Which shows what a French forest was at night, and who inhabited
it.
Those whom either the love of sylvan sports, or that calm meditative
charm inherent to wood scenery, has tempted to explore the deeper
recesses of the forest, must be well aware that many particular glades
and coverts will often lie secret and undiscovered, amidst the mazes of
the leafy labyrinth, even to the eyes of those long accustomed to
investigate its most intricate windings. In those countries where forest
hunting is a frequent sport, I have more than once found myself led on
into scenes completely new, when I had fancied that long experience had
made me fully acquainted with every rood of the woodland round about,
and have often met with no small trouble in retracing the spot, although
I took all pains to observe the way thither, and fix its distinctive
marks in my memory.
In the heart of the forest of St. Germain, at a considerable distance
from any of the roads, or even by-paths of the wood, lay a deep dingle
or dell, which probably had been a gravel-pit many centuries before, and
might have furnished forth sand to strew the halls of Charlemagne, for
aught I know to the contrary. However, so many ages had elapsed since it
had been employed for such purpose, that many a stout oak had sprung,
and flourished, and withered round about it, and had left the ruins of
their once princely forms crumbling on its brink. At the time I speak
of, a considerable part of the dell itself was filled up with tangled
brush-wood, which a long hot season had stripped and withered; and over
the edge hung a quantity of dry shrubs and stunted trees, forming a
thick screen over the wild recess below.
One side, and one side only, was free of access, and this was by means
of a small sandy path winding down into the bottom of the dell, between
two deep banks, which assumed almost the appearance of cliffs as the
road descended. This little footway conducted, it is true, into the most
profound part of the hollow, but then immediately lost itself in the
thick underwood, through which none but a very practised eye would have
discovered the means of entering a deep lair of ground, sheltered by the
steep bank and its superincumbent trees on one side, and concealed by a
screen of wood on every other.
On the night I have mentioned, this well concealed retreat was tenanted
by a group of men, whose wild attire harmonized perfectly with the
rudeness of the scene around. The apparel of almost every class was
discernible among them, but each vesture plainly showed, that it had
long passed that epoch generally termed "better days;" and indeed, the
more costly had been their original nature, the greater was their
present state of degradation. So that what had once been the suit of
some gay cavalier of the court, and which doubtless had shone as such in
the circles of the bright and the fair, having since passed through the
hands of the page, who had perhaps used it to personate his master, and
the _fripier_, who had tried hard to restore it to a degree of lustre,
and the poor petitioner who had bought it and borne it second-hand to
court, and lost both his labour and his money--having passed through
these, and perhaps a thousand other hands, it had gradually acquired
that sort of undefinable tint, which ought properly to be called old-age
colour, and at present served, and only served, to keep its owner from
the winds of heaven. At the same time the buff jerkin which covered the
broad shoulders of another hard by, though it had never boasted much
finery, had escaped with only a few rusty stains from its former
intimacy with a steel cuirass, and a slight greasy gloss upon the left
side, which indicated its owner's habit of laying his hand upon his
sword.
Here, too, every sort of offensive weapon was to be met with. The long
Toledo blade with its basket hilt and black scabbard tipped with steel;
the double-handed heavy sword, which during the wars of the League had
often steaded well the troops of Henry the Fourth, when attacked by the
superior cavalry of the Dukes of Guise and Mayenne, and which had been
but little used since; the poniard, the stiletto, the heavy petronel, or
horse pistol, and the smaller girdle pistol, which had been but lately
introduced, were all to be seen, either as accompaniments to the dress
of some of the party, or scattered about on the ground, where they had
been placed for greater convenience.
The accoutrements of these denizens of the forest were kept in
countenance by every other accessory circumstance of appearance; and a
torch stuck in the sand in the midst, glared upon features which
Salvator might have loved to trace. It was not alone the negligence of
personal appearance, shown in their long dishevelled hair and untrimmed
beards, which rendered them savagely picturesque, but many a furious
passion had there written deep traces of its unbounded sway, and marked
them with that wild undefinable expression, which habitual vice and
lawless licence are sure to leave behind in their course.
