing, she hated to see him in that
+odious blouse which he wore; it seemed to have the effect of making him,
+not only clumsy and loutish, but dictatorial and arrogant. The other
+afternoon, when he came to Courson, she had thought him passable--in a
+rough and picturesque way. The faded and tarnished uniform had lent, she
+grudgingly admitted, a certain look of grandeur to his fine physique.
+To-day he looked positively ugly--one of "the great unwashed," she
+thought, and despised him for a demagogue--he who bore one of the finest
+names in France.
+
+"Are you prepared to come to the foundry this morning?" he asked
+abruptly.
+
+For the moment she had a mind to say "No!" then remembered her folk at
+home and the boast she had made about taming this bear. It would have
+been passing foolish to give up the enterprise at the first check.
+
+"Yes, I'll come," she said, as graciously as she felt able.
+
+He, too, felt the constraint which seemed to stand like a solid wall
+between her and him, and in his rough, untutored way he was seized with
+a sudden, wild desire to pick her up again, as he had done that other
+morning a fortnight ago, and to carry her through the woods which were
+dripping wet with the rain. He wanted to carry her through the tangled
+undergrowth, so that her little feet brushed against the low branches of
+the trees, and caused them to send down a shower of cool drops over his
+head, which felt hot and aching all of a sudden, as if some unseen and
+heavy hand had dealt him a blow between the eyes.
+
+The exquisite fairy of two sennights ago looked like a haughty and
+unapproachable woman to-day, sedate and grave, with that dark shawl
+folded primly round her shoulders, and the folds of her hood hiding her
+golden hair and casting a shadow over her limpid blue eyes.
+
+"Will you not give me your arm, _mon cousin_?" she asked after a while,
+just as he was beginning to wonder whether he would not turn on his heel
+and run away as the simplest way out of his present misery. He looked at
+her--puzzled at the sudden graciousness of her mood, and then he
+encountered her blue eyes, from whence all sternness had vanished as
+swiftly as does a snowflake under the warm kiss of the sun. He held out
+his arm and she placed her hand on it.
+
+
+II
+
+For a brief moment their eyes met, with strange, inward questioning on
+both sides. Even she--Fernande--with all her hatred, all her contempt
+for this traitor to his King, this enemy to his kindred and his caste,
+could not help but feel that here was no ordinary man with whose
+passions and whose feelings she could toy with impunity. That subtle
+intuition which comes to every woman even before she has stepped over
+the threshold of childhood, had told her before now that Ronnay de
+Maurel's rough and unbridled nature had already been stirred to its
+depths by her beauty, and that he loved her at this moment with a love
+all the more ardent that he himself was as yet scarce conscious of its
+glow.
+
+A sense of triumph chased all other thoughts from her mind. She had it
+in her power--she, Fernande de Courson, who had seen kindred, friends,
+her own father, driven to poverty and exile by the brutal excesses of
+these democrats--she had it in her power to bring this protagonist of
+those revolutionary ideals to humiliation and suffering. Not one spark
+of pity did she feel for the man who was doomed to suffer for her sake.
+That he would suffer--keenly, grievously--was plainly writ in those
+deep-set eyes of his which, she now noticed for the first time, were of
+that mysterious violet colour which reveals a passionate soul. It was
+writ, too, on that sensitive mouth round which the lines of pleasure
+and of pain were wont to chase one another so swiftly. Yes, he would
+suffer and at her hands--suffer quite as much, mayhap, as her father had
+suffered when he had to flee from his home at dead of night, leaving his
+one motherless baby to the care of a sister as helpless, as homeless as
+himself. He would suffer less, at any rate, than did the martyred Queen,
+when her royal husband was torn brutally from her arms by that
+revolutionary mob whose ideals Ronnay de Maurel would uphold.
+
+It was, indeed, the law of reprisals which was pursuing its course with
+ruthless impartiality, and Fernande, with the fire of an ardent
+patriotism filling her entire soul, could not find a spark of pity for
+the enemy of her cause. She hated him as she never thought that she had
+it in her to hate any man; she longed for that freedom of thought and of
+action when she need no longer dissemble, when she need not endure the
+look of boundless admiration wherewith he dared to envelop her as with a
+caress, and when she could tell him to his face, the utter contempt, the
+hopeless loathing wherewith he inspired her.
+
+The intensity of her feelings at the moment literally swept her off her
+feet. Her heart was so full that tears of self-pity welled up to her
+eyes; and he, seeing her tears, was clumsy enough to misinterpret them.
+
+"Mademoiselle Fernande," he said, with a soft tone of entreaty in his
+rugged voice, "meseems that you are sad to-day. Will you not tell me if
+aught hath angered you, or caused you distress?"
+
+Then, as she made no reply--for, of a truth, she felt that the next
+words which she uttered would choke her--he added more gruffly: "Will
+you believe me, I wonder, when I say that I would give my life to save
+you a moment's pain?"
+
+She would have liked to withdraw her hand from his arm, for she was
+afraid that he would perceive how it trembled. But he held her close,
+and she felt too numbed to struggle. But he--poor wretch!--once again
+felt that wild, mad longing to pick her off the ground, and to carry
+her away--away out of this world of sordid quarrels and of strife, away
+to a land of which his ignorant, uneducated soul had only vaguely
+dreamed--a land where the trees were always of a tender green, wherein
+the mating birds sang a never-ending anthem--a land where there were no
+tears, no clouds, and wherein the sunlight danced for ever on the golden
+tendrils of her hair and the flower-like tips of her toes ... away to a
+lonely spot where only fairies and angels dwelt, and where he could lay
+her down on a bed of dewy moss and kiss away the tears that hung upon
+her lashes ... one by one.
+
+And as with a sigh that came from the depths of his overfull heart, he
+made a motion to lead her away from this enchanted spot, wherein he had
+tasted the first bitter-sweet fruit of unending love, it seemed to him
+that from out the limpid mirror of the silent pool there came a call as
+of many living, breathing creatures in pain. The call rose and fell as
+if on the unseen bosom of gently lapping water, and overhead the tender
+branches of birch and chestnut whispered softly to one another, stirred
+by a newly-awakened breeze. Fernande, too, had paused--she, too,
+evidently had heard, for she turned inquiring, almost frightened eyes up
+at de Maurel. The call was so like the cooing of innumerable
+wood-pigeons--mournful, soul-stirring, and with a tender wail in it that
+spoke of sorrow, of heart-ache and of farewells.
+
+"The pigeons of St. Front!" she murmured under her breath.
+
+For a moment both stood still, until the melancholy plaint was wafted
+away on the wings of the wind. A strange feeling of awe had descended
+upon them. It seemed as if the Fates sitting in their eyrie far away had
+taken up the threads of their destiny, and were weaving and weaving,
+until their spindles came into a tangle which nothing but godlike hands
+could ever straighten out again.
+
+"It was fancy, of course," said de Maurel after a while, seeing that
+Fernande had turned very white and that she clung with a pathetic
+unspoken appeal for support to his arm. "I have often heard this
+melancholy call when the wind stirred among the trees. 'Tis no wonder
+the poor folk of the country-side fly from this place in terror! There
+is something spectral in the sound."
+
+"You don't believe," murmured Fernande, "you don't believe in the
+pigeons of St. Front?"
+
+"What is there to believe in such an ancient legend?"
+
+"That the cooing of the pigeons foretells disaster to those that hear
+it?"
+
+"No," he replied decisively. "I do not believe it in this case,
+Mademoiselle Fernande. The world would be topsy-turvy, indeed, and God
+asleep in the heavens, if disaster were to overtake so perfect a
+creature as you."
+
+She broke into a low, little laugh, which to a more sophisticated ear
+would have sounded mirthless and forced.
+
+"Eh, _mon cousin_," she said, "you attribute to the world certain
+desires for my welfare which, of a truth, scarcely concern it, and God,
+I imagine, when He endowed us with free-will, left us to be the
+architects of our own destiny."
+
+"With an overseer, mayhap," he added with earnest significance, "to
+watch over the safety of the building."
+
+She chose to misinterpret his meaning and not to see the look which
+accompanied his words.
+
+"Is it not time we went to the foundry?" she asked.
+
+The spell was broken. Fernande de Courson became the self-possessed
+young woman of the world once more, and Ronnay de Maurel the clumsy
+rustic, who is greatly honoured by the condescension of a great lady
+infinitely above him in station. They turned away from the pool, which
+seemed more absolutely silent now that the cooing of the pigeons had
+been merged in the ceaseless murmurings of the woods. Fernande leaned on
+Ronnay's arm, and he guided her along the paths and through the
+clearings, walking silently by her side.
+
+When they reached the open, he pointed to the left where the main
+country road wound its smooth ribbon at the foot of the distant hills.
+Here a small one-horsed vehicle was standing, some few metres away from
+the edge of the wood.
+
+"It is another five or six kilomètres to the foundries from here,
+Mademoiselle," he said, "so every morning, always hoping that you would
+come, I ventured to order a carriole to await you here; one of our men
+will drive you by the road."
+
+Fernande was conscious of a slight feeling of vexation. "But you, _mon
+cousin_?" she asked.
+
+"I walk across the fields," he replied curtly, "they are ploughed and
+ankle-deep in mud; but I will be at the foundry in time to await your
+coming."
+
+She had it on the tip of her tongue to demand that he should sit beside
+her in the carriole, or to insist on walking across the ploughed fields
+with him, but her pride would not permit her to do either. Perhaps,
+also, she thought that having been intermittently out of tune in the
+woods, an hour's jolting in a rickety carriole would shake away the
+cobwebs that clung persistently round her mood. The carriole proved to
+be of very modern build, high and comfortable; a perfect English
+cob--priceless in value these days--was in the shafts, looking a picture
+of gloss and experienced grooming. A young man in sombre livery coat sat
+with the reins in his hand.
+
+De Maurel lifted Fernande into the vehicle, then stood by, giving a
+comprehensive glance to the turn-out with an obviously experienced and
+critical eye. Then, as the driver gave a click of the tongue and the cob
+started off at a smart trot, he turned brusquely on his heel, and
+Fernande for a long time could see his tall figure making its way, with
+its peculiar, halting gait, across the ploughed fields, till a group of
+trees that marked a homestead hid him from her view.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE FOUNDRIES OF LA FRONTENAY
+
+
+I
+
+It was a strange experience for Fernande to see Ronnay de Maurel in the
+midst of the men who worked under his orders. Outwardly--by dress and
+appearance--one of themselves, there was obviously an inward force and
+authority in him which the workers readily recognized. Somehow her visit
+to the foundries discouraged and disappointed her. Not that Ronnay was
+in any way less under her sway than he had been in the romantic
+atmosphere of the woods. On the contrary, every time that her eyes met
+his, she read in them more and more clearly the progress which his
+passion for her was making in the subjugation of his will-power and of
+his senses; and every time that in the course of his demonstrations to
+her, of the various processes which went to the making of the "mouths of
+fire," his hand came in contact with hers, she could feel the tremor
+which went through him at her touch.
+
+No, indeed! she had no cause to think that the untamed bear would not be
+ready to dance the moment she began to pipe; but here, in the foundries
+where he ruled as lord and master, where thousands of men obeyed at a
+word or sign from him, she first realized that between enslaving a man
+like de Maurel, through his passions or his sensibilities, to the
+chariot wheel of her beauty, and gaining a real mastery over his
+thoughts and actions, there was the immeasurable gulf of ingrained
+convictions and of the fetish of intellectual freedom.
+
+That de Maurel was the real master in the foundries of La Frontenay
+Fernande could not doubt for a moment.
+
+"Keep your eyes and ears open, child," Madame la Marquise had said to
+her, when she at last expressed reluctant approval of her niece's plan
+to visit the ogre in his lair. "We hear many rumours of discontent at
+the works--of insubordination--of open revolt. It would serve an
+abominable democrat like my son Ronnay right, if the proletariat which
+he upholds against his own traditions and his own caste were to turn
+against him now as they turned against us in '89. Keep your eyes and
+ears open, Fernande; the discontent of which we hear may prove a
+splendid card in our hands."
+
+Fernande had not altogether understood what Madame la Marquise was
+driving at.
+
+"Of what use can discontent among M. de Maurel's workmen be to us?" she
+had asked, wondering.
+
+"If they were to turn against their master, my dear," quoth Madame
+dryly.
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"And rally round to us...."
+
+"Do you think it likely, _ma tante_?"
+
+"More than likely. Laurent and your father and I have a plan ..." said
+Madame with some hesitation; "we have put it before de Puisaye and our
+other leaders.... I can't speak of it just yet, child," she added
+somewhat impatiently, "but it is most important that you should keep
+your eyes and ears open to-day. We must reckon, remember, that King Mob,
+in whose name these execrable revolutionists have murdered their King
+and hundreds of innocent men, women and children, has felt the power of
+his own will. He has tasted the sweets of open revolt against
+constituted authority, and he has been given a free hand to murder, to
+pillage and to outrage. He is not likely to be so easily curbed again;
+he will rebel as he has rebelled before. His so-called Emperor has
+placed an iron heel upon his neck ... and Ronnay de Maurel and his like
+think that they can quench the flame of lawlessness which they
+themselves have kindled. Bah! methinks that it is King Mob who will
+avenge us all one day, by turning against the hands that first led him
+to strike against imaginary tyrants, and then forged the chains that
+made a slave of him."
+
+And Fernande de Courson, as she wandered through the workshops of La
+Frontenay, thought of Madame la Marquise's impassioned tirade. How
+little revolt was there in these ordered places wherein men toiled and
+sweated in order that the Emperor might have all the cannons and powder
+he wanted wherewith to conquer the enemies of France! Here were no
+murmurings, no rebellion over authority; every man knew, as de Maurel
+passed him by and gave a look to the work in hand, that here was the
+master whose word and will must be law if all the toil, the patriotism,
+the enthusiasm which went to the making of these "mouths of fire" were
+to prove useful to the State.
+
+The place was not picturesque. It was not inviting. The men, stripped to
+the waist, were covered with grime. But on their bearded faces they wore
+the same look of energy and of determination which glowed in the eyes of
+the soldiers who followed the young General Bonaparte over the Alps and
+across the Danube, through the snows of Poland and the sands of the
+desert from victory to victory. There was the same spirit--of that there
+could be no doubt--which had roused the whole nation to defend itself
+against the foreigners--the same spirit that made every man, woman and
+child, who could not fight the foe, toil in order to help subjugate him.
+
+That de Maurel understood how to deal with the men was equally obvious.
+They evidently looked up to and trusted him, and Madame la Marquise's
+dream of seeing the proletariat turn against the hands that fed it would
+certainly not come true at La Frontenay.
+
+Not that every cog-wheel of the gigantic machinery worked with equal
+smoothness. Though, for the most part, de Maurel's progress through his
+workshops was accompanied by looks of deference and at times of genuine
+affection and gratitude, there were murmurings, too. More than once
+Fernande caught the drift of a muttered complaint: "The heaviness of the
+toil, the unhealthy conditions, the dearness of food at home." De
+Maurel, however, had only one answer for all and sundry: "France," he
+said, and his ringing voice sounded above the din of hammers and heavy
+tools, above the roar of furnaces and bellows, "France has her back up
+against the wall, my men! the whole of Europe is up in arms against her!
+every one of her sons must either fight or toil till victory is assured.
+After that ... well ... toil will be less hard ... life more healthy ...
+food less dear!"
+
+"My wife and children have not tasted meat for a month," retorted one
+man moodily.
+
+"I have not tasted any for half a year," was de Maurel's cheerful reply.
+"My uncle and I up at La Vieuville live as you do down here; we toil as
+you do, suffer as much as you. When the Emperor hath brought the
+Prussian to his knees and compelled Austria to sue for peace, we'll all
+feast together ... and not before."
+
+"'Tis dog's work sweating in front of these furnaces all the day ..."
+growled another man.
+
+"Try sweating in front of the Prussian cannon, _mon ami_," retorted "the
+General," with a careless shrug of his broad shoulders.
+
+He passed on and in his wake the murmurings somehow died down. He had a
+way with him, and he was so full of energy and breathed vitality from
+every pore to such a degree, that instinctively toil appeared lighter,
+and it seemed a humiliation to grumble.
+
+It was only in the powder factory that the tempers of the men appeared
+of a different mettle.
+
+
+II
+
+The factory stood some little way from the smelting works. It was
+surrounded by a high wall, and its numerous sheds and imposing magazine,
+surmounted by a clock-tower, nestled at the foot of the hills some
+distance back from the road.
+
+Mathurin, the chief overseer--a burly giant, who followed de Maurel's
+every movement with the look of a faithful watchdog--ventured to lay a
+restraining hand on his master's arm when he was told to lead the way to
+that more risky and dangerous portion of the great armament works.
+
+"Leroux," he said, and there was a tone of anxiety in his gruff voice,
+"is in one of his most surly moods. He has given a deal of trouble
+lately."
+
+"All the more reason why I should speak with him," retorted de Maurel.
+
+"But the lady, _mon général_," rejoined Mathurin, as he indicated
+Fernande.
+
+De Maurel turned to the young girl. "Would you care to wait,
+Mademoiselle Fernande," he asked, "till I have spoken to the
+recalcitrants? Mathurin will make you comfortable in his office...."
+
+"Eh, _mon cousin_," she said boldly, with a toss of her pretty head,
+"are you thinking that I am afraid?"
+
+"Indeed not, Mademoiselle," he rejoined; "nor would I allow you to enter
+the factory if there was the slightest cause for anxiety. But the men in
+there are rough; they are," he added with a harsh laugh, "the jail-birds
+for whom my brother Laurent hath such great contempt. They rebel against
+their work--and it is hard and dangerous work, I own--but the State hath
+need of it, and ... well, someone has to do it. But, of course, some of
+them hate their taskmaster, and I for one cannot altogether blame them."
+
+"And," queried Fernande, "do they hate you, _mon cousin_?"
+
+"Of course," he replied with a smile; "I am the taskmaster."
+
+"But ... in that case ..." she hazarded, somewhat timidly this time,
+"are you not exposing yourself to unnecessary danger by...."
+
+She hesitated, then paused abruptly, as he broke in with a loud laugh.
+"Danger!" he exclaimed. "I? In my own workshops? Why, I fought at
+Austerlitz, Mademoiselle."
+
+She said nothing more, for already she was ashamed of her sudden access
+of sensibility. Mathurin, once more ordered to lead the way to the
+factory, obeyed in silence.
+
+No doubt that here the men wore a sullen and glowering aspect which had
+been wholly absent in the foundries. The risky nature of the work, when
+the slightest inattention or carelessness might cause the most terrible
+accident, the rank smell of the black carbon, of the saltpetre and
+sulphur, together with the dirt and the mud and the weight of the
+mortars, all seemed to produce an ill-effect upon the tempers of the
+men, and as de Maurel entered the first and most important workshed, the
+looks which greeted him and which swept over Fernande were furtive, if
+not openly hostile.
+
+It was clear that muttered discontent was in the air, and as de Maurel
+went from one group to another of the workers, and either praised or
+criticized what was done, murmurings were only suppressed by the awe
+which his personality obviously inspired. Mathurin stuck close to his
+heels, and the look of faithful watch-dog became more marked on his
+large, ruddy face.
+
+A word of severe blame from the master for grave contravention of rules
+set the spark to the smouldering fire of discontent. A short, thick-set
+man, with tousled red hair and tawny beard, on whom the blame had
+fallen, threw down his tool at de Maurel's feet.
+
+"Blame? Blame?" he snarled, showing his yellow teeth like an
+ill-conditioned cur, "nothing but blame in this place of malediction.
+Are we beasts that we should be made to work and risk our lives for a
+tyranny that would make a slave of every free citizen?"
+
+"You'll soon become a beast, _mon ami_," retorted de Maurel coolly, "if
+you refuse to work; a useless beast and a burden to the State, fit only
+to be cast into a ditch, or thrown as food for foreign cannon. Pick up
+your tool and show that you are a man and a free citizen by doing your
+duty for France."
+
+"Not another stroke will I do," growled Leroux sullenly, "till I've
+eaten and drunk my fill, which I've not done these past twenty days. Not
+another stroke, do you hear? And if I lift that accursed tool again it
+will be to crack your skull with it! Do you hear, _mon Général_? I am
+under one sentence for murder already--another cannot do me much more
+harm. So look to yourself--what? for not another stroke of work will I
+do ... _Foi de_ Paul Leroux."
+
+"Then by all means go and eat and drink your fill, friend Leroux,"
+rejoined de Maurel imperturbably; "go, and wait as leisurely as you
+please for the hour when the Emperor's orders send you to join your
+battalion in Poland. Never another stroke of work will you do in this
+factory, _mon ami_, but 'tis the Russian cannons who will eat their fill
+of you."
+
+Then he turned to the overseer.
+
+"Mathurin!" he called peremptorily.
+
+"Yes, _mon Général_!"
+
+"Give Leroux the money that is due to him. He is no longer in my
+employ."
+
+"Name of a dog ..." came with an ominous imprecation from Leroux, "is
+this the way to treat an honest citizen?..."
+
+"There is no honest citizen, my man," spoke de Maurel firmly, "save he
+who toils for France. Get you gone! Get you gone, I say! France has no
+use for slackers."
+
+"You'll rue that, General, on my faith," here interposed one of Leroux'
+mates in tones that held an overt threat. "No one can finish this
+crushing save Leroux. If you dismiss him now, some of us go with him ...
+and the twelve hundred cannon-balls of this high calibre which the
+Emperor hath ordered will not be completed for want of a few skilled
+men."
+
+"Those of you who wish to go," retorted de Maurel loudly, "can go hence
+at once, and to hell with the lot of you," he added, with a sudden
+outburst of contemptuous anger. "Have I not said that France hath no use
+for slackers? You grumblers! you miserable, dissatisfied curs! Go an you
+wish! The workshop stinks of your treachery!"
+
+Then as some of the men, somewhat awed by his aspect and by the flame of
+unbridled wrath which shot from his glowing eyes, congregated in a
+little group of malcontents, egging one another on to more open revolt,
+he went close up to them, forcing the group to scatter before him, till
+he stood right in the midst of them, looking down from his great height
+on the skulking heads which were obstinately turned away from him and on
+the furtive glances which equally stubbornly avoided his own.
+
+"You miserable cowards!" he exclaimed. "Have you no entrails, no hearts,
+no mind? When the sons of France--her true sons--bleed and die on the
+fields of Prussia and in the mountains of Italy--sometimes unfed, always
+ill-clothed, under a grilling sun or in snowstorms and
+blizzards--dragging half-shattered limbs up the precipitous heights of
+the Alps, or falling uncared for, unattended and unshriven, into the
+nearest ditch--when your brothers and your sons die for France with a
+'Vive l'Empereur' upon their lips, with the unsullied flag held
+victorious in their dying hands, you murmur here because food is dear
+and work heavy! To hell, I say! to hell! Give me that, tool, Mathurin.
+The Emperor shall not lack for gunpowder because a few traitors refuse
+to toil for France!"
+
+To Fernande, who watched this scene from a remote and dark angle of the
+workshop, to which she had crept on tiptoe, terrified lest her presence
+be noticed and considered an outrage in the midst of these turbulent
+quarrels--to Fernande, it seemed as if the whole personality of de
+Maurel had undergone an awesome change. There was something almost
+supernatural in that huge, massive figure with the proud head thrown
+back, the face lit up by the grey light which came through the skylight
+above.
+
+Then suddenly, with a quick, impatient gesture, he cast off his blouse
+and shirt and stood there in the midst of the sullen and threatening
+crowd--a workman among his kindred--a man amongst men; stripped to the
+waist as they were, with huge, powerful torso bare, and massive arms
+whereon the muscles stood out as if carved in stone, as he lifted from
+the floor the enormous iron pestle which Leroux had flung down, and
+wielded it as if it were a stick. And Fernande bethought herself of all
+the mythological heroes of old of which she had read as a child in her
+story-books; of men who were as strong and mighty as the gods; of those
+who defied Jupiter and Mars and dared to look into the sun, or to
+enslave the hidden forces of the earth to their will.
+
+For a while Leroux and the others looked on "the General" with shifty
+eyes wherein hatred and murder had kindled an ill-omened light. But in
+the mighty figure which towered above them there was not the slightest
+tremor of fear; in the commanding glance that met their own there was
+not a quiver and not the remotest sign of submission. The intrepid
+soldier, who at Austerlitz, bleeding, muddy, with leg shattered by a
+bullet, a sabre-slash across his forehead, a broken sword in his hand,
+had with two thousand men--some of them ex-jail-birds, as he said--held
+ten thousand Russians and their young Czar at bay, until the arrival of
+Rapp and his reinforcements, and then fell with shattered leg almost
+beneath the hoofs of the victorious cavalry still shouting: "Vive la
+France!"--he was not like to give in or to retreat before a few
+murderous threats from a sulky crowd of dissatisfied workmen. No, not
+though he knew that in the hip-pocket of more than one pair of breeches
+there was--always ready--the clasp-knife of the ex-jail-bird made to
+toil in the defence of the country which his crimes had outraged, and
+still at war with the authority which he had once defied. Rumour in this
+had not lied; it was with flails that some of these men were kept to
+their work--the flails of the mighty will-power of one man, of his
+burning patriotism and of his boundless energy. Even now his look of
+withering contempt, his open scorn of their threats, his appropriation
+of Leroux' tool and the skill and strength wherewith he wielded it,
+whipped them like a lash. In a moment Leroux, the leader of the
+malcontents, found himself alone, a hang-dog expression in his face,
+hatred still lurking in his narrow eyes, but subdued and held in
+submission by a power which he could not attack save by the united will
+of his mates.
+
+"I'll finish my work," he muttered after a while.
+
+"You'll do double shift at half-pay for ten days," said de Maurel, ere
+he handed him back his tool, "and one month in the black carbon factory
+for insubordination."
+
+For a moment it looked as if the men would rebel again. A murmur went
+round the workshop.
+
+"Another sound," said the General loudly and firmly, "and I send the lot
+of you back to rot in jail."
+
+He threw Leroux' tool down and quietly struggled back into his shirt and
+blouse. The incident was obviously closed. A minute or two later the men
+were back at their work, with renewed energy, perhaps, certainly in
+perfect silence and discipline. Mathurin, the overseer, shrugged his
+shoulders as he conducted Fernande and "the General" out of the
+workshop.
+
+"That means peace and quiet for a few weeks," he said gruffly, "but
+Leroux is a real malcontent, and gives me any amount of trouble. He was
+condemned to deportation for murder and arson--one of the worst
+characters we have in the place. I wouldn't trust that man, General...."
+
+"He is a good workman," was de Maurel's only comment.
+
+"A good workman? Yes," Mathurin admitted, "but he is always ready with
+his knife. We have had two or three affrays with him. He gave me a nasty
+cut on the forearm less than a week ago."
+
+"You did not tell me."
+
+"Why should I? The cut will heal all right."
+
+"And I would have had the fellow thrashed like the cur he is," came with
+a harsh oath from de Maurel. "So no doubt you were wise not to tell
+me--good old Mathurin," he added, and placed his hand affectionately on
+the workman's shoulder.
+
+"It would be better to have him sent elsewhere," suggested the overseer.
+
+"No one would have him."
+
+"Let him join the army. He is good fodder for Prussian cannon."
+
+"A mischief-maker in the army is more dangerous than here at home. And
+if he is a skilled workman, the Emperor hath more need of him just now
+at La Frontenay than in Poland."
+
+Mathurin was silent for a moment or two, then he muttered between his
+teeth:
+
+"We ought to have a couple of military overseers here, as they have at
+Nevers and at Ruelle. The Minister of War is ready to send us help
+whenever we want it."
+
+"Are we puling infants," rejoined de Maurel lightly, "that we want
+nurses to look after us? You must have a poor opinion of your employer,
+my good Mathurin, if you think he cannot keep a few recalcitrant workmen
+in order."
+
+"No one can guard against a madman striking in the dark."
+
+"If a madman chooses to strike at me in the dark," rejoined de Maurel
+coolly, "all the military representatives in the world could not ward
+off the blow."
+
+"But...."
+
+"Enough, my good friend," broke in the other, with a slight tone of
+impatience. "You know my feelings in the matter well enough. I do not
+intend to have military overseers in my works, whilst I have the
+strength to look after them myself. When the Emperor allows me to rejoin
+the army I'll write to the Minister of War, for a couple of
+representatives to take my place during my absence ... but not before."
+
+
+III
+
+Then at last he turned to Fernande.
+
+She had been terribly frightened at first, but the same magnetic power
+which had quelled the turbulent spirit of a pack of jail-birds had also
+acted on Fernande's overstrung nerves. Her fright had soon given way
+before the power and confidence which de Maurel's attitude inspired. In
+the same way as she had marvelled at his dealings with the workmen who
+were loyal, so did she render unwilling homage in her thoughts to his
+unflinching courage in the face of treachery. Perhaps she realized more
+completely than she had ever done before that here was a man whom it was
+easy enough to hate, but not one whom it was possible to despise. That
+she--Fernande--still hated him, she felt more than sure ... hated him
+for his rough ways, which had perhaps never been so apparent as now,
+when he tried to reassure her. His blouse was more stained and crumpled
+than ever. It had lain in the mud of the workshop, when he flung it away
+from him in a fit of passionate wrath. As for his hands, they were
+smeared with grime, and she could see that the sweat was pouring down
+from his forehead when with an impatient movement he brushed his thick,
+brown hair with his hand away from his brow.
+
+"I am deeply grieved, Mademoiselle Fernande," he said in his unapt and
+halting way, "that your ears should have been offended and your eyes
+outraged by the sayings and doings of a pack of traitors. Meseems you
+will be able to regale your kinsfolk up at Courson with tales of the
+mutinous spirit of these unworthy soldiers of the Empire. I can hear my
+brother Laurent laughing his fill at your tale. Indeed, I know that I am
+to blame. I ought not to have brought you here. But Mathurin and I are
+passing proud of the work done by these men, and I wanted to show you
+what the spirit of patriotism will often do with fellows, whom my
+brother Laurent hath so scornfully dubbed my jail-birds. 'Twas
+unfortunate," he added with quaint shamefacedness, "that the rascals
+just chose to-day for breaking out in such senseless and childish
+revolt."
+
+"Childish and senseless," Fernande said, with a contemptuous smile round
+her pretty lips; "you take things easily, by my faith!" Then she added
+earnestly: "Take care, _mon cousin_! one of them will kill you one day."
+
+He turned brusquely to face her, and for a moment looked at her with a
+dark, puzzled frown between his eyes; then he asked abruptly: "Would you
+care if they did?"
+
+She drew back suddenly, as if his strange and earnest query had hit her
+in the face. He did not withdraw his gaze from her, however--a curious,
+searching, intense gaze--which sent the blood coursing hotly through her
+veins in unbounded pride and anger. Indeed, for the moment she forget
+her rôle, forgot her foolish boast, her childish wager that she would
+bring this untamed ogre to his knees. For the first time now she felt
+appalled at the magnitude of a passion which she had wantonly kindled,
+and with the marvellous prodigality of youth--she would at this moment
+have bartered twenty years of her life to undo the mischief which she
+had already done. She felt like a sleep-walker who--suddenly
+awakened--sees a yawning abyss at his feet, and with a strange instinct
+of self-protection she put up her hands as if to ward off a threatened
+blow.
+
+The gesture, and a vague look of fear in her eyes, sobered him quickly
+enough, and after a while he reiterated quite gently:
+
+"Would you care, Mademoiselle Fernande?"
+
+Fernande de Courson, young as she was, had a great fund of self-control
+and self-confidence, and already she had recovered from that sense of
+fear which had paralysed her for a moment and of which she was already
+heartily ashamed.
+
+"Of course I would care, _mon cousin_," she replied coolly and with a
+forced little laugh. "Did you not care when our kinsfolk were murdered
+on the guillotine by a lot of insensate brutes? You are my kinsman, too!
+Surely you do not credit me with less sensibility than you or M. Gaston
+de Maurel possess?"
+
+She had hit back boldly this time, and he was not quite so
+unsophisticated as not to know that she was punishing him for all the
+bitter words which he had spoken so freely--even in the woods, when her
+beauty and her helplessness ought to have put a curb upon his tongue. A
+hot flush rose to his brow, and a look of remorse, which seemed
+intensely pathetic and appealing, crept into his eyes. But Fernande,
+after her fright of a while ago, was in no mood for gentleness, and she
+responded to his mute prayer for forgiveness by a light, ironical laugh
+and a careless shrug of the shoulders.
+
+Before she had time to speak again, however, good old Mathurin had
+intervened in a blundering fashion, which had the effect of adding more
+fuel to the smouldering flames of Fernande's wrath.
+
+"Ah, Mademoiselle," he said, his voice quivering with emotion, "I would
+to God you could persuade the General not to expose himself alone in the
+midst of those hellhounds in there. As you say, one of them will be
+sticking a knife into him one day ... and...."
+
+"Mathurin!" came in stern reproof from de Maurel.
+
+But Mathurin had ventured too far now to draw back. He gave a shrug of
+his broad shoulders, as if to show that he was prepared to take all the
+consequences of his boldness. Worthy old Mathurin--who was wholly
+unversed in the ways of women--had an idea that in Fernande he had
+found an ally who would second him in his anxiety for his master.
+
+"Mademoiselle," he went on, imperturbed by de Maurel's glowering look,
+"the General's life is too precious to be thrown to those dogs....
+Mademoiselle ... if you love him...."
+
+"Silence, Mathurin!" thundered de Maurel roughly, and this time he
+succeeded in stopping the flow of the worthy man's eloquence. Mathurin
+hung his head, looking shamed and sheepish.
+
+"What have I said?" he queried ruefully.
+
+"Nothing that you need be ashamed of, my good friend," said Fernande de
+Courson with gentle earnestness, "and I honour you for your devotion to
+your master. Indeed, he were well advised--I feel sure--to listen to
+your counsels." Then she turned to de Maurel and said coolly:
+
+"Shall we go, _mon cousin_? My father and _ma tante_, not to speak of
+Laurent, will be desperately anxious if I do not return."
+
+Once more it seemed as if between her and him some subtle sortilege had
+suddenly been broken. De Maurel felt as if he had been roughly wakened
+from a dream, wherein angels and demons had alternately soothed and
+teased him. His brother's name acted as a counter-charm upon his mood.
+In a moment he became constrained, halting in his speech, clumsy in his
+manner. His self-consciousness returned, and at the same time his
+delight in Fernande's company vanished. He thought that in the blue eyes
+which met his now so unconcernedly, he read mockery and contempt, as
+well as the indifference which had stung him a while ago, but which he
+had schooled himself in a measure to endure. Once again he felt hot
+shame of his ignorance, of his soiled blouse and grimy hands; and his
+shame and irritation were aggravated by the sting of suddenly awakened
+jealousy against the young and handsome brother, who even in absence
+appeared to exercise a sort of acknowledged mentorship over Fernande. He
+lost control over his temper and retorted with unwarrantable gruffness
+and worse discourtesy:
+
+"Do not let me detain you, Mademoiselle," he said. "Mathurin will see
+you safely into the carriole, and the man will drive you to Courson as
+fast as the horse can trot. I would not like to be the innocent cause of
+my brother's anxiety. But I fear me," he added, "that you will carry
+away a very unpleasant impression of La Frontenay--the jail-birds have
+pecked at their keeper, eh? Well, if I have to dismiss some of them,
+they'll be available for the campaign of highway robbery and pillage
+which I hear the adherents of the dispossessed King have set on foot, in
+order to fill his coffers; and my brother Laurent will be satisfied, I
+hope."
+
+Strangely enough, Fernande--proud, imperious, high-handed Fernande--felt
+all her anger against de Maurel suddenly melt away at his scornful
+tirade. Indeed, had he been less blind and more sophisticated, he could
+not have failed to notice the little smile of triumph which lit up her
+entire face as she listened to words which of a surety ought to have
+filled the measure of her wrath. There could be no doubt now that the
+bear was over-ready to dance whithersoever he was led, seeing that the
+mere mention of his brother's name had caused him to forget himself
+completely in this new feeling of jealousy, and to hit out senselessly
+in every direction. Well, thought Mademoiselle Fernande--and she drew a
+contented little sigh--he should suffer punishment for this outburst of
+temper--punishment far more severe than he had endured a while ago, for
+it would be accompanied by stinging remorse and a gnawing fear that
+forgiveness would never be granted to him again. With this thought of
+retributive justice in her mind, she allowed becoming tears to gather in
+her eyes and a slight tremor to veil her voice, as she drew herself up
+to her full height with stately dignity and said coldly:
+
+"My cousin Laurent would, indeed, be satisfied if he saw me once more
+safely at Courson, where, though we are poor, and still, in a measure,
+strangers in our native land, we are at least not subjected to insult.
+My good Mathurin," she added, placing her small white hand on the grimy
+sleeve of the overseer, "I pray you escort me to the carriole. The heat
+and noise of the workshops have made me faint. I should be grateful for
+the support of your arm. _Au revoir, mon cousin!_" she said in
+conclusion, with a slight nod of her dainty head toward de Maurel,
+accompanied by a look of cold reproach. "Let us go, my good Mathurin!"
+
+And before de Maurel had time to throw himself at her feet, as he,
+indeed, was longing to do, and to sue for pardon on his knees, weeping
+tears of blood for his brutality, she had sailed out of the workshop,
+with small head erect, her final glance turned deliberately away from
+him. And he remained there as if rooted to the spot, his heart aching
+with the bitterness of his remorse, gazing on the marks which her tiny
+heelless shoe had made upon the mud floor of the workshop, and longing
+with a mad and senseless aching of his whole heart to grovel on that
+floor and kiss each small footprint which was all that was left to him
+of her fragrant presence and the magic of her person.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE FIRST TRICK
+
+
+I
+
+It was over a week before Ronnay de Maurel dared venture as far as
+Courson in order to sue for pardon; and then mayhap he would not have
+gone, only that Madame la Marquise sent over repeatedly to La Vieuville,
+complaining of his want of attention to her and desiring his presence as
+soon as may be.
+
+"'Tis hard, indeed," she said in one of her letters, "that when I
+thought I had found my son again, I should so soon lose him through no
+fault of mine own."
+
+And at the end of another epistle she had added:
+
+"I know everything, and pledge you my word that you need have no fear.
+Forgiveness is assured you."
+
+It was a strange fact, and one of which de Maurel was in his heart
+mightily ashamed, that he did not speak to his uncle Gaston of his
+mother's letters, or of his own desire to go to Courson and obtain his
+pardon from the girl, the thought of whom now filled his entire soul. Of
+course, the invalid knew of Fernande's visit to the foundries; he knew
+of the incident that had occurred during the visit, and felt just strong
+enough to resent bitterly the fact that his workmen had shown their
+disloyalty in the presence of one of these "cursed Royalists."
+
+But after that one serious attempt which he had made to keep Ronnay away
+from Courson, old Gaston de Maurel had not said another word on the
+subject; nevertheless, the keen insight which his fondness for his
+nephew gave him soon showed him the clue of what was in the wind.
+
+"One of those _satané_ de Coursons has got hold of the boy," he muttered
+to himself, "and God help him; for she'll make him suffer, as my dead
+brother suffered. God grant he does not break his heart over the wench."
+
+He sent for Mathurin and questioned him. But Mathurin was not
+reassuring. He thought that the General did not seem to pay much court
+to the lady, but, on the other hand, he declared that the lady was very
+beautiful, and had tantalizing, blue eyes. Old Gaston was nearer
+scenting the trap that was being set for Ronnay than the latter was
+himself. But it is passing likely that even if Ronnay had been warned he
+would still have deliberately courted his destiny.
+
+
+II
+
+The last message which his mother sent him set his pulses on fire. He
+could not have kept away from Courson after that. Some strange instinct
+for which he despised himself, caused him to avoid the invalid's room
+after he had donned his uniform and made ready to start for Courson. He
+feared his uncle's gibes and his counsels of prudence, even though in
+his heart he knew that his uncle was right.
+
+When he reached Courson he found his mother in a soft and tender mood;
+she and Fernande were sitting together under the trees in the garden. M.
+de Courson and Laurent had gone fishing, he was told, and the ladies
+professed themselves delighted at his company. Fernande said little, but
+her smile was kind, and she gave de Maurel her hand to kiss. She was
+sitting on a low stool beside her aunt, and now and then she shot a
+glance from her blue eyes at him--a glance which set him galloping once
+more to the land of dreams. But Madame la Marquise talked a great deal
+and with marked affection to her son, telling him something of her
+troubles, something of her anxieties about Laurent. She had no home, she
+said, for, of a truth, she could no longer live on the bounty of her
+brother. Laurent chafed at the thought of owing bread and board to his
+uncle.
+
+De Maurel listened in silence to everything she said. Indeed, he was
+glad that his mother talked at such lengths. He would have sat here and
+listened for hours, all the while that he could watch Fernande, as she
+put in a word here and there, or made a movement to show her love and
+sympathy with her aunt. The sun came slanting in between the branches of
+the trees, and there was nothing in the world that Ronnay loved more
+than to watch the play of light upon Fernande's fair hair, or to see it
+creeping round the contour of her exquisite neck and shoulders,
+outlining their pearly hue with gold. When he went, he promised to come
+again the next day.
+
+
+III
+
+For the next fortnight he came nearly every day. Sometimes M. de Courson
+would be at home; sometimes--more seldom--Laurent would be there; but
+nearly always the two ladies would be alone, and Madame would talk about
+her troubles, and Ronnay de Maurel listened with half an ear, while his
+eyes followed Fernande's every movement.
+
+Within a week he had offered to his mother and to Laurent his own
+Château of La Frontenay as a residence, and Madame la Marquise had
+graciously accepted the offer. It had been made because at the precise
+moment when de Maurel had his eyes fixed on Fernande, she had looked up
+at him, and Madame had said quite casually: "Fernande will make her home
+with me for the next few months while my brother and Laurent are away,"
+and Fernande had added with a pathetic little sigh: "Is it not pitiable
+that _ma tante_ has no home of her own, whilst you are so rich, _mon
+cousin_, and your château stands empty?"
+
+By this time every counsel of wisdom and prudence spoken by Gaston de
+Maurel had long since been forgotten. Ronnay saw things through a pair
+of blue eyes, his thoughts only mirrored those which had their birth
+behind a smooth, white forehead and beneath a crown of golden hair.
+
+To Laurent, however, his brother's daily visits at Courson were nothing
+short of martyrdom, and it took Madame la Marquise all her time and all
+her powers of persuasive eloquence to keep her younger son out of the
+way when de Maurel called. If by some mischance the brothers met, a
+quarrel was only averted by Madame's untiring tact and--it must be
+admitted--by Ronnay's own determination to avoid another scene which
+might hopelessly imperil the friendly footing which he had earned for
+himself in the house where dwelt his divinity.
+
+That Ronnay de Maurel was by this time deeply in love with Fernande no
+one could fail to see. Madame la Marquise chose to pooh-pooh the idea
+only because she was afraid of Laurent's outbursts of jealousy, which
+would thwart all her carefully laid plans before she had put them into
+execution. Laurent, of a truth, was almost beside himself during these
+days; even though Fernande soothed his jealous temper with more soft
+words and more endearing ways than she had been wont to bestow on him in
+the past. Though the young man suffered acutely all the while that he
+knew de Maurel to be in Fernande's company, she very quickly sent him
+into paradise the moment the ogre was out of the way.
+
+"I am working for King and country," the young girl would say, with a
+kind of dreamy exultation, whenever--after the departure of de
+Maurel--she had to endure one of Laurent's outbursts of insensate rage.
+"Think you that it is a pleasure to me to be in daily contact with such
+an odious creature? Bah! meseems when I speak with him that I can see
+the spectre of our martyred King and Queen calling to me to avenge them!
+Surely," she added reproachfully, "if I can endure the looks, the
+touch, the propinquity of the traitor, if I can bear the thought that he
+actually dares to sully me with his love, you, Laurent, might for the
+sake of our cause try to keep your unwarrantable jealousy in check."
+
+"How can I?" exclaimed Laurent vehemently, "when I know that the man has
+dared to make love to you...."
+
+"Nay, he has not yet done that, dear Laurent," broke in Fernande
+thoughtfully.
+
+"But you mean to allow him to make love to you when the fancy seizes
+him!" he retorted angrily.
+
+"Indeed I do. I have a wager on it with you. Have I not said that the
+bear would dance to my piping?"
+
+"He doth that quite enough already. And I'll release you of that wager,
+Fernande."
+
+Flushed with wrath, wretched with maddening jealousy, he drew nearer to
+the girl, and with a brusque movement seized her in his arms.
+
+"Fernande," he cried, "you torture me...."
+
+She looked up at him--there certainly was a look of acute suffering in
+his young face. She disengaged herself from his arms and said gently:
+
+"Poor Laurent! If it were not that we have need of the man and that _ma
+tante_ sets such great store by La Frontenay, I would turn my back on
+him for ever to-morrow."
+
+But he was not satisfied, even though she had spoken with singular
+vehemence, and his misery wrung from him a last passionate appeal:
+
+"You do not love him, Fernande?"
+
+For a moment or two she stood quite still, her eyes fixed on the
+distance, far away where lay the woods of La Frontenay--a dark green
+patch on the lower slope of the hills; then she turned slowly and looked
+calmly into Laurent de Mortain's glowering eyes.
+
+"I hate him," she replied.
