THE FOREST OF ST. AUBIN DU CORMIER.
When my thoughts took some coherence again, evening had come on, and
I found myself alone and still in a forest--alone with the
bloodhound, whose steel chain I grasped with an unyielding hand.
I heard the rising wind shaking the tops of the lofty oaks. I
remembered now, like one who, after a long and deep slumber, recals
the passages of a dream, that near the tree beneath which we found
_her_, Urbain the gardener had picked up a fur cap, which I had no
difficulty in recognising as one that had been worn by Hautois.
This furnished the dog with a scent, put us on his track, and the
livelong day we had followed it, like Indians on the trail of an
enemy.
One by one, Guillaume de Boisguiller, Urbain the gardener, Bertrand,
the old porter, the peasant, and others, had dropped behind in
weariness; but I, taking the dog in hand, inspired and endued by
revenge with thrice my natural strength, had urged the pursuit alone,
through wild thickets, up rough ravines, and across streams and
torrents, while a pale face, in awful repose, with eyes glazed and
half open, and a mouth the lips of which were two blue lines, seemed
to lead me on--and on I went, unflinchingly and unswervingly.
Gradually there came a horrid calmness to my mind--the calmness that
follows a shock--a grief too great to last; and there was something
soothing in the conviction that Hautois could not escape me; that so
surely as if I held an enchanted clue or magic wand I could track him
now, if I husbanded my strength, and I could have kissed the
ferocious dog that led me on his devious and secret track.
What had she suffered--my poor Jacqueline!--how much endured ere
death came to her release!
It may seem strange, but I had a grim satisfaction in the knowledge
that her sufferings were all over now--that she was at rest, at
peace, and that she would see how fearfully I would avenge her.
But how, was the startling question or thought which occurred to me;
for in the rapidity of my pursuit through the thickets of briars and
matted shrubs in which I had to make my way, up the rocks which I had
to climb, or down which I had to leap, the pistols had dropped from
my girdle, when or where I knew not, and thus I was--defenceless!
Yet I heeded not even this terrible conviction; my only desire was to
reach, to meet and to grapple with Hautois--weary though I was, to
grapple with him bare-handed, and trust the rest to youth and
strength, to justice and to God.
When twilight was setting in I found myself in a very wild place.
The dog was conducting me up a ravine the sides of which were covered
with vast blocks of basalt, the _débris_ of some earthquake. In rank
luxuriance the weeds and wild flowers covered them in many places.
On both sides of this wilderness of rocks grew a dense forest, the
timber of which was of several kinds; but the underwood seemed to
consist of wild apple-trees. Great mountains of rock bordered this
forest on one side; on the other it stretched away into the gloom of
evening and the obscurity of distance.
Although I knew it not, I was then in the forest of St. Aubin du
Cormier, so named from the prevalence of the _cormier_, or sorb-apple
tree--that forest through which flows the subterranean torrent which
forms one of the natural wonders of the province.
On reaching the head of the ravine, the dog led me through a mass of
brushwood, by a path so narrow that it seemed to be such a track as
the feet of wild rabbits might form, and then I found myself before a
large hut, or _chaumière_, of dilapidated aspect.
It was built of stone blocks, and heavily thatched with heather and
straw. The door, which was opened by a wooden latch of primitive
construction, was old and worm-eaten, but seemed to have been once
strong and well made. I afterwards found that a bar of oak secured
it transversely on the inside.
Arming myself with a stone, I boldly entered this hut, and found it
deserted. On the hearth there smouldered a fire of wood, turf, and
fir-cones, showing that it had been recently occupied; and by the
light of this, and the last flush of the set sun which stole through
the little window, I could observe the squalor and wretchedness of
the place. A few pots of brown ware, a couple of ricketty stools, an
old chest, a hunting-belt that hung on a nail, and a few sheepskins
that lay in a corner, as if to form a bed, were all the furniture of
this cheerless abode.
As I surveyed it, the bloodhound licked my hand with his hot,
steaming tongue, and whined, rubbed himself against me, and scented
about, as if with satisfaction; then he lay down at my feet, lashing
the floor with his thick, heavy tail, as if to inform me that we were
in the lair of Hautois--of this human panther!
But would this man return to it after the deed he had perpetrated?
I could scarcely doubt it; the _chaumière_ was in an utter
wilderness, and while lurking there he must have committed many a
crime ere this.
Would he return alone?--if not, I had perhaps only tracked him hither
to find my own doom sealed; for I was defenceless.
Resolving to possess a weapon if it could be found, I searched the
whole hut, which consisted of only two apartments, but sought in
vain. Nor stick nor bludgeon were there; so I armed myself with one
of the stools, which was certainly better than nothing.
The window of the inner room, faced the north-west, where a red light
that overspread the sky attracted my attention; for if not some
natural phenomenon, it assuredly proceeded from the flames of a vast
conflagration.
I secured the door by its bar, lest I should be taken by surprise,
and seated myself on a stool in a corner, with the dog crouching at
my feet. But to rest was impossible, amid the whirl of thought, the
mingled rage and grief that oppressed me. I felt as one in a burning
fever.
There seemed to be under and about me the ceaseless rush of water.
Was it fancy? The sound was too real for that; and it seemed to
proceed from a torrent or waterfall at the back of the _chaumière_.
I again entered the inner apartment, through the dirty and broken
lattice of which the moon, shone clearly and brightly upon the
discoloured and ill-jointed boarding of the floor. No fall of water
was visible without, but the sound of it was louder now than before.
A trap-door about three feet square arrested my attention; and on
raising it by an iron ring in its centre, I felt my flesh creep, when
far down below, in darkness and obscurity, I heard the distant
rushing of a vast torrent of water that flowed unseen down the
mountain side; and I now knew that this trap-door--the concealment of
many a crime--was merely an opening to the subterranean stream of St.
Aubin du Cormier, and that this half-ruined chaumière had been built
immediately over one of the open chasms--without a doubt for purposes
dark and nefarious.
I had scarcely let the trap-door drop from my hand, when the
bloodhound started up with a snort, and uttered a low growl. Then I
felt a wild fierce glow in my heart, and a prickly sensation pass
over every limb, when, on looking from the window, I beheld him for
whom I longed with a hate so intense and deadly; he whom I had
tracked thus far--he who had on his hands the blood of Jacqueline--he
who had her sufferings and death to atone for--was now plainly
visible as he passed through the screen of wild bushes, and
approached the hut!
The moonlight fell full upon his pale and hideous visage--his black
and matted hair. He was bareheaded, and had a pair of long pistols
and a knife in his belt, while I was weaponless and weary; but as I
grasped one of the stools I felt, in imagination, the strength of
three men pass into my poor right arm.