At the moment I speak of, wine had been circulating very freely amongst
the robbers; for such indeed they were. Some were sleeping, either with
their hands clasped over their knees and their heads drooping down to
meet them, or stretched more at their ease under the trees, snoring loud
in answer to the wind, that whistled through the branches. Some sat
gazing with a wise sententious look on the empty gourds, many of which,
fashioned into bottles, lay scattered about upon the ground: and two or
three, who had either drunk less of the potent liquor, or whose heads
were better calculated to resist its effects than the rest, sat
clustered together singing and chatting by turns, arrived exactly at
that point of ebriety, where a man's real character shows itself,
notwithstanding all his efforts to conceal it.
The buff jerkin we have spoken of, covered the shoulders of one among
this little knot of choice spirits, who still woke to revel after sleep
had laid his leaden mace upon their companions; and it may be remarked,
that a pair of broader shoulders are rarely to be seen than those so
covered.
Wouvermans is said to have been very much puzzled by a figure in one of
his pictures, which, notwithstanding all his efforts, he could never
_keep down_ (as painters express it). Whatever he did, that one figure
was always salient, and more prominent than the artist intended; nor was
it till he had half blotted it out, that he discovered its original
defect was being too large. Something like Wouvermans' figure, the
freebooter I speak of, stood conspicuous amongst the others, from the
Herculean proportion of his limbs; but he had, in addition, other
qualities to distinguish him from the rest. His brow was broad, and of
that peculiar form to which physiognomists have attached the idea of a
strong determined spirit; at the same time, the clear sparkle of his
blue Norman eye bespoke an impetuous, but not a depraved mind.
A deep scar was apparent on his left cheek; and the wound which had been
its progenitor, was most probably the cause of a sneering turn in the
corner of his mouth, which, with a bold expression of daring confidence,
completed the mute history that his face afforded, of a life spent in
arms, or well, or ill, as circumstances prompted,--an unshrinking heart,
which dared every personal evil, and a bright but unprincipled mind,
which followed no dictates but the passions of the moment.
He was now in his gayest mood, and holding a horn in his hand, trolled
forth an old French ditty, seeming confident of pleasing, or perhaps
careless whether he pleased or not.
"Thou'rt an ass, Robin, thou'rt an ass,
To think that great men be
More gay than I that lie on the grass
Under the greenwood tree.
I tell thee no, I tell thee no,
The Great are slaves to their gilded show.
Now tell me, Robin, tell me,
Are the ceilings of gay saloons
So richly wrought as yon sky we see,
Or their glitter so bright as the moon's?
I tell thee no, I tell thee no,
The Great are slaves to their gilded show.
Say not nay, Robin, say not nay!
There is never a heart so free,
In the vest of gold, and the palace gay,
As in buff 'neath the forest tree.
I tell thee yea, I tell thee yea,
The Great were made for the poor man's prey."
So sang the owner of the buff jerkin, and his song met with more or less
applause from his companions, according to the particular humour of
each. One only amongst the freebooters seemed scarcely to participate in
the merriment. He had drunk as deeply as the rest, but he appeared
neither gay, nor stupid, nor sleepy; and while the tall Norman sang, he
cast, from time to time, a calm sneering glance upon the singer, which
showed no especial love, either for the music, or musician.
"You sing about prey," said he, as the other concluded the last stanza
of his ditty--"You sing about prey, and yet you are no great falcon,
after all; if we may judge from to-day."
"And why not, Monsieur Pierrepont Le Blanc?" demanded the Norman,
without displaying aught of ill-humour in his countenance: "though they
ought to have called you Monsieur Le Noir--Mr. Black, not Mr.
White.--Nay, do not frown, good comrade; I speak but of your beard, not
of your heart. What, art thou still grumbling, because we did not cut
the young Count's throat outright?"
"Nay, not for that," answered the other, "but because we have lost the
best man amongst us, for want of his being well seconded."