+
+
+IV
+
+Madame la Marquise, on the other hand, encouraged Fernande with all her
+might. She was one of those fanatics in the Royalist cause who would
+stick at nothing in order to gain influence, men, money that would help
+toward ultimate success. In fact, she dreaded that Fernande was really
+only playing with de Maurel's love, and that she really meant to throw
+him over. In her heart she was hoping that the child could be persuaded
+to accept his attentions. As the wife of Ronnay de Maurel, the master of
+the foundries of La Frontenay, she could render incalculable services to
+the King. What was a girl's happiness worth, when weighed in the balance
+with the triumph of a sacred cause? But Madame was too shrewd a
+campaigner to show her hand to the enemy--the enemy in this case being
+both Laurent and M. de Courson. The latter, of a truth, saw little of
+what went on, even though Laurent boldly tackled him one day on the
+subject.
+
+"Fernande sees too much of Ronnay de Maurel, _mon oncle_," he said, when
+as usual he and M. de Courson were out of the way at the hour when de
+Maurel paid his visit to the ladies. "He pesters her with his
+attentions...."
+
+M. de Courson shrugged his shoulders at the idea. "You are dreaming, my
+good Laurent," he said. "My sister would never allow Fernande to accept
+the attentions of one of that pestiferous crowd."
+
+And when Laurent hotly pressed his point, M. de Courson had an indulgent
+smile for his vehemence.
+
+"Your jealousy blinds you, my good Laurent," he said. "Fernande loves
+you and she is not a girl to change her feelings lightly. Just now she
+is coquetting with de Maurel because it is in all our interests to keep
+on friendly terms with him. We are beginning to organize our army; we
+shall be wanting money, arms, munitions, suitable headquarters. All
+these de Maurel can supply us with--if he remain friendly. Fernande has
+gained influence over him. Already he is less bitter when he speaks of
+the King. Let the child be, my good Laurent. There is no more
+enthusiastic patriot than our little Fernande. She vowed that she would
+make the Maurel bear dance to her piping. Let us not place any obstacles
+in the way of success."
+
+"But, _mon oncle_," protested Laurent hotly, "our future happiness is at
+stake ... both Fernande's and mine ... and if my brother...."
+
+"_Ah, çà_," broke in M. le Comte tartly, "are you insinuating, Monsieur
+my nephew, that my daughter is like to be untrue to her promise to you?"
+
+"God forbid!"
+
+"Then why all this pother, I pray you? Fernande knows just as well--and
+better than both of us--how far she can go with de Maurel. Her
+coquetry--I'll stake my oath on it--is harmless enough, nor would my
+sister countenance de Maurel's visits here if they erred against the
+proprieties."
+
+But though M. de Courson refused to admit before Laurent that there was
+anything but the most harmless coquetry between his daughter and de
+Maurel, he, nevertheless, made up his mind then and there that he would
+talk seriously on the subject with Madame la Marquise.
+
+This he did, and she soon succeeded in reassuring him. A little
+patience, she argued, and Ronnay would be definitely pledged to place La
+Frontenay at her disposal; after which Fernande need never see him
+again.
+
+"I am going over there within the next few days in order to select the
+rooms which are to be got ready for me. I shall arrange it so that
+Vardenne, the chief bailiff, shall see me there, and hear Ronnay speak
+definitely of my future residence in the place. Once he has done that in
+front of Vardenne, it will be impossible for him to go back on his word.
+Moreover, Fernande will be with me, and Ronnay will say anything,
+promise anything, while I let him think that she will take up her abode
+at La Frontenay with me."
+
+M. de Courson frowned. There is always a certain esprit de corps in the
+male sex, which is up in arms the moment one man sees that a feminine
+trap is being set for another.
+
+"You are not playing a very dignified game there, Denise," he said.
+
+"Bah!" she retorted. "Did those infamous revolutionists play a dignified
+game, I wonder? Is not everything fair in war--such war as we must
+wage--we who are poor and feeble, against the whole might of this
+mushroom Empire? Fernande is a true patriot. She is willing to be a pawn
+in the great game which we are about to play, and the stakes of which
+are the immortal crown and sceptre of St. Louis."
+
+Then as she saw that M. de Courson still remained moody and silent, she
+said reassuringly:
+
+"You must not fear for Fernande, my brother. If I have no fear for
+Laurent--and, believe me, I have none--then surely you may rest
+satisfied that the happiness of our children is not at stake."
+
+
+V
+
+That same afternoon de Maurel spoke of the woods and of the silent pool
+before Fernande. The warm summer mornings were exquisite there just now,
+he said; the water-lilies on the pool were in bud, and the sun glittered
+with myriads of colours on the iridescent wings of the dragon-flies. The
+mountain-ash was in full blossom and the white acacia filled the air
+with its fragrance. Fernande seemed to be listening with half an ear,
+but anon she said: "I will have to resume my early morning walks again
+some day. I have been lazy of late."
+
+He took this to mean that she would come, and seemed quite unconscious
+of the fact that while Fernande spoke, Laurent had stood by with an
+unusually dark scowl upon his face.
+
+But a whole month went by ere she came--a month during which Ronnay
+walked every morning in the woods, going as far as the silent pool, and
+there waiting on the chance of seeing her. It was a weary month for him,
+because matters at the armament works were going from bad to worse with
+the discontented workmen. Leroux, smarting under the punishment imposed
+upon him, worked hard to rally his more unruly comrades around him.
+Exactly what it was the men wanted, even they would have found it
+difficult to say. They had been called to the colours and allowed to
+take on work in the powder factories, but they were amenable to military
+discipline. The fact that most of them had been let out of prison, in
+order to help supply the Emperor and his armies with their needs, should
+have made them more contented with their lot, even though that lot was
+not an easy one.
+
+'Tis true that the hardest and most dangerous tasks were put upon them;
+hours of idleness were few, and they were not free to come and go, as
+were the other workmen in the foundry. They dwelt in compounds, always
+under supervision; those who had families were not allowed to live with
+them--the boys belonged to the State and were drilled for soldiers as
+soon as they were old enough; the girls were set to make clothes and
+shirts for the army as soon as they could handle a needle.
+
+Leroux took for his main grievance this segregation of the men away from
+their families, choosing to remain oblivious of the fact that had he and
+his mates been serving their full term of imprisonment or been deported
+to New Caledonia, they would have been still more effectually separated
+from their wives and children. But he was able to talk impassioned
+rhetoric on the subject, and men are easily enough won over by the bait
+of a real or supposed grievance.
+
+It took all de Maurel's energy to cope with the trouble, and it was only
+in the early morning, before work in the powder factory had properly
+begun, that he was able to absent himself from the works. He had to
+discontinue his afternoon visits to Courson, and in the hope of seeing
+Fernande again he could only rely on the vague words which she spoke the
+last time he saw her: "I will have to resume my early morning walks
+again some day."
+
+While the trouble with his men filled his thoughts, he did not become a
+prey to that melancholy which was gnawing at his heart, when day after
+day went by and Fernande did not come. To a man of de Maurel's wilful
+and dictatorial temperament, the delay was positive torture, and it is
+quite likely that this constant jarring of his nerves, this aching
+desire for a sight of the woman whom he loved so passionately, tended to
+make him less lenient with Leroux and the malcontents.
+
+He who throughout his administration of the great factory had always
+been in complete sympathy with every one of his workmen, found himself
+often now in complete disharmony with them--impatient of their
+complaints, severe in punishment, bitingly scornful in the face of
+threats. These had become more numerous and more violent of late.
+Mathurin and the other overseers, who were loyal to a man, went in fear
+and trembling for their master's life. And all the while old Gaston de
+Maurel was sinking. His life at times seemed literally to be hanging by
+a thread; at others he would rally, and with marvellous tenacity would
+refuse all medicaments and declare that he had still many years before
+him wherein to defeat the machinations of those Coursons whom he
+abhorred.
+
+He knew quite well all that was going on; he knew that his nephew had
+started on that pilgrimage of suffering, wherein a de Courson led the
+way, and which could but end in a broken heart at the journey's end; but
+he said nothing more on the subject. He was a de Maurel, too, and knew
+well enough that against the wilfulness of one of that race, all the
+warnings and all the tears of a faithful mentor would be in vain.
+
+
+VI
+
+Toward the end of June Ronnay de Maurel sent a courier over to his
+mother, asking her to come over to La Frontenay and select the rooms
+which she would like to be made habitable for her use.
+
+Madame handed the letter over to her brother with a triumphant smile.
+
+"The first battle has been won," she said firmly. Then she turned to her
+niece and placed her hand affectionately on the young girl's shoulder.
+"Thanks to Fernande," she added. "And in years to come, my dear, think
+how proud you will be that you have rendered such a signal service to
+His Majesty--God guard him!"
+
+"It has not been easy, _ma tante_," rejoined Fernande with a whimsical
+smile. "Laurent has been a perfect ogre; lately he has taken to dogging
+my footsteps. He lies in wait for me at every turn. I dared not meet M.
+de Maurel outside the château, lest Laurent pounced upon us and provoked
+a scene. I was beginning to fear that my bear would escape me, after
+all."
+
+"No fear of that, child. My son Ronnay is deeply enamoured of you. His
+absence from you these last few weeks has provoked him into capitulating
+sooner than I thought. To-morrow will clinch the pledge which Ronnay has
+already given me, and by autumn we shall be settled at La Frontenay."
+
+"And Fernande, I trust," here interposed M. de Courson with stern
+decision, "need never meet that abominable democrat again."
+
+As usual, when the subject was alluded to, Madame held her peace. She
+was in no hurry to settle anything with regard to Fernande. Everything
+would depend on Ronnay's attitude toward herself and toward her
+political schemes. If he remained impassive and indifferent, or if he
+could be kept in ignorance of the Royalist plans till these were
+sufficiently mature to ensure success, things between him and Fernande
+might very well be left as they were. He was far too shy and
+inexperienced to brusque a crisis with any woman, and Fernande might
+easily be trusted to keep him at arm's length, whilst allowing him to
+hope, until such time as he was no longer in the way of the Royalist
+schemes.
+
+On the other hand, if he proved openly hostile, then Fernande must still
+be the bait whereby so dangerous a fish would have to be caught; she
+would have to be sacrificed in order to win him over completely. Once
+Ronnay de Maurel had a de Courson for wife, it would be her business to
+see that he closed his eyes to the Royalist intrigues which had the
+armament works of La Frontenay for their chief objective.
+
+Madame la Marquise knew well enough that discontent and disloyalty were
+rife in the powder factories of La Frontenay. Her task would be to see
+that the disaffection spread to the foundries. The dearness of food, the
+oft times irksome military regulations for the defence of the realm,
+were always safe cards to play when men were to be won over from
+constituted authority to a cause wherein promises were cheap and
+plentiful. Rumours of disturbances at the factory had become more
+insistent of late, and they were an augury of further disturbances to
+come. And, after all, thought Madame, even jail-birds were not to be
+disdained as allies in a cause which was both sacred and just.
+
+
+VII
+
+Laurent, backed by M. de Courson, raised so many objections to Fernande
+going over to La Frontenay again, that Madame la Marquise was for once
+obliged to yield. Nor did she regret Fernande's absence when she
+realized that Ronnay was all the more determined to push her own
+installation at the château forward as a means of his seeing the young
+girl again.
+
+"Fernande will settle down here with me," Madame said very judicially
+at the most critical moment of the interview; "she will help me to put
+things in order, and bear me company in my loneliness, as my brother and
+Laurent will be going away very soon."
+
+Vardenne, the head-bailiff, had much ado to keep his master's impatience
+in check after that. He was to see at once that the rooms which Madame
+la Marquise had selected were put ready for her occupation. If men were
+not available capable women and girls would have to be brought up from
+the village; in any case, Madame la Marquise should be installed here
+within the week, and suitable servants engaged for her. He himself was
+so absolutely ignorant of what ladies required in order to be
+comfortable in a château, that he then and there placed the bailiff
+entirely at Madame's disposal for any orders she might deign to give.
+
+Nothing could have pleased Madame better. She was quite ready to take up
+her abode at La Frontenay, where already she had arranged to meet M. de
+Puisaye and the other Royalist leaders, and where every kind of plan and
+scheme could be discussed and prepared at leisure. Madame had plans of
+her own to think of as well--plans intimately connected with the
+armament works of La Frontenay and its disaffected workmen, and which
+she felt sure would commend themselves at once to Joseph de Puisaye. So
+she returned to Courson in a high state of exultation. The rapidity
+wherewith happy events had moved along surpassed her wildest
+expectations. That same evening M. de Courson decided that he and
+Laurent had best join de Puisaye, their chief, immediately. The whole
+aspect of the proposed rising was wearing a different aspect now that
+such perfect headquarters were at the disposal of its leaders.
+
+"Directly you are settled at La Frontenay," M. de Courson said, "I'll
+communicate with Prigent and d'Aché, and they can come over with de
+Puisaye as soon as you are ready to receive them. The park is so
+marvellously secluded and so extensive, that there is practically no
+fear of Bonaparte's spies being about, and I feel confident that our
+chiefs can come and go when they like, and as often as they like,
+without fear of discovery...."
+
+"Till we are ready for our big coup," asserted Madame eagerly.
+
+"Yes," mused M. le Comte; "it begins to look feasible now."
+
+"Feasible?" exclaimed Madame, whose optimism and enthusiasm nothing
+would ever damp. "Feasible? I look upon it as done. Give Fernande and me
+three months, and we'll have won over two-thirds of the workmen at La
+Frontenay. When our recruits march upon the foundry and demand its
+surrender in the name of the King, they will be received with
+acclamations of loyalty, and within the hour the foundries of La
+Frontenay will be manufacturing munitions of war for the triumph of the
+King's cause and the overthrow of that execrable Bonaparte."
+
+"God grant that your hopes may be realized, my dear Denise," rejoined M.
+de Courson; and Laurent added fervently:
+
+"What a triumph that will be for us! The mouths of fire and engines of
+war fashioned by regicides and traitors for the exaltation of the
+baseborn Corsican, suddenly turned against that very idol whom they have
+dared to set up against their lawful King!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+A FOOL AND HIS FOLLY
+
+
+I
+
+At last there came a morning when Fernande felt free from Laurent's
+untiring vigilance. Since the day when she had thrown out the vague hint
+to de Maurel that she would resume her walks in the wood, Laurent had
+never wearied of keeping an eye on every one of her movements.
+
+Morning after morning, when the sun irradiated the distant slopes with
+gold, she had started out at an hour when even old Matthieu was not yet
+about; she had tiptoed out of the house, certain that she would not wake
+anyone; she had stolen out into the garden by way of the veranda, her
+soft, heelless shoes gliding noiselessly along the parquet floors as
+well as upon the flagged stones. She had then skirted the château, in
+order to reach the park gates, only to find Laurent pacing up and down
+the avenue of limes, ostensibly engaged in reading a book, quite
+self-possessed and unconcerned, and exhibiting only the very slightest
+show of surprise at seeing her abroad so early in the day. He then
+suggested a walk round the park, or even at times a stroll as far as the
+woods, and she, inwardly exasperated at her own discomfiture, had
+perforce to appear gay and unconcerned too.
+
+Once she thought that she would try to cross the park as far as the
+postern gate and to slip out into the orchard that way and thence to
+the woods; but she had not yet reached the park wall before she heard
+Laurent's voice calling her by name. The avenue of limes commanded an
+extensive view of the gardens, and he had caught sight of her white
+dress flitting in among the trees.
+
+She did not wish to be caught stealing out of the precincts of the
+château like some country wench tripping to a rendezvous, so she had
+perforce to give up her matutinal excursions for a while, and to be
+content with an inward vision of poor Laurent getting up at break of day
+and cooling his heels morning after morning under the lime-trees while
+she lay snugly in bed, breaking her little head in order to devise some
+means of eluding his watchfulness.
+
+Why she should have wished to meet de Maurel again--alone in the
+woods--she herself could not have said. Encouraged by Madame la
+Marquise, she had certainly come to look upon her final subjugation of
+the Maurel bear as a work of selfless patriotism, and even an actual
+duty to her King and his cause. At the same time, the subjugation was
+already so complete, that it lay well within her power--this she
+knew--to precipitate the crisis at any moment when she felt so inclined.
+At a word, a look now, she could bring de Maurel to his knees and force
+from his untutored lips the avowal of his love which he himself was at
+no pains to conceal. One word from her--a message sent by courier to the
+foundries--would bring him to her side, even though the factories were
+on fire or the workmen in open revolt. She knew all that, and felt at
+the same time that she would sooner cut off her right hand or cut out
+her tongue than pen the message or speak the word. And yet she could not
+conquer the desire to meet him once again--alone--there where the
+romance of the pool, the song of birds, the murmur of the trees would
+all help to bring about that very avowal which she dreaded.
+
+Of Madame la Marquise's more serious intentions with regard to herself
+and Ronnay de Maurel she knew nothing as yet. Had she known of them, she
+would have fought against them with her whole might. She had far too
+much ardent hatred for the man to think of him as anything but a mere
+tool for the success of her own cause--a tool to be speedily cast aside
+once it had served its purpose.
+
+That her coquetry with the man was not only capricious and thoughtless,
+but also wantonly cruel, she did not realize for a moment. Just now she
+felt more amused than thrilled by the thought that she had aroused
+tender feelings in the heart of a man of de Maurel's calibre; and she
+was only eighteen, and had no one to guide her in the somewhat tortuous
+path in which she had embarked. Madame la Marquise encouraged her
+openly. Her father was indulgently detached, and Laurent somewhat
+ridiculously jealous, whilst all the while she never brought herself to
+believe that de Maurel had it in him to love--sincerely, tenderly,
+unendingly. To her he was--he still remained--the enemy and the traitor;
+the man who perhaps had had no actual hand in the atrocities and the
+murders of the Revolution, but who had, nevertheless, countenanced them
+by openly professing democratic principles. Such a man was, therefore,
+fair prey for any loyal subject of His Majesty the King who had it in
+her power to make him suffer--as those of his kind had made the innocent
+suffer--and to make him weep tears of longing or of shame, that those
+very principles which he professed had shut him out for ever from the
+heart of his kindred, from their family circle, from home life and from
+happiness.
+
+Yet, hating the man as she did, detesting all that he loved and
+despising all that he worshipped, Fernande--such are the contradictions
+of a woman's heart--manoeuvred day after day, at great risk to her own
+comfort and to her reputation, for the chance of meeting that same man
+alone and on the self-same spot where in his deep and ardent eyes she
+had already more than once read the secret of a passion which he himself
+had not yet probed to its depths.
+
+
+II
+
+Fernande was not at all surprised when she saw de Maurel sitting beside
+the silent pool--obviously waiting for her.
+
+Laurent and M. de Courson had gone to Avranches the previous day in
+answer to a summons from their chief; they were not expected home till
+the late afternoon. And that morning Fernande was free--free to steal
+out of the park gates while the morning sun tipped the distant hills
+with rose and made each dewdrop upon the leaves of beech and alder
+glisten like a diamond. She was free to wander through the orchards,
+where the apples were beginning to ripen, and where the cherry-trees
+were already stripped of their rich spoil; she was free to plunge into
+the cool and shady wood, to flit between the larches and the pines,
+feeling the cones crackling under her feet and the exhalation of warm
+earth rising to her nostrils and sending a delicious intoxication
+through her veins.
+
+The moment she saw de Maurel she was ready to run away. But it was
+already too late. He had spied her white dress, and in a moment he was
+on his feet, and a look of strange, exultant happiness lit up his entire
+face. Before she could move he had reached her side and taken her hand.
+
+"I knew that you would come, my beloved," he said simply.
+
+She tried to be flippant, or else wrathful, but somehow the words died
+on her lips. Such an extraordinary change had come over him, that she
+caught herself looking intently into his face--studying wherein lay that
+subtle transformation of his whole personality which made him seem like
+a triumphant lover. Indeed, the manner in which he had greeted her had
+taken her breath completely away, and it was quite mechanically that
+she allowed him to lead her to her favourite bank of moss, there where
+the broken stump of a tree trunk made a comfortable seat whereon to
+rest, and where the wild iris grew thickest and the meadowsweet in full
+flower sent its delicious fragrance through the air.
+
+She sat down on the tree trunk and arranged the folds of her gown primly
+round her feet, and he half sat, half lay, on the moss beside her, and
+all the while that she fumbled with her gown he sat quite still, with
+his elbow resting on the stump of the tree, his head leaning upon his
+hand. She felt restless and not a little nervy, and was vastly vexed
+with herself because--strive how she may--she could not steady the
+slight tremor of her fingers, and she could see that he was watching
+them.
+
+"I did not think of meeting you here, _mon cousin_," she contrived to
+say after a while.
+
+"Ah! but I think you did," he rejoined quietly. "How could you think not
+to meet me once you gave me hope that you would come? Every morning I
+have lain in wait for you until the hour when I knew that it would be
+too late for you to venture out so far without being seen. Then I have
+gone back to my work. If I had not seen you to-day, I would have come
+again to-morrow, and the day after, and the day after that--for a month
+or for a year--or for ten years--until you came."
+
+"You talk at random, _mon cousin_," she said coldly, choosing to ignore
+the intense passion which vibrated in his voice, and the ardent look
+wherewith he seemed to hold her, just as he had held her once in his
+strong arms. "You talk at random," she reiterated. "Your words seem to
+imply that my desire was to meet you here, without being seen by others,
+whereas it is my custom to walk here often, sometimes alone, but more
+often with Laurent."
+
+"Ah! that was a long while ago," he said, with that same smile which was
+wont to light up his bronzed face with a strange air of youth and of
+joy. "You used to walk in the woods with Laurent in the olden days, but
+not of late. Of late you sometimes started in the early morning, hoping
+to steal from out the park unperceived. But Laurent has always been on
+the watch, and you could not come. To-day he is absent...."
+
+"Indeed, _mon cousin_," broke in Fernande vehemently, "your imagination
+carries you far. I do not know whence you have gleaned this fantastic
+information, but...."
+
+The smile still lingered round his firm lips as he rejoined quietly:
+
+"Every morning at break of day I have prowled around the park of
+Courson. Every morning, until a week ago, I saw your white dress
+gleaming amongst the trees. I also saw Laurent wandering, disconsolate,
+under the lime-trees until he caught sight of you and turned you from
+your purpose."
+
+"You have, indeed, a vivid imagination, _mon cousin_," she retorted,
+somewhat abashed, "if you connect my early morning walks in the park of
+Courson in the company of Laurent with any desire on my part to meet you
+here."
+
+"For the past week," he went on, wholly unperturbed, "I have only seen
+Laurent, still walking dolefully under the limes. You did not come. But
+yesterday Laurent went to Avranches and this morning I saw you from
+afar. I saw your white dress, which looked like an exquisite white cloud
+on which the sun had imprinted a kiss and covered it with a rosy glow. I
+saw your hair like a golden aureole and the outline of your shoulders
+and your arms as you flitted like a sprite in and out amongst the trees.
+Then I knew that you were on your way hither; I soon outdistanced you.
+How I walked I cannot tell. Meseems that fairies must have carried me."
+
+"Meseems that your work cannot of late have been very absorbing, _mon
+cousin_," she rejoined with well-assumed flippancy, "if you have spent
+every morning spying on my movements ten kilomètres away from your
+home."
+
+"I would walk fifty on the chance of catching sight of you for five
+minutes in the distance," he said, "but not because I am idle. Work at
+the foundries and in the factory has been arduous and heavy. Rumour will
+have told you that some of our men have been troublesome...."
+
+She looked straight down into his eyes and said earnestly:
+
+"Those for whose sake you and yours became false to your King and to
+your caste are turning against you now, _mon cousin_. Yes! Rumour hath
+told me that."
+
+"And you have rejoiced?"
+
+"And I have rejoiced."
+
+"Because in your thoughts you still hate me?"
+
+"Because in my thoughts I condemn you as false to your country and false
+to your King."
+
+"But in your heart, Fernande," he said slowly, "in your heart you no
+longer hate me."
+
+"_Mon cousin_," she protested.
+
+"Do you hate me, Fernande?" he insisted.
+
+She would have given worlds for the power to jump up then and there and
+to run away. But some invisible bond kept her chained to the spot. She
+could not move. There was a clump of meadowsweet close to her feet, all
+interwoven with marguerites, and overhead a mountain-ash was in full
+bloom and the pungent scent went to her head like wine. Her cheeks felt
+glowing with heat, and there were tiny beads of perspiration at the
+roots of her hair, but her hands felt cold and her feet numb, and her
+throat was dry and parched.
+
+She had just enough strength left to try and hide her confusion from
+him. She stooped and picked a marguerite, and thoughtfully,
+mechanically, her delicate fingers began to pull the white petals off
+one by one.
+
+"An that flower does not lie," he said, with the same quiet earnestness,
+"it will tell you that I love you ... passionately...."
+
+The word, the look which accompanied it--above all, his hand which had
+without any warning seized her own--suddenly dispelled the witchery
+which up to now had so unaccountably held her will and her spirit in
+bondage. With a brusque movement she jumped to her feet and wrenched her
+hand out of his grasp, and now stood before him, tall, stately, with
+flaming cheeks and wrath-filled eyes, whilst a laugh of infinite scorn
+broke from her lips.
+
+"_Ah çà!_" she exclaimed, "you have methinks taken leave of your senses,
+_Monsieur mon cousin_. Or hath rumour lied again, when it averred that
+you led an abstemious life? The cellars of La Vieuville are well stocked
+with wine apparently, and its fumes have overclouded your brain, or you
+had not dared to insult me with such folly."
+
+He, too, had risen and stood facing her, his cheeks pale beneath their
+bronze, his hands tightly clenched.
+
+"There is no insult," he said quietly, as soon as she had finished
+speaking, "in the offer of an honest man's love."
+
+"An honest man's love?" she retorted. "The love of a man whose hands are
+stained with the blood of all those I care for!"
+
+"A truce on this childishness, Fernande," he rejoined almost roughly.
+"Are we puppets, you and I, to dance to the piping of political
+wirepullers? I say, that when a man and a woman love one another,
+political aims and ideals soon sink into insignificance. What matters it
+if you desire to see this nation governed by a descendant of the
+Bourbons, or I by a newly-risen military genius? What matters it, dear
+heart, if one loves?..."
+
+"Aye! if one loves!" she exclaimed, with a derisive laugh. "But you see,
+I do not love you, _mon cousin_."
+
+"That is where you are wrong, Fernande," he riposted, still speaking
+calmly, even though his voice had now become quite hoarse and choked.
+"You do not know your own heart, my dear ... you are too young to know
+it. But I knew that you loved me the day that first you came to meet me
+here! You remember? It was a lovely day in May; the sun shone golden
+between the branches of the trees, the mating birds were building their
+nests, the woods were fragrant with the scent of violets and lilies of
+the valley. You had gathered a bunch of wild hyacinths and they lay
+scattered at your feet, and I knelt down and picked them up for you, and
+for one instant your hand came in contact with mine. You loved me then,
+Fernande! you loved me when you nestled in my arms, and I carried you
+through the woods and out in the fields beneath the clear blue sky, less
+blue than your eyes. And from below a skylark rose heavenwards and sang
+a hosanna in the empyrean above. Your eyes were closed, but you did not
+sleep. You loved me then, Fernande! I felt it in every fibre of my
+heart, in every aspiration of my soul. My entire being thrilled with the
+knowledge that you loved me. You love me now, my dear," he added with
+ineffable tenderness, "else you were not here to-day."
+
+"M. de Maurel!" cried Fernande, "this is an outrage!" Her voice was
+choked with tears--tears of shame and of remorse for the past, tears of
+wrath and of misery at her own helplessness. She buried her face in her
+hands, lest he should see her tears; her feet were rooted to the ground;
+she dared not move, she dared not fly! she was only conscious of an
+awful, an overwhelming sense of fear.
+
+"It is the truth, Fernande," he rejoined calmly. "Ah! you may scorn me,
+your beautiful eyes may flash hatred upon me. No doubt that I deserve
+both your scorn and your hate. I am rough, uneducated, illiterate,
+common, vulgar--what you will; but I am a man, a creature of flesh and
+blood, with a mind and a soul and a heart. That soul and that heart are
+yours--yours because you filched them from me with your blue eyes and
+your enchanting smile. You may turn away from me now--and we may part
+to-day never perhaps to meet again! We may each go our ways--you to
+sacrifice your youth, your beauty, your life to a degenerate cause; I,
+to eat my heart out in mad longing for you; but what has passed between
+us will never be forgotten. My words will ring in your ears long after
+an assassin's hand, which your kinsfolk have armed against me, has done
+its work and sent me to fall obscurely in a ditch with a Royalist bullet
+between my shoulders...."
+
+Her hands dropped away from her face. She drew herself up and looked at
+him with large, puzzled, inquiring eyes.
+
+"What do you mean?" she asked slowly.
+
+With a careless laugh and a shrug of the shoulders, he pointed to the
+thicket immediately behind her.
+
+"I mean that day after day an assassin lurks in the undergrowth, dogging
+my footsteps, watching his opportunity. I mean that three times in the
+past week I have caught a man in there with a musket in his hand--a
+musket which was aimed at me. Three times I dragged a man out into the
+light of day, and the terror of being handed to the hangman forced an
+avowal from his lips. An avowal! always the same! He had been paid by an
+agent of Joseph de Puisaye to put a bullet into my back."
+
+"It is false!" she cried.
+
+"It is true!" he retorted. "Why should the hands that pillaged the home
+of M. de Ris, that murdered the Bishop of Quimper and outraged the
+Bishop of Cannes--why should they hesitate to strike a de Maurel who
+happens to be an inconvenient foe?"
+
+"It is false!" she reiterated vehemently.
+
+"False, think you? Then I pray you listen."
+
+He put up his hand, and instinctively she obeyed. The wood lay quite
+still under the heat of this July forenoon. There was not a rustle among
+the trees; the birds were silent, and from the mysterious pool there
+only came the gentle lapping of lazy waters against the mossy bank.
+
+Fernande strained her ears to listen, and soon she heard a stealthy,
+furtive movement in the undergrowth close by, and she was conscious of
+that curious, unerring sense which in the midst of Nature's silence
+proclaims the presence of a hidden human being. She felt more than she
+heard that somewhere amidst the tangled chestnut a creature was
+lurking, who was neither bird nor beast--a creature who might, indeed,
+be hiding there with sinister intent, his hand upon a musket which he
+had been paid to wield.
+
+A shudder of horror went right through her. She knew well enough that
+the Chouan leaders nowadays openly boasted of the reprisals which they
+meant to take; she had often heard fanatics, like Madame la Marquise,
+declare that in this coming war they would stick neither at murder, nor
+pillage, nor outrage, and an icy terror overcame her lest, indeed, some
+malcontent had been bribed to strike at this dangerous opponent from
+behind and in the dark.
+
+De Maurel moved toward the thicket, and she, with an impulse that was
+almost crazy, caught at his arm and clung to it, carried away by that
+same agonizing and nameless terror which in a swift vision had shown her
+the lurking assassin, and this splendid soldier of France lying murdered
+in a ditch.
+
+"Where are you going?" she cried wildly.
+
+"To find the assassin," he replied with a loud laugh. "Those Normandy
+peasants are vastly unapt with their muskets. God forgive him, but in
+aiming at me he might succeed in hitting you."
+
+"You must not go. It is madness to go."
+
+"It were madness not to go, Fernande. I entreat you take your dear hand
+from off my arm...."
+
+"You shall not go," she reiterated half deliriously.
+
+He could not have wrenched himself free from her grasp without hurting
+her delicate hands. "Dear heart," he said more gently, "I'll return in a
+trice."
+
+"You shall not go."
+
+"Fernande!"
+
+"You shall not go."
+
+Then suddenly he yielded. With a quick movement he turned and caught her
+in his arms.
+
+"Ah, Fernande!" he said exultantly, "can you tell me now that you do not
+love me?" And as she, suddenly brought back to her senses, tried to drag
+herself away from him, he seized both her wrists and held her there one
+moment firmly, almost brutally, so that she was forced to look him
+straight in the eyes--his deep-set, passionate eyes, wherein love,
+triumph, joy, a mad jubilation had kindled a glowing light.
+
+"It was all a ruse, Fernande," he said, and the words came with vast
+rapidity, tumbling through his lips, "a ruse to catch you unawares. Do
+you think that I care if an assassin doth lurk behind a thicket? Our
+fate is in God's hands, and I have affronted Prussian or Austrian cannon
+too often to think twice of a peasant's musket. But I wanted you to
+know, to realize what love means. And just now, when you thought my life
+in danger, there came a call from your heart, Fernande, the hearing of
+which I would not barter for the highest place in paradise."
+
+"It is false," she cried. "Let me go!"
+
+"You love me, Fernande."
+
+"I hate you. Let me go!"
+
+"Not until you understand. Ah, my dear, my dear, if you only realized
+what it means, you would not fight--like the shy young bird that you
+are--against the most glorious, the most magnificent, the most
+overpowering joy that God can grant to his miserable creatures. You
+would understand, Fernande, how paltry a thing are country, kindred,
+friends, King or Emperor, life or death? You love me, Fernande, and in
+love you would forget aught but love. Together we would forget, together
+we would live, my arms around you, your sweet head upon my breast. Look
+up to Heaven now, my dear, there where through the branches of that
+delicate birch you can see glints of blue and of gold, and swear now
+before God that you still hate me ... swear it, Fernande, if you can."
+
+She remained silent, numbed, bewildered, her very senses aching with the
+intensity of her emotion, her gaze held by the fascination of that
+transcendental passion which glowed from out his eyes. Just for a moment
+they remained thus, hand in hand, whilst the murmurings of the woods
+were hushed, and a soft breeze stirred the delicate tendrils of her
+golden hair--just for one moment--that supreme second which in the life
+of God's elect spells immortality!
+
+
+III
+
+Then, as when in the midst of a master's touch upon a perfectly tuned
+violin, a string suddenly snaps with a harsh and grating sound, so did a
+strident laugh break upon the exquisite silence of the woods.
+
+"Well done, Fernande! well done!" came in ringing accents from out the
+thicket. "You have, indeed, won your wager. The bear is dancing to your
+piping, and I am just in time to see that he doth not commence to
+growl."
+
+At the first sound of that laugh and of those words de Maurel had
+suddenly dropped Fernande's hands; he drew away from her and staggered
+almost as if that shot from the assassin's musket had struck him in the
+back. He put his hand up to his forehead and gazed out into the depths
+of the undergrowth close by, where Laurent de Mortain's slim form could
+be seen with outstretched arms pushing aside the thick branches of the
+young chestnut, his face--set and pale with passion--peering out from
+amongst the leaves.
+
+Fernande had not moved; only the tender glow of a while ago had suddenly
+fled from her cheeks and left them pale as ashes, and her eyes--which
+looked preternaturally large and dark with their dilated pupils--were
+fixed upon the approaching figure of Laurent. And de Maurel gazed from
+one to the other, from Laurent to Fernande, in a dazed, uncomprehending
+manner. He could not speak, he could not confront his young brother with
+the taunt that he was lying. He had looked on Fernande, and, God help
+him! he could not understand.
+
+But already Laurent had extricated himself out of the tangled coppice,
+and was striding rapidly toward them both.
+
+"It was very well done," he said as he approached. "Many a time these
+past two months we all thought that you would fail. But you were so
+sure, were you not? Ah!" he added, as with a nervy gesture he flicked
+his boot with the riding whip which he carried, "how well I remember
+your boast, after that day when de Maurel and I quarrelled so hotly that
+we all feared he never would come nigh us again. 'The Maurel bear,' you
+said, 'will dance to my piping on the faith of Fernande de Courson!' No
+offence, dear brother," continued the young man with well-affected
+unconcern; "our fair cousin's innocent coquetry must have vastly pleased
+your vanity. But there's no harm done, is there? We all have to go
+through the mill of women's wiles, and are none the worse for it in
+after life. You'll learn that, too, my good de Maurel, when you become
+better acquainted with the world. Shall we go now, Fernande?"
+
+With an air of proprietorship as well as of perfect courtesy he bowed
+before his young cousin and held out his arm to her. She appeared to be
+in a dream, all the life seemed to have gone out of her, and she stood
+there like a wooden doll, motionless and with wide-open eyes still fixed
+upon Laurent. Now, when he seemed to expect her to place her hand on his
+arm, she obeyed with a mechanical, automatic gesture.
+
+That half-crazy vacancy which had descended on de Maurel's mind when
+first Laurent's derisive words had hit him as with a blow, was gradually
+lifted from him. Sober common-sense, of which he had an abundant fund,
+had soon begun to whisper insidiously that here was no misunderstanding,
+no arrogance or perversion on the part of Laurent, since Fernande had
+not by word or gesture attempted to deny the truth of what he said. She
+had been ready enough to cry out: "It is false!" when those whom she
+loved were being indirectly attacked. That cry had come from her heart,
+whereas now she did not deny. She gave no word, no look. She allowed
+Laurent to lead her away. She had had her fun--her game with the
+besotted rustic, who had dared to raise his eyes to her unapproachable
+beauty--she had had her fun with him; now she was in a hurry to get
+home, in order to laugh at her ease.
+
+But to see her go away like that was something past the endurance of any
+man. De Maurel felt that even a word of torturing cruelty from her would
+be more bearable than this icy silence. And, after all--who knows?--the
+magic of her voice might dispel even this horrible dream. And so just as
+she was about to move away, he spoke to her, slowly, deliberately,
+forcing his rough voice to tones of courtesy.
+
+"One moment, I pray you, Mademoiselle Fernande," he said. "Surely, ere
+you go, you will at least deign to confirm the truth of what my brother
+hath said?"
+
+"You need no confirmation from Mademoiselle Fernande," broke in Laurent
+harshly. "I am not in the habit of lying."
+
+"'Tis to Mademoiselle Fernande I was speaking," rejoined de Maurel
+quietly. "I would humbly beg her to answer for herself."
+
+Then only did she turn and look at him, and at sight of the hopeless
+shame and misery which were imprinted on his face, she felt the hot
+tears welling up from her heart, and she had to close her eyes, lest he
+should read in them all the agonizing remorse which she felt.
+
+But she could not speak; every word she uttered would have choked her.
+And he, seeing her coldness, that proud aloofness which seemed to have
+descended upon her like a mantle the moment Laurent de Mortain appeared
+upon the scene, could have cried out in his humiliation and his
+wretchedness like some poor animal that has been wounded unto death. Not
+to these two proud aristocrats, however, would he show how terribly he
+was suffering. She--Fernande--held him in ridicule, it seemed--in
+contempt and derision. With cruel scorn she had toyed with his tenderest
+heart-strings, and laughed at his coming misery with those who would
+gladly sweep him off this earth. How she must have hated him, he
+thought, to have planned his abasement so thoughtfully, so deliberately.
+
+That first day in the woods, the sheaf of bluebells, her exquisite bare
+toes ... all a trick! a trick! and he stood before her now--before
+Laurent his brother--shamed to the innermost depths of his being--openly
+denounced as a self-deluded fool--an unpardonably vain, besotted,
+unjustifiable fool!!
+
+For the moment he could do nothing, save to try and rescue a few
+tattered shreds of his own self-respect; so now, when after a second or
+two of silence, Laurent made as if he would speak again, Ronnay
+interposed firmly:
+
+"I have had my answer," he said, as calmly as the hoarseness of his
+voice would allow, "and there is nothing left for me to do, meseems,
+save to tender to Mademoiselle Fernande de Courson my humble apologies
+for the annoyance which this present scene must have caused her. I may
+be a rustic--and I know that I am a fool--still, I am not quite such an
+one as not to realize how very unpleasant even a chance meeting with me
+in the future would be to her. I should like to assure her, therefore,
+as well as Madame la Marquise, my mother, that I shall be leaving for
+Poland soon to join the Emperor, and that the sight of my soiled blouse
+and unkempt hair will not offend their eyes for many months to come."
+
+Laurent, vaguely stirred by shame at his own attitude at this moment,
+felt that he ought to say something amicable or conciliatory, but with a
+decided gesture of the hand, de Maurel repelled any further argument. He
+remained undoubtedly the master of the situation, a curiously dignified
+figure despite his rough clothes and the humiliation which had been put
+upon him. He remained standing close by the mossy bank whereon he had
+first dreamed--a foolish fond dream of happiness. The exquisite vision
+of loveliness and of grace who, with small, cruel hands had oped for him
+the secret door and shown him a glimpse of paradise, was even now
+turning away from him, without a word, without a look, arm in arm with
+the man for whom she had reserved her kisses, her fond embrace, the
+mere thought of which had sent fire through his own veins.
+
+She went right round the lake, her hand resting on Laurent's arm; then
+they struck the woodland path which led straight to Courson. For a while
+de Maurel could see her white dress gleaming amongst the trees, and once
+a ray of sunshine caught the top of her tiny head and made her hair
+shine like living gold. Then the thicket gradually enveloped them, and
+in the next few minutes they were hidden from his view.
+
+The breeze of a while ago had begun to rustle more insistently through
+the trees; the birds flew back to their nests. Overhead a squirrel
+looked down with beady, inquisitive eyes on that motionless figure of a
+human foe. And wafted upon the breeze, there came from out the depths of
+the silent pool the sustained, dulcet cooing of wood-pigeons. The soft
+and melancholy sound rose up like the wail of a broken heart; it floated
+through the leaves of the wild iris and the clumps of meadowsweet, until
+it soared up finally among the quivering leaves of birch and
+mountain-ash, and then was still.
+
+And with a cry like that of a dumb animal in pain, de Maurel fell upon
+his knees, and burying his face in the dewy moss, he sobbed his poor,
+overburdened heart out in desolation and utter loneliness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+AFTER A YEAR
+
+
+I
+
+"Then," said Madame la Marquise, "you mean to be childish and obstinate
+about this, Fernande?"
+
+"You may call it childish and obstinate, _ma tante_, if you wish,"
+replied the young girl quietly.
+
+"Meseems that you evince a singular want of loyalty in the matter. To
+leave La Frontenay--now--when the work of the past year is on the point
+of bearing fruit, when our chiefs are here every day, planning,
+concerting, arranging everything for our great coup. I, for one, would
+not be absent at such a time for the world."
+
+"If I thought that my presence at La Frontenay would be of the slightest
+use to M. de Puisaye or to our cause, I would not hesitate, _ma tante_.
+But obviously women are _de trop_ in war councils. What can I do save
+listen in silence? We must all accept blindly whatever our chiefs
+decide. I am quite prepared to do that; on the other hand, I see no
+object in my being present at their deliberations."
+
+"But why?" ejaculated Madame, with a sigh of impatience. "In heaven's
+name, why?"
+
+"I think that I could be of some use at Courson," replied Fernande
+firmly. "Sister Mary Ignatius, from the Visitation at Mortain, has
+promised to come and stay with me for a while. She is wonderfully clever
+at healing the wounded ... and meseems that we shall have need of her
+skill."
+
+"You could make yourself more useful by organizing your base hospital
+here."
+
+"Courson is more central and...."
+
+"And what?"
+
+"I could not bear to tend our wounded under the hospitality of M. de
+Maurel," concluded Fernande very quietly, with an intensity of feeling
+which caused Madame to exclaim angrily:
+
+"You are stupid and childish, Fernande. Your father and I and Laurent
+have each told you that we look on your present attitude as nothing more
+than a silly whim. Last year's nonsense is a thing of the past. Ronnay,
+no doubt, has long forgotten all about it. In any case, it did not
+influence him in any way, and before he went he ordered Vardenne to
+attend to my installation at La Frontenay just as if nothing had
+happened. So why you should harbour so much foolishness in your head I
+cannot imagine."
+
+Fernande made no reply. She turned away with a slightly impatient sigh,
+but a strange look of tenacity round her delicate mouth made her young
+face suddenly seem old and set.
+
+Laurent de Mortain was sitting in a corner of the room, seemingly
+absorbed in turning over the pages of a book, and taking no part in the
+discussion, but now--at Fernande's obvious distress--he threw his book
+down; then he rose and came up to her.
+
+"Do not let my mother worry you, Fernande," he said, as he took her
+inert hand in his and fondled it timidly. "There is--as you say--no
+special reason why you should remain at La Frontenay after to-day, and
+every reason why you should not. It will be almost impossible, I
+imagine, to avoid unpleasant rencontres in the future."
+
+Quite gently but coolly, and with a detached little air, Fernande
+withdrew her hand, but she threw him a grateful look.
+
+"I suppose that there is no doubt that de Maurel has come back?"
+interposed Madame coldly.
+
+"No doubt whatever," replied Laurent. "He arrived at La Vieuville three
+days ago. The military overseers left La Frontenay yesterday."
+
+"Oh, I knew those brutes had gone! The very sight of them in and about
+La Frontenay made me sick with hatred these past twelve months."
+
+"I am not sure that you will find my worthy brother more pleasant to
+look on."
+
+"Perhaps not," rejoined Madame, with a careless shrug of the shoulders.
+"Our bear is no doubt still suffering from a sore head, after the
+correction you administered to him last year. What a million pities that
+was!" she added with a sigh. "If you only had kept your temper then,
+Laurent!"
+
+"Kept my temper?" he retorted hotly. "At sight of that lout forcing his
+attentions on my future wife?... I had been less than a man!"
+
+"Fernande was not your future wife, then, Laurent."
+
+"She was that in her heart already. Were you not, Fernande?" he added,
+as once again he drew near to the young girl and took hold of her hand.
+"Thank God she is that now!" he added, as he raised the little hand to
+his lips.
+
+Madame la Marquise frowned. With all her love for her youngest son she
+yet was wroth with him for having so clumsily upset all her plans. She
+had but little patience with sentimental dalliance, and would have
+parted Laurent from the object of his heart's desire even now if it
+suited her purpose, and without the slightest compunction.
+
+
+II
+
+"In any case, mother," rejoined the young man, after a while, "you have
+had no cause to quarrel with Ronnay's burst of ill-temper, which took
+him off to Poland for close upon a year. Had he been at home, I doubt
+if you could have trafficked so easily with Leroux."
+
+Before Madame la Marquise had time to reply the door was thrown open,
+and M. le Comte entered in the company of three other men, every one of
+whom Madame greeted most effusively:
+
+"M. de Puisaye!" she exclaimed. "It is really an honour for this house
+to harbour our valiant chief! And you too, my dear Monsieur Prigent, and
+M. d'Aché!" she continued, as the three men in turn kissed her slender,
+finely-chiselled hand, then bowed to Mademoiselle Fernande and shook
+Laurent de Mortain by the hand.
+
+"What a presage of greater things to come," she added excitedly, "that
+you should be able to enter the grounds and the Château of La Frontenay
+like this, in open daylight ... without fear of spies!"
+
+The shorter of the three men--he whom Madame had addressed as de
+Puisaye--rubbed his hands gleefully together. He was a small man,
+dressed in worn and shabby clothes, who might have been termed
+good-looking but for the air of recklessness and dissipation which had
+already furrowed his face and dimmed the brightness of his eyes.
+
+"A presage, indeed, Madame la Marquise," he said. "M. de Courson tells
+me that you have everything ready for our big coup, and that all we need
+decide now is the day on which it were best to carry it through."
+
+"Optimistic as ever," broke in François Prigent, a tall, lean man, whose
+threadbare coat was a miracle of neatness, his down-at-heel boots
+polished till they shone, and whose nails were carefully manicured. "Our
+friend Joseph already sees himself the master of the Maurel foundries."
+
+"And so he will be, by the grace of God," broke in Laurent confidently.
+"Personally, I do not see how we can fail. We were just speaking of our
+chances when you arrived, and as far as it is humanly possible to
+foresee events, the foundries will be turning out arms and munitions for
+the King's Majesty within the week."
+
+"I should just like to hear exactly how we stand," here interposed the
+Vicomte d'Aché--a stout, florid man, with full lips and protruding eyes,
+which he kept fixed on Mademoiselle de Courson with undisguised
+admiration. "De Puisaye has told me nothing definite; in fact, he has
+been talking somewhat at random. I never saw a man quite so confident of
+success."
+
+"And no wonder," quoth M. de Courson, whose sober manner contrasted
+vividly with the feverish excitement of all his friends. "No wonder that
+de Puisaye is confident of success. The situation in this little corner
+of Normandy is more favourable to the King's cause than any that hath
+ever gone before anywhere. Of course, we all know the importance and the
+value of the La Frontenay foundries."
+
+"We do," assented d'Aché solemnly.
+
+"They belong to my nephew, Ronnay de Maurel. He inherited them from his
+father--who was my sister Denise's first husband--when he was a mere
+baby. Old Gaston de Maurel administered his fortune and the foundries
+for him for many years, as Ronnay joined the Republican army when he was
+little more than sixteen, and was away from home for over twelve years."
+
+"Old Gaston de Maurel is dead, is he not?" queried one of the men.
+
+"No, he is not, worse luck!" commented Laurent, "though he was said to
+be dying a year and more ago."
+
+"Anyhow," rejoined M. de Courson, "he has ceased to count for some
+time--in fact, ever since Ronnay came home wounded after Austerlitz and
+took over the management of his works himself."
+
+"There are rumours all over the country of the eccentricity of the two
+de Maurels," interposed Prigent; "they are said to be hopeless rustics
+and quite illiterate. I trust," he added, with old-fashioned gallantry,
+"that Madame la Marquise will pardon this uncomplimentary remark about
+her eldest son."
+
+"I pray you, do not spare me," said Madame, with a forced little laugh.
+"My son and I have nothing in common. As a matter of fact, people have
+talked a great deal of nonsense. Ronnay de Maurel may be a rustic, but
+he is not illiterate, and I looked upon him from the first as a
+dangerous enemy."
+
+"He has influence with his men?" asked de Puisaye.
+
+"He had," she assented, "a great deal."
+
+"But what about now?"
+
+"Well," resumed M. de Courson in his slow and deliberate way, "as to
+that we are somewhat in the dark. Ronnay de Maurel, after spending
+several months at La Vieuville, managing and reorganizing his factories,
+went away again about a year ago, to rejoin the army--so 'twas
+said--though I personally would have thought that his wounded leg
+unfitted him for the hard campaigning to which Bonaparte subjects his
+troops. Be that as it may, however, Ronnay de Maurel has been away from
+home for over a year now. He only returned a few days ago--much aged and
+still more severely crippled, so I am told. I have not seen him. While
+he was away old Gaston de Maurel took up the reins of government at the
+foundries in his own feeble hands. He seems to have rallied somewhat
+unexpectedly after Ronnay's departure, and though he really is sinking
+fast now--so they say--he certainly kept an eye on his nephew's
+interests, with the help of a military commission whom the War Office
+sent down here at Ronnay's desire to supervise the armament works."
+
+"A military commission!" exclaimed d'Aché, with a contemptuous shrug of
+his wide shoulders. "The War Office! Hark at the insolence of that
+Corsican upstart!"
+
+The others laughed, too. The Empire of France and its vast military and
+civil organization were mere objects of derision to these irrefragable
+Royalists.
+
+"What was this military commission?" queried de Puisaye after a while.
+
+"Ah, my good de Puisaye," exclaimed M. de Courson with a sigh, "you have
+lived so completely out of the world these past six or seven years, that
+I suppose you have no notion how absolutely this unfortunate country
+has come under the sway of military dictatorship. Everything, my good
+friend, is under military control--the police, of course; the
+municipality, the hospitals, the schools, the Church--let alone
+factories and munition foundries. Every man who owns and controls any
+kind of armament works and who finds it difficult to cope with his men
+has, it seems, the right to apply to the War Office to send him as many
+representatives as he may deem expedient to help him keep his workers in
+order. These representatives are really overseers with military rank and
+military authority; very convenient for the masters, but none too
+pleasant for the men!"
+
+"Military tyranny invariably treads on the heels of democratic revolt,"
+said Prigent sententiously. "The English have had their Cromwell, the
+unfortunate French nation is groaning under its Bonaparte."
+
+"It does very little groaning just now," quoth M. de Courson dryly.
+"Bonaparte is amazingly popular. The army worships him--_cela va sans
+dire_--but so does the populace. We have had great difficulty in
+rallying the proletariat round here to their allegiance."
+
+"Well," interjected d'Aché somewhat impatiently, "what did this military
+commission do _enfin_? What did it consist of?"
+
+"It consisted of four or five exceedingly vulgar men in uniform, who
+ruled the Maurel foundries with a rod of iron. Punishments for slackness
+and disobedience were doled out with a free hand, and the slightest
+attempt at concerted grumbling was instantly met with handcuffs, arrest,
+bread and water and other unpleasant manifestations of military
+discipline. The men openly sighed for the return of 'the General,' as
+they call Ronnay de Maurel, though he was none too pleasant a taskmaster
+either, so I've been told."
+
+"And I suppose that while that military commission sat at La Frontenay,
+you were able to do very little in the way of recruiting for the King?"
+
+"Very little indeed. You see, most of the able-bodied men in the
+neighbourhood are employed in the foundries, and it is only here and
+there that we have found a malcontent who was willing to come over to
+us. But we have got the two hundred men from the powder factory; they
+are ready to join us the moment your men march on La Frontenay."
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed de Puisaye, as he once more rubbed his wrinkled hands
+together with an excited gesture which seemed habitual to him. "Ah!
+there you have it at last, my good d'Aché. Our friend de Courson has
+explained the situation to you as it has been this past year; now let me
+tell you how we stand at this present, and what causes me to be so
+certain for the future. The two hundred men of whom de Courson speaks
+are convicts employed solely in the more dangerous processes of the
+manufacture of gunpowder. They are a rough, surly, discontented lot, who
+live segregated from their fellow-workmen in compounds, which are under
+special supervision, and they are subject to special discipline.
+Personally, I should say that even so with these restrictions it was
+pleasanter to manufacture gunpowder in the factories of La Frontenay
+than in the jails of Caen or the galleys of Brest. But apparently Paul
+Leroux, who is in some sort of way the acknowledged leader of the gang,
+and his mates do not think so. They hate old Gaston de Maurel, they hate
+Ronnay, they execrated the military commission. They only work under
+strict compulsion--some say under the lash; in any case, they only work
+under the terror of punishment, and they are ready at any moment to
+rebel, to murder, to blow up the factory or to come in on our side--to
+do anything, in fact, for a change from their present condition, and,
+above all, for a bribe in the form of a promise of liberty and of
+money."
+
+While de Puisaye spoke all the men had sat down and drawn their chairs
+together round a table which stood by the window in a corner of the
+room. Madame la Marquise, too, had joined the conclave, her enthusiasm
+and her energy were at least equal to that of any man. Only Fernande
+sat a little outside the circle, at the end of a sofa, near her father
+and close beside the window, from whence she could see right over the
+park to the distant wooded hills, thick and heavy with foliage now, and
+with the brilliant June sun picking out the clumps of wild roses round
+the edge of the wood, and the little stream in the valley which wound
+its turbulent course to the silent pool far away.
+
+"Of course," resumed Joseph de Puisaye, after a while, "we all know that
+a set of jail-birds are not to be trusted in the long run, and it is not
+my intention that we should rely on them. But our friends here, Madame
+la Marquise de Mortain, M. de Courson and our ever loyal Laurent, have
+had certain access to these men for the past year, and they seem to have
+made marvellous use of their opportunities."
+
+"I marvel that they were allowed to visit the foundries at all,"
+commented François Prigent.
+
+"We were only allowed the one visit," said Madame dryly. "Vardenne, my
+son's chief bailiff, engineered that for me. It seems that when Ronnay
+went away last year he never revoked the orders whereby he placed
+Vardenne entirely at my disposal; and though old Gaston de Maurel tried
+to interfere once or twice, Vardenne looked upon me as his mistress, and
+his attitude towards me influenced a good many others. I have been
+treated with marked respect by all and sundry in and around the
+property. It was only in the factories that Gaston and the military
+representatives held masterful sway, and there, after that one visit,
+not one of us was ever allowed to set foot."
+
+"That being so, Madame la Marquise," continued de Puisaye with
+flattering earnestness, "I can only say that what you have accomplished
+is nothing short of miraculous."
+
+"Oh!" rejoined Madame unblushingly, "my son Ronnay left a large sum of
+money behind for my use."
+
+It was only Laurent, whose eyes never wandered away for long from the
+contemplation of Fernande, who noticed the quick, hot flush which at
+Madame's words had suffused the young girl's cheeks.
+
+"I know, I know," interposed de Puisaye; "and, indeed, His Majesty owes
+you a deep debt of gratitude, Madame, for the privations which you
+endured so nobly, in order to place the bulk of that money at our
+disposal."
+
+"I had to use some," rejoined the Marquise, "for bribing Leroux, and
+also our go-betweens. Unfortunately, those men to whom I had free
+access--the workmen in the foundries and armament works who live in the
+villages round--were not at all tractable. They are disloyal almost to a
+man. For them Bonaparte is a god and Ronnay de Maurel his prophet; we
+had to fall back on the convicts in the powder factory."
+
+"With that man Paul Leroux as the chief asset," added M. de Courson.
+
+"Beggars must not be choosers," commented de Puisaye with a sigh. "Two
+hundred jail-birds in the King's cause," he added naïvely, "are better
+than five hundred on the other side."
+
+"Well, and what about Leroux and his gang, then?" queried d'Aché.
+
+"On the occasion of our only visit to the foundries," replied Madame,
+"my brother, Laurent and I had agreed that one of us must have
+conversation with the man Leroux, with the help and connivance of the
+other two. Rumour had already told us that Leroux was the chief
+malcontent, who had given even the military representatives plenty of
+anxiety. We knew that we must get hold of him before we could approach
+any of the others. Fortunately luck was on our side. Something--I forget
+what--engaged the attention of one of the military representatives who
+were escorting us round the powder factory, my brother was able to
+engage the others in conversation, whilst Laurent drew the overseer
+Mathurin's attention to himself. This gave me just two minutes' talk
+with Leroux."
+
+"Not very much," put in Prigent dryly. The others were listening in
+eager silence to Madame's narrative.
+
+"Enough for my purpose," she continued. "Leroux was in a surly mood,
+smarting under some punishment which I've no doubt he deserved. A curse
+and a snarl from him directed at the overseer gave me my opening. In two
+minutes I managed to promise him freedom from his present position and
+money wherewith to create for himself a new one. He sucked in my
+suggestion greedily, and I asked him how we could communicate with one
+another in future. 'The boundary wall,' he muttered, 'where it was
+repaired recently--the stones are new-looking. I will throw a message
+over at that point when I can--during exercise hours--eight o'clock and
+two o'clock--you can be on the watch.' There was no time to say more.
+But I was satisfied. We had made a beginning. For over a week one of us
+was on the watch twice every day outside the boundary wall at the spot
+which Leroux had indicated. It was easily recognizable because of the
+new-looking stones. The spot is a lonely one. There is a footpath which
+follows the boundary wall at this point; the other side of the footpath
+is bordered by a bit of coppice wood. Either my brother, or Laurent, or
+I remained in observation, hidden in the coppice, while we heard the
+tramp of the men exercising inside the boundary wall. After a week, a
+piece of dirty paper, weighted by a stone, was flung over the wall. It
+had been my turn to watch. I picked up the paper and managed to decipher
+the scrawl upon it. Leroux explained that on this self-same spot in the
+wall--but on the inner side--he had succeeded in loosening a stone,
+immediately below the coping; he suggested that messages to him should
+be slipped behind the stone exactly five minutes before exercising time,
+and the stone replaced. The yard, he said, was always deserted then.
+Needless to say that we acted upon his suggestion, and the very next
+morning Laurent succeeded in clambering over the wall--though it is a
+high one--at exactly five minutes before eight o'clock, and managed to
+slip a message for Leroux into the hiding-place behind the stone."
+
+"It all sounds like a fairy tale!" broke in d'Aché enthusiastically.
+
+"Of course," here interposed M. de Courson, taking up the interrupted
+narrative, "after that, matters became comparatively simple. Leroux was
+more than ready to do all that we asked of him, and he kept us posted up
+with everything that went on inside the factory. Thus we enjoined him,
+for the sake of his own future and for the success of our undertaking,
+to drop his rebellious attitude--to become industrious, willing, a
+pattern amongst the workmen. We told him to gain the confidence of the
+War Office representatives by every means in his power and so to
+ingratiate himself with them that he might obtain the post of chief
+overseer of the powder factory, which would confer upon him privileges
+that he then could utilize for our service."
+
+"Well, and did he succeed?"
+
+"Indeed, he did," assented Madame la Marquise. "We have offered him a
+bribe of ten thousand francs if he served us in the way we required: the
+first step towards this service was to be his good conduct--the second
+his appointment as overseer."
+
+"And what happened?"
+
+"Paul Leroux is now overseer of the powder factory at La Frontenay. He
+was appointed by old Gaston de Maurel, who has been completely taken in
+by the man's change of front. Leroux is quoted throughout the district
+as a marvellous example of how a man can rise from his dead self,
+through patriotism and discipline, to a new life of industry and
+consideration. The epic of Leroux," added Madame with a laugh, "forms
+the comedy side of the palpitating drama which we have been enacting at
+La Frontenay these past twelve months."
+
+"Splendid! Marvellous!" acclaimed the men in chorus, and d'Aché, less
+well informed than the others of what had been going on, added eagerly:
+"So much for the present; now what about the future?"
+
+
+III
+
+"The future," resumed M. de Courson quietly after a while, "is, in fact,
+rosier than any of us had ever dared to hope."
+
+"Leroux will prove useful, you think?" queried Prigent.
+
+"Leroux, my dear friends," broke in Madame triumphantly, "is prepared to
+hand over the entire factory to us, lock, stock and barrel. He has both
+the power and the means to do it. With the factory in our hands, the
+foundries and armament works will fall to us automatically."
+
+"But how?" exclaimed d'Aché impassionedly, "in Heaven's name how?
+Believe me, the whole thing still seems to me like a fairy-tale."
+
+"I am sure it does," she retorted gaily, "and yet it is all real ... so
+real ... Laurent!" she continued suddenly, turning to the young man, "I
+pray you go and see if Leroux hath come."
+
+Laurent obeyed readily and de Puisaye said approvingly:
+
+"Ah! you have the man here; that is good!"
+
+"He can come and go at will now, out of his working hours," said M. de
+Courson, "and for the past two weeks has been up to the château every
+day to make report to us, as to what is going on inside the factories.
+Comparative freedom is one of the privileges which have been granted him
+now that he is chief overseer."
+
+"You have, indeed, accomplished miracles, Madame," said de Puisaye,
+gallantly kissing Madame la Marquise de Mortain's well-shaped hand.
+
+"Wait till you have spoken with Leroux," retorted Madame with a
+triumphant smile.
+
+For the next moment or two no one spoke; obviously the nerves of every
+one in the room were strained to breaking point. Madame la Marquise
+leaned back in her chair. She was flushed with satisfaction and
+triumph; she kept her glowing eyes fixed upon Fernande as if she
+desired to challenge the young girl now to persist in her obstinacy of a
+while ago. "How can you think of abandoning this scene of coming
+triumphs?" she seemed to say. But Fernande kept her eyes resolutely
+averted from her aunt as well as from the three men, who seemed willing
+enough to while away these few minutes' suspense by casting admiring
+looks on the beautiful and silent girl by the window.
+
+"Mademoiselle de Courson," said d'Aché, who had always been known for
+his gallantry, "has not honoured us by an expression of opinion on any
+point as yet."
+
+"My father would tell you, sir, and justly, too, no doubt," said
+Fernande coldly, "that I am over-young to have an opinion on any point,
+and men have oft averred that danger looms largely on ahead whenever
+women meddle with politics."
+
+"Then will Madame's diplomacy prove them wrong this time," cried de
+Puisaye gaily. "And I'll warrant that you, Mademoiselle, have borne no
+small share in the noble work that has been going on at La Frontenay for
+the behalf of His Majesty the King."
+
+"There you do me too much honour, sir," rejoined Fernande. "I have been
+a passive witness here, seeing that I was--unwillingly enough, God
+knows!--a guest beneath M. de Maurel's roof."
+
+Then, as Madame la Marquise uttered an exclamation of reproof and M. de
+Puisaye one of astonishment, M. de Courson broke in quietly:
+
+"My daughter," he said, not without a stern look directed on Fernande,
+"hath meseems proved the truth of her assertion to your satisfaction, my
+friends. She is obviously too young to understand the grave issues which
+are at stake and wherein overstrung sensibilities must not be allowed to
+play a part."
+
+Madame was frowning, and Fernande turned her little head once again
+obstinately away. And the three guests, scenting a family jar, promptly
+fell to talking of something else.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE TOOL
+
+
+I
+
+A moment or two later Laurent returned closely followed by Leroux.
+Fernande instinctively turned to look at the man whom she had last seen
+in the factory, covered with grime and smoke and sweat, threatening by
+foul words and furtive gestures the master who had controlled and
+punished him.
+
+Of a truth, she scarcely recognized him. Paul Leroux, actuated both by
+greed and by the desire to free himself from present constituted
+authority, had played his part over well. From the surly,
+ill-conditioned jail-bird of twelve months ago, he had succeeded in
+eliminating every unpleasant aspect, save that of the eyes, which had
+remained shifty and glowering as before. But he wore the cloth coat and
+corduroy breeches of a well-to-do artisan now; his hair was combed and
+oiled and held back in the nape of the neck with a tidy piece of ribbon.
+He wore neckcloth, stockings and shoes with buckles. His hands were
+almost clean.
+
+De Puisaye and the others surveyed this new recruit to the Royalist
+cause with genuine satisfaction. Except for that shifty look in the
+eyes, which perhaps these men, unaccustomed to psychological analysis,
+failed to note, Paul Leroux looked a well-conditioned, reliable,
+well-fashioned tool, ready for any guiding hand.
+
+"Well now, Leroux," began Joseph de Puisaye, with a sort of
+condescending gruffness which he thought suitable for the occasion,
+"Madame la Marquise de Mortain has been telling me that you have
+resolved to become once more a loyal and independent subject of His
+Majesty King Louis the Eighteenth by the grace of God, and that you are
+ready to throw off your allegiance to the adventurer who has dared to
+set himself upon the throne of France. That is so--is it not?"
+
+"If by all that talk," retorted the man surlily, "you mean that I and my
+mates are heartily sick of de Maurel and of the tyranny of his minions,
+and that we don't mind throwing in our lot with you for a consideration
+... then you are right. I am your man."
+
+De Puisaye threw his head back and laughed, and even solemn Prigent
+could not suppress a smile.
+
+"Well said, my good Leroux," riposted de Puisaye unconcernedly. "You put
+things bluntly, but that certainly is the proposition. Let me put it
+quite as bluntly to you. We have eight hundred men between this and
+Avranches, ready to march on La Frontenay on a given night. We want to
+obtain possession of the factories, the foundries and the armament
+works. Can you help us to them?"
+
+"I can and I will," replied the man gruffly, "if you'll give me ten
+thousand francs for my pains, and a hundred francs apiece for my mates."
+
+"We have already agreed to that," rejoined de Puisaye, "and I pledge you
+my word of honour that you shall have the money on the day when I myself
+walk into the foundries of La Frontenay as their master. Now how do you
+propose to do what we want?"
+
+For one instant Leroux' shifty eyes had flared up beneath their flaccid
+lids, as the Comte Joseph de Puisaye pledged himself to pay that ten
+thousand francs for which Leroux would readily have sold his soul to the
+devil.
+
+"Will you explain to these seigneurs, Leroux," commanded M. de Courson,
+"the plan which we have agreed on? They would prefer to hear it from
+your own lips, so that we can all be assured that you thoroughly
+understand all that you will have to do."
+
+"Am I not to sit down?" queried Leroux roughly.
+
+The gentlemen looked at one another in some consternation. Here was a
+problem which, simple as it seemed, nevertheless embodied a good many of
+the puzzles which would inevitably confront the old régime when it did
+succeed in re-establishing itself above the ruins and the ashes of
+Equality and of Fraternity. For a man in Leroux' position to dare think
+of sitting down in the presence of his seigneurs was, indeed, an
+unheard-of possibility in the days before the proletariat had ventured
+to assert its rights to live like human beings rather than like beasts
+of burden. Now, of course, things were very different; the theory of
+social levelling--which had found expression in the title of "citizen"
+applied equally to the whilom aristocrat and to the vagrant in the
+street--made even de Puisaye marvel if he dared impose upon a man like
+Leroux those conventions which in the past would have been as natural to
+him as the indrawing and exhaling of his breath, but which now might
+arouse his resentment and turn him, headstrong and wrathful, against the
+project wherein his co-operation was of such vital importance.
+
+Compromise that did not grate upon the susceptibilities on either side
+was obviously the only wise course to adopt under the circumstances, and
+de Puisaye, keeping an air of haughty condescension that satisfied
+himself, said in a pleasant tone intended to conciliate Leroux: "If the
+ladies have no objection, my man, you certainly may sit."
+
+Madame la Marquise nodded approval, and Leroux, muttering something
+which fortunately remained inaudible, sat down.
+
+
+II
+
+"Well, now," resumed de Puisaye after a while, "will you tell these
+ladies and gentlemen here as clearly as you can what plan you can adopt
+in order to deliver the Maurel factories into our hands? Then we shall
+be able to see how best we can co-operate with you in the matter."
+
+"I can manage things all right for you," said Leroux roughly. "I am
+chief overseer of the powder factory now--what?--so I have my quarters
+inside the precincts. I live in the Lodge--you know it--it stands in the
+centre of the group of work-sheds over against the powder magazine. What
+I can do is this: I can keep half a hundred of my mates--those that I
+know I can rely on--to work overtime one evening. They can easily
+slacken work during the day, and I should then have the right to keep
+them back for two or three hours in the sheds."
+
+"They will form the main garrison inside the precincts," explained M. de
+Courson. "On their quick and efficient work will depend our success."
+
+"Yes, I quite understand that," assented de Puisaye. "Now, how is that
+garrison going to work for us? I presume that there are night-watchmen
+about in the various sheds and throughout the works."
+
+"There are," replied Leroux briefly, "two in every shed, and Mathurin,
+the chief overseer of the foundries, sleeps in one of the main
+buildings, too. At night--if it is necessary--the alarm is given by
+ringing the bell in one of the clock towers. There are two of these
+towers in the precincts of the works, one in the main building of the
+foundries, the other above the Lodge in the powder factory, where I
+sleep."
+
+"Therefore," commented Prigent dryly, "the first thing that you and your
+garrison will have to do, my man, will be to hold the two clock towers,
+and then to surprise and overpower the various night-watchmen as
+simultaneously as possible ... as silently as may be."
+
+"Exactly," rejoined Leroux curtly.
+
+"Well," added de Puisaye eagerly, "having disposed of the
+night-watchmen, what would you do next?"
+
+"Some of us will stay behind on guard in the different sheds, and a
+score or so will march on the compound, where the rest of our mates are
+penned up as if they were savage beasts that must be kept in cages."
+
+"Aha! That means another hundred and fifty of you?"
+
+"Yes, another hundred and fifty. There are sentries at the gates of the
+compound, but we can easily overpower those. The watch will not be quite
+so strict now that the General has come home."
+
+"Ah!" ejaculated de Puisaye, "matters slacken up at the works when the
+master is home--what?"
+
+"Not exactly," replied Leroux. "But those military overseers have been
+absolute brutes. Things cannot be quite so bad now they have gone."
+
+"M. de Maurel is more easy-going, or more indifferent--which?"
+
+Leroux shrugged his shoulders, then said gruffly:
+
+"The General has altered a good deal since he has been away."
+
+"At any rate," here interposed Madame la Marquise impatiently, "Laurent
+and I can vouch for the fact that the watch round the compounds is not
+over strict just now. We went past there last night. There were only a
+couple of sentries at the gates."
+
+"Even so you will have to be careful, my good Leroux," added M. de
+Courson, "so as not to raise the alarm."
+
+"No, we won't do that," rejoined Leroux. "We can deal with the sentry
+easily enough."
+
+"And do you think that a couple of hundred men can march from the
+compound back to the works without being seen or heard."
+
+"Oh, yes! if they are determined not to make a noise. It is not far to
+the factories. Less than a kilomètre. The roads are soft under foot.
+We'll be careful not to be seen or heard, you may be sure of that."
+
+"And once you are all back at the works?" queried M. d'Aché.
+
+"We'll just wait there, ready to let you in when you come," replied the
+man simply.
+
+"What about arms?"
+
+"There are thousands in the stores and in the cellars below the
+buildings! Enough to equip an army!"
+
+"Splendid! splendid!" exclaimed de Puisaye with enthusiasm. "This man is
+a jewel! what say you, gentlemen?--and well deserves the money which I
+have pledged mine honour to place into his hands. Ten thousand francs
+for the brain that devised the scheme, a hundred francs apiece for those
+who carry it through. That's it, is it not, my brave Leroux?"
+
+"Yes, that's it," replied the ex-convict with a leer.
+
+"Very well," concluded de Puisaye, "then we'll call that settled. All
+that we need do now is to decide on the night when we do our coup."
+
+"The sooner the better," said Leroux; "it is dangerous to leave a thing
+like that hanging about. It may be blown upon at any time. I have had to
+warn some of my mates that there was something in the wind. Any one of
+them may be a blackleg, for aught I know."
+
+"The man is right," said M. de Courson decisively; "delays are always
+dangerous. Moreover, there is no cause for procrastination. The next
+four-and-twenty hours ought to see us fully prepared."
+
+"I shall have just to think things over," interposed de Puisaye who,
+throughout his adventurous career, never failed for want of caution, but
+rather from too much indecision. "In a couple of days I could name the
+day--or rather the night--when I shall be quite ready--but not before."
+
+"Surely, my dear M. de Puisaye ..." hazarded Madame la Marquise.
+
+"Madame, I entreat you," he rejoined, "to trust to me in this. I have
+to make my dispositions as carefully as may be. May I suggest that we
+dismiss this man for the moment, with orders to report here for duty the
+day after to-morrow?"
+
+"I don't see why we should wait all that time," muttered Leroux.
+
+"There are many things, no doubt, my man," said M. de Courson haughtily,
+"many things in the councils of your betters that escape your
+comprehension. As far as arguing goes, we none of us think of
+quarrelling with the decisions of our chief. We all work for the same
+cause, and you must learn obedience, the same as we have done, or," he
+added significantly, "you will have to forfeit the ten thousand francs
+and your own liberty, which are to be your reward if you serve us as we
+desire. Now is that clearly understood?"
+
+"But what do you want me to do, _enfin_?" growled Leroux, on whom the
+magic mention of money at once acted as a sedative to his surly temper.
+
+"We want you to go on quietly," said M. de Courson, "just as you have
+done hitherto--trying to win M. de Maurel's confidence just as you
+succeeded in winning that of the military overseers. It is only a matter
+of a couple of days at most. Do not let more of your mates into the
+secret for the present, above all, remember to report for duty here the
+day after to-morrow at three o'clock in the afternoon. Now you can go."
+
+Leroux would have liked to stay and argue for a while longer. Though he
+had fully made up his mind to do exactly as he was told, both for the
+sake of the reward and for the sake of getting even with life, as he
+would put it, by striking a big blow at constituted authority, he was
+far too conscious of his own importance, far too puffed up with pride,
+to take such peremptory orders without a protest. But neither de Puisaye
+nor any of the others were in a mood to waste time by useless arguings.
+
+While Leroux was busy drawing upon his stock of impudence with a view
+to letting these "aristos" know that he had them in his power, and would
+stand no domineering ways from them, they had already coolly turned
+their backs on him and were deep in whispered consultation together.
+This haughty ignoring of his personality had the effect of damping the
+ex-convict's arrogance. He rose and gazed somewhat sheepishly on the
+array of backs turned so resolutely upon him. He twiddled his hat
+between his fingers, fidgeted first on one leg, then on the other. At
+last he was driven to acquiescence and said roughly:
+
+"I'll be here at three o'clock the day after to-morrow. And if you are
+wise, all of you," he added significantly, "you'll arrange for matters
+to come to a head that same night or there'll be trouble. _Foi de_ Paul
+Leroux!"
+
+Then he turned on his heel and strode out of the room.
+
+But just as he was about to bang the door behind him, he happened to
+turn back again, and he encountered Mademoiselle de Courson's blue eyes
+fixed upon him with such an expression of loathing, that much against
+his will, and quite understandably, a hot flush of anger--or was it of
+shame?--rose right up to his forehead and to the roots of his hair.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+A NOTE OF WARNING
+
+
+I
+
+"Now do you see how impossible it is that we can fail?" exclaimed Madame
+la Marquise triumphantly, as soon as the man had gone.
+
+"I do not see how we can," assented de Puisaye.
+
+The others all concurred. Leroux, despite his ill-favoured appearance,
+despite his criminal antecedents which none of them here could ignore,
+had made a favourable impression on them all.
+
+"The man means to go straight, I think," said Prigent.
+
+"He hates his present condition," commented M. de Courson dryly, "and
+would sell his soul, if he had one, to be freed from it. Bonaparte will
+find that it is a dangerous experiment," he added naïvely, "to try and
+use men like Leroux and his mates to help him prosecute his infamous
+wars."
+
+"I suppose," continued M. d'Aché, "that the mates on whom this man
+reckons are ex-convicts like himself?"
+
+"Oh, yes!" replied Madame la Marquise quite unabashed. "Most of the men
+who are detailed to the powder factories in France now were serving life
+sentences for murder, rape, or arson before."
+
+"I suppose that we can trust them," said Prigent, with a doleful sigh.
+
+"We must," replied Madame decisively. "We must get hold of the
+factories, and there is no other way."
+
+"One way is as good as another," concluded de Puisaye cheerfully. "When
+we have done with those brigands we must rid ourselves of them as
+quickly as we can. They will bring themselves soon enough once more
+under the ban of the law."
+
+"In the meanwhile, my dear de Puisaye," said M. de Courson earnestly,
+"will you tell us exactly what our respective parts are to be in the
+great coup which those jail-birds will prepare for us? Laurent and I
+have four hundred men in hiding between Courson and Mortain; we have
+armed them as best as we could with a few weapons which we received from
+the English agency in Jersey--not nearly enough, and most of the men
+have only got sticks ... but, of course," he added hopefully, "there are
+magnificent stores at La Frontenay when once we hold the works."
+
+"There really will be no need for arms," rejoined de Puisaye. "On the
+night that we decide for our coup we will assemble at our usual place,
+the Cerf-Volant woods to the south of Mortain. I propose that I take
+four hundred men, and with them march quietly up to the factories.
+Leroux will be waiting for me, and we will order him beforehand to have
+all the arms that are necessary for the men ready out of the stores. We
+will then have six hundred men inside the factories, all thoroughly
+armed and equipped with splendid guns placed in position. We will be
+able to hold out against any attack made upon the works by de Maurel's
+work-people, even if they are aided by the local peasantry. In the
+meanwhile, you, my dear de Courson, will march with two hundred men on
+Mortain, and Laurent with another two hundred on Domfront, and if you
+both are as clever and resourceful as I take you to be, you will each of
+you surprise the small garrison in those respective towns, seize the
+town-halls, collar the _sous-préfets_, and hold the forts until François
+Prigent, on the one hand, and our good d'Aché, on the other, arrive to
+reinforce you, which should be at about midday."
+
+"Splendid!" ejaculated Laurent. "Monsieur Prigent and M. le Comte
+d'Aché will, of course, have marched all the way from Avranches?"
+
+"Yes. We have another eight hundred men there; they are strong and
+eager, but, of course, there, as well as here, our trouble is the want
+of arms. With the armament stores of La Frontenay in our hands we shall
+be absolutely invincible. I propose, therefore, that Prigent and d'Aché
+march first on La Frontenay, equip themselves with arms and guns, and
+then divide into three companies, one to remain with us, one to march
+back on Mortain to reinforce M. de Courson, and the other to push on to
+Domfront. This manoeuvre will cause a little delay, but its advantages
+are, I think, so obvious that it needs no discussing. With Domfront and
+Tinchebrai in our hands, we can think of La Ferté-Macé. Our brilliant
+success--for it will be a very brilliant success--will rally a great
+many waverers around us, and, of course, holding the foundries and
+factories of La Frontenay will make us literally the masters of
+Normandy. Avranches will fall to us within a few days, and after that it
+will be Caen and Brest; then foreign support to any extent! Oh, my
+friends! my dear friends!" he added, his voice hoarse and choked with
+excitement, "what a day! what prospects! what a future! Madame la
+Marquise, by coming back to settle in these parts, by effecting a
+reconciliation with your eldest son and installing yourself in this
+château, you have reconquered France for our King!"
+
+Madame's eyes were moist with pride and emotion. Laurent could no longer
+sit still; he was pacing up and down the narrow room, and for the moment
+he almost forgot to look at Fernande, who had remained sitting quite
+still beside the window, gazing--still gazing--out into the distance to
+the slope of the hill, where lay the woods of La Frontenay and the
+silent pool.
+
+
+II
+
+"I think that your plan is quite admirable, my dear de Puisaye," said M.
+de Courson after a while, "and I, for one, can only give it my very
+hearty approval. In fact, you have thought everything out so well, that
+all my nephew and I can do is to obey implicitly. Now when do you think
+that you can be ready with your men?"
+
+"When can you be ready with yours?" retorted de Puisaye.
+
+"Oh, we are ready now. Laurent and I can assemble our company together
+any day you may decide. We can easily pass the word round and muster up
+at the Cerf-Volant woods outside Mortain on any night you think most
+suitable. It would not be safe to muster at Courson, and though Mortain
+is a good deal farther, it is much more lonely and, as you say, it would
+be best for us all to start out at one and the same time--shall we say,
+at eleven o'clock in the evening. You would then reach La Frontenay and
+Laurent get to Domfront almost simultaneously, bar accidents. Laurent
+and I can surprise the garrisons at dead of night before either of them
+can get wind of the affair, and thus obviate the possibility of their
+falling on you ere you on your side can reach La Frontenay."
+
+"That being so," rejoined de Puisaye, "why not decide on the day after
+to-morrow? I shall have my four hundred men assembled at Mortain too, by
+that time, and we have given the man Leroux orders to present himself
+here on that day. We will--with her permission--entrust Madame la
+Marquise with the happy task of telling Leroux that he must arrange his
+coup for the same night, and be prepared for my arrival with my small
+contingent. Whilst he waits for me he must open up the stores and get
+out all the small arms that he can; then directly I arrive I can get
+what guns there are into position, and prepare for a regular siege if
+it is necessary. I cannot help wishing that the next morning may see us
+attacked in full force by de Maurel's work-people, for then, when
+Prigent and d'Aché come upon the scene, they would get the attacking
+party in the rear, and though insufficiently armed, they would,
+nevertheless, effect heavy slaughter, and gain an immediate and
+brilliant victory."
+
+"How are we going to live until the day after to-morrow?" sighed
+Laurent.
+
+"How, indeed?" was echoed by all the others in the room.
+
+The very atmosphere seemed redolent of triumph, of exultation, of
+confidence in victory. The co-operation of the ex-convict and of two
+hundred of his kind had brought forth a situation which had endless
+possibilities in it. The general consensus of opinion was that failure
+was absolutely out of the question. Never, since the English agencies
+had withdrawn their active support, had the prospects of a successful
+Royalist rising been so rosy. De Puisaye was glowing with enthusiasm,
+Prigent had laid aside his solemnity, d'Aché ceased to ogle Fernande;
+even M. de Courson's pale cheeks were flushed. As for Madame--she was
+already present in thoughts at the first reception which Queen
+Marie-Joséphine-Louise would be holding at the Tuileries. As for
+Fernande, everyone was fortunately too much excited, too much engrossed
+in schemes and plans to pay much attention to her, or her silence and
+extraordinary aloofness from the all-absorbing topic of conversation
+could not have passed unperceived.
+
+It was late in the afternoon before everything was said that had to be
+said, before every plan had been discussed, every argument worn
+threadbare. Then at last the council of war agreed to disperse, and
+Joseph de Puisaye and his two friends took final leave of Madame la
+Marquise and of Fernande, whilst M. de Courson went with them, in order
+to escort them as far as the boundary gates of the park.
+
+
+III
+
+It was only when the men had gone that Madame la Marquise bethought
+herself of her niece, and of the latter's strange attitude while the
+council of war had been going on; whereupon she frowned and then
+remarked testily:
+
+"Of a truth, Fernande, I do not understand you. Here you have been
+sitting like a stuffed dummy, the while the destinies of France were
+being talked of by men who are sacrificing their lives for her. Where is
+your enthusiasm of a year ago, my child? Where is your patriotism? And
+what, in Heaven's name, hath come over you these past few days?"
+
+"Nothing, _ma tante_," replied Fernande with a little sigh of
+impatience; "only a foreboding, I think."
+
+"A foreboding?" queried Madame. "What about?"
+
+"I don't know. But it seems to me that you are all so confident ... so
+sure of success...."
+
+"Well, are not you?"
+
+"I think that M. de Puisaye--that you all, in fact, are not taking one
+vastly important factor into your reckoning."
+
+"What do you mean, Fernande? What factor are you alluding to?"
+
+"To M. le Comte Ronnay de Maurel, of course," replied Fernande.
+
+"Well," queried Madame tartly, "what about him?"
+
+"Only, _ma tante_, that M. de Maurel is not the nonentity that you and
+M. de Puisaye seem to imagine. He has just come back from Poland, and at
+once dismissed the military overseers who had taken his place in his
+absence. Does that look as if he meant to let the reins of government
+slip through his fingers?"
+
+"I don't know what you mean, child. Ronnay de Maurel may have every
+intention in the world of ruling over his work-people and being master
+in his own factories, but we are going to relieve him of that
+responsibility in a day or two's time."
+
+"That is where you are wrong, _ma tante_," broke in Fernande firmly.
+"Ronnay de Maurel is not a man from whom you can wrest a responsibility
+or a right quite so easily. Think you he doth not already suspect
+Leroux' treachery and hath not taken the first steps to combat it?"
+
+"No, I do not think it for a moment," replied Madame with her usual
+decisiveness. "Ronnay has only been home two days; he cannot yet have
+taken up the reins of government at his factories with any assurance.
+Moreover, Gaston de Maurel hath claimed all his nephew's attention. The
+old man is really dying at last, I do believe."
+
+"M. le Comte de Maurel is quite capable of devoting his time to his sick
+kinsman and of keeping an eye on the administration of his factories at
+the same time."
+
+"You seem to have a very high opinion of my son's capabilities, my
+dear," said Madame la Marquise snappishly.
+
+"I have seen him with his workmen, remember," retorted Fernande. "I have
+seen him deal with men like Leroux."
+
+"Well?... And?..."
+
+"And as I told you just now, he is not a man whom the Leroux' or the de
+Puisayes are going to hoodwink, or to make a fool of; he is not a man
+who can be caught napping, or from whose nerveless hands the sceptre of
+power can so easily be snatched. Ronnay de Maurel may to all outward
+appearances be a rustic--an unsophisticated boor--but he is a man, for
+all that--a man and not a puppet--he is very wide-awake--he is alive,
+oh! very much alive!--and, believe me, he will know how to guard what is
+not only his own, but is also of priceless value to the Emperor whom he
+worships."
+
+"Hoity-toity, child!" exclaimed Madame with ill-concealed asperity.
+"Your indifference of a while ago seems to have given place to
+marvellous vehemence in the defence of our common enemy. 'Tis lucky your
+future husband is not here to see your flaming cheeks now and your
+glowing eyes. But perhaps," she added with a dry, forced laugh, "you
+will be good enough to explain the meaning of these Cassandra-like
+prophetic warnings, for, of a truth, I do confess that I do not
+understand them."
+
+"An you will jeer, _ma tante_," said Fernande quietly; "'twere better I
+said no more."
+
+"It is your duty to say more, child, now you have said so much," said
+Madame gravely. "What is it that in our council of war has struck you as
+rash or ill-advised? I will confess that you do know my son Ronnay
+better than any of us; you have seen him more often. He has made love to
+you, and, in so doing, he may have revealed some traits in his character
+which have remained hidden from us. Speak, therefore, child, openly and
+frankly. You wish to warn us all. Against what?"
+
+"Against bribing a criminal--a jail-bird like Leroux, to betray his
+master," replied Fernande calmly.
+
+Madame laughed and shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"That," she said, "my dear, is childish. On Leroux' help rests the whole
+edifice of our plans and our entire hope of success."
+
+"I know that well enough," rejoined Fernande. "I know that you are not
+like to heed anything I say. I only spoke because you forced me. Think
+you," she added more vehemently, "that if I had thought for a moment
+that you, or father, or M. de Puisaye, would have listened to me, I
+would not have dragged myself at your feet and kissed the ground and
+licked the dust and never risen until you heard, until you gave up all
+thought of joining issue with a miserable traitor, a criminal like
+Leroux. It is because I knew that my voice would count as less than
+nothing with you all that I remained silent."
+
+"You speak with strange excitement, child...."
+
+"I speak as I feel," she retorted hotly. "I speak because something in
+me tells me that some awful disaster will come to us and to our cause
+through trafficking with Leroux and his kind. Of this I am as convinced,
+_ma tante_, as I am of the fact that M. de Maurel already suspects our
+machinations, and on this," she concluded with marvellous forcefulness,
+"I would stake my life."
+
+"You are mad, Fernande!"
+
+"Mad?" retorted the girl hotly, "mad because I implore you not to sully
+our cause by joining issue with a handful of felons; mad because I
+foresee an abyss of misery and of remorse for us all in this monstrous
+treachery which we have planned. Ah! if it only meant a ruse of war, a
+clever intrigue to catch an unwary foe! But what M. de Puisaye has
+planned may mean murder, _ma tante_--the murder of a brave man--and that
+man your son ...!"
+
+"Fernande! In Heaven's name, what does this mean?"
+
+The cry came from the door, which had suddenly been thrown open, and
+Fernande, almost beside herself with the vehemence of her emotion,
+turned and found herself face to face with Laurent, who was standing
+under the lintel, his cheeks pale, his breath coming and going in rapid
+gasps through his parted lips, his dark eyes fixed gloweringly upon her.
+
+"Mother, will you explain?" continued the young man peremptorily, as he
+turned to Madame la Marquise and, closing the door behind him, strode
+into the room.
+
+"Nay, my good Laurent," replied Madame testily, "that I cannot do. The
+explanation of this extraordinary outburst on the part of your fiancée
+can only come from her. As for myself, I confess that I am utterly
+bewildered by this torrent of recrimination which Fernande has chosen to
+let loose upon us all. It seems that M. de Puisaye is a murderer and we
+his accomplices ... that we are bribing a felon to assassinate Ronnay de
+Maurel, for whose welfare my niece appears to evince an extraordinarily
+deep interest. You must forgive me, therefore, if I leave you to deal
+with the situation as best you can. When Fernande is in a more rational
+frame of mind, we can discuss the question of her leaving for Courson as
+soon as may be."
+
+
+IV
+
+Madame sailed out of the room and Laurent was left alone with Fernande.
+Already the strain seemed to have been lifted from her nerves; the
+hectic flush of a while ago had fled from her cheeks and left her face
+pale and her eyes calm and clear. Laurent approached her, quivering with
+excitement; the insensate jealousy which never ceased to torture him had
+him now under its evil sway. He tried to draw Fernande close to him, and
+almost uttered a cry of rage when she appeared unresponsive and turned
+quite coolly away from him.
+
+"Fernande," he said, and tried in vain to subdue the harshness of his
+voice, which he felt must grate unpleasantly on the young girl's
+overstrung nerves, "I heard most of what you said to my mother. She is
+hurt--and justly so--at your attitude. Will you let me go to her with a
+message from you, telling her that you were overwrought and hardly
+conscious of what you said?"
+
+"You may go, Laurent," replied Fernande coldly, "and tell _ma tante_
+that I am deeply grieved if what I said did really offend her. I did not
+mean to offend. I only meant to strike a note of warning. It hath proved
+jarring," she added dejectedly, "and of no avail. Therefore am I doubly
+sorry. But, even so, I would not have it unsaid."
+
+"Not even if I were to tell you, Fernande, that your hot defence of that
+traitor went to my heart like a knife and caused me infinite pain."
+
+"If what I said about your brother hurts you, Laurent, then you must be
+harbouring thoughts about me which are an insult to your future wife."
+
+"If only I could believe that you loved me!" he cried, as with sudden
+and passionate impulse he once more tried to take her in his arms. His
+glowing eyes strove to meet her glance, but she seemed utterly
+unapproachable as she stood beside him like a slender white lily, with
+her small head averted and her blue eyes looking out into the distance
+as far away from him as was the heaven of which he dreamed. His arms
+dropped listlessly to his side.
+
+"If I only could believe that you loved me, Fernande," he reiterated
+sadly.
+
+"Poor Laurent," she murmured gently. Of her own free will now she placed
+her cool fingers upon his lips, and he seized upon them hungrily and
+covered them with kisses. "Poor Laurent! I told you, did I not, on the
+day nearly a year ago now, when I solemnly plighted my troth to you in
+response to my father's wish, that I had it not in me to love any man?
+Methinks that I shall never know really what love is.... I shall never
+know," she added, with a quaint, melancholy little sigh, "the kind of
+love which is for ever wounding and hurting the thing it loves."
+
+"Forgive me, Fernande," he cried, already repentant, cursing himself for
+his perpetual folly, and knowing all the while that nothing would ever
+cure him of it. "I am a jealous brute, I know. I hate and despise myself
+every time that my temper offends you. But if you only knew, Fernande
+..." he sighed, "if only you could understand...."
+
+"I do know, Laurent, and I do understand ... am I not always ready to
+forgive?... But you must try, dear, to trust me a little better. A scene
+like the one we have just had is not an over good augury for our future,
+is it?"
+
+"I hated to hear you speak so warmly about that man."
+
+"I called him brave ... can you deny that he is?"
+
+"No ... but...."
+
+"There! there!" she said soothingly, dealing with him with infinite
+gentleness now that she had reduced him to a state of remorse. "Go and
+speak with _ma tante_, and make my excuses to her, if you think they are
+necessary."
+
+She held out her cheek to him with one of her most captivating smiles,
+and poor Laurent was ready to sob with delight. She allowed him to take
+her in his arms and to kiss her sweet lips, her eyes, her hair, and if
+she did not respond to his caresses quite as ardently as he would have
+wished, he had, nevertheless, no cause to complain that she withdrew
+herself from them.
+
+"My mother said that we were to discuss the question of your going to
+Courson," he said, before he finally took leave of her.
+
+"Oh, as to that," she rejoined coolly, "you may tell _ma tante_ that I
+have changed my mind. She did not approve of my going, did she? so I
+will, if I may," she added, with a sweet air of innocence, "remain at La
+Frontenay for a few days longer with her."
+
+"Fernande, you are an angel!" he exclaimed. And he dropped on his knee
+and kissed her little hand with the same fervour as he would have kissed
+the robe of a Madonna. His head was bent and the tears of remorse still
+hung upon his lashes, or else, no doubt, he would have perceived the
+strange, elusive smile which lingered round his beloved one's lips.
+
+
+V
+
+Away from Fernande's bewitching presence Laurent de Mortain was
+conscious once more of the gnawing pangs of jealousy, nor did his mother
+contrive to soothe him in any way. Madame la Marquise was terribly
+angered against her niece. The girl's accusing words: "And that man your
+son!" rang unpleasantly and insistently upon her ear. Not that
+fanaticism allowed her for a moment to feel compunction--let alone
+remorse--at what she had done, nor did she delude herself for a moment
+as to the probable truth of Fernande's accusations. De Puisaye's plan of
+seizing the La Frontenay factories through the mediation of a set of
+unscrupulous blackguards would certainly entail bloodshed--murder,
+perhaps--if, indeed, the slaughter of a dangerous enemy could be called
+by such an ugly name when the cause was so holy and so just.
+
+That the dangerous enemy happened to be her own son did not weigh for a
+moment with Madame la Marquise. Her heart and soul were wrapped up in
+the cause of King Louis, and if her beloved Laurent had at any time
+proved a traitor to it, she would have plucked him out of her heart and
+left him to die a traitor's death, with the stoicism of a Spartan mother
+sacrificing an unfit son to the general weal of her country. But though
+fanaticism did in so complete a manner rule her every thought and
+smother every one of her sensibilities, Madame did not like to hear her
+actions criticized, nor the callousness of her heart brought so crudely
+to the light of day. She was very angry with Fernande, and seeing that
+Laurent's jealousy had been very fully aroused by the scene which he had
+witnessed, she was willing to let her son be the avenger of her own
+offended dignity. She knew that Laurent could make his fiancée suffer
+acutely while he was a prey to one of his moods, and that he would find
+many a word wherewith to wound her as deeply as she had dared to wound
+his mother.
+
+"It is strange," said Madame, with a good deal of acerbity, when she was
+discussing with Laurent, a quarter of an hour or so later on, Fernande's
+inexplicable conduct of a while ago. "It is strange that she should so
+suddenly desire to remain at La Frontenay when not more than a couple of
+hours ago she was so set on going away."
+
+"What do you mean, mother?" he asked with a frown. "Do you think...?"
+
+"I don't know what to think," broke in Madame testily. "Fernande has
+been very strange of late. Her attitude to-day has been absolutely
+incomprehensible."
+
+"You don't think," murmured Laurent with some hesitation and not a
+little shamefacedness, "you don't think that she has met Ronnay again?"
+
+"You never know what Fernande has done or what she may do," rejoined
+Madame evasively. "She has become so headstrong and so secretive, I
+really do not know what to make of her."
+
+All of which did not tend to pour oil on the troubled waters of poor
+Laurent's jealousy; in fact, the more Madame talked, the more wretched
+he became, until his face became literally distorted with wrath and with
+misery. Then she felt sorry for him; compunction smote her, for she did
+not genuinely believe that Fernande had done anything to justify her
+lover's suspicions, and she also realized at the same time that she was
+doing considerable harm by irritating her son's nerves with her spiteful
+promptings, at a moment when he had need of all his coolness and courage
+to accomplish the important task which his chief had assigned to him.
+The campaign would begin now in earnest; Laurent would perforce be often
+separated from his fiancée, and the cause of King Louis would be ill
+served if his heart and his thoughts remained at La Frontenay while he
+was leading a surprise attack upon Domfront. This being, as always,
+Madame la Marquise de Mortain's primary consideration, she drew in her
+horns and did her best to undo the mischief which she had been at great
+pains to wreak.
+
+"It is no use," she said soothingly, "to worry yourself unnecessarily
+about Fernande. She certainly is very headstrong--she is also
+self-willed and thoughtless; but she has loved you ever since you and
+she were children together. There is not a thought of guile in her, and
+the provoking little scene with which she regaled me just now may have
+been due to pique, that I did not at once accept her prophetic
+warnings."
+
+"I wish I could think so," sighed Laurent.
+
+"You must bring yourself to think so, my dear," retorted Madame dryly.
+"You have far more important things to dwell on at this moment than the
+vagaries of a young girl's moods. Not only will the success of M. de
+Puisaye's plans depend upon your coolness and your valour, but his life
+and the lives of the men whom he leads will hang upon the master-stroke
+which you will have to accomplish by surprising the garrison of Domfront
+ere wind of the affair hath reached the fort, and by holding a couple of
+hundred soldiers of Bonaparte in durance until reinforcements can reach
+you. It is a heavy task for such young shoulders, my son," she added
+earnestly. "May God give you strength to carry it through."
+
+"I would give my life," murmured Laurent dully, "for the right to remain
+at La Frontenay for the next few days."
+
+"A Marquis de Mortain," broke in Madame with rigid sternness, "cannot
+lag behind when those of his kindred are risking their lives for their
+King. Have no fear for Fernande, my dear boy," she added more gently.
+"It is as well that she stays here with me. I can keep an eye on her.
+You can trust me to keep your treasure in safety for you, against your
+speedy return."
+
+Obviously Laurent was neither convinced nor pacified; but there was
+nothing more to be said. Within the next few moments M. de Courson
+returned, and uncle and nephew had to talk over their plans of the next
+forty-eight hours. It were best, so M. de Courson decided, that they
+should go immediately to Courson and make arrangements for mustering
+their men there before the general rally in the Cerf-Volant woods two
+days later. Laurent would have wished to take a final, impassioned
+farewell of his fiancée, but on this M. de Courson--as his senior and
+his leader--pronounced a decided veto. This was not the time for
+sentimental dalliance and indulgence in nerve-racking fits of jealousy.
+Laurent now was amenable to military discipline, which was all the more
+strict as subservience to it was purely voluntary.
+
+Madame gave her unqualified approval to M. de Courson's decision.
+Fernande, she declared, would be well guarded and under her own eye.
+She--Madame--would see that the child's emotional nature did not lead
+her into some headstrong act of folly.
+
+After a while Laurent had perforce to yield; disobedience was out of the
+question. At this juncture it would even bear an uglier name than that;
+and though the young man's heart was aching for a last sight of his
+beloved, though he longed to plunge his gaze into her blue eyes and to
+read within their limpid depths all that he would have longed to find,
+of love, of ardour and of fidelity, he braced himself up for a great
+effort, and with, at any rate, outward calm, he bade his mother an
+affectionate farewell and finally followed M. de Courson out of the
+château.
+
+Madame la Marquise, from the window beside which she was standing, was
+able to watch the two slim figures--her son and her brother--as they
+strode rapidly down the broad avenue of the park, until a clump of
+tall-growing conifers hid them from her view.
+
+Then she fell on her knees, and resting her elbows on the window-ledge,
+she buried her face in her hands.
+
+"God! My God!" she prayed, with all the ardour of a devotee, "give
+success to our arms! Bring those two back triumphant and victorious!
+Bring our beloved King back to his throne again!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE IRREPARABLE
+
+
+I
+
+Ronnay de Maurel had been absent nearly a year from his home. He had
+joined the Emperor in Poland, and despite his game leg, he had fought at
+Jena and Auerstadt, at Eylau and at Friedland.
+
+When the two Emperors met upon the bridge at Tilsit and decided on the
+terms of peace, de Maurel, created Marshal of France on the field of
+Auerstadt, returned quietly to La Vieuville in time, he hoped, to close
+the eyes of old Gaston and to hear his last dying words. He had been
+home just three days. The day after his arrival he sent back the
+military representatives who had looked after his factories for him
+during his absence, and quietly took up once more the reins of
+government, which an unendurable heart-ache had caused to drop
+temporarily out of his hands. He laid aside his fine uniform and once
+more took up his blouse and his woollen cap. Old Gaston was too feeble
+to note the subtle change which had come over his nephew during twelve
+months of rough campaigning among the snows and the marshes of Poland;
+he did not perceive how passing seldom Ronnay ever spoke now, or how he
+sat late into the night staring straight out before him with a yearning
+gaze in his dark, deep-set eyes. He had passed through Paris on his way
+home and brought back a number of books with him--he who before this had
+never troubled about one in his life--and when his eyes ached from
+staring into vacancy, he would open one of these books, and drawing the
+lamp closer to him, he would rest his elbow on the table and shade his
+face with his hand and become so absorbed, that the grey dawn would oft
+find him still sitting in the invalid's room, with the book open in
+front of him--unless he had pushed it aside and sat with his head buried
+in his hands.
+
+On the day of his arrival he had, with the help of Madame Lapin,
+reorganized the La Vieuville household on a more comfortable basis. But
+little could be done in the way of comforts for the dying man; he was
+past noticing if his room was aired or his food brought to him at
+regular intervals. The village doctor visited him from time to time, but
+there was nothing to be done now. The machinery of life was worn out;
+for over a year now it had threatened to break down altogether--an iron
+constitution and an invincible will to live until the beloved nephew
+came home once more, had alone kept the enfeebled heart to its work.
+
+To Ronnay de Maurel the aspect of La Vieuville seemed infinitely dreary;
+the thought of the factories and the foundries singularly uninspiring.
+What mattered it that he had come home--a great deal older, a little
+more crippled, more impatient and more indifferent? Old Gaston could not
+now last more than a few days, and the representatives of the War Office
+had seen to it that the output of guns and of munitions did not fall too
+far short of the Emperor's needs. Why should a man come home--a man who
+had courted death in an hundred desperate fights--a man who had nothing
+to live for, no one to care for, no one who would rejoice when he
+returned or who would weep if he fell ... when countless precious sons
+and brothers and lovers and husbands were left to rot unburied on the
+ice-covered plains of Poland, and countless mothers and widows mourned,
+broken-hearted, at their loss?
+
+But it was not his way to let things drift. Peace had, of a truth, been
+signed at Tilsit, but it was not like to be a lasting peace. The
+European Powers had once and for all decided that France was not to
+remain in bondage to the Emperor whom she worshipped. He was in
+everybody else's way, he must be swept aside in order to make room for
+the effete and incompetent Bourbons, who were hanging on to the
+coat-tails of England and Austria and Russia, with a view to reaping the
+chestnuts which others had pulled out of the fire for them. De Maurel
+was one of those who would have preferred their idolized Emperor to sit
+at home after this last campaign, to enjoy the fruit of his victories
+and to prove to the world that France, when she divested herself of the
+old régime, had gained a benefactor, even though she had had to pass
+through fire and water, through crime and ignominy, ere she got him. But
+to know Napoleon intimately, as did the privileged few, was to realize
+that measureless ambition which was destined to hurl him, not only down
+from the giddy heights of triumph and of victory whereon his glorious
+achievements of the last two campaigns had established him, but also
+from his secure place within the heart of his people, a place which he
+would only reconquer when his mortal remains were brought back to France
+after the years of conflict and of misery which were to come.
+
+
+II
+
+That all was not well at the factories de Maurel did not fail to
+perceive within four-and-twenty hours of his return. The military
+overseers had done their duty--the output of munitions, if not lavish,
+had been adequate, and there had been no open rebellion among the
+workers. But in the first tour of inspection which the master made of
+his demesnes he realized how more than surly was the temper of former
+malcontents now and how sorely had the loyalty of the honest workmen
+been tried.
+
+Complaints and grumblings had not been listened to now for over a year;
+the rough admonitions of a sympathetic taskmaster had given place to
+peremptory commands from military disciplinarians and to threats of
+condign punishment at the slightest sign of discontent. It would take
+many weeks of untiring patience and firmness to re-establish the happy
+concord which reigned in the foundries and armament works a year ago. As
+for the powder factories, de Maurel was compelled to reserve judgment as
+to where real grievances began and slackness and covert rebellion ended.
+Leroux, suave and obsequious, at once aroused his distrust, but the War
+Office representatives, when they left, had given the man an excellent
+character, both for trustworthiness and for industry, and de Maurel was
+not the man to act on mere intuition.
+
+Intuition had played him such a damnable trick a while ago when he would
+have staked his soul on the loyalty of a pair of blue eyes!
+
+Mathurin certainly struck a note of warning, but he found his master so
+unapproachable, that he dared not say much, and old Gaston had long
+since been too feeble to see anything that was going on.
+
+Of Madame la Marquise up at La Frontenay he could glean but little
+information. M. le Marquis had been absent a great deal during the year
+with M. de Courson, and Mademoiselle Fernande had remained with her aunt
+during the absence of M. le Marquis; but neither she nor Madame had done
+more than pay the one visit to the foundries as the orders of the War
+Office authorities were very peremptory on that point. The ladies were
+seldom seen outside the limits of the château; they had dismissed all
+the servants whom Vardenne had engaged for them locally, and replaced
+them gradually by importations of their own.
+
+It was generally understood in the district that Mademoiselle de Courson
+was now formally affianced to M. le Marquis de Mortain.
+
+
+III
+
+It was on the day following the council of war at La Frontenay that
+Ronnay de Maurel started out soon after dawn for one of his favourite
+tramps across the moors and through the woods. Before he went away last
+July he had left very strict orders that no one should henceforth be
+allowed to wander in the La Frontenay woods. The explanation was given
+that valuable game was being preserved there, and one of old Gaston's
+last efforts at administering his nephew's property was to establish in
+accordance with Ronnay's express instructions, a veritable army of
+keepers in the district, with discretionary powers to warn every
+trespasser off the forbidden grounds.
+
+De Maurel, therefore, when he started off on that exquisite June morning
+to re-visit the place where he had suffered the most terrible mental
+torture which heart of man could endure, felt confident that he would
+remain secure from intrusion; that, above all, he need not fear a
+rencontre which would inevitably reopen the burning wound which time had
+not even begun to heal.
+
+To him, now that a year of hard work and hard fighting had passed over
+that awful day of misery and of shame, it seemed as if time had stood
+still; as if it had been but a few hours ago that he had started
+out--just as he did now--on that walk beneath the early morning
+sunshine, which had ended in such an appalling disaster--in the total
+wreckage of his life, of his newly-awakened youth, of every newly-risen
+hope of home and of happiness. Then, as now, the dew still lay upon the
+carpet of moss, the mountain-ash and the elder were in full bloom, and
+the mating birds had finished building their nests. Then, as now, the
+swallows circled swiftly overhead, and a lark rose from the ground at
+his feet and sang its joyful song of thanksgiving to God.
+
+But then the world held for him an exquisite being who was all
+tenderness and charm, who had lured him with her blue eyes, until he
+remembered that he, too, was young and he, too, had a right to love and
+happiness; the woods had held for him a nymph with feet like the petals
+of flowers, with sun-kissed hair which shone like living gold. A nymph!
+a creature of grace, of air, of light, whose fragrance was akin to a
+wilderness of roses, whose laugh was like the song of the lark, and
+whose arms were white and slender like the lilies! And when she stood
+before him or lay placid and drowsy in his arms, mysterious voices in
+the woods had murmured in his ear insidious promises of happiness to
+come.
+
+He, poor fool, had listened to those voices--sirens' voices, which are
+wont to lure the unfortunate mariner on life's ocean to his own
+destruction--to his own misery and undoing; sirens' voices which
+whispered that the exquisite fairy-like form which lay like a nestling
+bird in his arms would one day be his for always--that she would always
+snuggle up, just like this, against his shoulder; that he would one day
+cull a kiss from those perfect lips, that he would one day have the
+right to hold her and keep her and to guard her for always against every
+ill.
+
+Since then the voices of the sirens had turned to harsh and dismal
+screeching; the hopes of a year ago had turned to blank despair, and the
+savour of that triumphal aspiration turned to the dead sea fruit of
+unconquerable humiliation.
+
+Prussian cannon had disdained the prey which Ronnay de Maurel had
+offered with crazy recklessness; he had come back laden with honours, a
+broken-hearted and lonely man; and the birds still sang, the woods were
+still fragrant, the world of sunshine and of springtide, of flowering
+trees and full-blown roses mocked at his irretrievable beggary.
+
+
+IV
+
+And when Fernande de Courson started out that same morning, soon after
+daybreak, in a random spirit of wandering, and her footsteps led
+her--unconsciously, perhaps--in the direction of the woods, she, too,
+had little thought of meeting Ronnay de Maurel again. The hour was so
+early that not another soul was abroad--so early that not a sound
+stirred the quietude of valley and of hills save the distant murmuring
+of the tiny stream which found its resting-place in the silent pool.
+
+It was an hour, too, wherein even the keepers established by old Gaston
+to patrol the La Frontenay woods usually slackened their vigilance. It
+was too late for poachers, too early for tramps; Fernande, as she left
+the meadows behind her, turned into a woodland path unperceived.
+
+For a time she walked on somewhat aimlessly. It was deliciously cool
+under the trees, and the smell of budding blossom, of wet moss and of
+pine, acted as a tonic on her overstrung nerves. She wandered on, not
+allowing herself to think. All through the past few days she had tried
+not to feel that Ronnay de Maurel had come back; she had tried to forget
+that he was near, that any day, any moment, if she took her walks abroad
+she might come face to face with him.
+
+And, in a measure, she had succeeded. She was now Laurent de Mortain's
+future wife, the follies of a year ago must yield to a sober view of
+future events. Except for that one brief, if vehement outburst yesterday
+in the presence of Madame's monstrous callousness, she had succeeded in
+relegating the man to whom she had done an infinite wrong to the
+furthermost recesses of her mind. But here, in these woods where every
+murmur among the trees, every call of bird or fragrance of flower,
+reminded her of him--in the woods through which she had once passed
+nestling against his shoulder, secure in the embrace of his strong arms,
+thoughts of him went hammering through her brain. All the dangers which
+beset him through Joseph de Puisaye's plan of campaign and Leroux'
+treachery caused her heart to beat with a nameless horror and fear. At
+every moment she thought to hear his rugged voice calling her by name,
+and even now her heart almost stilled its beating as a woodland echo
+seemed to bring back to her ear that cry of triumph which had rent her
+very soul: "You love me, Fernande!"
+
+And as she wandered on, she lost count of time, and soon she found that
+she had lost her way. She had never entered the La Frontenay woods from
+the direction of the château since first she came to stay there, and she
+had no idea now which way to turn in order to go back home again. Soon
+she felt tired and dispirited; she did not know how long she had been
+wandering, nor how far she had gone.
+
+Then all at once she knew where she was. She had walked a few steps
+along a moss-covered path, which wound its way right through the
+thicket, and suddenly there came a break in the coppice, and there
+before her lay the silent pool, with its mossy banks and clumps of wild
+iris and of meadowsweet, and the fallen tree-trunk where she had sat
+that day--a whole year ago.
+
+And as she made her way nearer to the water, she saw Ronnay de Maurel
+sitting there on the bank; he was leaning against the fallen tree-trunk,
+his elbow resting upon it and his head supported by his hand.
+
+She would have fled if she could, for at sight of him she had at once
+realized that to meet him here and now was the last thing in the world
+that she had wished. She realized that rather than he should see her,
+rather than she should speak with him, she would have run for miles,
+fearful only lest he should follow her track. How could she meet
+him--even to speak the words of contrition which for the past year she
+had longed to utter one day--how could she meet him whilst up at La
+Frontenay her own kindred, her own friends, those whom she loved, were
+planning treachery and murder against him!
+
+But unfortunately now there was no time to run away; already he had seen
+her, and before she could stir from the spot, he had struggled to his
+feet and was coming towards her. Even then she would have given worlds
+to be able to go, but she could not. For one thing, he walked more
+haltingly than he had ever done before--and then he looked older, less
+sure of himself, more forlorn and solitary. He dragged his wounded leg
+more markedly--more as he used to do in the olden days when he was
+overtired, and all her womanly tenderness and pity went out to him,
+because of that indefinable air of helplessness which his lameness
+momentarily gave him. Not only did Fernande de Courson not beat a hasty
+retreat, but when he paused, irresolute and timid, it was she who came a
+step or two nearer to him.
+
+"I am afraid that I am trespassing," she said tentatively, for, of a
+truth, she felt suddenly frightened--frightened at his look--a look of
+bitter resentment, she thought, of hate perhaps as absolute as she had
+felt for him in days gone by.
+
+"Nay, it is I," he retorted dryly, "who have no right to be here, seeing
+that it is evidently Mademoiselle de Courson's favourite walk. By your
+leave, I will vacate the field. The keepers should have warned me. Had
+they done so, I would not have come."
+
+He bowed in his usual awkward style and made as if to go, but with a
+word Fernande called him back. For a moment or two he hesitated. No
+doubt he, too, had as great a desire to run away as she had; but the
+girl now--with one of those contradictory impulses which are peculiar to
+sensitive temperaments--felt an unconquerable wish to speak with him ...
+if only for the purpose of challenging him to those words of reproach
+which he had spared her on that day when Laurent's cruel scorn and her
+own callousness had struck him as with a physical blow.
+
+"M. de Maurel," she cried, moved by that sudden impulse.
+
+"At your commands, Mademoiselle," he replied.
+
+"I ... I ... believe me I had no thought of meeting you here ... or of
+intruding upon your privacy ... but now that we have met, I beg of you
+that you will let me tell you...."
+
+She paused, feeling that a hot flush had risen to her cheeks and that
+her words sounded both halting and cold. And yet he had made no movement
+to stop her. It had never been his way to interrupt. For good or ill, he
+always listened to the end of whatever anyone chose to say. He had
+listened to the end, when Laurent, with a few harsh words, had shattered
+the shrine wherein he had set his fondest illusions; he stood quite
+still now, ready to listen to everything she might wish to say. But
+somehow it was just his attitude of quiet expectancy which stemmed the
+flow of her words. It was only when she had been silent for some few
+seconds and apparently was not going to speak again, that he interposed
+calmly:
+
+"Is there any necessity for you, Mademoiselle, to tell me anything?
+Surely not, seeing that it distresses you. Will you, on the other hand,
+permit me to offer you my well-meant congratulations on your approaching
+marriage with my brother?"
+
+Already Fernande had recovered some measure of self-control. Her dignity
+was on the qui vive. Apparently he meant to meet every advance on her
+part with frigid enmity. The look of resentment in his eyes had
+deepened, and to Fernande's keen senses it seemed as if they held no
+small measure of scorn as well.
+
+"I thank you," she said coolly. "It was _ma tante's_ intention to send
+you an announcement of our _fiançailles_, but we only heard yesterday
+with any certainty that you had returned."
+
+"There is no occasion for my mother to trouble herself about such
+trifling conventions with me," he retorted. "I feel so sure that she
+hath no desire to claim the slightest kinship with a de Maurel that any
+formalities of the kind which she seems to contemplate would be a mere
+farce."
+
+"You are very irreconcilable, M. de Maurel," said Fernande coldly, "and
+are making your mother and Laurent suffer for the thoughtlessness which
+I committed a year ago, and of which I would like you to believe that I
+have since bitterly repented."
+
+"I have no recollection of any thoughtlessness on your part,
+Mademoiselle ... certainly of none which should cause you any regret."
+
+"Your actions belie your words," she rejoined quietly. "If, as you say,
+you have not only forgiven but forgotten the foolishness of a year ago,
+then why have you kept aloof from your mother ... from us all? You were
+wont to be a constant visitor at Courson, your mother and Laurent have
+enjoyed your hospitality for the past twelve months. Yet you have not
+been nigh La Frontenay, and 'tis three days since your return."
+
+"My uncle Gaston is dying," he said curtly; "he and the works have
+claimed my attention."
+
+"Does that mean, then, that you will come?" she asked, "one day soon
+when you are not so engaged?"
+
+Then, as he made no reply, she added more insistently: "Your mother and
+Laurent bore no part whatever in the wrong which I alone committed. M.
+de Maurel, why should you remain at enmity with them?"
+
+"At enmity, Mademoiselle?--am I at enmity with my mother or with my
+brother? Surely not."
+
+"Why not go to see them? Why not come to see us all as you used to do?"
+
+"Chiefly, I think," he replied roughly, "because up at La Frontenay no
+one has any desire to see me. My brother and I have nothing in
+common--my mother and I still less. You, Mademoiselle Fernande, proved
+to me a year ago what an utterly ridiculous boor I was, fit only to be
+jeered at and made game of. Now a bear is not usually a good plaything
+for women; he is apt to snarl and render himself odious by his antics.
+He is far better out of the way, believe me."
+
+"You are ungenerous, M. de Maurel. God knows how bitterly I have
+regretted my folly! I had no thought of seeing you here, 'tis true, but
+now, despite your harshness, I am glad that we have met. Words of sorrow
+and of repentance which refused me service a year ago have seared my
+heart ever since. I could not speak then, I was too much overcome by
+shame and by remorse. But I entreat you to believe that not a day has
+gone by during the past twelve months that I did not in my heart pray
+for your forgiveness. I was very young then, very thoughtless and very
+inexperienced. I knew nothing of men, nor was I vain enough to gauge the
+amount of mischief that thoughtless coquetry on my part would wreak. M.
+de Maurel, for the hurt I caused you that day I do sincerely beg your
+forgiveness. Before then _ma tante_ and Laurent had reason to believe
+that in you they had found a friend. I entreat you, do not add to my
+remorse by venting on them your resentment which should be for me
+alone."
+
+Her voice broke in a short sob. Her blue eyes were filled with tears.
+Overhead the sun had hidden its radiance behind a bank of clouds, and
+all around the woods appeared grey and desolate, and from the pool there
+came the melancholy croaking of frogs and the call of wood-pigeons was
+wafted through the trees.
+
+"The bear must dance again, eh?" rejoined de Maurel harshly. "He may
+prove dangerous if he slips his chain. I wonder what it is that does go
+on inside La Frontenay that all this _mise en scène_ should have been
+resorted to once more in order to hoodwink me?"
+
+Fernande drew back as if she had been struck. A hot flush rose to the
+very roots of her hair; it seemed to her as if an unseen and aggressive
+hand had thrown a veil right over her head, and then dealt her a heavy
+blow between the eyes. Everything around her suddenly appeared blurred
+and a strange sense of cold crept into her limbs.
+
+"I don't understand," she stammered.
+
+"Ah! but I think you do, Mademoiselle Fernande," he retorted. "A year
+ago it was thought necessary to enchain the Maurel bear so that he might
+dance to Royalist pipings; for this he was lured and cajoled and fed
+with treacle and honeyed words. The foolish, awkward creature began to
+dance; he was ready to see nothing save a pair of blue eyes that looked
+as limpid as a mountain stream, to hear nothing save the piping of a
+voice as clear and guileless as that of a lark. Unfortunately the
+jealous ravings of a puppy wakened the clumsy brute from his trance ...
+wakened him too soon, it seems, but so roughly that, feeling dazed and
+shaken, he preferred to crawl away out of sight rather than remain a
+butt for mockery and ridicule. Now he has come back and may prove
+dangerous again--what? Bah! the same old methods can easily be tried
+again, the same honeyed words spoken, the same blue eyes raised
+tantalizingly to his. Too late, Mademoiselle Fernande!" he added, with a
+laugh which sounded strident and harsh as it echoed through the woods.
+"The bear has awakened from his winter sleep, he is not like to be
+caught napping again."
+
+"M. de Maurel," protested Fernande, "you are not only ungenerous now,
+but wilfully cruel and unchivalrous; and, of a truth, your harshness now
+hath killed every feeling of remorse which I have felt. You have, of a
+truth, the right to hate me, the right to hate us all; but I spoke to
+you in all sincerity, and my humility and repentance should at least
+have saved me from insult."
+
+"Sincerity!" he exclaimed, "sincerity from a Courson! Ah! Mademoiselle
+Fernande, you said just now that I was at enmity with my brother
+Laurent. By my faith, I will remain for ever his debtor. But for his
+interference on that memorable day meseems that Madame my mother would
+have succeeded in staging once again the tragedy which had already once
+been enacted at La Frontenay, when a de Maurel took a de Courson for
+bride, and the final curtain rang down upon his broken heart."
+
+"A broken heart!" she retorted hotly, "you! Nay, every word that you
+utter hath proved to me the foolishness of my remorse. Your heart hath
+been full only of outraged vanity and of unreasoning resentment, the
+while I wept countless tears of sorrow and of regret."
+
+"Regret for what, Mademoiselle?" he exclaimed roughly. "What, I pray
+you, had you to regret? You say that you wept countless tears--what for?
+Had you to mourn the only illusion of your life? Had you to mourn the
+loss of every hope which for days and nights had haunted you with its
+sweet, insistent call? Had you to weep because the one being in this
+mean and sordid world whom you thought pure and true--almost
+holy--suddenly appeared before you false and cruel--double-tongued and
+insidious, a commonplace siren set to lay a trap for men? Had you to
+weep because the being whom you had learned to worship had with wanton
+frolic and a mocking smile plucked out your heart-strings and left you
+forlorn and desolate, a prey to ignominy and to lifelong regret? And had
+you to weep tears of bitter humiliation in the knowledge that those who
+hated and despised you were laughing their fill at your folly? Oh! I,
+too, Mademoiselle Fernande, was young then ... I, too, was inexperienced
+... I was a dolt and a fool--but what wrong, in God's name, had I done
+you that you should treat me so?"
+
+Silently Fernande had listened, her hand grasping a clump of branches of
+young chestnut, else mayhap she would have fallen. That feeling of a
+veil enveloping her head was still with her; there was a buzzing in her
+ear through which his harsh voice came with a sound like hammering upon
+the portals of her brain. The agony and misery which rang out from his
+words found their echo in her own heart. Indeed, many a time in the past
+year had she felt pitifully sorry for the man whom she had wronged with
+such unpardonable thoughtlessness, but never before had she felt as she
+did now; never before had she realized the full extent of the misery
+which she had caused.
+
+His voice broke into a heartrending sob. He covered his face with his
+hands with a gesture of such racking pain, that she would have given her
+very life at this moment for the right to comfort him.
+
+"M. de Maurel," she said gently, and, indeed, now her voice was softer
+than that of a cooing dove, "God alone knows how deeply your words have
+hurt me; and I go away to-day feeling that you have made me atone for
+all that I made you suffer. Indeed, indeed, I had no thought a year ago
+that my senseless coquetry could arouse in a noble-hearted man like you,
+feelings which I so little deserved. Whatever you may think, however, I
+did not lie to you when I told you that for the past year, not one day
+has gone by without a thought of burning remorse in my mind for what I
+had done. I did not lie when I sued for your forgiveness. This I do
+swear to you by every memory that clusters round this glade, by every
+memory that speaks to you as well as to me in the rustle of the
+leaf-laden trees and in the murmurings of the woods; I swear it by the
+unforgettable hour when we both heard the gentle cooing of the
+wood-pigeons, and my hand rested in yours in complete amity. As for the
+future, 'tis not likely that we shall ever meet again. I hope to leave
+La Frontenay very soon--to-day if I can. May I therefore beg you in all
+earnestness to take up the threads of friendship with your mother--there
+where my own foolishness caused them to snap? Go to her, M. de Maurel
+... go to-day if you can. Do not forget that she is your mother.... Do
+not let her forget that you are her son. God be with you and guard you!
+And whatever may happen in the future, will you at least try to bear in
+mind that Fernande de Courson would gladly give her life to heal the
+wound which she hath inflicted. Time will inevitably do that," she added
+with a choked little sigh, "and in the years to come you will mayhap
+think less bitterly of me."
+
+Then she turned and, like a deer, she vanished in the thicket. Ronnay's
+hands fell from his face. For a long while he remained there gazing on
+the spot where she had stood. Through the murmurings of the wood he
+still could hear the echo of her silvery voice, and it seemed to him
+that her pale face, with the tear-filled eyes, still peeped at him from
+between the branches of the coppice, and that the perfume of her white
+gown and of her golden hair still filled the air with their intoxicating
+fragrance.
+
+Then with a heavy sigh he, too, turned and went his way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+A LAST APPEAL
+
+
+I
+
+Fernande had said nothing to Madame la Marquise of her rencontre with
+Ronnay de Maurel. Of a truth, Madame, despite her many promises to
+Laurent, had not kept a very close eye on her niece's movements.
+Fernande had been away from the château during the best part of the
+morning; she came home with tear-stained eyes, and her gown had
+obviously trailed in the mud, but Madame apparently noticed nothing. All
+the day she wandered about the château in a perfect fever of excitement.
+In the afternoon a runner came over from Courson with news from all the
+chiefs. The next day was now irrevocably fixed upon for the attack on
+the foundries. Leroux was to be given his final instructions, and Madame
+herself be prepared to hold the château against any assault delivered
+against it by the local peasantry, who no doubt were well armed by de
+Maurel and had been drilled against any emergency.
+
+M. de Courson had added a special note to the letter telling Madame,
+that the Comte de Puisaye had decided to send his friend Prigent with
+forty or fifty men to La Frontenay in case of attack.
+
+"The château can very easily be held," M. de Courson's note went on,
+"and we have no fears for you, knowing your energy and resourcefulness.
+Give Leroux the fullest instructions possible, then do not send for him
+again during the day. I have an idea that he is being watched by spies
+of de Maurel's, and he will have to be very circumspect for the next
+thirty-six hours. As for us all, we are more full of hope than ever. We
+reviewed our men last night in the park. They are marvellously
+enthusiastic and firm in the belief that their prowess will rally
+thousands of waverers to the Fleur-de-Lis. De Puisaye has recruited a
+further two hundred, and hath now a force of over six on the further
+side of Mortain. Everything, therefore, is for the best, and nothing but
+some absolutely unforeseen accident can now rob us of success. Above
+all, I entreat you, my dear sister, be as silent and discreet as the
+grave. Remember that walls of French châteaux have oft had ears in the
+course of their history. Speak to no one of our plan for to-morrow ...
+not to Matthieu Renard, not to his wife. Do not discuss it with Fernande
+in the presence of those whom you think most loyal. To-morrow afternoon
+at three o'clock see Leroux in your private boudoir. Be sure that door
+and windows are closed and that no one lurks behind curtains or screens.
+Then tell the man to have everything ready for that night. De Puisaye
+will arrive at the foundries soon after midnight, and he will expect to
+find arms for six hundred men ready to his hand. After that he will see
+to everything himself. Command Leroux to speak to no one, to trust no
+one--but to select with the utmost care the fifty men whom he requires
+to remain at the factories with him, in order to surprise the watchmen
+and prevent the alarm being given. Keep Fernande out of your councils,
+my dear Denise, as far as you can. The child appears to me to be
+overwrought and might do some act of headstrongness which might ruin
+everything. Something seems to have occurred between her and Laurent
+just before we left La Frontenay. You will know, no doubt, what it was.
+Laurent is a prey to most acute jealousy. He has worried me considerably
+since yesterday. He hath need of all his courage and coolness to bear
+his share of our work to-morrow night. While I lead the attack on
+Mortain it will be his duty to hold up the garrison of Domfront, else
+they may fall on de Puisaye and his men, or else on me, when perhaps not
+one of us would come out of it alive. I would not wrong Laurent by
+suggesting that he is not up to the task, but it were well if Fernande
+sent him a loving message by this same runner, in order to reassure him
+and to brace him up for his task. Now, my dear sister, I can do nothing
+more save commend you and my child to the care of God."
+
+The letter closed with many assurances of affection and a tone of
+seriousness, which showed that M. de Courson was not perhaps quite in
+such an optimistic frame of mind as were his chiefs.
+
+
+II
+
+Madame had frowned and uttered an exclamation of impatience when in her
+brother's letter she had read the passage about Laurent. The Fates which
+are wont to spin the threads of human destinies without heeding the
+best-laid plans of men, smiled, no doubt, in their lonely eyrie up on
+the summit of the Brocken, when Madame la Marquise de Mortain,
+disdaining her brother's advice, chose in her usual dictatorial,
+self-willed way to send a message to Laurent herself, rather than ask
+Fernande to do so.
+
+She couched her message in loving and reassuring terms, but she said
+nothing to Fernande on the subject. Why, she could not herself have
+said. There was no reason why the girl should not be told that her
+fiancé was in the throes of a maddening attack of jealousy, and that a
+word from her might soothe his perturbed spirit and restore to him that
+courage of which he would presently be in such sore need. But Madame had
+a horror of anything that might present her beloved son in an
+unfavourable light. Any failing or weakness of his would, she felt,
+redound in a measure to her discredit. That is the only reason why she
+said nothing to Fernande, and why she herself sent the message to
+Laurent which, as events unfortunately proved subsequently, had not the
+effect of reassuring him.
+
+In other matters she acted entirely in accordance with her brother's
+orders. Obedience in that case meant military discipline, and rather
+flattered Madame's sense of her own importance and responsibility. She
+spent the best part of the day in her own room, and, entirely
+self-absorbed, she completely ignored Fernande's presence and Fernande's
+movements. From the château she could see or hear nothing of the bustle
+and movement of the distant factories, but it seemed to her as if their
+unheard throbbings found their echo against her heart. To-morrow, she
+thought, they would for the last time manufacture engines of war to help
+the King's enemies in their disloyalty and their treachery; for the last
+time to-morrow would the abominable Corsican upstart look to La
+Frontenay for the cementation of his throne. She could not spare a
+thought for the son against whom she was intriguing with such ruthless
+callousness. A year ago she had planned to win him over to her side. In
+this she had signally failed. She might have tried again now, only that
+there was no time for protracted diplomacy.
+
+To bring Ronnay de Maurel back to heel was a doubtful proposition; if it
+did succeed, it would be months before good results could be hoped for.
+In the meanwhile the King could not wait. Ronnay de Maurel stood in his
+way: therefore must the loyal adherents of the King sweep the offending
+obstacle from his path.
+
+
+III
+
+Leroux arrived punctually at three o'clock the following afternoon.
+Madame la Marquise was in Fernande's room, talking platitudes to the
+young girl in a tardy fit of remorse at having neglected her so
+completely these past two days.
+
+Fernande appeared more dejected than she had been before, and Madame
+had much ado to keep her temper from breaking away against so much
+pessimism, which almost amounted to disloyalty.
+
+It was old Annette who announced Leroux, and Madame la Marquise sent a
+message down to say that she would see him immediately. As soon as
+Annette had gone, Fernande, with one of her sudden, impulsive gestures,
+threw her arms round Madame's shoulders.
+
+"Before it is too late, _ma tante_," she cried, with a tone of desperate
+entreaty, "will you not think--just once more?"
+
+"Too late for what, child?" retorted Madame impatiently, and she shook
+herself free from the young girl's arms which encircled her with a
+forceful and passionate grip.
+
+"Too late to avert this appalling calamity," replied Fernande. "That man
+Leroux is a criminal, a murderer," she continued with ever-increasing
+vehemence. "His greed for the money which has been offered him will
+render him utterly unscrupulous. I could see it in his face the other
+day ... when he was here ... and M. de Puisaye was speaking to him. He
+will stick at nothing, _ma tante_, at nothing in order to gain his ten
+thousand francs."
+
+"Well, my dear," rejoined Madame coldly, "we want a man who will stick
+at nothing. King Louis hath no use for velvet gloves, for mincing ways,
+or for half-hearted cowards these days. We have to fight an unscrupulous
+foe, remember. What is Bonaparte, what are these regicides, I'd like to
+know, but criminals and murderers! What is Mademoiselle de Courson at
+this moment," she added, as with flaming cheeks and glowing eyes she
+turned on Fernande and would have smitten her with a look--"what is
+Mademoiselle de Courson now save a half-hearted coward, unworthy to
+stand shoulder to shoulder with her father, her lover, her kinsfolk in
+their homeric struggle for justice and for right?"
+
+But Fernande bore the withering looks and the insult unflinchingly. It
+seemed as if in the last two days she had stepped boldly across the
+dividing line which separates blind unquestioning childhood from
+understanding and reasoning womanhood. All the horror for past crimes
+and past excesses committed against her King and against her cause was
+still present in her mind; but now she refused to accept the complacent
+theory that crime must beget worse crime and that revenge and reprisals,
+murder and pillage, would ever help the righteousness of a cause or be
+justifiable in the sight of God.
+
+"Bid me fight, _ma tante_," she retorted proudly, "side by side with my
+father; bid me meet the enemies of my King in loyal combat, and I'll
+warrant you'll not find me weak or cowardly. Fight! Yes, let us
+fight--fight as did George Cadoudal and Louis de Frotté and Henri de la
+Rochejaquelin--let us fight like men, but not like criminals. In God's
+name let us not stoop to murder."
+
+"Murder, child!" exclaimed Madame, "who talked of murder, I should like
+to know?"
+
+"Would you swear, _ma tante_," riposted Fernande slowly, "that whilst
+you traffic with a man like Leroux, the possibility of an awful,
+hideous, horrible murder has never presented itself to your mind? That
+you have never envisaged the likelihood of Ronnay de Maurel getting wind
+of this affair and of his taking Leroux to task for his proposed
+treachery? Have you never thought, _ma tante_, of what would happen if
+Leroux thought that his master suspected him, and if he then came face
+to face with him--somewhere alone...?"
+
+Just for the space of one second Madame la Marquise de Mortain stood
+quite still--rigid almost as a statue--with eyes closed and lips tightly
+set. Just for the space of that one second it seemed as if something
+human, something womanly, stirred within that heart of stone. Then an
+impatient exclamation escaped her lips.
+
+"Tush, child!" she said. "I'll not be taken to task by you. Who are you,
+pray, that you should strive to throw your childish sensibilities, your
+childish nonsense across the path of your King's destiny? Ronnay de
+Maurel must take his chance in this fight," she added, as she threw back
+her head with a movement of invincible determination. "He has chosen the
+traitor's path; while he and his kind have the power, they stick at
+nothing to bring us into subjection. We have the chance now ... one
+chance in a thousand--to gain the upper hand of all these regicides and
+these minions of Bonaparte. To neglect that chance for the sake of a
+craven scruple were now an act of criminal folly. Let that be my last
+word, child," continued Madame, as she made for the door; "do not let me
+hear any more of your warnings, your prophecies, or your sermons. What
+has been decided by our chiefs shall be done--understand?--and what must
+be, must be. And when your father returns, after having risked his life
+for the cause which you seem to hold so lightly, take care lest the
+first word he utters be one of condemnation of a recreant daughter."
+
+
+IV
+
+Madame la Marquise did not pause to see what effect her last stern words
+had upon Fernande. She sailed out of the room with no further thought in
+her mind of the passionate appeal which had left her utterly cold. To
+her now there existed only one thing in the entire world, and that was
+the project for the seizure of the La Frontenay foundries and its
+consequent immense effect upon the ultimate triumph of the Royalist
+cause. Everything else, every thought, every feeling, every duty she
+swept away from her heart and from her mind as petty, irrelevant, and
+not worthy to be weighed in the balance with the stupendous issue which
+was at stake.
+
+Indeed, as she sped down to the hall for this final momentous interview
+with Leroux, she felt greatly thankful that yesterday she had not acted
+on her brother's advice, and that she had written to Laurent herself
+rather than allowed Fernande to do so. The girl, in writing to her
+lover, might have indulged in one of those dithyrambics which were so
+unexplainable, and which might still further have upset Laurent. As it
+was, everything was for the best, and Madame dismissed any latent fears
+from her mind just as readily as she had dismissed any slight twinge of
+remorse which Fernande's words might have caused to arise in her heart.
+
+Leroux, gruff and surly as usual, had been shown into a small library
+adjoining the great entrance-hall of the château, a room which M. de
+Courson had of late used as an office for transacting the correspondence
+of his party and receiving any messengers sent to him by one of his
+chiefs. Here the man had waited, while Madame was being detained
+upstairs by Fernande's last tender appeal.
+
+He greeted Madame la Marquise with a rough and churlish word, and as
+soon as she had closed the door behind her he began abruptly:
+
+"We'll have to be very careful," he said; "something of our project is
+known to de Maurel. I'd stake my life on it."
+
+The flush of anger of a while ago fled from Madame's cheeks, but
+otherwise nothing in her attitude betrayed to this boor the slightest
+sign of fear on her part.
+
+"What makes you think that?" she asked coolly, as she took a seat in a
+high-backed chair, and graciously waved her hand to Leroux in token that
+he, too, might sit down.
+
+"Yesterday I wanted to come here and speak with you about one or two
+matters," replied the man, "when I met the Maréchal upon the high road."
+
+"The Maréchal?" queried Madame, with a supercilious lift of the
+eyebrows.
+
+"Why, yes! Our General is Marshal of France now," said Leroux with a
+sneer. "He gained his baton fighting against the Prussians, so I've been
+told."
+
+"All of which is of no consequence, my man," broke in Madame
+impatiently. "We have no time to waste this morning, and you were
+telling me that you met M. le Comte de Maurel when you were on your way
+hither."
+
+"I did," rejoined Leroux sullenly.
+
+"And what did he say?"
+
+"He asked me where I was going."
+
+"And...?"
+
+"I told him that I was free to come and go as I pleased, seeing that I
+was chief overseer of the factory now."
+
+"It was very imprudent to give your present master such an impertinent
+answer," said Madame peremptorily. "You were expressly ordered to curb
+your temper and to gain M. de Maurel's confidence as far as lay in your
+power."
+
+"I did curb my temper," rejoined the man. "And I did not give him an
+impertinent answer. I spoke as if I had honey in my mouth. I am merely
+telling you the drift of what I said. My actual words were cringing
+enough."
+
+"Very well, then, what happened after that?"
+
+"The Maréchal told me that though the military representatives had
+appointed me chief overseer, he himself had not confirmed that
+appointment, nor would he confirm it, he said, till I showed myself
+really worthy of his confidence. He didn't say much, for he is never
+over talkative with any of us. But he looked me through and through in a
+way that I didn't like."
+
+"Never mind how he looked. Did he say anything else?"
+
+"Yes. He told me that he expressly forbade every one of his men to have
+any intercourse with the château, and that I was distinctly to
+understand that he forbade me most strictly to come to the château, or
+to hold converse with any of its inmates."
+
+Madame bit her lip and her slender white fingers beat an impatient
+tattoo upon the desk beside her. But she said quite unconcernedly:
+
+"Was that all?"
+
+"Yes, that was all. But I thought it best not to come yesterday. To-day
+I had to come, because we absolutely must do the work to-night--even
+to-morrow might be too late. I am certain that I am being watched;
+every hour's delay means danger of discovery. You should have taken my
+advice and done the trick two days ago; it would all be over by now...."
+
+"And it will be done to-night," broke in Madame firmly. "You were told
+two days ago that it would be for to-night, and you had no right to
+endanger your position at the works by being discovered coming here so
+often."
+
+"I was told nothing definite two days ago, and I was on my way here for
+the express purpose of warning you."
+
+"In any case, there's not much harm done," rejoined Madame coolly. "Even
+if M. de Maurel comes to mistrust you, no change can take place in the
+arrangements for to-night. He would not dismiss you at a moment's
+notice, would he?"
+
+"He would not dare to do that," retorted Leroux roughly.
+
+"From what I hear," said Madame la Marquise, "there is not much that M.
+de Maurel would not dare."
+
+"Well, in any case, he could not turn me out neck and crop from the
+Lodge. I am there securely enough, at any rate, until the time when I
+hand over the works to your people in consideration of ten thousand
+francs for myself and a hundred apiece for my men."
+
+"That is all understood, of course. And you are quite prepared for
+to-night?"
+
+"Quite. Fifty of my mates are slackening off already. When I return to
+the works I shall give out that those fifty must work overtime to-night.
+Don't you be afraid; there's not going to be any hitch."
+
+"Pray God there won't be," murmured Madame fervently.
+
+
+V
+
+She was about to recapitulate some further instructions to Leroux, when
+a timid knock at the door, repeated more insistently a moment or two
+later, caused her to order Leroux to stand aside for a moment while she
+herself went to the door. She had no premonition of any trouble just
+then; long afterwards, when in her mind she lived over again every hour
+of that memorable day, she always was quite certain that she went to
+open that door without any thought of an approaching calamity.
+
+Old Matthieu Renard was at the door.
+
+"It is M. le Maréchal," he said simply.
+
+Strangely enough, although both he and his wife were firmly attached to
+M. de Courson and to Madame la Marquise, they had never thoroughly
+imbibed the contempt which all loyal Royalists were compelled to feel
+toward the honours and distinctions which were conferred on his
+adherents by the usurper Bonaparte.
+
+Madame drew back at his words very suddenly, like someone who, wandering
+in a peaceful glade, comes unprepared upon some fearsome thing. She had
+certainly this time become white to the lips, and the hand wherewith she
+beckoned to Matthieu to enter trembled visibly.
+
+"You mean M. de Maurel?" she queried huskily. "Where is he?"
+
+"Just coming up the perron steps," replied Matthieu, who also appeared
+very agitated. "He took his horse round to the stables first. I was in
+the garden. I saw him. He called to me and sent me to announce his visit
+to Madame."
+
+"I had best go," muttered Leroux hurriedly and shuffled up to the door.
+
+Madame stopped him with a word.
+
+"Impossible," she said. "If M. de Maurel is coming up the perron steps
+now, you cannot fail to meet him face to face in the hall."
+
+"I don't want him to see me here."
+
+"Stay where you are, man," commanded Madame imperiously, and Leroux,
+whose sallow cheeks were the colour of ashes, muttered something between
+his teeth and withdrew into a dark corner of the room. Then Madame
+turned once more to old Matthieu.
+
+"You did not think," she said, "of saying to M. de Maurel that I was
+from home."
+
+"Yes, I did," replied the man. "I told him you were away."
+
+"And what did he say?"
+
+"That he would wait until your return, and in the meanwhile would speak
+with his overseer, Paul Leroux, who he believed was within."
+
+There came a violent oath from Leroux, and Madame put a handkerchief up
+to her lips which felt cracked and dry; and during the silence that
+ensued there came echoing through the silent house the sound of a
+footfall with a curious lilt in it--the unmistakable footsteps of a man
+who is lame.
+
+"Stand aside, Matthieu," said Madame, with as much dignity as she could
+command, even though her voice sounded raucous and hoarse. "I will go
+speak with M. de Maurel. Do you follow me into the hall, and you,
+Leroux," she added, once more turning to the craven creature who made no
+attempt to disguise his fears, "stay here!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE WORD OF THE MASTER
+
+
+I
+
+De Maurel stood waiting for her in the pillared hall. In accordance with
+the custom which he himself had established during his last visits to
+Courson, he was in uniform without his sword and mantle. Madame la
+Marquise had already fully recovered her self-possession; her short
+progress across the hall restored to her the full measure of her
+habitual _sang-froid_. With a well-schooled smile upon her lips she came
+forward eagerly to greet him.
+
+"Ah! my dear Ronnay," she said, as she extended a gracious hand to him,
+"this is indeed a surprise--none the less joyous as it was so wholly
+unexpected. Indeed, we here at La Frontenay had come to believe that you
+had wholly forgotten us."
+
+He bowed low over the gracious hand, and even touched the finger-tips
+with his lips.
+
+"You look more bronzed than ever, M. le Maréchal," added Madame with an
+arch smile, "and your numerous new dignities and the added gorgeousness
+of your uniform will play sadder havoc than ever before in the hearts of
+our impressionable young girls. You have come to pay me a long visit, I
+hope. Come to my boudoir, my dear Ronnay, the room which your generosity
+hath furnished with such lavish care for your old mother. We can talk
+undisturbed there."
+
+"Within a few moments, Madame," he said quietly, "I will be entirely at
+your service. But, first of all, may I, with your gracious permission,
+speak a few words with my overseer Leroux?"
+
+The abruptness of the attack nearly caused Madame to lose countenance
+then and there. Of a truth, the danger was more real and more immediate
+than she had foreseen. For the space of a few brief seconds she debated
+in her mind whether she would deny Leroux' presence in the house
+altogether--feign ignorance of it, and risk an exposure which might
+prove disastrous and certainly would be humiliating. It all depended on
+how much Ronnay really knew. If he had actually seen Leroux entering the
+château, denial would be positively fatal; if his attitude at this
+moment only rested on surmise, then it might prove a good card to play.
+Unfortunately time pressed, and she was forced to decide on a course of
+action in the space of a few seconds while de Maurel kept dark,
+inquiring eyes fixed composedly upon her face. In any case, a little
+procrastination was imperative, and Madame, with a certain vague fear
+gnawing at her heart-strings, at last contrived to say with a complacent
+smile and an affectation of great surprise:
+
+"Your overseer, my son? I do not understand.... Why should you seek your
+overseer in this house?"
+
+"Because I happen to have seen him enter it, half an hour ago," he
+replied curtly, "in spite of my strict prohibition which I enjoined upon
+him yesterday."
+
+"He comes courting one of my maids, perhaps."
+
+"Perhaps. But my prohibition is none the less binding on him. So with
+your leave, Madame ..." he added, as he made a movement in the direction
+of the door whence Madame la Marquise had just emerged in order to greet
+him.
+
+"My dear Ronnay," rejoined Madame, with all the haughtiness which she
+could command, "I trust that you will not inflict a scene upon me here
+in this house, which would be extremely unpleasant for us all. If you
+wish to speak with your overseer, surely you can wait till he has
+returned to your works. A factory or a workshop, or even the high road,
+are fitter places for a wrangle with a refractory workman than in your
+mother's private room."
+
+"It is neither my fault nor my wish," retorted de Maurel dryly, "that a
+refractory workman in my employ happens to be in my mother's private
+room. Nor would I care to wait until the man chooses to return to his
+duties in order to give him the trouncing which he deserves. I have no
+time to waste in waiting on his good pleasure, and I specially desire to
+speak with him here--in this house--and in your presence, Madame, an you
+will grant me leave."
+
+"In my presence!" exclaimed Madame, with a forced laugh which was
+intended to hide an ever-increasing terror. "My dear Ronnay, meseems
+that you have taken leave of your senses. What in the world have I got
+to do with your overseer and with your quarrels with your men?"
+
+"That is just what I desire to ascertain, Madame," rejoined de Maurel
+quietly.
+
+"Well, you cannot do it," said Madame testily, "either here or now. You
+will not, I presume, have the effrontery of forcing your way into my
+private apartments."
+
+"Your presumption is correct, Madame. I would not for the world intrude
+upon your privacy. But let me not, on the other hand, detain you here. I
+can wait your gracious pleasure, until you deign to turn my overseer out
+of your private apartments, and send him hither to speak with me."
+
+For a moment Madame looked round her in hopeless bewilderment. The
+situation had developed in a manner wherewith she was unable to cope.
+For the first time in her life she would have given much to have someone
+else's support or counsel in this crisis which she began seriously to
+fear would culminate in disaster. But there was no one near to help her
+out of her difficulty. Fernande had not left her room, M. de Courson
+and Laurent were far away, and even old Matthieu had very discreetly
+retired as soon as he saw Madame la Marquise in close conversation with
+"M. le Maréchal."
+
+There was silence in the vast pillared hall for a second or two while
+these two equally firm wills stood up in bitter conflict one against the
+other. There was never a doubt for a moment as to who would be forced to
+yield. Madame even now felt like some bird whose strong wings were in
+the hands of a ruthless tamer, who already was busy in clipping them.
+She tried to brave that tamer or else to defy him; but he, armed with a
+determination no less firm than her own and with a tenacity that nothing
+could conquer, was waging a war of attrition, and was calmly biding his
+time while Madame, torn between genuine fear and outraged dignity, was
+seeking in vain for a means of extricating herself from this harrowing
+position.
+
+Ronnay de Maurel, in fact, was leaning against one of the marble pillars
+of the hall with a smile round his firm lips which, had not the
+situation been quite so tense, might almost have been interpreted as one
+of keen, if somewhat grim, amusement, whilst Madame stood before him,
+hot and defiant, her small foot tapping the ground in order to ease the
+exacerbation of her nerves.
+
+"Very well," she said abruptly, and she deliberately turned on her heel
+and made for the door of the library, where Leroux no doubt was still
+standing, quaking in his shoes like the miserable craven that he was.
+"Very well! An you are determined to put this insult on your mother in
+the presence of such an oaf, I can do naught to prevent you. Go and
+speak with your overseer an you have a mind."
+
+"And will you deign to be present at the interview, Madame?" he asked.
+
+"If you wish it," she replied curtly.
+
+Of a truth, she would not have trusted Leroux to speak alone with de
+Maurel; the man was three parts a coward, and it was more than doubtful
+whether under stress of fear he would remain true to his bargain with
+de Puisaye; whilst the part of him that was base and criminal might lead
+him to an attack of violence, which, whatever its results might be, was
+certainly not within the scope of Madame's reckonings.
+
+Therefore she chose to make a virtue of necessity and, walking rapidly
+across the hall, she called curtly to de Maurel to follow her into the
+library.
+
+
+II
+
+Leroux had assumed an air of jaunty defiance which the pallor of his
+cheeks and the shifty looks in his eyes did more than belie. He had
+recognized his employer's voice at the outset, and one or two words
+spoken in Madame's somewhat shrill voice had prepared him, in a measure,
+for the interview which he so frankly dreaded.
+
+Like most cowards, Leroux himself would have been quite incapable of
+saying definitely what it was that he was afraid of. He had oft
+proclaimed it audibly that he would as soon be sent to Prussia or to New
+Caledonia as to continue the life of honest work and of monotony which
+his present conditional liberation entailed. He could not, therefore, be
+afraid of a mere dismissal, whilst he was quite keen and shrewd enough
+to know that de Maurel was not like to resort to physical violence
+against him, and punishments, even degradation from his present
+position, could not longer affect him, seeing that he was pledged to de
+Puisaye and the Royalists.
+
+It must be presumed, therefore, that Leroux' access of terror when his
+employer suddenly appeared under the lintel of the door in the wake of
+Madame la Marquise, was just due to the unpleasant physical sensation
+which assails a dastard in the presence of a brave and loyal man. He was
+standing close beside the window, and with his back to the door, and as
+Madame and de Maurel entered, he turned round suddenly, with something
+of a snarl like a savage creature trapped.
+
+"M. de Maurel desired to speak with you, Leroux," Madame said, whilst
+de Maurel closed the door behind him, "and I have allowed him to see you
+in this house...."
+
+"Where you had no right to be, as you know well, Leroux," interposed de
+Maurel, speaking calmly and in measured tones. "I warned you yesterday
+that I would look on any infraction of my commands as direct and wilful
+disobedience."
+
+Leroux shifted uneasily from one foot to the other, but he looked his
+master squarely in the face.
+
+"Orders such as those," he said, "are for the men in subsidiary
+positions. I am chief overseer now--what? I come and go as I please and
+where I please."
+
+"I told M. de Maurel," broke in Madame hurriedly, "that I saw no
+objection to your visiting my maid Marie, seeing that she is betrothed
+to you. I have begged him to overlook your transgression this time, and
+urged that your anxiety might excuse you. Marie is very ill," she
+continued, turning to de Maurel, "and this unfortunate fellow forgot his
+duty, I fear me, in his solicitude for the girl."
+
+"A solicitude all the more remarkable, Madame," rejoined de Maurel with
+a quaint laugh, partly of amusement and partly of impatience, "as Leroux
+has already a wife of his own, whose faithful heart his many crimes have
+oft wounded before now. I fear me that you must look upon me as a gaby
+to unfold so specious a tale for my delectation. Nor--an you will
+forgive me for saying it--are you serving the man's interests by
+trumping up such hollow excuses for his disobedience."
+
+"I come and go as I please, and where I please," reiterated Leroux
+surlily.
+
+"You are neither daft nor deaf," said de Maurel quietly. "You heard and
+understood my orders yesterday."
+
+"I am chief overseer now," retorted the man obstinately. "Such orders do
+not apply to me."
+
+"Every order which I give applies to every man in my employ. I told you
+when first I returned and found you installed in a position, which I
+knew you neither deserved nor were able to fill, that I would leave you
+in it on probation only. I am now convinced that you are quite unfit to
+rule over any of my men, seeing that you have no idea of discipline, of
+obedience, or of truth."
+
+"I am ready to leave your service," said Leroux with a muttered oath;
+"'tis not a downy bed--what?--to sweat day after day over those accursed
+mortars, with your life hanging by a thread all the time."
+
+"You are not in my service, Leroux. You are primarily in the service of
+the State, whose laws you have broken, and who has given you this means
+of working out your punishment, by honest toil and loyalty to your
+country, rather than as a convict in jail or New Caledonia. But for the
+time being I am your employer. You eat my bread and owe loyalty and
+obedience to me."
+
+"Then send me packing," growled Leroux, "if you are not satisfied."
+
+"That is exactly what I intend to do," rejoined de Maurel. "At the hour
+when you chose flagrantly to disobey my orders you ceased to be my
+overseer. Go back now at once to the factories and report yourself to
+Mathurin, who will take over your duties at the close of the day. After
+to-day you will take up your place once more, among the rank and file
+and with the other workmen--the same place, in fact, which you occupied
+before you proved yourself unworthy of the trust which M. Gaston de
+Maurel reposed in you. Now you may go."
+
+Already while de Maurel spoke, Leroux had slowly advanced toward him,
+with a measured tread that in itself implied rebellion, and hands held
+tightly clenched. Now he came to a halt as close to his master as he
+dared; his eyes shot defiance and rage, his breath came with a hissing
+sound through his set teeth.
+
+"I'll not go," he said hoarsely, "I'll not. Curse you for your arrogance
+and your blustering, dictatorial ways. I'll not go, do you hear?"
+
+"Leroux!" exclaimed Madame firmly.
+
+The man turned to look at her; his shifty eyes encountered the warning
+glance wherewith she strove with all her might to enjoin outward
+yielding and prudence to him.
+
+"M. de Maurel is perhaps somewhat harsh, my good Leroux," she continued,
+trying to put as much significance into her words as she dared; "but I
+feel sure that on consideration you will decide that submission is
+really the best in your own interests. Let me advise you to return to
+the factory now and to think over quietly the events of the past hour. I
+feel confident that by to-morrow you will have convinced M. de Maurel
+that you are a man worthy of confidence and of trust."
+
+The moment she began to speak, a change came over Leroux' attitude. He
+had, indeed, forgotten for the time being and in the paroxysm of his
+rage, that within a few hours he would hold the employer whom he hated
+completely at his mercy--in the hollow of his grimy hand. Obviously--as
+Madame said--it was in his interest to appear submissive now. He wanted
+the next few hours to himself, to prepare the treacherous coup which was
+to satisfy both his greed and his desire to be revenged upon the
+execrated taskmaster. Any overt rebellion now might render his position
+doubly difficult later in the day, while he still had the power to rally
+his confederates around him. The advent of de Maurel upon the scene had,
+of a truth, been more than unfortunate; but all was not yet lost.
+He--Leroux--was still in possession of the Lodge, and, as far as he
+knew, his degradation to the ranks was not to take effect until after
+the close of day--not in any event till after he had been able to
+concert with his mates. All these thoughts coursed swiftly through his
+tortuous brain, and he contrived, after a moment or two of hesitation,
+to throw a reassuring look to Madame la Marquise. Then he turned to de
+Maurel, and said with an air of contrition and of shamefacedness:
+
+"I was forgetting myself just now, was I not, M. le Maréchal? But even
+Madame la Marquise has deigned to admit that you have been unduly harsh
+with me. I have worked in your factories for over two years now; you
+will not, I hope, degrade me before all my mates in any hurry."
+
+"I will act as I think best, my man," rejoined de Maurel, unperturbed.
+"You have wilfully placed yourself outside the pale of my consideration.
+At the same time, you may rest assured that I did not condemn you behind
+your back. Until I actually found you out in flagrant disobedience and
+disloyalty I would not have made a change in the administration of the
+factory. But anon at close of day all your mates will know that you have
+once more become one of themselves. Now go," he added more harshly, "and
+do not waste my time with further parleyings. When I return to the works
+presently, let me hear from Mathurin that you are back at your work, and
+that you are not trying by words or acts to incite the others to
+discontent. Remember that I know how to punish, and that I mean to bring
+back order and discipline in my works, if necessary at the cost of
+utmost rigour."
+
+He pointed to the door with an authoritative gesture, and Leroux, no
+longer hesitating--eager, perhaps, to get out of the presence of his
+master--shuffled across the room. Madame was able to throw him a last,
+warning look, to which he responded by a significant nod of the head.
+Whether de Maurel actually saw either of these two signs, or whether his
+suspicions had been aroused during the interview, it were difficult to
+say. Certain it is that Leroux had already opened the door and was
+stepping across the threshold, when a peremptory "Stay!" from de Maurel
+brought him to a halt. He remained standing under the lintel, his hand
+upon the door and glancing back over his shoulder at Ronnay.
+
+"What is it now?" he queried sullenly.
+
+"You will vacate the Lodge at close of day, of course," said de Maurel
+curtly.
+
+"Vacate the Lodge?" muttered Leroux. "I cannot vacate the Lodge all in a
+moment like that. What should I do with my clothes? Where should I
+sleep to-night?"
+
+"In the compound," replied de Maurel dryly, "and you can collect your
+effects in an hour."
+
+"It is like turning a dog out of his kennel," retorted Leroux with a
+snarl. "And who is to sleep at the Lodge to-night? Mathurin cannot leave
+the foundries. There are fifty thousand barrels of powder stacked in the
+shed behind the Lodge ... and fifty men working overtime to-night. Who
+is going to look after them? Who is going to see that the fifty thousand
+barrels of gunpowder are not blown into kingdom come through the
+carelessness of one of them?"
+
+"Surely not you," rejoined de Maurel quietly, "whose disobedience is
+only equalled by your criminal carelessness. Yesterday, after closing
+hours, I found the side gate open and unguarded."
+
+"Carelessness is not a crime," riposted Leroux in a more conciliatory
+tone. "We are all worked to death at the factory like galley-slaves ...
+I more than the rest.... I forgot to see to the side gate--what? It is
+not a crime. If I am to be turned out of my bed like a cur," he
+reiterated sullenly, "who, I should like to know, is going to sleep in
+it to-night?"
+
+"I am," replied de Maurel simply.
+
+"You!"
+
+The word came simultaneously from two pairs of lips. Madame had spoken
+it instinctively, just as--instinctively--she had risen to her feet, and
+Leroux had uttered it hoarsely and raucously, as he suddenly turned on
+his heel, and once more faced the master whom he hated and feared.
+
+"You?" he reiterated in an indefinable tone of incredulity, of rage and
+of terror.
+
+"I spoke plainly enough," rejoined de Maurel unmoved. "Did you perchance
+think that I was jesting?"
+
+For a moment or two the man was silent. He stood immovable and quite
+close to de Maurel, the while his shifty gaze tried to probe in the
+other's dark eyes what lay hidden within their depths. And Ronnay, from
+his great height, looked down on the coarse and evil face which was
+turned up to his; he, too, was trying to fathom all that was going on
+behind that narrow, receding forehead and behind the pale, protruding
+eyes, with their flaccid lids and lines around them of recklessness and
+dissipation. For that brief moment there was deadly silence in the room,
+silence through which the crackling of Madame's silk dress could
+distinctly be heard, as she was quivering from head to foot.
+
+Then Leroux, challenged by de Maurel's fixed gaze, replied slowly:
+
+"No!"
+
+"Then see that the Lodge is vacated by ten o'clock this evening.
+Overtime work must be finished by then, and you can hand me over all
+your keys ere you go back to the compound."
+
+It seemed as if Leroux meant to say something; once or twice he even
+opened his mouth, as if the words were about to tumble out of it; but
+every time that he looked up, he encountered de Maurel's gaze fixed
+quite steadily upon him, and after a while no doubt he realized that for
+the moment, at any rate, he was sorely at a disadvantage. So he
+contented himself with muttering a curse and a threat, after which he
+turned rapidly on his heel, and with a few quick steps he stalked out of
+the room, slamming the door behind him.
+
+
+III
+
+Madame had not moved since the moment when de Maurel's announcement that
+he intended to sleep at the Lodge that night had so completely staggered
+her that she felt momentarily dazed and quite unable to think. For a
+second or two it seemed to her as if her heart had completely ceased to
+beat, as if her body alone had remained sitting in the room there, while
+her spirit had fled on the wings of a nameless terror.
+
+Ronnay de Maurel at the Lodge that night! What did that mean? How much
+did he know? What did he suspect? These were questions which went
+hammering through her brain while Leroux was finally cowed and
+dismissed. Now that she was once more alone with her son, it was
+obviously of the most vital importance that nothing in her attitude
+should betray the agitation which she felt. She had to make an almost
+superhuman effort to recover herself, to rise from her chair, and to
+steady her knees which were shaking under her. But all this she did, and
+even succeeded in saying, with every appearance of unconcern:
+
+"I do think, my dear Ronnay, that you were unnecessarily harsh with the
+man. He is not a sympathetic personality I own, and, of course, he did
+very wrong in disobeying you; but now that we are alone, let me assure
+you that it is indeed my maid Marie whom he has been visiting of late.
+He knew that he had done wrong; your allusion to his own wife roused his
+surly temper, and undoubtedly he forgot himself. And now," she added
+glibly, "shall we forget this unpleasant incident? Fernande is in the
+garden. Shall we join her?"
+
+"I thank you, Madame," he replied coldly, "but I must return home as
+soon as possible. My uncle cannot bear me out of his sight for very
+long, and there are many matters I must attend to before nightfall. An
+you will allow me to pay you my respects another time...."
+
+"'Tis not much respect you have paid me to-day, my good Ronnay,"
+rejoined Madame, who, indeed, by now was once again completely mistress
+of herself. "Why you should have dragged me into your quarrel with that
+creature I cannot imagine, and I ought to deal very severely with you
+for this want of consideration for me."
+
+"I am sorry to have offended you, Madame, and fear me that I must do so
+again ere I go."
+
+"'Twere not wise to do that, Ronnay," she retorted haughtily; "even a
+mother's indulgence hath its limits."
+
+"I trust that I shall not be overstepping them, Madame, when I request
+you in all earnestness to refrain in future from any intercourse with my
+workpeople."
+
+"Are you afraid that I might succeed in imbuing them with a spirit of
+loyalty to their King?"
+
+"Whatever my motive, Madame, I earnestly pray you to follow my behests."
+
+"You mean, your commands?"
+
+"We'll call them that an you wish," he replied slowly.
+
+"You forbid me to speak to your workpeople?"
+
+"Absolutely."
+
+"You are not over confident of their loyalty," she said, with a sardonic
+little laugh.
+
+He made no reply. Madame's searching gaze was fixed upon him; she would
+have given worlds to divine his thoughts. On the whole, she felt
+reassured that he knew nothing of the vital issues which centred round
+the powder factory to-night. She was pretty certain that Leroux would
+try to see her again to-day--he had probably not left the château, and
+was waiting his opportunity to have speech with her as soon as de Maurel
+had gone. Something would have to be devised, something thought of, to
+meet the unlooked-for eventuality of de Maurel's presence at the factory
+to-night. But for this Madame required solitude and a calm view of the
+new situation. For the moment she was supremely conscious of the desire
+to be alone. Ronnay's presence now jarred well nigh unbearably on her
+nerves; the calm way in which he regarded her and dictated his will to
+her, with a certainty that she would obey, irritated her past endurance.
+
+She turned away from him, for she did not choose to let him see how
+maddened she was, how thoroughly shaken was her usual haughty placidity.
+She walked deliberately to the window and turned her back on him, her
+aristocratic fingers beating a devil's tattoo against the panes.
+
+"I'd best go now," suggested de Maurel, after a while, in that same
+awkward manner of his which seemed only to have dropped from him when
+he was dealing with Leroux.
+
+"You are in your own house, my good Ronnay," rejoined Madame coldly, and
+without turning to look at him; "you have a perfect right to come and go
+as you please."
+
+"Then am I your obedient servant," he said placidly.
+
+Madame, from where she stood, could feel that his whole attitude was one
+of complete detachment. Her wrath and her scorn had no more effect on
+him than Leroux' threats of a while ago. She knew instinctively that he
+bowed and took his leave in that clumsy manner which she abhorred. Then
+she heard him moving across the room, opening the door, and finally
+shutting it behind him.
+
+Even then she did not turn round. She remained standing beside the
+window, gazing out into the distance--seeing nothing and yet still
+gazing--her mind fixed upon the one great, all-absorbing puzzle. What
+was to happen to-night? She never moved, while her ears caught the sound
+of that firm, dragging step as it slowly died away in the distance.
+Then, when even its echo had ceased to reverberate through the silent
+house, she caught at the heavy curtain beside her, for suddenly in her
+whole body there was a relaxing of the tension on her nerves, and for
+the first time in her life Madame de Mortain felt ready to swoon. But
+even when she was all alone she would have scorned an unnecessary
+exhibition of weakness. A few seconds sufficed her to regain her
+self-control. She turned away from the window at last and sat down
+beside the heavy desk whereat she had so often penned enthusiastic
+reports to the Royalist agents. She drew pen and ink closer to her and
+sat thinking for a while. She had a mind to send a letter to de
+Puisaye--a runner might be found quick and clever enough to deliver it
+into the hands of the Chouan leader in the Cerf-Volant woods and to
+bring back his answer before nightfall.
+
+In any case, before she wrote Madame was bent on seeing Leroux again.
+Leroux alone, she thought, would be able to cope with the situation as
+it now presented itself. Leroux was a man of resource, as his
+correspondence with Madame over the wall of the exercising ground had
+proved. He was not greatly troubled with scruples, and though he was by
+nature a coward, his temper, when roused, was apt to be both defiant and
+ugly.
+
+Moreover, he was wilful, and would know how to act without any very
+explicit instructions, which Madame, in the absence of the chiefs, was
+not prepared to give him.
+
+She put down her pen again, and pushing her chair away from the table,
+she rose with an impatient, nervy little sigh. Despite the warmth of
+this June afternoon she shivered, almost as if she felt cold.
+
+Somewhere in the château a distant clock struck six.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE PARTING OF THE WAYS
+
+
+I
+
+Ten minutes later Matthieu once more knocked discreetly at the door of
+the library, and in response to Madame's call, he opened the door very
+softly and peeped in.
+
+"Leroux has returned," he said, instinctively dropping his voice, even
+though he knew quite well that no eavesdroppers could be about.
+
+"Where is he?" queried Madame.
+
+"Just outside. Shall I show him in?"
+
+"Yes. At once. Stay," she added, as Matthieu had already made haste to
+obey. "Where is Mademoiselle de Courson?"
+
+"In the garden, I think, Madame la Marquise. But I will go to see."
+
+"No. Never mind now. But if you see Mademoiselle coming in, ask her to
+go and wait for me in my room upstairs; then let me know immediately."
+
+"Very good, Madame la Marquise."
+
+Leroux was standing waiting in the hall, when Matthieu came to tell him
+that Madame la Marquise would see him in the library. He shuffled into
+the room, looking sulky and villainous, nor did he moderate his attitude
+or assume the slightest show of respect when he found himself alone in
+the presence of Madame. He did not remove his tricorne hat as he
+entered, but merely pushed it with a nervy gesture to the back of his
+head. The first word which he spoke was a curse, and he spat on the
+carpet as he uttered it.
+
+"Well?" queried Madame haughtily.
+
+"Well!" he retorted with a leer.
+
+She would have given worlds for the power to flare up at his
+impertinence, but she and her friends were too deeply involved with the
+brutish creature to venture on rousing his resentment at this hour, when
+the very throne of the King of France rested on the insecure foundation
+of a recreant's loyalty to a bond. The sinister aspect of the ex-convict
+caused her to shudder; she longed for the presence of her brother or her
+son to help her deal with the arrogant ruffian, to turn him from her
+presence with the contumely which she felt, yet dared not express. At
+the same time, she was longing, with a desperate, passionate
+earnestness, to hear what he had come to say--she longed to hear him put
+into actual words those thoughts of evil and of darkness which had
+assailed her ever since Ronnay had gone and which she did not dare to
+face. She felt like a man who has been mysteriously and grievously
+wounded, who feels some awful pain which he has not yet had the chance
+to locate, and knows that somewhere on his body there is a hideous and
+gaping sore, unseen as yet by him, which is gnawing at his very life,
+torturing him insidiously and hitherto only felt--not yet seen--by him.
+And, like him, she felt that at all costs must she see that hidden wound
+and realize exactly how deeply she was hurt.
+
+Leroux, with keen, shifty eyes, was watching the play of emotions on
+Madame's haughty face. His mouth was distorted by a hideous grin of
+scorn and of arrogance. He knew well enough how completely he now had
+all these scheming aristocrats at his mercy. One word from him and he
+could send the lot to moulder in jail or else to the guillotine. But
+strive how he might, he could not perceive one single trait of fear in
+the cold, pale eyes which Madame kept fixed upon him; her calmness
+irritated him, even though he knew well enough that it only lay on the
+surface. An insensate desire seized him to see that proud lady cringe
+with terror, to see her blanch when he made her understand plainly the
+bond which existed between her and him.
+
+"Why have you come back?" queried Madame after a while. "Have you not
+realized that M. de Maurel might return, too, and that...?"
+
+"Well," retorted Leroux fiercely, "and if he does ... you don't want him
+in the way, I presume."
+
+She made no reply, but lifted her handkerchief up to her mouth in order
+to smother the cry which had so instinctively risen to her lips.
+
+"I thought," resumed the man gruffly, "that you would wish to know that,
+as far as I am concerned, the Maréchal's interference will not affect
+our plans in any way. There's plenty of time between now and the close
+of day to talk things over with my mates. Do not be afraid, my fine
+lady, we are prepared for every eventuality."
+
+"Prepared?" she asked, and her voice sounded choked and hoarse.
+"Prepared?" she reiterated. "In what way do you mean?"
+
+"Well, we must assume that the Maréchal is not coming down in force
+to-night to turn me out of my Lodge, mustn't we?" he queried with a
+snarl.
+
+"No ... I suppose not," she replied vaguely.
+
+"Well, then," he rejoined slowly, "we can deal with him easily enough if
+he is alone--what?"
+
+Once more Madame had to make a vigorous effort to repress a cry of
+horror. The combat which she was fighting with herself while the
+impudent wretch stood looking down on her, his hands buried in the
+pockets of his breeches, his feet planted wide apart, his whole attitude
+one of arrogance and of scorn--was, indeed, a bitter one. On one side
+were ranged her fanatical enthusiasm for a cause which she held to be as
+sacred as that of her faith, and her boundless belief in the efficacy of
+the coup which had been planned for this night. To jeopardize its
+success now at this eleventh hour, by allowing her sensibilities to
+overmaster her, would in her eyes have been akin to the blackest, the
+most dire treachery toward her King and her country.
+
+Indeed, at this moment she was putting to pagan uses and misinterpreting
+the dictum of the Gospel: "If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out."
+She was wilfully closing her heart against every dictate of sentiment or
+of motherhood. As she would have been ready--and more than ready--to
+risk her own life for the sake of her cause, so was she willing to throw
+into the balance of her King's cause the safety of a man who happened to
+be in the way, even if at the same time he happened to be her son.
+
+And Leroux, the servile tool in the nefarious work, knew exactly what
+was passing in the proud lady's mind: he knew that she had understood
+the covert hint which he had thrown out, and that by her very silence
+she had acquiesced in his schemes.
+
+He had no intention of relinquishing the ten thousand francs which had
+been offered him because of that obstacle which he was more than ready
+to sweep out of his path. Murderer, incendiary, thief, jail-bird and
+convict!--what was a crime more or less upon the conscience of such a
+man? Nor did he feel the slightest respect for these people who had
+bribed him to do a monstrous treachery. Brute as he was, he was shrewd
+enough to look upon them as his equals in villainy, and to realize that
+they had far more to gain by the iniquitous deed which he contemplated
+than he had himself.
+
+And for a while there was silence in the room while this man and this
+woman--the jail-bird and the high-born lady--looked straight into one
+another's eyes and tacitly sealed a bond of fraternity between them. The
+measured ticking of a clock upon the mantelpiece marked the passage of
+time which separated this unspoken and monstrous compact from its
+fulfilment by and by. A bundle of papers beneath Madame's hand rustled
+with weird persistency, and suddenly Leroux gave a laugh, throwing back
+his head and showing his ugly yellow teeth, and he shrugged his
+shoulders and spat once more on the carpet ere he queried with
+contemptuous familiarity:
+
+"Then our plans are as they were--eh?"
+
+"As they were," replied Madame.
+
+The man turned on his heel and started whistling the old "_Ça ira_" of
+Revolution times through his teeth.
+
+"_Ça ira! Ça ira! Les aristos à la lanterne!_"
+
+His hand was already on the handle of the door, when he looked once more
+over his shoulder and said roughly:
+
+"Your people are not going to leave me in the lurch, I suppose?"
+
+"That is out of the question," replied Madame coldly.
+
+"Because you know, my good woman," he said, still over his shoulder, as
+he opened the door and stepped across the threshold, "if the Maréchal
+gives us trouble to-night and your people fail us afterwards, it will
+mean hanging for some of us."
+
+He looked at Madame and nodded with studied insolence by way of
+farewell. But she seemed to have forgotten his presence already. She sat
+upright and stiff in the high-backed chair, the silk of her gown falling
+in rigid folds around her, the darkness of her attire relieved by a
+white scarf round her shoulders. Her face was set and pale beneath the
+hard line of her white hair dressed in the mode of the past generation,
+her eyes stared, unseeing, before her. Leroux laughed once more--it was
+the scornful laugh of a hardened criminal for what he termed a
+white-livered beginner. Once more he shrugged his shoulders, then with a
+final muttered imprecation he stalked out of the hall.
+
+
+II
+
+The moment he had gone Madame pulled herself together with an almost
+superhuman effort of will; she shook herself free from the torpor which
+had momentarily paralysed her limbs, and, rising to her feet, she went
+quickly to the door which Leroux had left ajar.
+
+It had seemed to her that the moment when the man's shuffling footsteps
+began to resound against the marble floor of the hall, he had uttered an
+exclamation of surprise, and that exclamation from Leroux had at once
+been followed by another sound--one soft and mournful like a sigh.
+
+Less than five seconds later Madame was in the hall--just in time to see
+Fernande walking rapidly across it toward the monumental glazed doors
+which gave on the outside stairway and on the terraces.
+
+"Fernande," she called authoritatively, "where are you going?"
+
+Instinctively the young girl had paused when she heard her name, but it
+was only for an instant; the next she had resumed her quick walk, and
+had just reached the first glazed door when Madame overtook her and,
+without warning, seized her peremptorily by the wrist.
+
+"Where are you going, Fernande?" she reiterated harshly.
+
+The girl looked round at her somewhat wildly, then she made a vigorous
+effort to disengage her wrist.
+
+"I am going out, _ma tante_," she replied, with a quietude which in no
+way deceived Madame la Marquise.
+
+"Out?" queried Madame. "Whither?"
+
+"Into the garden, _ma tante_. The heat indoors is oppressive and...."
+
+"You lie, Fernande," broke in Madame curtly.
+
+"_Ma tante_...."
+
+"You lie. Tell me where you are going."
+
+Then, as the girl made no reply but drew up her slim, graceful figure to
+its full height and looked fearlessly into the austere face of Madame de
+Mortain, the latter continued sternly:
+
+"Did you see Leroux just now?"
+
+"Yes," replied Fernande quietly.
+
+"And you heard what he said just as he was leaving?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+For a moment or two longer the two women stood looking keenly into one
+another's eyes. The vast château was solitary and still; not a sound
+came from within, and the heavy doors shut out effectually all the many
+sounds which fill the air on a warm, midsummer afternoon: the call of
+thrush and blackbird, the distant croaking of frogs and cooing of
+wood-pigeons, the flutter of parched leaves upon the tiny boughs and
+tripping of unseen little beasts through thicket and shrubbery.
+
+It was Madame whose eyes were the first to veil themselves behind their
+heavy lids, in order to conceal the thoughts within from the searching
+gaze of the younger woman. The next moment Fernande was free to go;
+Madame no longer held her wrist.
+
+"I will not ask you again, my child, whither you are going," she said
+quietly. "Since first the rising nations were torn between conflicting
+parties of men who had divergent aims there have been traitors as well
+as heroes in the world."
+
+"_Ma tante_...."
+
+"Listen to me, my child, for at this supreme moment of your whole
+existence you are standing at the parting of the ways, at the
+cross-roads where many a woman has stood before you, hesitating at the
+two turnings which faced her on the tortuous path of life. Many a woman
+before you has taken the wrong turning, Fernande. Take care that you do
+not do the same and for ever after weep endless tears of remorse and of
+shame."
+
+"I would indeed weep bitter tears, _ma tante_," retorted the girl
+firmly, "if I were to allow the monstrous outrage to be perpetrated
+which that dastardly wretch hath even now set out to do."
+
+"You rave, Fernande," rejoined Madame quietly, "and 'tis not my purpose
+to probe into the thoughts which are leading you at this moment into the
+path of treachery."
+
+"There is no treachery, _ma tante_, in warning an unsuspecting man that
+a murderer's hand is raised against him in the dark."
+
+"You talk at random, child, and your ears deceived you if you attribute
+such intentions to Leroux."
+
+"In any event, _ma tante_, will you send a runner over to M. de Puisaye
+and let him know what has occurred?"
+
+"What has occurred?" queried Madame, with a slight lift of her eyebrow
+in token of contemptuous surprise. "What--in your estimation--has
+occurred, my dear Fernande, that would justify my upsetting M. de
+Puisaye at this hour?"
+
+"Will you let M. de Puisaye know that M. de Maurel will be at the
+factory to-night?"
+
+"Why should I? In what way do you suppose that M. de Maurel's comings
+and goings can possibly affect the business of His Majesty the King, or
+the plans which his faithful adherents have formed for the triumph of
+his cause?"
+
+"_Ma tante_," protested Fernande, with all the fervour and all the
+strength at her command, "you know quite well what I mean. M. de Puisaye
+must be told that if M. de Maurel goes to the factory to-night, Leroux
+has it in him to commit a dastardly murder."
+
+"M. de Puisaye cannot obviously prevent M. de Maurel from going to his
+own factory to-night."
+
+"No. But he can prevent the dastardly deed from being accomplished."
+
+"It is not for me to try and influence the actions of our chiefs."
+
+"It is for every woman--every human being who has a spark of loyalty and
+Christianity in them--to try and prevent murder being done."
+
+For the space of a second or two Madame made no retort; there was a cold
+glance of mockery in her eyes. Then she said slowly:
+
+"Had you perchance thought of confronting M. de Puisaye yourself and
+trying to turn him from his purpose by your wild and incredible tales?
+Let me assure you, child, that our chief is not the man to allow one
+life--and that the life of our bitter enemy--to stand in the way of His
+Majesty's cause and of its success."
+
+"_Ma tante!_" exclaimed Fernande in horror.
+
+"Of a truth, child," rejoined Madame coldly, "I do but waste my time in
+arguing with you. You are self-willed and obstinate, and in your heart
+you have chosen to range yourself on the side of the enemy of your King
+and of your kindred. Therefore, I will not argue. 'Tis for you to probe
+your heart, and find out for yourself how much disloyalty doth lurk in
+it against Laurent, against your father, against all your friends. With
+that I have nothing to do. In the happy times which are so near to us
+now, when the King of France comes to his throne again through the
+self-sacrifice and the heroism of those whom in your heart you proclaim
+murderers and outcasts--when that happy time comes, I say, repentance
+will come with it for you. Until then nothing I may say now will turn
+you back to the path of loyalty. But let me tell you this, Fernande,"
+continued Madame with desperate earnestness, "that whatever you may
+think, whatever you may suspect, whatever you may fear, if you speak one
+word of warning to Ronnay de Maurel you will not only be betraying the
+cause of your King and of your country, but you will also betray your
+father, your lover--every one of your kindred and your friends. Your
+father, M. de Puisaye and Laurent are in camp at this moment in the
+Cerf-Volant woods on the other side of Mortain; within the next few
+hours they will have started upon their march: Laurent for Domfront, M.
+de Puisaye for La Frontenay, your father to carry out the surprise
+attack against the garrison of Mortain. If the slightest alarm be given
+to the garrison of Domfront--and you may be sure that after your
+warning, that is one of the first things which Ronnay de Maurel will
+do--Laurent will be the first to fall into the _guet-apens_ which you
+will have been the means of preparing for him; with Laurent's failure to
+surprise that garrison, your father's attack on Mortain is bound to
+fail. Domfront will warn Mortain; your father's small force will be cut
+up, he himself either killed or a prisoner in the hands of the
+Imperialist forces, with the prospect of the guillotine or, at best,
+deportation before him. Of myself I will not even speak, and will leave
+you to imagine the fate which will await M. de Puisaye on his march
+hither, once de Maurel's five thousand works men are prepared against
+his coming. The catastrophe of 1800, when Cadoudal and all his followers
+perished for our cause, will be repeated once again; and this time the
+fate of your kindred, of your lover and of your father, will be laid at
+your door, their blood will sully your hands. To save the man whom in
+your treacherous heart you have come to set above your King and your
+caste, you will have sacrificed your father, the lives of your nearest
+kin and the honour of your name. And now, child," she concluded calmly,
+"thank God on your knees that I was here in time to save you from
+committing a crime, beside which in the years to come the foulest
+betrayal that hath ever blackened the pages of our country's history
+will seem like the thoughtless prank of a child. I'll say no more,
+Fernande. You are free to take the turning which your heart will
+indicate."
+
+The harsh, strident voice resounded from end to end of the vast hall; it
+beat against Fernande's brain long after the marble walls had ceased to
+send back its echo. Madame gathered her heavy silk skirts around her and
+then, without another word, without another look for the unhappy girl on
+whose finest feelings she had so ruthlessly trampled, she sailed across
+the hall and up the monumental staircase, and her soft footfall alone
+went echoing now through the silent house.
+
+For a few moments Fernande remained quite still ... white and rigid like
+the marble pillars around her; only her mouth twitched convulsively, and
+there was a look of mute agony in her face. The swish of Madame's skirts
+soon ceased to resound from above; after a while Fernande's straining
+senses heard the opening and shutting of a door ... then nothing
+more--silence absolute, and the utter solitude of a soul that is
+irrevocably parted from its mate.
+
+A heartrending sob broke from the unfortunate girl's overburdened
+heart. She staggered forward and, pushing open the heavy glazed door,
+she ran like one pursued down the monumental stone steps which led to
+the garden beyond. She ran--looking neither to right or left--across the
+terrace to a distant shrubbery which screened her favourite walk and a
+seat whereon she liked to sit and dream. As soon as she felt that she
+was quite alone, and that no prying eyes could look upon her misery, she
+fell on her knees, and throwing her arms over the seat, she buried her
+head between them.
+
+"Oh, my God!" she moaned. "Dear God! tell me what to do! Give me some
+sign--a word--a token! Oh, my God! have mercy! Tell me what to do! Tell
+me which road to take!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE STRAW
+
+
+I
+
+The clock in the tower of the château struck nine when Fernande, wrapped
+in a dark cloak and with a hood thrown over her head, stole on tip-toe
+across the hall and slipped through the glazed doors and down the perron
+steps. She went along with utmost caution, peering all round her ere she
+ventured along.
+
+Once past the terrace she felt freer, and without hesitation she dived
+into the path which, winding through the shrubberies, led both to the
+main entrance of the park and to a small postern gate in the boundary
+wall.
+
+After the sultriness of the day the evening was oppressive and dark;
+heavy banks of clouds had gathered before the crescent moon, and there
+was a stillness in the air which presaged a storm. The splendid gardens
+of La Frontenay were wrapped in gloom; not a breath stirred the leaves
+of secular oaks and chestnuts; not a sound came from out the thicket,
+save now and then the crackling of tiny twigs under the feet of furtive
+little beasts that ran scurrying by.
+
+From over the hills there came from time to time the roll of distant
+thunder, and ever and anon a flash of summer lightning threw for the
+merest fraction of a second a weird glow on the far-off woods, and the
+vague outline of the factory buildings some three kilomètres away.
+
+Fernando, holding her cloak tightly around her, slipped through the
+postern gate, and found herself in the lane which after a few hundred
+mètres abuts on the high road; from this point the foundries could be
+reached in a little over half an hour. She walked as quickly as the
+darkness would allow. She had never been along this way before, but she
+knew that she could not miss it. Darkness was her friend and her ally in
+her nocturnal expedition, since it kept her hidden from the view of the
+occasional passer-by.
+
+The road was lonely enough. It was long after working hours; the factory
+hands and foundry men had, for the most part, returned to their homes;
+here and there in the distance a tiny light from a cottage window
+glimmered feebly like a yellow winking eye out of the surrounding
+blackness; and up on the height the village of La Vieuville clustered
+around its church and its château.
+
+After the excitement and the soul agony of the day, Fernande felt
+perfectly calm. The horrible alternative which Madame la Marquise had so
+ruthlessly placed before her had put all her sensibilities and every one
+of her nerves on the rack, until the very faculty for suffering had gone
+from her, and she felt numbed and bruised both physically and mentally.
+But during that terrible hour, when driven forth like a hunted creature
+to seek shelter and solitude from the cruel taunts of Madame, she had
+prayed to God to guide her in her terrible perplexity, a resolution had
+gradually taken form in her mind, a resolution which she firmly believed
+had been instilled into her in answer to her impassioned prayer.
+
+Madame la Marquise was, no doubt, right when she said that the life or
+death of a bitter enemy was not like to turn Joseph de Puisaye from his
+present purpose. An appeal or a warning to him at this hour from anyone
+but Madame herself would obviously not only be futile, but would waste
+several precious, irreclaimable hours.
+
+On the other hand, if she--Fernande--did go to La Vieuville--as her
+first instinct had prompted her to do--and warned de Maurel not to go
+alone to the factory this night, there was no doubt that the plans of de
+Puisaye would not only be gravely jeopardized, but they would be
+rendered impossible of execution, and her father's position, not to
+speak of Laurent's and of the other chiefs', would be irretrievably
+compromised--their lives probably in danger. De Maurel, scenting a
+conspiracy, would at once pass the word round to the garrisons close by,
+and until their arrival he would know how to protect his property with
+the help of his own loyal workmen.
+
+This, Madame had undoubtedly put very clearly before Fernande; she could
+not save de Maurel from the _guet-apens_ which had been prepared against
+him, except by sacrificing Laurent, her father and her friends--her King
+and his cause. Indeed, it was only God who could show a way through such
+an appalling perplexity, and Fernande was more than justified in her
+conviction that the thought which came to her whilst she knelt
+heart-broken and in prayer, was a direct manifestation of His will.
+
+"I can at least save him from that assassin," she thought, when at nine
+o'clock she started on her way.
+
+
+II
+
+Fernande had only once been to the La Frontenay factories, and that was
+over a year ago in the company of de Maurel. Since then she had
+purposely avoided taking her walks in that direction, and her
+recollection of the place was, therefore, hazy and incomplete. She had
+now been walking a little over half an hour when a sudden bend in the
+road revealed the proximity of the huge pile of irregular
+buildings--standing partly within iron fencings, partly inside the
+precincts of high boundary walls--which nestled at the foot of the hills
+and represented Ronnay de Maurel's priceless patrimony.
+
+Up to now she had met an occasional passer-by on the highway--a belated
+workman going to his home, a young pair of lovers out for a stroll, a
+housewife with heavy basket returning from Domfront--but here silence
+and loneliness appeared to be absolute. A row of street-lanthorns fixed
+in the boundary walls of the group of buildings shed uneven circles of
+light at intervals, and inside the precincts a few of the windows showed
+a light, whilst higher up two clock-towers loomed out of the darkness
+like monster glow-worms.
+
+Fernande walked a few hundred mètres further on and then she came to a
+standstill, trying to co-ordinate her recollections of the place. That
+time--a year ago--de Maurel had conducted her through the foundries
+first, and then he had led her through a gate in the iron fencing,
+across a clearing to another gate built in the high wall. This gave on a
+vast quadrangle, on every side of which lay the worksheds of the powder
+factory. Her thoughts on it all were still very chaotic, but she had a
+vague remembrance of the large storehouse standing in the centre of the
+quadrangle and surmounted by its clock-tower, of Mathurin escorting her
+after she had taken leave of de Maurel, back through the postern gate
+and along a footpath until she came once more to the main road, where
+the carriole and the high-stepper stood waiting to take her home again
+to Courson.
+
+Now when she closed her eyes, shutting away the confusion of lights
+which flickered through the impenetrable shadows, she was able to
+visualize the locality more accurately. The foundries obviously lay to
+her right behind the iron fencing; the powder factory lay beyond, some
+two-thirds of a kilomètre away, isolated, and well away from the road
+inside its high encircling walls. With the various positions thus fixed
+upon her mind, Fernande advanced more boldly. Her heart was beating
+tumultuously in her bosom--not with fear, but with vague wonderment as
+to what was to come. The sight of the high walls had given her the first
+pang of doubt. If gates were closed against her, if sentries challenged,
+what would she do?
+
+But she had no mind to draw back. On her actions, she felt, depended the
+life of a brave man and also the honour of her cause. She walked quickly
+past the foundries on the opposite side of the road; then, when she saw
+the factory walls, she crossed over, and keeping well within the
+shadows, she found herself presently outside the main gates. They were
+of forged iron, high, massive and forbidding; a metal lanthorn was fixed
+immediately above them, and at the moment when she passed into the
+circle of light projected by the lanthorn, a peremptory voice called out
+from within: "Who goes there?"
+
+At once she beat a hasty retreat and a frown of deep perplexity settled
+upon her brow. If she could not get to the Lodge at all, how would she
+speak with Leroux? What would she do to save an unsuspecting man--a
+brave man--from assassination?
+
+Vividly, as in a flash of awakened memory, there came back to her mind
+every word of that conversation which she had overheard this afternoon
+between Madame, Leroux and de Maurel, she heard once more--as distinctly
+as she had heard it then--Leroux' savage question: "Who is to sleep at
+the Lodge to-night?" She heard the simple answer: "I am!" She heard
+Leroux' snarls and his overt threats, she heard de Maurel's accusing
+words: "Your disobedience is only equalled by your criminal
+carelessness!"
+
+Then her heart gave a leap. Memory did not play her false; it brought
+back also the very words which now gave her renewed hope and courage.
+"Last night, after closing hours," de Maurel had said, "I found the side
+gate open and unguarded." Leroux, most like, surly and obstinate, would
+not redeem the carelessness of the day before. It was more than probable
+that he would leave the gate unguarded again to-night.
+
+Buoyed by this hope, excitement getting the better of her quietude of a
+while ago, Fernande now retraced her steps in order to find the footpath
+which, somewhere between the foundry fencing and the factory wall, must,
+she knew, lead to the side gate through which Mathurin had conducted her
+a year ago.
+
+Her memory had not deceived her; after a minute or two she struck the
+path and at once turned to walk rapidly along it. Darkness here was
+absolute; there were no lanthorns fixed either in the wall or the
+fencing, only a couple of hundred mètres on ahead a tiny glimmer of
+light flickered feebly through the gloom. Fernande was walking more
+cautiously now, and she felt the wall as she went all along with her
+hand. She had fixed her eyes on that tiny glimmer which seemed to her
+like a beacon which would lead her to her goal. Soon it revealed itself
+as a small, well-screened light fixed just above a low iron gate.
+
+No one challenged her this time as she approached, and by the dim light
+above she felt for the latch. It yielded. She pushed open the gate, and
+the next moment she found herself inside the precincts of the powder
+factory. Everything was dark around her, and through the darkness there
+loomed up dense and black the pile of irregular low buildings--the
+sheds, the offices, the workshops, with, in the centre, the somewhat
+taller edifice of the storehouse, which contained the vast reserves of
+explosives. It was surmounted by a clock-tower, from which the rays of
+an unseen lamp projected a large circle of light on the pavement below;
+close by was a small building, presumably the Lodge. At any rate, this
+was the only spot in the large quadrangle which showed signs of life
+inside its walls. Everything else was absolutely still as well as dark.
+Fernande ventured nearer, then she paused, breathless. She had come to
+the end of her journey, to the point where her powers of persuasion
+would be put to the test, where she would have to rely upon herself,
+upon her own eloquence, her own personality, in order to compel a few
+miscreants to abandon their dastardly purpose.
+
+For the first time here, where only a few mètres separated her from that
+band of assassins, she realized the possibility of failure; and she
+realized that her plan, which had seemed so simple and so direct at
+home, was, indeed, like a mere straw at which a dying man might clutch.
+
+There was a light in two of the windows of the Lodge; one of these was
+open; through it came the murmur of muffled voices. Fernande tip-toed up
+to it as closely as she dared. She would have given worlds to hear what
+was said in there--by Leroux and his mates, whose purpose it was to
+betray their master this night--God help them!--to murder him if he
+stood in their way.
+
+Oh, for the power to avert that awful catastrophe without betraying her
+own father, her friends and her King!
+
+But though thoughts, projects, wild hopes and wilder fears went on
+hammering at the portals of her brain, it seemed to her that they went
+round and round in a continuous circle, which never diverged from that
+one appalling centre: "If the alarm is given, the forces which have
+started from Mortain under de Puisaye, under Laurent and under her
+father, cannot fail to be surprised--cannot fail to be overwhelmed and
+possibly annihilated; at best, the whole project whereon now rests the
+hopes of the entire Royalist party is doomed to fail; and she--Fernande
+de Courson--would be the traitor who had betrayed her own kindred and
+the cause of her King."
+
+After a while she felt more calm. Finality to a brave soul does not mean
+despair--it means a renewal of courage to face or fight even the
+inevitable. No longer hesitating now, Fernande walked boldly up the
+steps which led to the entrance door of the Lodge; then she rapped on
+the door with her knuckles.
+
+The strain of muffled voices which had come from within died down at her
+loud rat-tat, and through the open window she heard a sound like the
+shuffling and scurrying of heavy, furtive feet; then nothing more.
+
+The roll of distant thunder had become louder and more continuous, the
+flashes of summer lightning more frequent. From the wooded heights
+behind the factories there came the intermittent soughing of the wind
+through the trees, followed by an absolute stillness, a calm which was
+the direct forerunner of the coming storm.
+
+The air was sultry and filled with the sickening odour of sulphur. From
+time to time a heavy raindrop descended, large as a thumbnail, and
+Fernande fell to wondering how her father and Laurent would fare on
+their march if the storm broke with its threatened violence, and how far
+de Puisaye and his four hundred men were at this hour from La Frontenay.
+
+
+III
+
+After a while she knocked again. This time she heard distinctly a heavy,
+shuffling footstep approaching the door. Though her heart was beating so
+violently that its throbbing felt nigh to choking her, she was not the
+least afraid, and when, after a moment or two, the door was thrown open
+and Leroux' ungainly figure appeared before her, silhouetted against the
+light beyond, she spoke quite calmly and without the slightest tremor in
+her voice.
+
+"It is I, Leroux," she said--"Mademoiselle de Courson--you know me?"
+
+The man came nearer to her. She was standing on a step below him and the
+light from a hanging lamp in the room behind him fell full upon her
+face. He looked at her keenly for a few seconds, then he replied curtly:
+"Yes. I know you! What do you want?"
+
+"To speak with you, Leroux," she said. "I have a message for you from
+Madame la Marquise de Mortain. Let me in."
+
+"Madame la Marquise chooses her messenger strangely," he retorted
+sullenly, "at this hour of the night."
+
+"No one else was willing to affront the coming storm. Our servants are
+cowards. Let me in, Leroux."
+
+Leroux made no immediate reply. He looked over his shoulder into the
+interior of the room, apparently with a view to taking counsel with his
+mates. Fernande, with her hood and cloak drawn closely round her, waited
+on the doorstep.
+
+That moment a vivid flash of lightning rent the heavy bank of clouds in
+the east, and a clap of thunder rolled echoing above the hills. She
+suppressed an involuntary cry of terror, but she called out more
+insistently:
+
+"Let me in, Leroux. 'Tis a matter of life and death."
+
+But Leroux did not stand aside; instead of this, he stepped over the
+threshold, and as Fernande instinctively retreated, he came down the
+steps, and then he closed the door behind him.
+
+"Let me in, Leroux," she said more peremptorily. "I cannot speak with
+you out here."
+
+"Why not?" he retorted. "I have no secrets that the night birds may not
+hear."
+
+
+IV
+
+Every time that he spoke Leroux came a step or two nearer to her, and
+every time she retreated as far away from him as she dared, without
+arousing his resentment and causing him to turn sullenly from her and
+refuse to listen to what she had come to say. Thus he had forced her as
+far back as the circle of light which came from the clock-tower. Here he
+paused and looked her up and down with every mark of surliness and
+insolence imprinted upon his face.
+
+"Now what is it?" he queried roughly. "And be quick about it. There's
+men's work to be done here to-night. 'Tis not a place for women."
+
+"I know that," replied Fernande boldly; "the work that I am doing now is
+really men's work. It is nearly four kilomètres from La Frontenay, and I
+have walked all the way. The storm will be at its height ere I can get
+home again. Think you I would have come, had it not been a matter of
+life and death?"
+
+She looked the man fearlessly in the eyes. For the first time since she
+left home more than an hour ago, she realized the enormity of what she
+had done. Through the partially opened window of the Lodge she could
+hear men moving and whispering. How many of them there were she could
+not say. She was here all alone, unknown to every one at home, at the
+mercy of men who already had every conceivable crime upon their
+conscience. Not that she feared any violence on their part; she was
+under the unseen ægis of their new employers, of those who were paying
+them for the abominable work which was to be done this night. She had no
+thought of her own personal safety. What she dreaded was the failure of
+her enterprise, a failure which would result, perhaps, in her being
+forced to witness that which she would give her life's blood to avert.
+
+"Say what you want, then," said Leroux gruffly, "and get you gone.
+Madame la Marquise should have known better than to send a comely wench
+like you philandering at night upon the high roads."
+
+"She had no choice," rejoined Fernande quietly. "She had no one else to
+send, and she desired me to tell you that you must not think of
+misinterpreting her words of this afternoon."
+
+"What words?" he queried with a frown.
+
+"Madame la Marquise feared that she had not put it plainly enough to
+you, that whatever else happened this night, she and all our leaders
+would hold you responsible for the life and safety of M. de Maurel."
+
+Leroux was silent for a moment or two, but it had seemed to Fernande as
+if through the open window she had heard a low laugh--one that in the
+stillness of the night sounded weirdly mirthless and satanic.
+
+"Oho! that's it, is it?" quoth Leroux after a while, with a leer.
+"Madame la Marquise is suddenly troubled with remorse. The precious son,
+whom a few hours ago she was ready enough to sacrifice to her own
+schemes, has suddenly become as the apple of her eye...."
+
+"You must not say that, Leroux," broke in Fernande steadily. "Madame la
+Marquise never dreamed of sacrificing any of her friends to her
+schemes--let alone her own son; and apparently she was justified in
+thinking that you had misinterpreted her thoughts...."
+
+"And you think that she was justified in sending you to plead de
+Maurel's cause--what?" retorted the creature with a snarl. "But if you
+have come here, my wench, in order to stand between me and that man,
+then the sooner you go back home the better it will be for you. You can
+tell Madame la Marquise that I'll deal with the Maréchal as I choose ...
+and if he were twenty times her son and twenty times your lover."
+
+"You forget yourself, Leroux," said Fernande with quiet dignity,
+choosing to ignore the hideous wretch's coarse insult. "You are being
+paid--and heavily paid, in order that you should do as you are told.
+When Madame la Marquise gave you the orders for to-night, she did not
+reckon on M. de Maurel standing in the way of M. de Puisaye's plans. No
+one can prevent his coming here anon, we know, but his presence
+here--alone--cannot possibly interfere with any of our plans; therefore,
+it rests with you to see that no harm comes to him."
+
+Again that muffled laugh, coming from the Lodge, grated ominously on
+Fernande's ear.
+
+"Well," said Leroux cynically, "if it rests with me to see that no harm
+comes to the man whom I hate most in all the world, we may as well
+reckon that Bonaparte will have one Marshal less by to-morrow wherewith
+to beat the Prussians."
+
+"And you will find," retorted Fernande, who was determined not to allow
+a hideous sense of foreboding to paralyse her courage, "that if you
+disregard Madame de Mortain's orders ... if you touch but a hair of M.
+de Maurel's head, my father and all our chiefs will exact the fullest
+reprisals from you. And, in Heaven's name, Leroux," she added in more
+persuasive tones, "will you reflect for one moment? What is there to
+gain by an act of violence which will redound with unmitigated severity
+against you? Our chiefs will disclaim any participation in such an
+outrage, and you will be left to bear the utmost consequences of your
+own act."
+
+He looked at her for a moment, and his attitude now became so insolent,
+that, much against her will, a burning flush overspread Fernande's
+cheeks. After a while he gave a low chuckle and shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"You are, of a truth, in a sad quandary--eh, my girl?" he said. "You
+dare not go to your sweetheart and tell him to keep out of my way, for
+fear that he might smell a rat and interfere with your precious friends'
+plans. At the same time, I for one do not see what else there is left
+for you to do. Go to him by all means and see if you cannot persuade him
+to remain quietly at home with you--no harm would come to him then, I
+promise you that--and he wouldn't be wasting his time, either. But if he
+chooses to come here and try any of his arrogance upon me, then, by the
+name of Satan, there'll be trouble ... that is all!"
+
+While the abominable wretch spat out his hideous insults, his ugly face,
+by the dim light from above, appeared distorted by a significant leer.
+Fernande now was almost overcome with horror--not at her own
+helplessness, for, of a truth, she was ready to brave the villain to the
+last--but at the utter failure of her appeal, and at the certainty that,
+strive how she might, nothing would move him from his fell purpose. The
+man meant murder--dastardly, cowardly murder--against a defenceless man;
+his whole attitude proclaimed it, his words, his awful sneers. And
+Fernande, feeling now like a poor captive beast on the leash, knew that
+she was bruising her pride, her heart, her hands against the bond of
+impotence which she was powerless to tear asunder. The sense of horror
+had gradually crept into her innermost being--it was paralysing her
+limbs and her will.
+
+But suddenly the man paused; the impudent leer fled from his face,
+giving place to an expression of tense excitement. He put up his hand as
+if to enjoin silence, then placed a grimy finger to his lips.
+
+"Hark!" he whispered.
+
+And Fernande, straining her ears to listen, caught the clicking sound of
+an iron latch and the creaking of a gate upon its hinges.
+
+"Here comes M. le Maréchal," said Leroux curtly.
+
+At once and with sudden impulse Fernande had drawn back hastily out of
+the circle of light into the dense shadow cast by the tall storehouse.
+
+"He must not see me here," she whispered hurriedly.
+
+"I thought not," riposted Leroux dryly. "But 'tis too late, my wench, to
+run that way," he added, seeing that Fernande was ready to fly. "You
+would fall straight into his arms."
+
+Then, without any warning and before she had time or desire to scream,
+he seized her wrist, and drawing quite close to her, he whispered in her
+ear:
+
+"You have just two minutes in which to make up your mind, my girl. Go to
+the Lodge now, at once, and wait there; he'll go in after you. Talk to
+him, persuade him, do anything you like. We don't want to hurt him ...
+curse him!... unless he interferes with us. I'll let my mates out by the
+back door, then lock you both in together in the Lodge--eh? And you and
+he would be quite safe and snug," he added, with a chuckle which was far
+more offensive than any words he might utter, "while we do your party's
+work out here."
+
+With an exclamation of loathing, Fernande managed to disengage her
+wrist, and a savage oath escaped the vile creature's lips.
+
+"Well, which is it to be?" he queried fiercely. "Am I to speak with the
+Maréchal or are you?"
+
+With an almost superhuman effort Fernande contrived to conquer the
+feeling of sheer physical nausea wherewith this abominable wretch
+inspired her, and she even succeeded in saying almost calmly under her
+breath:
+
+"You are to act on the message which I brought you from Madame la
+Marquise. She and my father, M. de Courson, will hold you responsible
+for the life of M. de Maurel."
+
+"Tshaw!" he exclaimed contemptuously.
+
+Then suddenly, as the imminence of the catastrophe appeared to come
+nearer and nearer the while that firm footstep, still a few mètres
+away, dragged along the flagstones of the yard, Fernande suddenly felt
+all her pride falling away from her.
+
+"Leroux!" she cried, and she was nothing but an humble suppliant now.
+She would have gone down on her knees had she thought to mollify him by
+this act of self-abasement. "Leroux! you would not sully your hands and
+our cause by such an abominable crime...."
+
+But the whispered words died upon her lips, a hot, evil-smelling hand
+was summarily pressed against them, and a raucous voice murmured in her
+ear:
+
+"Silence! He'll hear you! Silence, I say, or I'll strangle you first and
+shoot him after. Now, then, if you don't want him to see you, slip away
+round the storehouse; while he argues with me, you can run as far as the
+gate--and you may thank your stars that I don't happen to have the time
+or the wish to deal more harshly with you."
+
+He pushed her roughly away from him, and she, feeling faint and sick,
+was only just able to totter back against the protecting wall of the
+building. Leroux had already turned his back on her, and suddenly
+through the gloom she perceived de Maurel's tall figure coming at a
+quiet, moderate pace across the quadrangle, swinging as he walked a
+safety lanthorn which he carried.
+
+There was no time now for further pleadings, protests, admonitions;
+there was no time even to think. Fernande's mind was in a whirl, out of
+which only one thought remained clear: that she would stay and save
+Ronnay de Maurel even now if she could.
+
+"They will not dare ... while I stand by," was the one distinct
+impression which she retained in the midst of her chaotic emotions. She
+had just time to withdraw within the shelter of a projecting piece of
+masonry, from whence she could still see Leroux standing in the full
+light of the tower lamp, defiant and expectant, not twenty paces away
+from her, and de Maurel approaching slowly, swinging his safety lanthorn
+in his hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE CRASH OF THE STORM
+
+
+I
+
+He wore his working blouse and a cap upon his head. In addition to the
+safety lanthorn he carried a bundle tied up in a handkerchief.
+
+He hailed Leroux as soon as he came near.
+
+"So now, my man," he said quietly, "'tis time you went."
+
+Leroux did not move. He stood with legs wide apart, his hands buried in
+the pockets of his breeches. The light from the clock-tower above lit up
+the top of his shaggy head, his wide shoulders and the tip of his nose.
+De Maurel had approached, quite unconscious apparently of the glowering
+looks which Leroux cast upon him.
+
+"You had best get to the compound," he added, "before the rain comes
+down."
+
+And quite unconcernedly he walked past Leroux and continued to advance
+toward the Lodge. The man watched him from over his shoulder, and when
+de Maurel had reached the steps of the Lodge, he said sullenly:
+
+"I am not going."
+
+De Maurel calmly shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"What is the use of all that obstinacy?" he said. "We argued everything
+out this afternoon. You had best go quietly now, my man ... or there'll
+be trouble."
+
+"Trouble?" riposted Leroux with a sneer. "I doubt not but that there
+will be trouble this night, M. le Maréchal...."
+
+His first instinctive terror at sight of the man whom he feared above
+all others was gradually falling away from him. He had turned on his
+heel and was now facing the open window of the Lodge, through which he
+could feel, even if he could not see, his mates, who were there ready to
+stand by him, if necessary, if it came to an open conflict between
+himself and the employer whom he was pledged to betray. The sense of
+their presence close by gave him a measure of defiance and of courage.
+
+De Maurel stood quite still for a moment or two, then he retraced his
+steps and came back to within a mètre or so of where the man was
+standing.
+
+"You are contemplating mischief, Leroux," he said with his accustomed
+calm. "Someone has been egging you on to one of your attacks of futile
+rebellion, which you must know by now, invariably lead to more severe
+measures being taken against you. You know how lenient I can be, but
+also how severe. This night's work can only end in disaster for you ...
+the gallows probably, unless you realize that submission even at this
+eleventh hour will be your best policy."
+
+"Very well spoken, M. le Maréchal," retorted Leroux, with a sneer; "but
+let me tell you that the hour has gone by when your arrogance and your
+threats had the power to cow me. To-day I am a desperate man, and
+desperate men are not apt to count the costs of their actions. I will
+not vacate the Lodge to-night, and unless...."
+
+He paused and shrugged his shoulders. De Maurel had thrown down his
+bundle and transferred the lanthorn to his left hand, whilst with his
+right he drew a pistol from beneath his blouse.
+
+"Put away that weapon, M. le Maréchal," said Leroux, "it will avail you
+nothing. There are twenty of us inside the Lodge, all well armed. Twenty
+others overpowered your night-watchmen half an hour ago. We are
+expecting a fresh contingent of our mates from the compound at any
+moment. Resistance or bluster on your part were, indeed, worse than
+futile. You have run your head into a noose this time, my fine
+gentleman, and your threats are about as useful as the pistol which you
+have in your hand. And if it comes to that," he added with a savage
+oath, "I, too, of late have learned how to shoot."
+
+With a rapid movement he drew a pistol from his belt; but before he had
+time to level it, de Maurel had fired. The man uttered a convulsive cry
+of rage; his left hand grabbed at his shoulder, while his weapon fell
+with a clatter to the ground.
+
+"You have shot me, you devil!" he shouted hoarsely. "_A moi_, my mates!"
+
+The pistol shot and Leroux' raucous cry had drowned a woman's call--a
+call of warning and of agonized terror: "Take care!" but not before de
+Maurel's keen ear had perceived it, and even while an evil-looking
+rabble came pouring out from the Lodge the call was repeated, and the
+next moment a woman's slender form was interposed between him and the
+foremost group among the crowd.
+
+"In God's name, save yourself," came in a frenzied murmur in his ear,
+and a pair of hands clung to his arm with the strength of unspoken
+anguish. "Into the shadow ... quick ... they'll not touch me ... only
+save yourself!"
+
+The voice, the touch, sent a tumultuous flood of passion seething
+through de Maurel's veins. Overhead the thunder crashed and a vivid
+streak of lightning showed him a brutish, menacing gang of miscreants
+advancing towards him, their faces misshapen and distorted with the
+fulsomeness of their own savagery and malignant anticipation of triumph.
+There was a score or so of them, and the light from the clock-tower
+glinted on the steel of muskets.
+
+"_A moi_, my mates!" shouted Leroux once again at the top of his voice,
+and in response there came from left and right the sound of tramping of
+many feet; and within a few seconds the open space in front of the great
+storehouse was filled with a moving, oscillating crowd, the numbers of
+which could only be vaguely guessed at in the gloom. The light from
+above caught the outline here of a face, there of a square shoulder,
+always of a musket, a pistol, or even a knife held tightly in a rough,
+grimy hand.
+
+
+II
+
+Instinctively de Maurel had stepped back into the shadow. Perfect calm
+had immediately followed that sudden hot wave of passion which had
+filled his heart and brain at the moment that he became conscious of
+Fernande's presence so close to him.
+
+He had but a few seconds wherein to act, wherein to disengage himself
+with almost savage violence from her dear clinging arms, and to force
+her into the shadow behind him. A few seconds wherein to whisper to her
+in desperate tones of appeal and of command: "While I parley with them,
+run to the gate ... they'll not see you.... Fernande, in the name of
+God, go!..."
+
+He placed himself in front of her, his back to the storehouse; he had
+her life and his own to guard or to sell as dearly as he could.
+
+"Go, Fernande," he commanded once again. He would have picked her up in
+his arms and run with her into safety had he dared. But the brutes were
+armed with muskets, and a stray shot meant for him might easily have
+reached her. He covered her with his body, praying with all his might
+that she might obey and seek safety while there was yet time, yet
+knowing all the while, with an intuitive conviction born of his own
+tumultuous passion, that she was resolved to remain by his side.
+
+"Go, Fernande," he implored.
+
+"I'll not go," she replied quietly; and he, feeling her so near him,
+hearing her voice quivering with emotion, with anguish for him, counted
+life well lost for these few rapturous seconds.
+
+"Can I do anything?" she asked with perfect calm.
+
+"Nothing," he replied. "There are at least a hundred against us, and
+the alarm bell is above the Lodge, the chain-handle just by the door....
+Those cowardly brutes have cut us off from any chance of help."
+
+Indeed, the crowd was pressing closer round him now; wherever he looked
+he could see faces on which the lamp from above cast a lurid glow--faces
+rendered grotesque by the flickering light and the dense shadows which
+hid eyes and mouth and accentuated nose and chin--faces in which menace
+and hatred had been fanned into open revolt by bribery and greed, and
+execration of all discipline and authority. De Maurel knew them all
+individually. Even through the gloom he could distinguish the
+ringleaders--the malcontents with whom last year he had had many a
+tussle--whom the more iron rule of the military representatives had
+goaded into this senseless and abominable treachery.
+
+De Maurel's quick eye had soon enough measured the odds that were
+against him; of a truth, they were overwhelming. Nothing but a miracle
+could save him if these men did, indeed, contemplate murder, of which he
+had little doubt. The great question was how to save Fernande--his
+brave, beautiful, exquisite Fernande, who was standing so magnificently
+by him, whose heroism and courage filled him with as much wonder as her
+beauty and tenderness had filled his heart with love. Forgotten were the
+humiliation and the bitterness of a twelve-month ago; forgotten was her
+cruelty, the hurt she had done to him; she was standing by him
+now--shoulder to shoulder--his friend in this hour of difficulty, his
+comrade at the moment of peril.
+
+Oh! if he only had the strength, the wits to keep those maddened wolves
+at bay, the whole world would not wrench the memory of this blissful
+night from out his heart again.
+
+But there was no time even to think of happiness or of the future; the
+present lay there before him, grim and hand in hand with death. The few
+seconds' respite while he stood facing the murderous crowd--eye to eye
+and silently--were already gone; the men were gathering more menacingly
+around him. What their ultimate purpose was he had as yet only vaguely
+guessed. On this, before everything, he wanted to be quite
+clear--definite knowledge on the point would then help him how to act.
+
+"So that's it, my men, is it?" he said coolly. "Open mutiny, eh?"
+
+"You may call it that, an it please you," said one of the men.
+
+"Hatched during my absence--ready against my home-coming ere I had time
+to realize the treachery that was brewing. I ought to have guessed, I
+suppose."
+
+Leroux, with a wound in his shoulder that was bleeding profusely, was in
+the forefront of the pack, supported on either side by one of his mates.
+
+"Yes," he said huskily, "you might have guessed that men would not put
+up indefinitely with tyranny and oppression. We are not dogs, nor yet
+savage brutes to be kept to our task with threats of punishment. Those
+men who were here, who went two days ago--curse them!--were ready to use
+the lash on us had they dared!"
+
+"And you dared not rebel while they were here! Were you frightened of
+the lash?" retorted de Maurel contemptuously. "You waited for my return.
+Did you think I should be a weaker fool than they?"
+
+"We were not ready then. We are ready now," came from one of the men.
+
+"Ready for what?" queried de Maurel. "What do you hope to gain by this
+senseless mutiny? To overpower the watchmen for one night and run riot
+through the factories? To-morrow must bring reprisals. Ye know that well
+enough."
+
+"To-morrow you'll no longer be here, M. le Maréchal," sneered Leroux,
+who, though losing blood freely, had still sufficient strength left to
+maintain his position as ringleader of the gang. "To-morrow you'll not
+be here," he reiterated roughly, "to browbeat and threaten us."
+
+"You mean to kill me, I know," rejoined de Maurel coolly. "But my death
+will avail you little. Reprisals will be all the more severe. Think you
+the law will let you escape? I am not a man who can be assassinated and
+then thrown into a ditch without causing some stir. Where will you hide
+when your Emperor himself will demand from you an account of what you
+have done with me?"
+
+"Bah! when we have done with you, my fine Marshal of France," replied
+Leroux, with an insolent laugh, "there will be no Emperor. We are
+working for the King--not for Bonaparte ... and when we hold the
+factories and foundries in the name of the King ... why, there's little
+we'll have to fear from the Emperor; and, moreover...."
+
+A terrific clash of thunder drowned the rest of his words, while the
+lightning literally tore the dark clouds asunder. Some of the men--more
+superstitious than the rest--instinctively crouched back, muttering
+blasphemies--pushing those behind them back, too, so that the entire
+human mass seemed suddenly to be heaving and then receding like the scum
+of sea-waves upon the ebbing tide; a gust of wind swept across the
+quadrangle, driving dust and dried leaves before it. Some of the men
+cursed, others hastily crossed themselves, with a vague remembrance of
+past devotions long buried beneath the dark mantle of crime.
+
+The silence which ensued was absolute. It lasted less than ten seconds,
+perhaps, during which hardly a man dared to breathe--so absolute was it,
+that the click of every firearm striking against its neighbour was
+distinctly audible, as was the soughing of the wind in the silver
+birches on the wooded heights behind the factory. Something of a
+nameless terror had crept into the bones of these godless miscreants. By
+that vivid flash of lightning they had seen their master standing alone
+unflinching before them--against the background of the huge
+storehouse--his massive figure appearing preternaturally tall, his face
+pale and determined. His head was bare to the winds and the storm, and
+it was turned full upon them, and neither in the dark, deep-set eyes nor
+round the firm mouth was there the slightest sign of fear. And they had
+caught sight of the slim silhouette of Fernande de Courson standing
+behind him, her graceful form seeming ethereal, like that of a
+protecting angel.
+
+And for the space of those ten seconds de Maurel had just time to look
+on the situation squarely and with a clearer understanding than before.
+With his clumsy words, Leroux had in an instant revealed to him
+something of the dark treachery which had brought this mutinous crowd
+together--something of the murky undercurrent of intrigue which was
+driving the torrent of discontent to the flood of open rebellion. So
+this was the history of Leroux' defiance? this was the key to the riddle
+which had puzzled de Maurel when first he realized that these senseless
+brutes were actually not only in organized rebellion against him, but
+intent on murder--a stupid, purposeless and useless murder, which in
+itself would carry immediate discovery in its train, and with it the
+absolute certainty of terrible reprisals and penalties.
+
+But now the whole thing became clear. It was his mother and her party
+who had engineered this trickery, and Heaven alone knew how near they
+were to succeed in the abominable project!
+
+And in a flash he seemed to see every phase of the intrigue: his
+factories and foundries in the hands of these dastards, whilst the
+Royalist bands marched on La Frontenay. There were other details, of
+course--plots and counterplots--at which it was impossible to guess.
+Only the facts remained--the facts which confronted him now, together
+with this murderous pack of hungry wolves and the muskets which were
+levelled against him.
+
+For his own life he cared less than nothing; many a time had he faced
+Prussian muskets as he faced those of a set of mutinous ruffians now. A
+few minutes ago he had felt one thrill of exultant happiness when
+Fernande's arms clung around his shoulders, and her sweet body lay
+against his breast in her endeavour to shield him against his
+aggressors. He was more than content that that one supreme moment of
+delight should be the last which this world held for him--more than
+content to go to his eternal sleep with the sweet memory of her last
+caress to be his lullaby.
+
+But his life had suddenly assumed an importance which he himself never
+granted it before. He alone, at this moment stood for the protection of
+these mighty engines of warfare around him, of the materials which his
+Emperor needed for overcoming the enemies of France. The very instant
+that he--Ronnay de Maurel--fell, they would become the prey of traitors,
+the prey of those who concerted with the foreigner against their
+country, who trafficked with Prussia, with Austria, with Russia, in
+order to force upon the people of France a government and a King whom
+they abhorred. At this very hour, perhaps, a band of Royalists was on
+its way to La Frontenay. It was all so simple--so absolutely, so
+perfectly, so hellishly simple! If he fell, they would reach the
+factories and the foundries, and these murderous traitors here would
+deliver his patrimony into their hands--the patrimony which he devoted
+to the service of France--the new guns, the small-arms, the explosives,
+the stores ... everything. If anon he lay with shattered head or breast
+on the threshold of this precious storehouse, which he had been
+powerless to protect, the cause of freedom, of the Emperor and of his
+armies, would receive a blow from which it could only recover after
+years more of fratricidal combat and more streams yet of bloodshed.
+
+This he owed to his mother, to his brother, to his kindred, who had
+fanned the flame of hatred and rebellion against him, whose hands were
+raised against their country, whom they professed to love, and who had
+coolly and callously decreed his death because he stood in their way.
+With the very wealth which he had placed at his mother's disposal, she
+had paid these brutes to betray and to murder him.
+
+And Fernande?
+
+At Leroux' words he had felt her quivering behind him; he had heard the
+moan which escaped from her lips. Fernande knew of the treachery as she
+had known of his danger, and, knowing of his deadly peril, she had come
+here in order to share it with him. That thought, as it flashed before
+him, lent de Maurel's entire soul a courage and an exultation which was
+almost superhuman. As the thunder clashed above him, and the lightning
+tore the dark clouds asunder, it seemed to him as if God Himself, in His
+glory, had deigned to reveal Himself, to give him the strength and the
+power that he needed, the guidance which comes as a divine breath from
+Heaven in the supreme hour of a man's life, when Death and Duty and Love
+stand at the parting of the ways and beckon with unseen hands.
+
+
+III
+
+The silence that ensued had only lasted a moment. Already the men were
+recovering from their brief access of terror; some of them were shaking
+themselves like curs after a douche. They all drew nearer to one
+another, satisfied to feel one another's support and grasping their
+muskets more determinedly in their hands.
+
+De Maurel had turned once more to Fernande.
+
+"It means death, my beloved," he murmured.
+
+"I know," she replied quietly.
+
+"You are not afraid?"
+
+"No."
+
+Questions and answers came in rapid succession. His hand closed upon
+hers.
+
+"In my heart," he said, "I kiss your exquisite hands, your feet, your
+hair, your lips. You forgive me?"
+
+"Everything."
+
+There was not a quiver in her voice; for one second her fingers rested
+in his, and they were firm and warm to his touch. They were made to
+understand one another, these two; their courage was equally undaunted;
+they both looked on death without a tremor. He would have given his life
+bit by bit for her, but at this hour, when the needs of France demanded
+a sacrifice so sublime that none but an heroic heart could have
+conceived it, not even the thought of his beloved came between him and
+his determination.
+
+La Frontenay must be saved for the Emperor and for France at all
+costs--even at the cost of that one life which was more precious to him
+than his own, more precious than all the world, save France. And with
+one pressure of her slender hand she yielded up her will--her life to
+him. For this one supreme moment--a moment which held in it an infinity
+of love and passion--they met one another soul to soul. Hand in hand, in
+the face of death, this second was for them an eternity of ecstasy.
+
+"You love me, Fernande!" he murmured.
+
+"Until death," she replied.
+
+"Then pray to God, dear heart," he whispered. "He alone can save us
+now."
+
+Then he faced the crowd of cut-throats once more.
+
+"Listen, my men," he said, speaking coolly and quietly. "For the last
+time let me tell you how you stand. As far as I can see, there are about
+fivescore of you standing there before me, and you think that you hold
+my life in the hollow of your hands. And so you do, in a measure. Your
+muskets are levelled against me, and even if I were to sell my life very
+dearly and blow out the brains of a few amongst you, you would have
+small work to lay me low in the end. You have been lured to this
+treachery by promises, and bribery; you have listened to insidious
+suggestions of treason. But let me tell you this. Others before you have
+listened to promises which came from that same quarter, and their bones
+lie mouldering now in forgotten graves. You think that if you delivered
+these works into the hands of M. de Puisaye and his followers you would
+be rendering such a service to the Royalist cause, that that effete and
+obese creature who dares to call himself King of France will inevitably
+come to the throne which his forbears have forfeited, and that he will
+reward you handsomely for any service you may have rendered him. But,
+believe me, that even if this night a few bands of rebellious peasants
+took possession of La Frontenay and its works, their triumph and yours
+would be short-lived. No one in France at this hour wants a Bourbon
+king; the army worships the Emperor, the people adore him, and with the
+army and the people against you, what do you think that you can do? La
+Frontenay is not the only armament factory in France; think you that you
+will cripple the Emperor because you deliver our stores into the hands
+of his enemies? Take care, men, take care," he added more earnestly;
+"'tis you who have run your heads into a noose, and with every outrage
+which you commit this night that noose will become tighter round your
+necks, and you'll find that I--your master--will be more menacing and
+more fearsome to you dead--murdered foully by you--than ever I was in
+life."
+
+His powerful, rugged voice rose above the murmur of the storm. Some of
+the men listened to him in sullen silence; the magnetic influence which
+"the General" had exercised over them in the past was not altogether
+gone; his powerful personality, his cool courage, the simplicity of his
+words, reacted upon their evil natures, and also upon their cowardice.
+There was a vast deal of common sense in what M. le Maréchal was saying,
+and they, after all, had only been promised a hundred francs apiece for
+an exceedingly risky piece of work. But there were some ringleaders
+among them who expected to get far more out of their treachery than a
+paltry hundred francs; they relied on de Puisaye's vague promises of
+freedom, on his assurance that unconditional pardon for past infractions
+against the law would be granted to them by a grateful King. They--and,
+above all, Leroux--felt also that they were committed too far now to
+dare to draw back, and even while de Maurel spoke they broke in on his
+words with sneers and taunts, and, above all, with threats.
+
+"You seem to think, M. le Maréchal," said Leroux in husky tones--for he
+was getting feeble with loss of blood--"you seem to think that I and my
+mates are here to murder you."
+
+"Why else are you here?" rejoined de Maurel coolly. "You do not suppose,
+I imagine, that I am like to vacate the place and leave you to work your
+evil will with my property?"
+
+"'Twere the wisest thing to do," retorted one of the men. "Eh, mates?"
+
+"Yes! yes!" came with a volley of savage oaths from every side.
+
+"Throw up your hands, M. le Maréchal," added a voice from the crowd,
+"and we'll see that neither you nor your sweetheart come to any harm!"
+
+"Silence, you blackguard," thundered de Maurel fiercely, "or, by God,
+I'll pick you out of the crowd and shoot you like the dog that you are."
+
+"Throw up your hands, M. le Maréchal," broke in Leroux roughly; "the men
+have no quarrel with you. But cease to defy and threaten them, or by
+Satan there'll be trouble."
+
+"The trouble will come, my men, if you persist in this insensate mutiny.
+Throw down your muskets now at once, and go back to your compounds while
+there's yet time, and before the consequences of your own folly descend
+upon your heads."
+
+A shout of derision greeted these words.
+
+"The consequences of your folly will descend on your head, M. le
+Maréchal," sneered Leroux. "Get out of our way. We have parleyed enough.
+Eh, my mates?"
+
+"Yes! yes! enough talk," some of them cried, whilst others added
+fiercely: "Put a bullet through him and silence his accursed tongue at
+last."
+
+"Pierre Deprez, I know you," said de Maurel loudly. "Now then, all of
+you, for the last time--throw down your muskets--hands up!"
+
+There came another shout of derision, wilder than the first.
+
+"Hark at him!" cried Paul Leroux scornfully. "Even now he thinks that he
+can order us about--just as if we were a lot of craven curs."
+
+"You are a lot of craven curs! And since you choose to be deaf to the
+voice of persuasion you shall listen to that of power. Down with your
+muskets! Hands up!... 'Tis the second time I've spoken."
+
+"You may speak an hundred times, we'll not obey," retorted one of the
+men. "The days of obedience are past; the place is ours...."
+
+"For the third and last time ..." began de Maurel.
+
+Before the word was out of his mouth a shot was fired at him out of the
+crowd. The sound appeared as the signal for the breaking down of the
+last barrier which held these men's murderous passions in check.
+
+"'Tis our turn to command," shouted Leroux excitedly. "Throw up your
+hands, M. le Maréchal, or...."
+
+"Down with the muskets!" cried de Maurel in thunderous accents, that
+reached to the furthermost ends of the vast quadrangle, "or by the
+living God whom you have outraged, I'll bury myself and you and your
+dastardly crime in one common grave."
+
+With a movement as rapid as that of the lightning above he swung the
+safety lanthorn against the wall behind him, and the protecting glass
+flew shattered in every direction, leaving a light naked and flaring, on
+which the storm immediately seized and tossed about in every direction.
+Above him towered the huge edifice which contained fifty thousand
+barrels of explosives. Immediately on his right was a narrow entrance
+into the building, to which a couple of stone steps gave access. In the
+space of a second he had run up those steps, his shoulder was against
+the door. The flame danced around him and lit up his stern face, which
+was set in a grim resolve.
+
+"If one shout is uttered," he continued in a sonorous and resounding
+voice, "if another shot is fired, if one of you but dares to move, I
+break open this door, and within ten seconds, long before any man can
+find safety in flight, the first barrel of gunpowder will be aflame."
+
+Overhead the thunder crashed--the storm raged in all its fury, and in
+the great quadrangle there was a sudden silence as in the city of the
+dead. Fivescore men were held paralysed with the horror of what they
+saw, spellbound by the might and power of a man who knew not fear; inert
+by the near sight of a hideous death. And while the crowd stood there,
+meek and obedient, quivering with terror like a pack of wild beasts
+under the lash of the tamer, he added with withering scorn:
+
+"And you thought that you could filch from me that which I hold in trust
+for the Empire of France! You fools! You wretched, slinking, cowardly
+fools!"
+
+"In God's name, M. le Maréchal!" came in an awed whisper from one or two
+men in the forefront of the crowd--"in God's name throw away that
+light!"
+
+"Not until you have thrown down your muskets!"
+
+A hundred muskets fell with a dull clatter to the ground.
+
+"The light, M. le Maréchal! the light...!"
+
+"Now one of you ring the alarm bell!"
+
+"The light...!"
+
+"Silence!" he called aloud, so that the night air rang with his sonorous
+voice. "The alarm bell, I said. Pierre Deprez--you! The others stand at
+attention. Hands up!"
+
+One man slunk away from the rest, and, shrinking, walked slowly in the
+direction of the Lodge.
+
+The naked light of the lanthorn flickered in the storm; every moment it
+seemed as if it must catch the edge of de Maurel's blouse or the
+woodwork round the door. One hundred pairs of eyes were fixed in
+frenzied terror upon him, yet so potent was the feeling of horror which
+held the men in thrall, that not one of them dared to move if only to
+stretch out his hand toward that light which threatened them all with
+such an appalling death.
+
+A moment or so later the first clang of the alarm bell reverberated
+through the manifold sounds of the storm. It was followed almost
+immediately by the multisonous hooting of sirens in the distance and the
+peal of the alarm bell from the foundry half a kilomètre away.
+
+And as the measured sounds of the bells and the sirens swelled to one
+majestic resonance, drowning now the roll of thunder and the soughing of
+the stormy blast, it seemed--for the space of one supreme second--that
+the men would repent them of their terror; for one second it seemed as
+if they would gather up their weapons again, and, throwing all prudence
+to the winds, rush and overcome that man who--single-handed--held them
+so completely in his power.
+
+De Maurel, standing beside the door a step or two above them, saw the
+first sign of this reaction--the unmistakable oscillation of a crowd
+when it is moved by one common impulse. He felt the one weak spot in his
+armour--the possibility of his being struck even now by a chance
+musket-shot, so that not even with a dying gesture could he accomplish
+that which he was so grimly resolved to do. And without an instant's
+hesitation, even as like a wave the crowd swayed towards him, he lifted
+one corner of his linen blouse and held it to the flame; another second
+and the woodwork would most inevitably be ablaze.
+
+A cry of horror rose from a hundred lips; the crowd swayed back--the
+supreme second had gone by; and coolly, with his free hand, de Maurel
+extinguished the flame on his blouse. Then he threw back his head and a
+loud laugh broke from his lips.
+
+"And 'tis to such cowards," he said loudly, "that French men and women
+would entrust the destinies of France!"
+
+
+IV
+
+Five minutes later the quadrangle was seething with men. Mathurin had
+been the first to reach the precincts of the factory with the armed
+watchmen from the foundries; he was the first to recognize his master
+still standing with his back against the wall of the powder-magazine,
+holding a naked, wind-tossed light in his hand. There was no time for
+puzzlement or surprise; something of what had actually happened rose as
+a swift yet vivid picture before the loyal overseer's mind. The crowd of
+mutineers was not difficult to overpower--surrounded by the watchmen,
+they gave in without a struggle. They were still dazed with the fright
+which they had had and made no attempt at resistance. At any rate, until
+they were well in hand, de Maurel did not move from his post. But he had
+put down the lanthorn and stamped out the light with his heel; after
+that, he stood quite still, only giving a few directions now and again
+in his resonant voice to Mathurin and his capable coadjutors. The
+watchmen of the factory, who had been surprised, overpowered and
+imprisoned in the Lodge before de Maurel's advent on the scene, were
+soon released, and their numbers added materially to the easiness of the
+task.
+
+Soon the mutineers, in orderly array, were mustered up in the quadrangle
+preparatory to being marched back to their compound. Order reigned once
+more within the vast precincts of the factory. The excitement of a while
+ago, the shouts, the threats, the tumultuous cries of rage, of hatred
+and of fear, had given place to quick words of command, to brisk comings
+and goings, to measured tramps of feet and methodical click of arms.
+Overhead the thunder still rolled at intervals, and now and again the
+sky was rent by a flash of lightning; but the brunt of the storm had
+spent itself in the two terrific crashes which had proved de Maurel's
+most faithful allies in arousing the superstitious terror of those
+ignorant dastards. A warm, soft rain began to fall, further damping the
+ardour of the gang of rebels, as they filed past with hunched-up
+shoulders and shuffling footsteps--like whipped curs that feared more
+severe punishment yet to come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+HEAVEN AND EARTH
+
+
+I
+
+Then at last de Maurel was able to turn to Fernande.
+
+He came down the steps of the storehouse, and his eyes, so long dazed by
+the flicker of the naked light, searched for her in the gloom.
+
+She had not moved from the spot which he had originally assigned to her,
+and he found her there, leaning against the wall, within the shelter of
+the recess formed by the framework and the steps of the doorway.
+
+"Now I can carry you home, my beloved," he said simply.
+
+After the nerve-rending emotion of a while ago, Fernande felt a sudden
+slackening of all her muscles, a numbness which invaded heart and brain.
+While de Maurel had stood facing the murderous crowd, with her life and
+his and that of all these men in his hand, while he was there resolved
+to annihilate his entire patrimony rather than to surrender it to the
+enemies of his Emperor, she had felt only conscious of one desperate
+longing, which was to be held tightly in his arms and to meet death with
+her lips touching his.
+
+That she loved him with her whole heart, with every fibre of her body,
+and all the fervour of her soul, she had known since that day in the
+woods, when he had almost wrenched an admission of her love from her,
+and only Laurent's intervention had frozen the avowal on her lips.
+When--silent and cold--she had then been forced to part from him, she
+had done so believing that he would never forgive her for the shame
+which she had put on him, and that his love for her, tumultuous and
+passionate as was his whole nature, had quickly enough turned to hate.
+During the year that ensued, when she felt that never in life perhaps
+would she ever see him again, she had realized that, unknowing, she had
+loved him from the hour when first he lifted her in his strong arms and
+carried her through the woods, the while the birds twittered overhead,
+and she could watch his face and the play of emotion and of passion in
+his deep-set eyes through the cool veil of a sheaf of bluebells. She had
+loved him then, even though in the weeks that followed she often thought
+that she hated him; by the time that true knowledge came to her it was
+too late.
+
+Since then the irrevocable had happened: she had become Laurent de
+Mortain's promised wife, and a gulf now lay between her and the man whom
+she loved, which nothing but death could have helped them to bridge
+over. In the hour of that deadly peril, the unspoken word of a year ago
+had come to her lips; it had come, now as then, in response to his own
+compelling will, to that triumphant possession of her which already a
+year ago had nearly thrown her in his arms. "You love me, Fernande?" he
+had asked, and, face to face with the actuality which she had thought
+lay buried deep down in her heart, she could not deny its truth without
+perjuring her soul. And when he whispered in her ear: "It means death,
+my beloved!" she had been ready to throw herself in his arms, to ask for
+that one last kiss which would have made death both welcome and sweet.
+She felt then as if she were being lifted up on a huge wave of light to
+a glorious empyrean above, where her body fell away from her, and soul
+and spirit swooned in the enchantment of a divine ecstasy. She felt then
+that she was no longer mortal, that she had reached a state which was
+akin to that of the angels. She felt that sublime rapture which alone
+makes of Man a true child of God.
+
+But now the danger was past; the tumultuous excitement of a while ago,
+the wild ecstasy of love in the face of death, had yielded to the sober
+reality of everyday life. It seemed almost as if, when de Maurel finally
+stamped out with his heel the naked light which threatened annihilation,
+he had, at the same time, extinguished the flame of passion which was
+searing Fernande's soul. With the last dying flicker of that light,
+exultation which had carried her to the giddy heights of bliss folded
+its wings, and she came down to earth once more. It had been a steep and
+vertiginous descent, and she felt sore, bruised and dazed, groping
+blindly for the light which had so suddenly gone out of her life and
+left her lonely and cold. The mystic veil wherewith love had enveloped
+her vision of reality in this past hour, was being slowly torn from
+before her eyes; and the world appeared before her, not as she had seen
+it a while ago, through the blinding light of an overmastering passion,
+but as it was now in its dull and grim positiveness.
+
+Gradually the thought of Laurent first, then of her father, then of de
+Puisaye, of her cause, and of her King, penetrated into her brain.
+
+Duty, honour, loyalty, began to whisper in her ear, and soon their
+voices succeeded in drowning the still insistent murmur of love.
+
+Laurent!
+
+All this while she had forgotten him; nay, not only him, but her father
+and her King, her kindred and her cause. While she allowed swift passion
+to course through her veins, while she yielded to the delight of
+Ronnay's voice, of his nearness, of the love-light which gleamed in his
+eyes, her father and Laurent were on the high road between Mortain and
+Domfront and Tinchebrai, still secure in the thought that the projected
+coup had been successful, and that de Puisaye was even now on his way to
+take possession of La Frontenay and its accumulated wealth of arms. She
+pictured them both--her father and her betrothed--weary and footsore,
+risking their lives without a murmur, in order to accomplish the task
+which their chiefs had assigned to them to do; she pictured them
+defeated in their purpose--the garrisons of Domfront and Mortain on the
+qui vive--de Puisaye surprised with his force ... the rebel army
+surrounded ... scattered ... annihilated ... her father and Laurent
+fugitives or dead!... whilst she stood here oblivious of all save of the
+man whom she loved.
+
+She dared not think of what would happen within the next few hours--she
+hardly dared to think of her father and of Laurent; but now that their
+loved image once more flitted across her mental vision, she endured the
+tortures of bitter self-abasement. God had manifested His will. He had
+stood by the brave man who, all alone and undaunted, had known how to
+defend his heritage and the cause of his Emperor and of France. And
+she--Fernande--seeing the pack of murdering wolves around him, had
+yielded to a moment of frenzied horror at a crime which was nigh to
+being committed before her eyes.
+
+In her heart she had betrayed her people when that moment of madness
+wrung an avowal of love from her lips. She had betrayed her kindred when
+she interposed herself between their sworn enemy and the murderer's
+bullet which would have laid him low. And she still betrayed them now
+when, instead of flying back to them on the wings of loyalty and of
+love, she lingered here, if only for a few brief minutes, savouring the
+bitter-sweet delights of the inevitable farewell.
+
+Was there ever blacker, more hideous treachery?
+
+The light from the lamp above showed her Ronnay quite clearly, his brown
+hair taken back from the low, square forehead, the firm jaw and
+sensitive mouth, the toil-worn hands and linen blouse whereon the
+charred corner still bore mute and eloquent testimony to the unflinching
+heart that beat beneath its folds. And, above all, it revealed to her
+those eyes of his of a deep violet-blue, wherein passion and tenderness
+had kindled an all-compelling flame, and she knew that duty, loyalty,
+honour, compelled her to fly while there was yet time, and as far away
+as she could, lest the magnetism of his love drew her back to his arms
+once more.
+
+Her place now was by the side of Laurent and of her father--in the midst
+of her friends at this hour, when black failure had dashed to naught all
+their dearest hopes. At La Frontenay, at Courson, at Mortain, there
+would be tears to quench and wounds to heal--God grant that a veil of
+mourning be not spread over all the land!--and she Fernande must be
+there to comfort and to soothe.
+
+
+II
+
+All these thoughts and emotions coursed so swiftly through heart and
+brain that they left her dazed, bewildered, with limbs icy cold and
+teeth chattering, the while her head felt as if it were on fire.
+Reaction had set in; the excitement had been so intense, when death and
+passion fought for mastery over her entire soul, that the sudden
+relaxation of her nerves nearly caused an utter collapse of every one of
+her faculties.
+
+It required an almost superhuman effort to regain complete possession of
+herself, to collect her thoughts, to chase away the last shreds of the
+dream. It would require a greater effort still to wrench herself away
+from this spot where she felt that henceforward her heart would remain
+buried. For the moment it meant gaining power over her limbs, which
+seemed disinclined to render her service, and over her head wherein
+tumultuous thoughts still refused to be marshalled in orderly array it
+meant, in fact, waiting for an opportunity to slip away as soon as she
+could. She knew in which direction lay the postern gate, and she knew
+her way back to La Frontenay. If she only could reach the château within
+the next half-hour, some means might yet be found to acquaint de Puisaye
+of what had occurred. She wondered vaguely how much de Maurel knew at
+this hour of what was in preparation over by Mortain, or what he could
+do if he knew everything.
+
+The sight of the crowd still moving or standing, compact and busy, all
+round the storehouse maddened her. These men were impeding her way to
+the postern gate; they stood in the way of her getting to La Frontenay
+in time to send a runner over, even at this hour, to de Puisaye. It was
+nearly two hours since she left home--an eternity!--over half an hour
+since the first hooting of the sirens must have roused the countryside;
+and she still was so shaken, so numbed, so bruised, that she hadn't it
+in her to make a dash through the crowd, to push her way through all
+these men who would intercept her and would draw de Maurel's attention
+to her movements.
+
+If he captured her and brought her back, if he refused to let her go,
+would she have the physical strength to resist? Oh, for a moment's
+darkness, an instant of silence, which would cover her flight!
+
+Then at last the opportunity came. The groups around the storehouse
+gradually dispersed; the way lay clear as far as the angle of the
+building beyond which was darkness and solitude. Mathurin was engaging
+de Maurel's attention, and he--Ronnay--was standing half turned away
+from her. She gave one last look round her--one last look at the man
+whom she loved, and whom mayhap she would never in life see again, and
+in her heart she spoke a last, fond farewell. But as surely as a magnet
+draws to itself a piece of steel, so did this look of love from her
+compel and draw his gaze. Before she had time to move, he was down the
+steps and standing in front of her, so that he barred the way.
+
+"Now I can carry you home, my beloved," he said.
+
+He put out his arms ready to take hold of her. The wild excitement of
+the past half-hour had left no impress upon his iron physique save in a
+certain pallor of the cheeks and a stiffening of the firm jaw.
+
+"I would have given my life's blood, drop by drop," he said simply, "to
+have spared you all that. You do believe me, Fernande, do you not?"
+
+She could not reply. The instinct to fly, to run away, to close her ears
+to his voice, her eyes to his gaze, was so insistent, that she could
+have screamed with longing and a maddened feeling of impotence. By an
+impulsive gesture of self-protection she put up her hands.
+
+"Yes, yes!" she said, trying to speak coldly, indifferently, even though
+her voice sounded hoarse and choked, and she could not control the
+nervous chattering of her teeth and the trembling of her limbs. "Yes,
+yes! of course I'll believe you, _mon cousin_!... You did what was right
+... and I.... But now I entreat you to let me go home.... My aunt will
+be so anxious and...."
+
+"And you are cold and overwrought," he said ruefully. "Curse those
+brutes," he added, with a sudden access of primitive savagery, "curse
+them for the evil their treachery has wrought!"
+
+Then as he saw that she suddenly shrank away from him and drew her cloak
+closer round her, he chided himself for his roughness. "I am a brute,"
+he said gently, "and am for ever begging your forgiveness. My beloved,
+will you not trust yourself to me? You must be so tired ... and the rain
+is coming down. We could be at La Frontenay in half an hour."
+
+The events of the past fateful hour seemed to have faded from his ken.
+It seemed as if he had never stood there--a few paces away--that naked
+light in his hand, threatening destruction to a crowd of mutineers,
+destruction to himself, to his patrimony and to his beloved. He was just
+the same as he had always been--half clumsy, wholly compelling--whenever
+Fernande met him in the woods, and there was nothing between them save a
+still unavowed passion. She looked round her helplessly in vain search
+for a means of escape. She could not--dared not--speak for the moment.
+If she did, she knew that she must break down. She had gone through too
+much to have full power over her nerves; she felt unutterably weary,
+even though she knew that so much still lay before her, and though she
+was firmly resolved to play a loyal part to the end. In her heart she
+called out to him: "Yes! take me in your arms, my beloved; let me nestle
+against your shoulder; care for me, comfort me! The world is too
+difficult for my weak hands to grapple with!" And she had to close her
+eyes and to hold her lips tightly pressed together, or the heartrending
+cry would certainly have escaped them.
+
+How long she remained standing thus silent and with eyes closed, she did
+not know--a minute perhaps--perhaps a cycle of ages. During that time
+she fought for mastery over her nerves and over her senses, and in the
+fight she felt herself growing strange and old, with every emotion in
+her dead, and only the determination subsisting that he, too, must be
+made to remember that she was tokened to his brother, and that never,
+never while all three of them lived must the past hour be recalled
+again.
+
+And de Maurel, the while, remained beside her, waiting patiently.
+
+That was his way! Vehement as were his passions, tumultuous when they
+broke through the barrier of self-restraint, he had with it all the
+supreme virtue of infinite patience; in wrath, as in love, he always
+knew how to bide his time. Perhaps he guessed something of what went on
+behind those blue-veined lids on which he was aching to imprint a kiss.
+He could not see her face clearly, only just the delicate outline of her
+against the dark background of the wall, and occasionally a glint of
+gold when the light from above caught the loose tendrils of her hair.
+
+When at last her fight was won, and nerves and senses fell into line
+with her determination to be loyal to Laurent in the spirit as well as
+in the letter, she felt as if every emotion in her was dead--as if she
+never would again be able to laugh and make merry, to cry, to love, or
+to hate--as if she would henceforth be just a callous, heartless,
+unfeeling thing without even the capacity for sorrow.
+
+She looked at Ronnay and endured his glance without a tremor, and at
+last she was able to speak, knowing that there would be no quiver in her
+voice now to betray the agony of what she suffered.
+
+"Of a truth, _mon cousin_," she said, with an indifferent little laugh,
+"it is passing kind of you to offer to be my beast of burden once again,
+but I assure you that I would not care to become quite so ludicrous a
+spectacle as you suggest before good old Mathurin and all your
+work-people. Believe me, I would far sooner go back to La Frontenay on
+my own feet. It would not be very dignified--would it?--for the future
+Marquise de Mortain to be carried along the road like a bundle of
+goods."
+
+He said nothing for a moment or two, nor could she, by the dim light,
+read very clearly in his eyes whether her words had conveyed to him the
+full meaning which she intended, until he said quite simply: "Ah! I had
+forgotten."
+
+A curious ashen colour overspread his face like that of a man suffering
+great physical pain.
+
+And Fernande--poor Fernande!--with a forced laugh plunged the knife
+still more deeply into the gaping wound.
+
+"Forgotten, _mon cousin_?" she said. "How could you have forgotten that
+I am your brother's promised wife? Did you not tender me your
+congratulations yesterday?"
+
+"Of course, of course; I understand," he murmured vaguely, and he passed
+his hand once or twice mechanically across his brow. Then suddenly, with
+that rough directness which was so characteristic of him, he added
+simply: "But as long as life lasts, my beloved, I shall thank God on my
+knees for the one glimpse of Heaven which He gave me this night."
+
+"There is a great deal, _mon cousin_," she rejoined coldly and firmly,
+"that both you and I must forget after this."
+
+"Yes," he retorted. "I, for one, shall have to forget that my mother and
+my brother armed the hands of assassins against me."
+
+Instinctively she called out: "It is false!"
+
+"It is true, Fernande," he rejoined quietly, "and you know it. Some of
+my men who have just arrived from Domfront say that the woods beyond
+Mortain are alive with rebels. That murderous dastard Leroux has already
+betrayed the various threads of de Puisaye's latest intrigues. In order
+to try and save his own skin, which he will not succeed in doing," he
+continued grimly, "he has chosen to tell us all he knew--that my brother
+Laurent is on the high road at this hour with a gang of armed Chouans at
+his heels; so is M. de Courson. Another gang is on its way to these
+works in order to reap the fruits of Leroux' treachery. But our alarm
+bells have set the garrison of Domfront afoot; couriers are on their way
+to warn the commandants of Mortain and Tinchebrai. This comes of bribing
+a coward to become a traitor," he concluded harshly; "the disasters of
+this night will lie at the door of those who trafficked with assassins."
+
+But Fernande no longer listened to him. Her dream had, indeed,
+vanished--vanished beyond recall, and she was back in the midst of all
+the calamity, the sorrow which would follow on the mistakes of this
+night. Indeed, the pitiless cowardice which had sent a brave man to face
+a band of murderers, alone and unwarned, had already received its awful
+punishment. Everything had been foreseen in de Puisaye's plans,
+everything had been thought out and arranged ... save this: that one
+man, single-handed, would cow and dominate a crowd of murderous rebels!
+
+Now there was nothing left but to stand shoulder to shoulder, and trust
+to God that the small armies under de Puisaye, de Courson and Laurent de
+Mortain, escaped with their lives. There was nothing left to do but to
+tend the wounded and bury the dead. Fernande's very soul ached now with
+the longing to be back at La Frontenay, and the magnitude of her desire
+gave her just the strength which she needed. Swift as a hare, she took
+advantage of a slight movement on his part and managed to slip by him
+out of her corner. And she had started to run towards the postern gate
+ere he succeeded in overtaking her at the angle of the storehouse and
+once more barring her way.
+
+This time he seized her in his arms.
+
+"Where are you going, Fernande?" he cried peremptorily.
+
+"Home!" she retorted. "Let me go!"
+
+"You cannot go alone. The roads are unsafe."
+
+"Let me go!"
+
+"Not without me."
+
+"Let me go! My place is with those I love."
+
+In a moment his arms dropped down to his side and she was free. But the
+violence with which he had seized hold of her had made her unsteady on
+her feet; she tottered back a little, and then had to stand still a
+moment while she recovered her balance. The spell of his arms round her
+was upon her still; the dream voices of a while ago called out to her
+from afar ... a last lingering farewell.
+
+"Even so, an you will allow me," he said, after a moment or two, and his
+voice sounded cold and toneless; "even so I would like to escort you
+home. The sirens will by now have alarmed half the country-side--a vast
+number of men will be on their way hither--there will be a crowd upon
+the road--some of the men may be rough. Those who ... those whom you
+love," he added with a harsh laugh, "would not wish you to go to them
+alone."
+
+Then he continued more gently, and his voice became full of tender
+yearning: "Think you, my dear, that I do not understand? Why, there is
+nothing that you might think, or feel, or say, to which my heart would
+not immediately respond. You want to be at this time with those ... with
+those whom you love; that is only natural, and in accordance with your
+sweetness and your kind and loyal soul. Your heart now is at La
+Frontenay. Let me take you thither. I swear to you that I will not come
+nigh you, that I will not speak to you unless you grant me leave. So I
+entreat you let me come with you.... I would not else know a moment's
+peace."
+
+"You are very kind," she murmured, "but indeed, indeed, there is no
+cause for anxiety. Wrapped in my cloak I shall be quite safe, and the
+passers-by will be too busy to think of molesting me."
+
+"Is my company, then, so distasteful to you, that you are so anxious to
+rid yourself of me?"
+
+She felt her eyes filling with tears, but still she contrived to say
+firmly: "It were best that I went alone."
+
+"As you will," he rejoined coldly.
+
+He stood aside, and as she moved away from him, he called loudly:
+"Mathurin!"
+
+"Here, M. le Maréchal," came from a distant corner of the quadrangle,
+and hurrying footsteps drew quickly near in answer to the master's call.
+Fernande, the while, busied herself with her cloak.
+
+"Mathurin," said de Maurel curtly, as soon as the overseer was in sight.
+"Detail two of the men whom you can best trust--Henri Gresset and Michel
+Picart, if you can spare them--to escort Mademoiselle de Courson back to
+the château."
+
+"Very good, M. le Maréchal," replied Mathurin.
+
+"Tell them to await Mademoiselle at the postern gate."
+
+"It shall be done, M. le Maréchal."
+
+Then Mathurin saluted and turned on his heel. It was not his place to
+question or to show surprise. Even in the most remote cell of his brain
+there was not room for a rebellious or a disloyal thought. He had his
+orders and at once he set about to execute them, and a moment or two
+later his voice was heard calling to Gresset and to Picart.
+
+"Will you at least allow me to walk with you as far as the gate?" asked
+de Maurel, after the man had gone.
+
+"If you wish it," she replied. Then, with sudden unconquerable impulse,
+she added in a tone of agonized entreaty:
+
+"My father ... and Laurent?"
+
+"What can I do?" he said with an impatient sigh.
+
+"You have influence," she pleaded; "you can save them if you have the
+will."
+
+"From the consequences of their own treachery?" he retorted harshly.
+
+"Treachery?" she protested hotly.
+
+"Let us call it folly. If Leroux' coup had succeeded the heritage which
+I hold in trust for France would have been wrenched from me with the
+help of assassins and of traitors."
+
+"My father ..." she pleaded.
+
+"And my brother," he added grimly. "Both caught probably this night in
+arms against their country--condemned to be shot as traitors...."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"As traitors," he reiterated firmly. "A year ago the Emperor granted an
+unconditional pardon and amnesty to M. le Comte de Courson and to M. le
+Marquis de Mortain ... and every day since then these loyal gentlemen
+have worked and plotted to hurl him from his throne."
+
+"My father ..." she pleaded once again. And she added under her breath:
+"You said just now that you could understand ... everything. And M. de
+Courson is my father...."
+
+"And M. de Mortain, your future husband," he broke in with a derisive
+laugh and a shrug of his broad shoulders. Then suddenly a swift wave of
+passion seemed to sweep right over him--a wave of rebellion against
+Fate, against his destiny, against all the misery, the sorrow, the
+endless desolation which that fact stood for. "Ah, Fernande!" he
+exclaimed hoarsely, "how can you trust me so completely, yet give your
+love to another man?"
+
+She drew in her breath with a little moan of pain. He had hurt her by
+these words more surely than she had ever hurt him, for she, on her
+side, had never thought to doubt his love. She believed in it more than
+ever before, now that she knew that this parting must be for always. But
+she felt that she had his answer--his promise to help her father and
+Laurent if he could. Almost she was ashamed to have appeared before him
+in the end as a suppliant, yet proud in her heart that she had gained so
+much in the cause which she had pleaded; proud in the fact that Love
+held him so completely in its thrall, that no base thought, no mean
+desire for vengeance, had a place beside it in his heart.
+
+Now there was nothing more to be said. The last word had been spoken
+between them, the last save the one which rose to their lips now ere
+they parted, but which must henceforth and for ever remain unsaid.
+
+
+III
+
+She pulled the hood of her cloak over her head, and then turned to go
+the way she had come just half an hour ago. The clock-tower was just
+striking eleven. At different points of the vast quadrangle small
+patrols of watchmen could be perceived making their rounds, seeing that
+everything now was well and safe. The last of the mutineers had been
+marched out through the main gates, the tramp of heavy feet was even now
+dying away in the distance.
+
+The silence and quietude of a perfectly ordered organization was once
+more descending on Ronnay de Maurel's princely heritage, whilst in the
+heart of its owner there raged a tempest of sorrow and of longing which
+nothing on earth could ever still.
+
+But he walked silently by her side, and though she was aching to get
+home as quickly as may be, she went along slowly, because she could hear
+him dragging his wounded leg more painfully than he had been wont to do.
+
+It was a matter of two or three minutes only ere the postern gate, with
+its tiny light above, was in sight. Each side of it a man was standing
+at attention.
+
+"Good-bye, dear cousin," she said, speaking as lightly as her aching
+heart would allow, "and thank you. I shall, indeed, feel quite safe
+under the protection of those stalwarts."
+
+She paused, and for a moment it seemed as if she would hold her hand
+out to him. They were some twenty paces still from the gate--alone and
+with the darkness hiding them from every view.
+
+"Fernande!" he called, in a voice which held a world of misery, of
+regret and of passion in its breaking tone.
+
+"I must not tarry," she rejoined. "Laurent ... your brother ... will be
+anxious about me."
+
+And with that she turned and ran quickly to the gate. The two men fell
+in behind her. Just for one brief second the tiny light from above
+glinted upon an aureole of gold. The hood had slipped down from her
+head, and she raised and slightly turned her face for one instant, just
+as she went through the gate.
+
+And thus he saw her fair profile outlined by the flickering light, the
+line of nose and lips and the exquisite curve of her throat. A few drops
+of moisture clung to the loose tendrils of her hair and glistened like
+tiny diamonds in a setting of living gold.
+
+Then she passed out of his sight into the darkness beyond.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+AN HOUR'S FOLLY
+
+
+I
+
+Madame la Marquise de Mortain had spent the evening shut up in her own
+room. At seven o'clock, and then again at nine, Annette had brought her
+some food on a tray. She ate it mechanically, feeling neither hunger nor
+fatigue. She did not know that Fernande had gone out, nor did she
+inquire after her. Of a truth, all thought of the young girl, of her own
+household, of everything, in fact, save the momentous events which were
+to occur this night had faded from her mind. After the solemn warning
+which she had given Fernande she felt no anxiety as to what the latter
+might do. The girl was undoubtedly under the spell of an unexplainable
+infatuation; but Madame la Marquise, self-absorbed and as callous of
+anyone else's feelings as she was of her own, put it all down to
+childish exaltation and somewhat unhealthy romanticism; marriage with
+Laurent would, she was sure, soon effect a cure. In the meanwhile
+Fernande would certainly do nothing to jeopardize de Puisaye's plan of
+campaign, now that Madame had put it so clearly before her, that M. de
+Courson's own life would be seriously imperilled if Ronnay de Maurel got
+wind of what was in the air.
+
+Thus did Madame la Marquise dismiss from her mind all thoughts of her
+niece.
+
+But she strove in vain to do likewise with those of her son. His face
+haunted her during those hours of lonely vigil in the privacy of her own
+room, while she waited for the first breath of news which would come
+wafted on the wings of the storm from the foundries to the Château of La
+Frontenay. She had steeled her heart against Ronnay--her eldest
+born--the son of the man whom she had hated beyond every other human
+creature on this earth. She had hated Ronnay during all the years that
+he was kept away from her; she had hated him when first she saw him
+again--a stranger to herself and to her kindred, an enemy to her caste.
+And when something indefinable in his character compelled her admiration
+and respect, she shut her ears to the call of Nature, to the insistent
+call of child to mother--that sweet, imperative call, which was all the
+more potent in this case as it had remained unspoken.
+
+Entirely against her will, she could not help but see herself--her own
+character--reflected in Ronnay far more truly than in Laurent; she saw
+in him her own unbendable will, her energy, her impatience of restraint:
+and, above all, she saw in him that same worship of a political
+ideal--even though the ideal differed from her own--and the same
+readiness to sacrifice everything at its shrine.
+
+And because there was so much in him that was akin to her own
+temperament, she continued to hate Ronnay de Maurel even though she no
+longer could despise him. To-night she was able to envisage coldly the
+possibility of his falling a victim to political schemes in which she
+had a hand. There was no compunction in her heart, no pity. In Ronnay
+she saw only the enemy of her cause, the traitor to his King. She felt
+like the incorruptible justiciary of old, who condemned his own son to
+the gallows when that son had offended against the laws of God; and if
+at times in the silence and loneliness which encompassed her while she
+watched and prayed, a feeling of softness or a pang of remorse knocked
+at the portals of her heart, she dismissed them resolutely, and soon
+both softness and remorse were consumed in the fire of her indomitable
+enthusiasm and energy.
+
+And the hours went by leaden-footed. Madame, in her mind, was able to
+trace every movement of the Royalist army on its march from Mortain to
+Tinchebrai, to Domfront, to Sourdeval, to La Frontenay; she reckoned the
+hours and counted the minutes, ere she could assume with any certainty
+that Laurent had reached Domfront, M. de Courson, Mortain, and that de
+Puisaye had arrived at the factories. By that time Leroux would have
+reckoned with de Maurel, if, indeed, the latter had put his threat into
+execution and attempted to interfere in the defence of his own property,
+at the very hour when the blow for the seizure of the factories would
+have to be struck. By midnight de Puisaye's men should be at La
+Frontenay and in undisputed possession of all the armament works; an
+hour later two contingents of them would be on their way to Domfront and
+back to Mortain, to relieve Laurent and M. de Courson and help them to
+complete the capture of the garrisons there.
+
+After ten o'clock the lonely watcher began to strain every nerve in a
+wild endeavour to catch the first sound of distant firing, or see the
+first lurid glow that would illumine the sky. The storm then was at its
+height and vivid flashes of lightning, accompanied by terrific crashes
+of thunder, lit up for a second at intervals the park of La Frontenay
+and the heights far away in the distance, with the dusty main road
+winding its way like a pale-coloured riband through the woods and the
+villages scattered on the plain.
+
+Madame stood by the open window in her boudoir, and to her overwrought
+fancy it seemed that the whole landscape was peopled with the armies of
+the King; that from Domfront and Mortain, from the valleys and the
+hills, there poured down toward the factories a victorious horde of
+Royalists who already held half the country-side in their power. Her
+heart was filled with a great joy--she felt like intoning a triumphant
+hymn of praise.
+
+She could no longer stand still, but started pacing up and down the
+room like a caged panther. She had twisted her handkerchief into a
+tight, damp ball, and now and again she put it to her lips, else she
+would have screamed aloud in the agony of her suspense.
+
+She carried the lamp into her bedroom, which opened out of the boudoir,
+leaving the latter in complete darkness, so that she might see more
+clearly out of the window.
+
+"De Puisaye should be nearing the factories by now," she thought, "and
+Laurent should be well on his way to Domfront at this hour. Oh, God!"
+she added, in a fever of passionate excitement, "for one brief moment of
+second sight!"
+
+
+II
+
+Just then there came a knock at her bedroom door.
+
+Madame thought it might be Fernande, or else Annette bringing her more
+food which she did not want, and impatiently she called: "Come in!"
+
+The door was thrown open; she could see it from where she stood, and she
+turned, thinking that it must be Annette. The next moment she gave a
+cry:
+
+"Laurent!"
+
+She ran into the next room, her heart and mind suddenly assailed with a
+horrible foreboding. Laurent was standing on the threshold, pale,
+haggard, trembling visibly. His clothes were soiled, his boots muddy,
+his eyes looked dazed and feverish.
+
+"Laurent, in the name of God, what has happened?" queried Denise de
+Mortain as calmly as she could, after she had dragged Laurent into the
+room and closed the door behind him.
+
+He staggered to a chair and threw himself into it, in an obvious state
+of physical exhaustion.
+
+"Where is Fernande?" were the first words which came to his lips.
+
+"Fernande?" queried Madame with a frown. "I don't know. In her room, I
+think. But never mind about Fernande now. Tell me, in God's name, why
+you are here?"
+
+"Fernande is not in her room," he retorted savagely, and, wearied though
+he so obviously was, he jumped up from his chair and stood facing his
+mother with hands clenched, eyes glowing and cheeks aflame. "Where is
+she?"
+
+"I don't know," replied Madame as firmly and unconcernedly as she could.
+"She may be as impatient as I am and, unable to sit still, she may be
+wandering about somewhere in the house or round the gardens. I don't
+know, I tell you," she added fiercely. "Laurent, I insist upon knowing
+what your presence here means at this hour, when I thought you on the
+way to Domfront."
+
+She tried to force him to look her squarely in the eyes. There was
+something so awful, so paralysing in the terror which was invading her
+whole being, that she dared not yet face the thoughts which at sight of
+Laurent had rushed wildly through her brain. She wanted to force an
+explanation from him, for she felt now that anything he said must be
+simpler, more intelligible than the horrible surmises which froze the
+very blood in her veins. But Laurent would not meet her searching gaze.
+Instead of this, he threw himself back into the chair, and, burying his
+head in his hands, he burst into a passionate flood of weeping.
+
+He was weak, exhausted, footsore, his nerves were obviously strained to
+breaking point. Denise de Mortain's cold heart melted at the sight of
+his grief, but she made no movement to soothe him. The puzzled frown
+settled more deeply between her brows, and after a while, when Laurent's
+paroxysm had somewhat subsided, and he leaned his head in utter
+dejection and weariness against the back of the chair, she tapped her
+foot impatiently against the ground.
+
+"Laurent," she said more quietly after a while, "you must tell me what
+all this means. You must try and collect yourself as quickly as you can
+and try to explain to me why you are here--and in this state--wildly
+calling for Fernande, when I, your mother, thought you at Domfront
+engaged in the execution of your duty."
+
+"A man's first duty, Mother," he retorted fiercely, "is to watch over
+the treasure which God has placed in his hands. Something told me that a
+wolf was prowling round my fold, and I came to guard what was mine and
+to shoot the wolf ... if I could."
+
+He spoke more coherently now. The violent paroxysm of weeping had eased
+the tension on his nerves. The look in his eyes was more full of anger,
+but less wild, and though heavy sobs still shook his frame from time to
+time, and a hot, feverish flush glowed on his cheeks and on his
+forehead, he was, on the whole, more master of himself.
+
+"Will you explain more clearly what you mean?" queried Madame la
+Marquise coldly.
+
+"I mean," he replied, "that ever since I parted from Fernande two days
+ago, torturing doubts have racked me till I thought my brain would
+burst. I have been on the threshold of frenzy, enduring torments of
+hell, the while de Puisaye and M. de Courson and all the others talked
+and manoeuvred, and drilled and discussed plans, for the thousand
+thousandth time. Oh!" he continued vehemently, "I fought against my own
+thoughts, against my fears, against that lashing, flaying, maddening
+doubt. I fought against it till my head was in a whirl, and I began to
+marvel if, indeed, I was not insane."
+
+"But why?" exclaimed Madame, in deeper perplexity than before. "In
+Heaven's name, why?"
+
+"Will you deny, Mother," he riposted hotly, "that you, too, have felt
+doubts about Fernande?--that you, too, have watched the play of emotion
+on her face, the quiver of her mouth, the soft look in her eyes, the
+moment my brother Ronnay's name is mentioned?"
+
+"Laurent!"
+
+"Can you deny it?" he insisted.
+
+Then, as she remained silent and merely shrugged her shoulders with
+well-affected indifference, he continued with the same vehemence: "Ah,
+you see, you cannot deny it! You cannot! You know that my doubts and
+fears are not the outcome of feverish hallucinations! Oh, my God!" he
+exclaimed, and put his hand up to his throat as if he were choking, "if
+only I could kill him with mine own hands...."
+
+"I'll deny nothing, Laurent," interposed Madame calmly, and her harsh,
+stern voice acted like an icy douche on the young man's fierce passion.
+"I think that Fernande is foolish, childishly romantic. Something about
+de Maurel's personality has stirred her imagination. But there's nothing
+more in it than that, and...."
+
+"Then why is she not here to-night?" he broke in savagely.
+
+"You say that she is not here. But how do you know?"
+
+"Because," he began, speaking slowly and measuredly, and Denise de
+Mortain had no cause to complain now that her son did not look her
+squarely in the face--"because two hours ago I saw Fernande stealing out
+of the château, wrapped in a dark cloak and alone, and making her way
+across the park. I did not want her to see me, so I stole to the gates
+and there watched for her coming. I wished to know whither she was going
+and I was determined to follow her. I watched and I waited, marvelling
+why she tarried. She did not come, and then I realized what a fool I had
+been. Whilst I had been standing on guard outside the great gates, she
+had slipped out by the side door in the wall, and I did not know whither
+she had gone. I was ready to dash my head against the iron gates; and
+there I stood, stupid, semi-imbecile, marvelling what I should do.
+Suddenly a passer-by came along and I hailed him. I asked him if he had
+seen a lady on the high road walking unattended and closely wrapped in a
+dark cloak. He answered me yes, and pointed the way she went. I thanked
+him, and as soon as his back was turned I started to run in the wake, as
+I thought, of Fernande. Then I came to a cross-road, where there was a
+sign-post, one arm of which bore the legend: 'La Frontenay,' and the
+other, 'La Vieuville.' La Vieuville, where my brother dwells! I spelt
+out every letter. I saw that it was distant five kilomètres. La
+Vieuville! Fernande had gone to La Vieuville to betray us all to Ronnay
+de Maurel!"
+
+"That is false, I'll swear," exclaimed Madame, "and you, Laurent, are
+mad to imagine anything so monstrous against the girl whom you profess
+to love."
+
+"Mad!" he riposted. "Of course I am mad! Did I not tell you that I had
+become mad?"
+
+"What were you doing outside the gates of this château at nine o'clock
+to-night when...."
+
+"When I should have been at Mortain," he broke in with a strident laugh,
+which seemed to go right through his mother's heart like a knife. "At
+Mortain, drilling a few oafs in the use of muskets which they haven't
+got. What was I doing here? Did I not say that I was watching over my
+property? I could not stay away, Mother," he cried wildly. "I could not!
+I suffered too much. I was going mad."
+
+"So you--my son--Laurent Marquis de Mortain, preferred to turn
+deserter?" she asked coldly.
+
+"Mother!"
+
+"I have yet to learn how it comes that when my son is under orders from
+his chiefs, at the hour when the destinies of his King and his country
+are at stake, how it comes that he has deserted his post."
+
+"I left my men in charge of young de Fleurot, my most able lieutenant. I
+only wanted to speak with Fernande--only to see her for five minutes. I
+was here--outside the gates at nine o'clock--I could have seen her and
+spoken with her and be back at my post long before now. Even so, there
+is no harm done. Our contingent was not due to start until midnight. I
+have arranged with de Fleurot--in case I was detained--that he shall
+start at the appointed hour, and I would pick up the company at the
+cross-roads less than a kilomètre from here and not more than three from
+Domfront. But I should have been back at Mortain long before now," he
+reiterated testily, "only when I saw Fernande stealing out of the park
+like a pert wench going to meet her gallant, I lost my head and I
+followed her."
+
+"All the way to La Vieuville?"
+
+"All the way."
+
+"And you saw her?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Had she been to the château?"
+
+"No one could tell me. The château was shut up and dark. I hammered on
+the door. No one replied. I would have broken in the door, but it
+resisted my every onslaught."
+
+"Then what did you do?"
+
+"I lay in wait for some time--my pistol in my hand. If I had seen him, I
+would have shot him ... him and Fernande too."
+
+"How long did you wait?"
+
+"I don't know ... half an hour perhaps--perhaps more. No one came. The
+château was deserted. Somewhere in it, no doubt, Gaston de Maurel, that
+old reprobate, lay dying. But I realized that Fernande was not there, so
+I came away."
+
+"Well? And then?"
+
+"I came back here," he replied savagely. "I am here now to ask you where
+is Fernande?"
+
+"Yes, you are here, my son," rejoined Denise de Mortain harshly, "at the
+post of dishonour, while your father and kindred are fighting for
+France."
+
+"Mother!"
+
+But now at last she turned on him with all the fury of a tigress roused
+to wrath. She had interrogated him coolly, firmly, smothering the horror
+and the indignation which she felt. But the floodgates of her emotion
+would no longer be kept back; they broke into a torrent of unbridled
+vituperation.
+
+"Traitor! deserter!" she cried. "How dare you remain here another
+minute? How dare you whine and fret before me, while every moment of the
+night is fraught with danger for your King and his cause? How dare you
+run on the high roads after a wench, like a jealous, love-sick swain,
+while your King hath need of every ounce of energy, of courage which you
+possess. Out of my sight, craven deserter! and pray to God that He may
+grant you grace to atone for your treachery with your blood!"
+
+"Mother ..." he protested firmly, as, stung by her words as with a lash,
+he had jumped to his feet and made a desperate effort to pull himself
+together.
+
+"Not another word," she commanded. "When you have redeemed your
+cowardice by prodigies of valour, when you have held Domfront for your
+King in the face of overwhelming odds, you may come to me again ... but
+not before."
+
+She turned her back on him without another look and swept out of the
+room, leaving him standing there miserable, dejected, a hot flush of
+shame on each cheek as if she had struck him there. Once in the darkened
+boudoir, she tottered as far as the open window. Her knees were giving
+way under her. She leaned against the window-frame and with her hand
+clung desperately to the heavy curtain. Not a breath of air came from
+outside; the storm was at its height--vivid flashes of lightning tore
+the heavens asunder and the thunder crashed continuously overhead. A
+great sob broke from Denise de Mortain's throat. She had suffered this
+night the keenest torture, the deadliest ignominy, which heart of woman
+can endure; she had seen her beloved son--the one cherished idol of her
+loveless heart--sunk to a level of degradation from which nothing could
+ever raise him again.
+
+She had seen him the prey of a base and futile passion, tortured by
+insensate jealousy which caused him to forget the most elementary
+dictates of honour. Desertion at the hour preceding the battle was
+infamy so heinous, that in her heart Denise de Mortain would have been
+vastly happier if they had brought Laurent to her on a stretcher--dead.
+
+
+III
+
+She stared out into the night, and suddenly she perceived a sound which
+came to her straining ears above the roll of thunder, from the direction
+of La Frontenay--a sound which at first brought a frown of deep
+puzzlement to her brow and then an icy feeling like the grip of death to
+her heart.
+
+At the same time a slight noise behind her caused her to turn sharply
+round, and she saw Laurent standing under the lintel of the
+communicating door. He stood with his back to the light, so she could
+not see his face, but only the silhouette of him, the graceful,
+well-proportioned figure, the straight and slender limbs.
+
+"I am going now at once, Mother," he said coldly, though his voice
+sounded hoarse and choked, and as he spoke he passed his hand once or
+twice across his brow. "You are quite right, I deserve all you say. But
+my reason had fled from me--I was not fully conscious of mine actions.
+Thank God that it is not too late to redeem my folly. In any event, I
+can meet de Fleurot at the cross-roads, and we'll be at Domfront soon
+after midnight...."
+
+"It is too late, my son," she broke in calmly--"too late for a de
+Mortain to do aught but die like a hero, even if he have lived his last
+hours like a coward."
+
+"What do you mean, Mother?" he queried with a frown, for, indeed, for
+the moment he thought that it was his mother's turn to feel her brain
+unhinged. She had remained standing by the window, and now a flash of
+lightning showed her to him for one brief instant, a rigid, menacing
+figure, like that of a Sybil presiding over his destiny, her head thrown
+back, her hand grasping the curtain; her face was the colour of ashes,
+and her eyes, large and glowing, were fixed denouncingly upon him.
+
+"'Tis futile to take on such tragic airs," he added irritably, "just
+because I chose to spend my time on the high roads rather than cool my
+heels in the ditches of Mortain. I have told you that there's no harm
+done--that de Fleurot is in charge--that I shall pick him up on the way
+to Domfront--that I shall still lead our contingent just as it was
+arranged. I tell you that there's nothing lost...."
+
+"Everything is lost, my son," she replied coldly; "even your honour."
+
+Then as he made no reply, but with a shrug of the shoulders quietly
+turned to go, she called out peremptorily:
+
+"Hark!"
+
+Instinctively he paused on the threshold. From far away, in the
+direction where lay the factories of La Frontenay, there came through
+the intermittent hush of the storm the loud clang of a bell, followed
+immediately by the shrill hooting of a siren.
+
+"The alarm bell and the sirens at the factories," said Denise de Mortain
+slowly.
+
+"Good God!" exclaimed Laurent, as, rooted to the spot, he remained
+standing for one short second, straining his ears to listen. "What can
+it mean?"
+
+"That the unforeseen has occurred," she rejoined harshly, "and that
+there are two traitors in our family, my son--you and Fernande."
+
+"No! no!" he cried, horrified to hear his mother put into words that
+which he himself had dared to think.
+
+"Fernande de Courson has betrayed her King in order to save her lover,"
+continued the Marquise, as she pointed an accusing finger in the
+direction whence the hooting of sirens and the continuous clang of alarm
+bells rose above the confused sounds of the storm. "And whilst friends
+and kindred prepare to conquer or to die for their faith, Laurent de
+Mortain goes philandering after a petticoat!"
+
+But the sting of her last words had not the time to reach him. Already
+he had run to the door, tearing it open as he ran; the next moment his
+scurrying footsteps were heard echoing all through the silent
+château--along the vast corridors, down the monumental staircase and
+across the marble hall, until the clang of the great glazed doors
+proclaimed that he was out of the house.
+
+Then Madame leaned out of the window as far as she could. She could
+still hear Laurent running down the perron steps and at full speed along
+the gravelled drive. Once the lightning lit up the whole extent of the
+park, the trees, the paths, the flower-beds, and the tall iron gates in
+the distance; but she could not see Laurent. He was already far away.
+
+The sound of sirens and alarms had not ceased. Over there around Mortain
+men were making ready to fight or die for their King. One of the last
+efforts for restoring an effete Bourbon to his throne was about to be
+drowned in a sea of bloodshed. The unforeseen had happened--what it was
+the lonely watcher could not conjecture, but she fell on her knees
+beside the open window, and, burying her head in her hands, she moaned
+and prayed: "God, my God! grant that he may die fighting; do not punish
+one moment's folly by a lifelong disgrace."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+AFTER THE STORM
+
+
+I
+
+It was close upon midnight when Fernande made her way to Madame la
+Marquise's boudoir. She found her there, on her knees still, her hands
+folded and stretched out over the window-sill, her head buried in her
+arms.
+
+The rain was coming down in torrents. Fernande herself, on her way home,
+had been drenched to the skin. But this was not the time to think of wet
+and cold, of health or of prudence. She had thrown down her cloak in the
+hall and at once went up to her aunt's room.
+
+The boudoir was dark, only from the next room there came the feeble rays
+of reflected light from the lamp. With a cry of burning anxiety Fernande
+ran to Madame. Denise de Mortain had knelt before the open window ever
+since her son's flying footsteps had ceased to resound through the
+château; she had knelt here absolutely prostrate with grief, her heart
+tortured with the desire to see her beloved son killed rather than
+openly disgraced. Fernande, as she bent over her, could feel that her
+arms and shoulders, her hands and her hair were soaked through. With
+gentle words and persuasive strength she tried to drag her away from the
+window.
+
+"_Ma tante_," she said appealingly, "it is I--Fernande. Won't you speak
+to me?"
+
+She felt a shiver going right through Denise's kneeling form; she
+racked her brain in wonderment as to what had caused this utter moral
+collapse in a woman who was always so full of indomitable energy.
+
+"_Ma tante!_" she reiterated more firmly, "I pray you listen to me.
+There is something which I must tell you now--at once."
+
+She managed gradually to raise Madame up in her own strong young arms,
+and to lead her to a chair close by. Denise was only half conscious. She
+sat in the chair, with her head rolling from left to right against its
+back, her eyes closed, her hands inert. Fernande ran into the bedroom.
+She brought in the lamp and a towel, and she dried Madame's face and
+hands and wiped the moisture from her dress and hair. Then she took the
+cold, numb hands in hers and began chafing them, rubbing the fingers,
+trying to infuse life into them with her warm breath.
+
+After a while consciousness began to return. The head ceased its weird
+rolling, and lay quite still against the back of the chair. A certain
+degree of warmth communicated itself to the fingers and an occasional
+tremor shook the pain-wearied frame.
+
+Then Madame la Marquise opened her eyes. For a moment or two she looked
+round her dazed, and still held in the arms of semi-consciousness. She
+looked straight into the lamp, and the pupils of her eyes slowly
+contracted until they appeared like small pin-points, with the iris
+round them steely and pale.
+
+Then her gaze fastened itself on Fernande--first on the hem of her gown,
+wet and muddy after the long tramp through the rain; then it wandered up
+by degrees to the girl's slender, white hands, with the delicate fingers
+interlaced and the diamond ring--Laurent's gift--gleaming in the
+lamplight.
+
+Then she met the girl's blue eyes fixed compassionately, tenderly upon
+her. In a moment full consciousness returned to her. She drew herself
+up, and, leaning her hands against the arms of the chair, she was able
+to struggle to her feet.
+
+"_Ma tante_ ..." began Fernande gently.
+
+"Who are you?" queried Madame la Marquise coldly, "and what do you
+want?"
+
+Instinctively Fernande put out her arms: the strange query, the raucous
+timbre of the voice, struck with unexplainable terror into her
+heart--something, she thought, had happened during her
+absence--something awesome and terrific, which had unhinged this woman's
+cool and powerful brain.
+
+"Who are you?" reiterated Denise de Mortain coldly.
+
+"Why, _ma tante_," rejoined Fernande gently, "do you not know me? I am
+Fernande--I have just come home and found you here...."
+
+"No, you are not Fernande," broke in Madame harshly--"not my niece,
+Fernande de Courson, the daughter of my dear, dear brother. You are a
+ghoul!" she cried excitedly, "a monster ... a hideous abortion ... a de
+Courson turned traitor.... I do not know you!"
+
+Still Fernande did not realize the truth. She was convinced now that the
+excitement of the day and the weary watching throughout the evening had
+acted banefully on Denise de Mortain's brain. That she was unnerved
+there could be no doubt; there was an unnatural glow in her eyes, and
+the pallor of her cheeks was almost ghost-like. The young girl,
+genuinely alarmed, made a movement in the direction of the bell-pull.
+She and Annette could, at any rate, put Madame to bed ere a high fever
+brought on any further complications. But before she could reach the
+bell Madame had interposed calmly:
+
+"I am neither ill nor insane," she said. "But this is my room, and I
+order you out of it. Go! Out of my sight--now--at once--do you hear?"
+
+"_Ma tante_," protested Fernande, who, of a truth, felt so bewildered
+that she did not know what to think, what to say, what to make of this
+extraordinary, this appalling situation. "Something has unnerved you,"
+she continued with calm dignity. "An you will not allow me to attend to
+you or to ring for Annette, I had best retire until you are in a fit
+condition to listen to what I have to say. But I warn you that it is
+urgent. Every second wasted in this unexplainable misunderstanding may
+mean danger ... if not worse ... to my father and to our friends."
+
+"Your treachery," retorted Madame quietly, "has already wrought all the
+evil and brought untold danger to all our friends and death to a great
+many--to your father, perhaps, to Laurent, certainly. There is nothing
+that you can say to me now which can avert the awful catastrophe for
+which you and you alone are responsible."
+
+"Treachery!" exclaimed Fernande. "I?"
+
+"Yes, you! The surprise coup planned by de Puisaye has failed. The alarm
+was given at the armament works an hour and a half ago; since then there
+has been continuous firing in the direction of Mortain. The garrison
+there has been aroused, that of Domfront, too, no doubt. Some of our
+contingents have been surprised. They are selling their lives dearly at
+this hour. Your father is probably fighting over there. Who is it, then,
+who has betrayed us to Ronnay de Maurel and delivered our brave little
+army into the hands of our enemies?"
+
+"Not I!" protested Fernande loudly.
+
+Light had suddenly broken on the hideous mystery which had confronted
+her when she first entered this room. She understood everything now--her
+aunt's prostration, her despair, the semi-insanity which was
+overclouding her brain, making her see lurid phantoms of treachery.
+She--Fernande--was suspected of having betrayed her father, her lover,
+her friends; and Madame la Marquise, clinging to that abominable
+thought, was rapidly losing all sense of justice, of reasoning and of
+right. The girl's very soul was outraged at the monstrous accusation.
+
+"How dared you harbour such abominable thoughts of me?" she cried
+indignantly.
+
+A strident laugh broke from Denise de Mortain's throat.
+
+"Would you prefer it if I thought that you had stolen out of the
+château to-night--and alone--in order to meet a swain behind the nearest
+hedge?"
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"That was Laurent's estimate of you; and I--like a fool--thought he must
+be mad."
+
+"Laurent?"
+
+"Laurent was here--to-night," continued Madame, as she came a step or
+two nearer to Fernande, and the words--hot, passionate, fierce--came
+tumbling through her lips. "For two days he was tortured with thoughts
+of your treachery. I tell you he seemed nearly mad. To-night he could
+hold out no longer. He deserted his post--he, who is the soul of honour!
+He came here, just in time to see you steal out of the château like a
+flirty wench. An hour and a half ago the alarm bell from the factories
+clanged through the night. Laurent was here then, pouring out his heart
+in bitterness and in misery. But the sound recalled him to his duty,
+which he had forgotten while thinking of you. He went back in order to
+redeem the hour of folly which led him to desert his post. He went back
+in order to die fighting beside my brother and his friends."
+
+"Oh, my God!" moaned Fernande, as she covered her face with her hands.
+
+Even while she allowed the torrent of Madame's unjust reproaches to
+break over her innocent head, she had already realized the hopelessness
+of her own situation, the hopelessness of it all. Guiltless as she knew
+herself to be, she almost understood, and was nigh to forgiving Madame's
+horrible suspicions of her. The awful seed of the dastardly murder
+projected against a defenceless man had, indeed, borne bitter fruits of
+disaster and of shame; and she, who had tried to avert one awful
+catastrophe, had unknowingly precipitated another. By her absence from
+home to-night she had left Laurent at the mercy of his mother; and he,
+with the guilt of desertion upon his conscience, was left to face her
+until, driven to desperation by the harshness and the cruelty which
+still glittered in Denise de Mortain's eyes, he had rushed off, blindly
+perhaps, to his death.
+
+An overwhelming pity for this hard, callous woman suddenly filled
+Fernande's sensitive heart. All that she herself had suffered, all that
+she was yet destined to suffer, was as nothing compared to the
+bitterness of self-reproach which anon must assail the mother of
+Laurent--the mother of Ronnay de Maurel: and when, exhausted by the
+vehemence of her own eloquence, Madame la Marquise fell back into her
+chair, panting and overwrought, Fernande drew near to her, despite her
+vigorous protest, and knelt affectionately by her side.
+
+"_Ma tante_," she said gently, while tears of sweet compassion gathered
+in her eyes, "you have been passing cruel and unjust to me, and just for
+a moment I felt nothing but anger against you. But since you have told
+me about Laurent, I feel that I can understand. Before the God who made
+me, I swear to you that I had no hand in warning our enemies of what was
+intended. How could I have, seeing that my own dear father's life was
+involved in the affair? I went to the factory to-night with the sole
+intention of staying Leroux' hand from committing a dastardly murder--a
+murder, _ma tante_," she continued with firm energy, "that despite
+victory, despite the utmost triumphs, would for ever have sullied our
+cause and weighed us all down with bitter self-reproach. Had Leroux
+listened to me, I still believe that M. de Maurel would never have
+suspected what was in the air; it was Leroux' threats, Leroux' attitude,
+which put him on the scent. I was there; I saw it all. When Leroux, with
+his wild and menacing talk, had given away the best part of M. de
+Puisaye's plan, Ronnay de Maurel--your son, _ma tante_--stood with a
+naked light in his hand ready to blow up the entire factory rather than
+let it fall into our hands. Leroux and his mates were cowed; they were
+poltroons as well as fools, and M. de Maurel forced one of the men to
+ring the alarm bell. That is what happened at the La Frontenay works,
+_ma tante_. The hooting of the sirens roused the neighbouring villages
+and the garrison of Domfront. I escaped out of the factory as soon as I
+was able; since then I have been on the high road, tortured with fears
+as to what has happened to my father and what to Laurent. But by all
+that I hold most dear, _ma tante_, what I have told you is the truth."
+
+Madame had listened in silence, at first with averted head and with a
+look of sullen obstinacy on her face. She would have given much to
+remain unconvinced. The burning indignation which she had felt at
+Laurent's conduct had to vent itself on the innocent cause of it. After
+a while she looked into Fernande's face with a piercing, searching gaze.
+She would have liked to hold the girl's soul naked before her eyes, and
+to search within its innermost recesses for a sign of guilt or even of
+weakness. But it was impossible to look for long into the sweet, earnest
+face and the limpid blue eyes which were the true mirrors of candour and
+of purity, and to affect doubt which no longer could exist. In her heart
+Madame knew that Fernande spoke the truth. Everything that she said bore
+the impress of actual facts witnessed and faithfully recorded. Madame
+was bound to admit it, but she was far too self-willed and obstinate to
+do so generously--and, above all, she knew that never as long as she
+lived would she forgive Fernande de Courson for having been the
+cause--however innocent--of Laurent's unpardonable conduct.
+
+"It may be the truth," she said grudgingly--"it is the truth, no doubt,
+since you are prepared to swear it."
+
+"Do you still doubt me, _ma tante_?"
+
+"No. But one thing, my girl, is certain--and that is if Laurent had not
+seen you stealing out of the château--if he had spoken for five minutes
+with you--he would have gone straight back to his post, and would not
+now be under the suspicion of having deserted his men in the hour of
+danger."
+
+To this senseless accusation Fernande made no reply. What would have
+been the use? She could not have convinced Madame that it was Laurent's
+insensate jealousy which had been the primary cause of his undoing.
+Except for those few brief seconds, when she boldly faced a horrible
+death beside the man whom she loved, she had not harboured one disloyal
+thought of Laurent, or spoken one disloyal word. Her love for Ronnay de
+Maurel she could not destroy; it had its roots in the innermost fibres
+of her heart. She was no more responsible for that feeling than was
+Denise de Mortain for her callousness or Laurent for his vehement
+temper. All that she could do to wrench herself away from its influence
+she had done; and in the process she had plucked out her heart-strings
+and martyrized her very soul. In the lonely walk from the factories to
+the château she had fought against the veriest thought of rebellion; she
+had sacrificed her whole life, her every hope of happiness on the altar
+of unimpassioned loyalty. Whenever she met Laurent again she could look
+him fearlessly in the eyes, she could grasp his hand in all honour and
+friendship. The image of Ronnay de Maurel lay buried deep down in her
+heart, and to the memory of that one mad and rapturous moment she had
+bidden an eternal farewell.
+
+Now when she felt Madame's cold enmity enveloping her as with an icy
+mantle, she felt how desperately far from her would happiness lie in the
+future. On the merest threshold of her life she saw the endless years
+that were in store for her, between a man who would for ever torture her
+with his turbulent passion and a woman who would paralyse her with
+relentless animosity. The catastrophe of this night--and God alone knew
+yet its full extent--would always be laid at her door. She saw this in
+Denise de Mortain's every look, in the scornful stiffening of her whole
+attitude, as she drew herself away from the slightest contact with her
+niece; and after a moment or two of silence, the involuntary appeal
+broke from the poor girl's lips: "Will you always hate me like this, _ma
+tante_?"
+
+Madame la Marquise looked at her coldly.
+
+"I do not know," she replied. "Always is a long time, and it is
+impossible for any human mind to know if it will ever forget. But this I
+do know, that never with my consent will you become my daughter. If
+Laurent is spared this night, I shall devote every hour, every moment of
+my life, to parting him from you."
+
+"You will remain unjust to the last?"
+
+"Unjust?"--and Denise de Mortain shrugged her shoulders calmly. "Love
+and hate are never just, and I could never dissociate you from the
+memories of this night."
+
+She rose from her chair, her whole attitude now one of cool
+indifference. Ever since she had accepted Fernande's explanation she had
+made desperate efforts to regain the mastery over her nerves and to
+conceal every outward manifestation of the burning anxiety which she
+felt. At last she had succeeded, but the struggle had left her weary and
+wellnigh spent. Her face was pale, her eyes circled with purple, and
+there was a feeble quiver round her bloodless lips.
+
+"It may be hours," she said coldly, "and it may be days, ere we get
+authentic news. What do you propose to do?"
+
+"To start for Courson at daybreak," replied Fernande with equal calm. "I
+must be on the spot in case my father is able to return there."
+
+"And I will remain here until I know that both he and Laurent are safe.
+But remember," she added, and something of the old domineering, managing
+tone crept back into her voice, "that the peace and quietude of the past
+year are at an end; that once more we are on the branch, once more we
+stand with one foot on the way to exile. For the next few days there
+will be perquisitions, molestations, arrests. The infamous police of
+Bonaparte will not be slow to avenge the scare it has received this
+night."
+
+"I shall be ready to follow my father whenever or wherever he may want
+me," rejoined Fernande coldly.
+
+For a moment it was on the tip of her tongue to tell Madame that Ronnay
+de Maurel would look after the safety of her father and of Laurent. She
+had his promise, and he was not a man to leave a stone unturned ere he
+fulfilled that promise. Though her heart was aching with anxiety, she
+felt comforted in the thought that the one man who could help those she
+cared for, by standing by them at this hour, would do it
+whole-heartedly, and would throw into the scales of any pending
+reprisals the whole weight of his influence and of his wealth.
+
+But it would have been worse than futile to mention de Maurel's name
+again now. Madame, in any case, would refuse to be comforted, and the
+floodgates of her resentment would certainly break out afresh.
+She--Fernande--was sorely in need of quietude; she felt that she could
+not endure another scene. She was desperately sorry for her aunt;
+Madame's anxiety for Laurent must be positively heartrending, but
+nothing could be gained by further recriminations, further reproaches,
+which only helped to embitter these hours of suspense and of dread.
+
+Fernande felt confident that de Maurel would send her news as soon as he
+knew anything definite; until then many weary hours would go by, she
+knew, but at least let them go by in peace. Her hope rested in God and,
+next to Him, in the loyalty and the power of the man who loved her so
+selflessly.
+
+So she bade her aunt a formal good night, and with a great sense of
+relief she went quickly to her room.
+
+
+II
+
+Denise de Mortain, too, was glad to find herself alone once more. She
+drew the chair to the open window and sat down, prepared to wait. Though
+she was so tired that she could hardly move, she felt that she could not
+rest. The house was very still now; all the servants had long since gone
+to bed. They were a set of faithful but utterly stupid peasants from the
+village, and had no notion of what went on outside the park gates.
+Matthieu Renard and Annette knew, and they remained on the watch. Old
+Matthieu would not go to bed until he could bring Madame la Marquise
+some news which would comfort her, and Annette waited where she could
+hear the bell, in case Madame wanted anything.
+
+Madame, sitting by the open window, peered out into the night. The
+firing sounded more distant now and more intermittent; the rain had
+ceased and the darkness was less intense. Overhead large patches of
+star-studded indigo appeared between the fissures in the clouds. The
+weary watcher, gazing out into nothingness, her eyes aching with
+sleeplessness and many unshed tears, fell anon into a semi-wakeful
+languor, while the early hours of the morning sped leaden-footed by.
+
+Suddenly something woke her to full consciousness. She sat up, shivering
+a little; the morning air struck fresh and cool against her face.
+Through her torpor-like sleep she had been conscious of the swift gallop
+of a horse on the hard road drawing rapidly nearer. Now she was fully
+awake, she could hear the clatter of the hoofs--someone was coming along
+at break-neck speed--bringing news probably. She jumped to her feet; the
+horse had been brought to a halt outside the gates; the next moment she
+heard a murmur of voices and then the sound of footsteps coming up the
+drive.
+
+Madame, leaning out of the window, called out peremptorily: "Who goes
+there?"
+
+But she received no reply. Whoever had arrived at this early hour had
+gone into the house. Through the dream-like recollections of what she
+had heard, it seemed to Denise that the voice of Fernande had mingled
+with that of two men, one of whom might have been old Matthieu.
+
+She rang the bell violently. Then she looked at the clock. It was close
+on five.
+
+After a few minutes there was a knock at the door, and in response to an
+impatient "Come in!" it was opened, and Fernande, pale, obviously tired
+to death, and with dark circles under her eyes, came into the room.
+
+"What is it?" queried Madame, in a voice broken by fatigue and
+nerve-strain.
+
+"One of the overseers from the armament works, _ma tante_," replied
+Fernande, "with a message from M. de Maurel."
+
+"I desire no message from M. de Maurel," said Madame curtly; "let him
+tell you what he wants and go back the way he came."
+
+"There is another man with him, _ma tante_," hazarded Fernande, after
+some hesitation--"one of our people--a prisoner with news of M. de
+Puisaye."
+
+Madame waited a moment or two, frowning, debating between her pride
+which prompted her to refuse to see an emissary of de Maurel, and the
+agony of suspense which was near to killing her. Anxiety gained the
+victory.
+
+"Very well," she said. "Let the men come up."
+
+Fernande went, and a minute or two later she returned followed by two
+men, one of whom was Mathurin, chief overseer of the de Maurel smelting
+works. Both men looked as if they had ridden hard. Mathurin's coat and
+hat were covered with dust; the other--a true type of the Chouans, of
+those who had fought under de Frotté and Cadoudal--was dressed in a
+tattered blouse and ragged linen breeches; the soles of his boots had
+parted from their uppers; he was unkempt and unwashed. Fernande closed
+the door behind them, then she slipped round behind Madame to the corner
+by the open window, where she could feel the fresh morning air and rest
+her aching head against the heavy curtain. Mathurin had already told her
+briefly what he had been sent to say: his orders were to see
+Mademoiselle de Courson first, and then Madame la Marquise if she asked
+for him. Fernande, ensconced beside the window, unseen by her aunt,
+could safely indulge in the luxury of tears and of silence.
+
+When the men entered, Madame la Marquise had looked for a moment keenly
+and searchingly at the old Chouan. She was ready and eager to catch the
+slightest movement or flitting glance which might have been meant for a
+signal. She felt anxious and puzzled, marvelling why de Maurel had sent
+a messenger to her--at this hour--and what was the meaning of this
+prisoner brought hither to speak with her. Then she turned haughtily to
+Mathurin.
+
+"Who has sent you?" she queried peremptorily.
+
+"M. le Maréchal Comte de Maurel," replied Mathurin, after he had touched
+his forelock with every mark of respect.
+
+"And who are you?" asked Madame again.
+
+"Chief overseer at the smelting works."
+
+"Why did M. de Maurel send you?"
+
+"M. le Maréchal thought Madame la Marquise and Mademoiselle de Courson
+would be anxious to know what had happened last night."
+
+"Well," she said coldly, "what did happen?"
+
+"Our alarm bells and sirens went off at half-past ten, Madame la
+Marquise."
+
+"I know that--I heard them."
+
+"The mutineers, with Paul Leroux at their head, have been arrested by
+our watchmen. Leroux confessed that he had been bribed to murder M. le
+Maréchal, and to deliver the armament works into the hands of a band of
+Royalists under M. de Puisaye."
+
+"Did M. de Maurel order you to say this?"
+
+"He desired Madame la Marquise to know that Leroux was a coward as well
+as a traitor."
+
+"Leroux' personality.... Who is Leroux, by the way?... does not interest
+me. Go on."
+
+"Our sirens aroused the garrison of Domfront. The commandant sent over
+one of his officers with a small detachment of infantry to see what was
+amiss. He only thought of fire or of a mutiny among the convicts, and he
+was ready to send us help."
+
+"Well? And then?"
+
+"M. le Maréchal interrogated Leroux in the presence of the officer.
+Leroux made a clean breast of all he knew. M. de Maurel then sent his
+own couriers from the works to Domfront, to Tinchebrai, and to Mortain,
+warning the different commandants against possible attacks from roaming
+bands of Chouans. Within a couple of hours all the garrisons were afoot
+and in touch with one another."
+
+"Then what happened?"
+
+"This man here, Madame la Marquise," said Mathurin, indicating his
+companion, "will be able to tell you better than I can what happened in
+the ranks of the Chouans. He fell a prisoner in our hands early in the
+night. M. le Maréchal had ridden over to Mortain, and I was with him
+when this man was brought in a prisoner. M. le Maréchal questioned him,
+and then gave him over into my charge. 'Take the fellow over to La
+Frontenay, Mathurin,' he said to me. 'Madame la Marquise de Mortain and
+Mademoiselle de Courson will want to hear what he has to say.' So we
+both got to horse and rode hither as fast as we could."
+
+"Very good," said Madame determinedly. "Leave the man here with me. I
+desire to speak with him alone."
+
+Mathurin, at the peremptory command, appeared to hesitate. "Madame la
+Marquise ..." he stammered.
+
+"_Ah çà_," she retorted haughtily, "has M. de Maurel sent you here
+perchance as my jailer?"
+
+Mathurin, thus challenged, did not know what to say. Madame la Marquise
+had a way with her which imposed her will on every one around her. The
+worthy overseer was certainly not vested with powers to gainsay her
+wishes. He was a shrewd man, loyal to the depth of his simple heart and
+ready to be hacked to pieces for M. le Maréchal; he would have defied an
+army of haughty ladies if he thought any harm could come from a private
+interview with this ill-conditioned old rascal; but in this case
+prudence and conciliation was perhaps the wisest course. And somehow he
+felt that Mademoiselle de Courson's presence was, in any case, a
+safeguard against any further intrigues against his master. So after an
+imperceptible moment of hesitation he made a curt obeisance and backed
+out of the room, closing the door behind him.
+
+Far be it from me to suggest that good old Mathurin listened at the
+keyhole, but I make bold to assert that very little of Madame la
+Marquise's private conversation with the old Chouan escaped him.
+
+
+III
+
+As soon as the door had closed on Mathurin, Denise de Mortain turned to
+the man and said, speaking curtly and rapidly:
+
+"Your name is Jean Blanchet. I know you. Well, tell me quickly
+everything you know. When was the alarm given in your camp?"
+
+"At about half-past eleven, Madame la Marquise," replied the man. "I and
+six of my mates were patrolling the approaches of the town, when we
+heard a rumour that the garrison inside the city was astir. News had
+arrived, so 'twas said, that bands of Chouans were preparing a surprise
+attack. M. de Puisaye had his headquarters in the Cerf-Volant woods
+south of the town; there was only just time to run and warn him of what
+was in the air."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"M. de Puisaye at once ordered the alarm to be sounded. Within ten
+minutes the whole camp was afoot and M. de Puisaye then commanded the
+retreat."
+
+"What?" exclaimed Madame. "Without striking a blow?"
+
+"What would have been the use?" retorted the man with a shrug of the
+shoulders. "We had next to no arms, and to make a stand would have meant
+fighting against at least two companies of infantry and a battery of
+artillery, which could easily have cut us to pieces even before
+reinforcements came from Tinchebrai and Domfront. There is a
+half-battery of artillery at both those places, and we knew by then that
+all the garrisons round were in touch with one another. To have made a
+stand," reiterated the man gruffly, "would have meant useless bloodshed.
+M. de Puisaye was alive to that. He chose the wiser course."
+
+"Not the most heroic," murmured Madame, under her breath.
+
+"He had a lot of undisciplined, ill-fed, ill-clothed men to look after.
+What could he do? Now if we could have equipped ourselves at the
+factories of La Frontenay ..." he added with a harsh laugh.
+
+"I know, I know," said Madame impatiently. "And M. de Puisaye has
+retreated--whither?"
+
+"I do not know. To Avranches, I should say. The way was open, and, in
+any case, his losses would be very slight."
+
+"And...." A name was on Madame's lips; she checked herself. She did not
+dare to speak it--not before this man ... in case....
+
+"And M. de Courson?" she asked.
+
+"M. de Courson must be with M. de Puisaye, I think. I believe M. d'Aché
+is with him and M. Prigent."
+
+Then at last anxiety could hold out no longer. Madame had made heroic
+efforts to appear calm, but now the hoarse query broke from her lips:
+"And M. le Marquis de Mortain?"
+
+Was it her own fevered fancy? But it seemed to her as if the man
+hesitated for a second or two ere he replied; he twisted his cap between
+his fingers, and a shock of unruly hair falling over his forehead hid
+the expression of his eyes.
+
+"M. de Puisaye sent orders to M. de Mortain," he said at last, "to
+defend the rear in case the commandant of the garrison got wind of the
+retreat and sent a company in pursuit. But M. de Mortain was not at his
+post then. M. de Fleurot was in command."
+
+Madame leaned her weight against the chair close by; she passed her
+tongue once or twice over her parched lips. The man was evidently
+determined not to meet her eye.
+
+"What," she asked after a while, "was the firing which I heard in the
+direction of Mortain?"
+
+"M. de Fleurot," replied Blanchet curtly, "fighting a rearguard action
+and covering the main retreat. I was in his company."
+
+"And ... what was the result ... of the action, I mean?"
+
+"I cannot say. I was taken prisoner quite early. I only heard rumours
+afterwards."
+
+"What were they?"
+
+"That our small contingent was entirely cut up ... there were some
+prisoners taken ... but it is generally believed that scarce a man
+escaped."
+
+"And ... has anything been heard of M. de Puisaye?"
+
+"No, Madame la Marquise, nothing."
+
+"Or of M. de Courson, or any of the others?"
+
+"No. But," added Blanchet significantly, as he nodded in the direction
+of the door, "I believe that Mathurin there knows something."
+
+"You think ..." began Madame involuntarily. Then she paused; something
+in the man's look--furtive and compassionate--froze the words upon her
+lips.
+
+"Can't you tell me?" she asked under her breath.
+
+"I don't know for certain, Madame la Marquise," he replied.
+
+
+IV
+
+It meant another struggle against resentment and against pride. But, in
+any case, the present uncertainty was unendurable. Denise de Mortain
+felt that she would have gone on her knees to the devil himself if he
+brought her authentic news of Laurent. She went boldly to the door, and,
+opening it, she called:
+
+"Mathurin! Are you there?"
+
+"At your orders, Madame la Marquise," replied the man.
+
+He came back into the room, reluctantly this time. He was a good
+fellow, with wife and children of his own. Temperamentally and
+traditionally he hated these Royalists--packs of rebels and intriguers,
+he called them--and he knew this haughty lady had plotted against her
+own son--M. le Maréchal--whom he adored; but there was something which
+he had yet to tell her, and in his own rough way he shrank from the
+task, feeling nothing but pity for her, because of what she was doomed
+to suffer.
+
+"The prisoner tells me," began Madame la Marquise, as calmly as she
+could, "that you can give me news of M. le Marquis de Mortain, my son.
+Is that so?"
+
+"Yes, Madame la Marquise," replied the man slowly.
+
+"Well," she asked, "why did you not give me that news at once?"
+
+Thus commanded, Mathurin could not help but obey as quickly as possible.
+He shifted from one foot to the other, and a look of real pity softened
+for a moment the rugged lines of his face.
+
+"Well, Madame la Marquise," he began, "you must know that after the
+fight with M. de Puisaye's rearguard we had several prisoners in our
+hands. M. le Maréchal took the trouble to interrogate each one
+separately. When he had finished, he ordered me to accompany him, and
+together we went to the spot where the affray had taken place. It was on
+the edge of the wood. It was then about three o'clock in the morning and
+the dawn was breaking. The place was littered with dead. I counted over
+sixty myself, among them young M. de Fleurot, whom I knew."
+
+"Yes?" said Madame la Marquise quietly, for the man had paused. She knew
+well enough what he was about to tell her. He looked her straight in the
+eyes. They expressed a query, and he nodded silently in reply. A low
+moan of pain broke from Madame's lips; she pressed her handkerchief to
+her lips to smother a louder cry.
+
+"M. le Maréchal found M. le Marquis de Mortain lying amongst the dead,"
+said Mathurin slowly after a while. "He told me to tell Madame la
+Marquise that M. Laurent must have died like a hero; he had a broken
+sword in his hand and three bullet wounds in his chest.... M. le
+Maréchal lifted him up in his arms and carried him to his horse. I
+helped to lift the body into the saddle, and M. le Maréchal ordered me
+to ride back to Mortain as fast as I could and to send out half a dozen
+men to him at once. 'When you have done that, Mathurin,' he said to me,
+'go to La Frontenay as quickly as may be, take the prisoner Jean
+Blanchet with you, and see Madame la Marquise de Mortain and
+Mademoiselle de Courson. Tell them that I have conveyed M. le Marquis to
+the Château of Courson, and that there I will await their pleasure.' And
+that is all, Madame la Marquise," concluded Mathurin clumsily, for,
+indeed, he felt overawed by the look of hopeless grief which had spread
+over Madame's marble-like face. "M. le Maréchal ordered the carriole to
+be sent for Madame la Marquise. It should be here by now."
+
+When he had finished speaking she gave him a stately nod.
+
+"I thank you, good Mathurin," she said slowly. "I pray you go back to
+your master now and tell him that Mademoiselle Fernande and I will be at
+the Château of Courson within the hour."
+
+She appeared like a statue, pale and unbending. One slender hand rested
+on the back of the chair to steady herself; the other closed tightly
+over her lace handkerchief. The kerchief round her shoulders looked less
+white than her cheeks: the golden light of a summer's morning crept in
+through the narrow window. A glorious sunshine followed on the storm of
+the night; the warm rays glinted on Madame's white hair, on her pale
+forehead and on the rings upon her fingers. Mathurin, who had been in
+Paris in the hot days of the Terror, remembered, as he looked on her,
+the martyred Queen going to her death.
+
+He gave a sign to Jean Blanchet. He would not have dared to say another
+word; he felt the majesty of this overwhelming grief, and, having made a
+profound obeisance, he and the old Chouan went out of the room.
+
+
+V
+
+Fernande's arms were round the unfortunate woman who had sunk
+half-swooning into the chair.
+
+So this was the end of it all: the sequel of so many intrigues, so many
+hopes, of the carefully-laid plans and the certainty of victory.
+Laurent, with his tempestuous, impulsive nature, had atoned with his
+life for his one hour of folly; the small band of Royalists was
+dispersed, its leaders fugitives; and a proud and self-willed woman
+would henceforth be destined to eat out her heart in vain remorse and
+regret. Callously she would have sacrificed one son, even whilst God
+decreed that He would take the other. Laurent de Mortain had fallen a
+victim to the dastardly attempt planned against his brother, just as
+much as to the unreasoning jealousy which had made him desert his post
+and forfeit his honour.
+
+Madame la Marquise was a broken old woman now; even her hatred against
+Fernande was swallowed up in the immensity of her grief. She allowed the
+young girl to attend on her, to find her mantle and hood, and then
+gently to lead her downstairs. She could not bring herself to speak to
+her, however; in her heart, beside the bitterness of self-reproach,
+there lurked the dull resentment against the woman who had ruled over
+her son's heart until the hour of his death.
+
+Half an hour later the two women, sitting side by side in the carriole,
+were driven rapidly to Courson.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+THE WHITE PIGEON
+
+
+I
+
+Fernande waited in the hall below while Madame la Marquise went upstairs
+to see the last of her son. Half a dozen men from the La Frontenay works
+formed a guard of honour for the dead.
+
+It was impossible even for Fernande, who knew her aunt so well, to guess
+at what Denise de Mortain felt. Her heart was so little capable of
+grief, that it was doubtful whether she really mourned Laurent, or
+whether pride, in that he died a hero's death, acted as a soothing balm
+upon her sorrow. When half an hour later she rejoined her niece in the
+small boudoir downstairs, she appeared outwardly quite calm, and talked
+of nothing but the new plans which already were seething in her brain,
+and which were destined to retrieve the mistakes of the night.
+
+"De Puisaye was wise," she said, "not to jeopardize his forces. They are
+practically intact, ready for a coup which must in the near future be
+successful. We fell into many grave errors this time, and we shall now
+stand in the happy position of being forewarned."
+
+Fernande thought it best to say nothing. What had been the use of
+arguing that Marshal de Maurel was also forewarned now?
+
+"I have not given up the idea of a possible seizure of the La Frontenay
+works," Madame went on in her cold and placid way, just as if all her
+schemes of the past twelve months had not culminated in the death of the
+one being in the world whom she had professed to love; "but I still
+think that my own original idea when I first came to Courson last year,
+of being in open amity with my son Ronnay, was the wisest after all. I
+must speak with your father and with de Puisaye about that."
+
+Fernande kept back, with difficulty, an exclamation of horror. More
+schemes! more intrigues! more tortuous by-paths! Was the whole of her
+young life to be linked indissolubly to this endless chain of treachery?
+Was she to be passively acquiescent--a tool, where need be--whenever
+plots were hatched that revolted her every sense of loyalty and of
+truth? Fortunately for her, Madame was too deeply engrossed in her own
+calculations to pay much attention to her, and after a while
+she--Fernande--was able to escape out of the boudoir where the
+atmosphere had already become stifling.
+
+With aching heart she bade a final adieu to Laurent--the companion of
+her childhood, the man for whom she had such a tender affection and whom
+she had never loved, but also the man to whom she would have remained
+rigidly true, despite all that he would have made her suffer.
+
+Then she went out into the park.
+
+Yet another year of neglect had gone over the terraces and the walks. It
+looked perhaps a shade more tangled, a shade more forlorn. The heavy
+rain of the night before had broken down the slender, unpruned twigs of
+the roses, and the paths were littered with young branches torn from the
+parent trees. The scent of wet earth mingled with the fragrance of
+heliotrope and white acacia; there was a riot of bird-song in the old
+chestnuts and a hum of bees in the avenue of limes.
+
+
+Fernande instinctively had wandered to the postern gate which gave on
+the apple-orchard. It was ajar, and she pushed it open and wandered out
+on the wet grass and under the apple-trees, already weighted down by
+the wealth of young fruit.
+
+From the village distant a kilomètre or so from the park gates there
+came the sound of a clock striking seven. The air was redolent with the
+scent and savour of an early summer's morning. Fernande breathed it in
+with delight. The wet leaves of the apple-trees sent down an occasional
+shower of raindrops over her hair as she passed, and now and then she
+stooped to pick a sprig of brilliant-hued wild sorrel or a clump of
+snow-white marguerites.
+
+How lovely was the world! Why should men and women plot and scheme to
+make it hideous with their own passions and their manifold treacheries?
+
+As Fernande left the orchard behind her and struck a narrow path that
+wound its way through some ripening wheat-fields, a lark rose from the
+ground close by, and its gladsome song filled the lonely wanderer's
+heart with a sudden joy. She looked around her and recalled every phase
+of that journey, which she had taken a year ago in the strong arms of
+the man who knew so well how to love. From him there had never come
+reproach, mistrust, misunderstanding. Even at the hour when she had hurt
+him most deeply, he told her that he understood, and if--after the
+events of the past night--they were destined to be for ever parted from
+one another, she would still retain the certainty that in his great and
+simple heart he would never harbour one bitter thought against her. Her
+friends and kindred, her own father, her promised husband, had hatched a
+dastardly and murderous plot against him, and for her sake he had found
+it in his heart to gather his dead brother in his arms, and bring him in
+honour and loving gentleness to his last resting-place.
+
+And Fernande, with a sudden gesture of heartfelt longing, stretched out
+her arms in the direction where the young birch and chestnut of La
+Frontenay woods gleamed through the golden haze of this midsummer
+morning.
+
+"Take me, my beloved," she murmured under her breath; "let me rest in
+your strong arms again. Let me forget the world and its intrigues and
+its treachery within the safe harbour of your sheltering love!"
+
+
+II
+
+She wandered on, almost like a sleep-walker in a happy dream; her feet
+and the hem of her gown were soaked through with the sweet-smelling
+raindrops that still clung to the grass; the wet branches of the young
+chestnuts beat against her face as she plunged into the coppice. Her
+lips were parted in a strange, elusive smile, and her eyes gazed into
+the distance, right through the thicket, as if a compelling voice was
+calling to her from afar.
+
+A soft breeze stirred the branches of the mountain-ash overhead, the
+scent of elder and acacia went to her head like wine.
+
+He was waiting for her beside the silent pool, and as soon as she saw
+him, she knew that he had called to her, and that the compelling power
+of his love had drawn her to him, through park and orchard and fields,
+in answer to his call.
+
+She stood still on the other side of the pool, and for a moment they
+looked across at one another, with the banks of moss and meadowsweet
+between them and a whole world around of love and trust and promise of
+happiness. No words could be spoken between them, because there was so
+much still that must part them for a while. He understood that well
+enough, for he always understood; but she had come to him on this the
+first morning, when his every thought, every feeling, had called to her
+to come, and now he would be satisfied to wait--that was his way--to
+wait and bide his time, knowing by the look in her eyes, by the unspoken
+avowal on her sweet lips, that she would come again.
+
+The breeze sighed among the branches of the trees, the birch whispered
+to the larch, the chestnut to the oak, and a gentle ripple stirred the
+twigs of the meadowsweet. And from somewhere within the bosom of the
+silent pool there came the soft and melancholy call of a number of
+wood-pigeons.
+
+And to this man and this woman, who stood here in a world of their own,
+a world peopled with angels and fairies and sprites, and with everything
+that is most fair and most exquisite, it seemed as if from out the pool
+there rose something ethereal, luminous and white, something that was so
+sacred and pure, that it rose straightway heavenward, and was soon
+merged with the fleecy clouds overhead, whilst the call of the fairy
+pigeons was stilled.
+
+The trance-like vision lasted only a moment. De Maurel slowly dropped on
+his knees, and above the murmurings of the wood Fernande heard the voice
+of the man she loved calling to her:
+
+"You will come to me, my beloved?"
+
+And she replied: "Very soon!"
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+_Printed at The Chapel River Press, Kingston, Surrey._
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Sheaf of Bluebells, by Baroness Emmuska Orczy
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 57774 ***