"You lie, Parbleu!" cried the Norman, drawing his sword, and fixing his
thumb upon a stain, about three inches from the point. "Did not I lend
the youth so much of my iron toothpick? and would have sent it through
him, if his horse had not carried him away. But I know you, Master
Buccaneer--You would have had me stab him behind, while Mortagne slashed
his head before. That would have been a fit task for a Norman
gentleman, and a soldier! I whose life he saved too!"
"Did you not swear, when you joined our troop," demanded the other, "to
forget every thing that went before?"
The Norman hesitated; he well remembered his oath, against which the
better feelings of his heart were perhaps sometimes rebellious. He felt,
too, confused at the direct appeal the other had made to it; and to pass
it by, he caught at the word forget, answering with a stave of the
song--
"Forget! forget! let slaves forget
The pangs and chains they bear;
The brave remember every debt
To honour, and the fair.
For these are bonds that bind us more,
Yet leave us freer than before.
"Yes, let those that can do so, forget: but I very well remember, at the
battle at Perpignan, I had charged with the advance guard, when the fire
of the enemy's musketeers, and a masked battery which began to enfilade
our line, soon threw our left flank into disorder, and a charge of
cavalry drove back De Coucy's troop. Mielleraye's standard was in the
hands of the enemy, when I and five others rallied to rescue it. A
gloomy old Spaniard fired his petronel and disabled my left arm, but
still I held the standard-pole with my right, keeping the standard
before me; but my Don drew his long Toledo, and had got the point to my
breast, just going to run it through me and standard and all, as I've
often spitted a duck's liver and a piece of bacon on a skewer; when,
turning round my head, to see if no help was near, I perceived this
young Count de Blenau's banderol, coming like lightning over the field,
and driving all before it; and blue and gold were then the best colours
that ever I saw, for they gave me new heart, and wrenching the
standard-pole round--But hark, there is the horn!"
As he spoke, the clear full note of a hunting-horn came swelling from
the south-west; and in a moment after, another, much nearer to them,
seemed to answer the first. Each, after giving breath to one solitary
note, relapsed into silence; and such of the robbers as were awake,
having listened till the signal met with a reply, bestirred themselves
to rouse their sleeping companions, and to put some face of order upon
the disarray which their revels had left behind.
"Now, Sir Norman," cried he that they distinguished by the name of Le
Blanc; "we shall see how Monseigneur rates your slackness in his cause.
Will you tell him your long story of the siege of Perpignan?"
"Pardie!" cried the other, "I care no more for him, than I do for you.
Every man that stands before me on forest ground is but a man, and I
will treat him as such."
"Ha! ha! ha!" exclaimed his companion; "it were good to see thee bully a
privy counsellor; why, thou darest as soon take a lion by the beard."
"I dare pass my sword through his heart, were there need," answered the
Norman; "but here they come,--stand you aside and let me deal with him."
Approaching steps, and a rustling sound in the thick screen of wood
already mentioned, as the long boughs were forced back by the passage
of some person along the narrow pathway, announced the arrival of those
for whom the robbers had been waiting.
"Why, it is as dark as the pit of Acheron!" cried a deep voice amongst
the trees. "Are we never to reach the light I saw from above? Oh, here
it is.--Chauvelin, hold back that bough, it has caught my cloak." As the
speaker uttered the last words, an armed servant, in Isabel and silver,
appeared at the entrance of the path, holding back the stray branches,
while Chavigni himself advanced into the circle of robbers, who stood
grouped around in strange picturesque attitudes, some advancing boldly,
as if to confront the daring stranger that thus intruded on their
haunts, some gazing with a kind of curiosity upon the being so different
from themselves, who had thus placed himself in sudden contact with
them, some lowering upon him with bended heads, like wolves when they
encounter a nobler beast of prey.
The Statesman himself advanced in silence; and, with something of a
frown upon his brow, glanced his eye firmly over every face around, nor
was there an eye amongst them that did not sink before the stern
commanding fire of his, as it rested for a moment upon the countenance
of each, seeming calmly to construe the expression of the features, and
read into the soul beneath, as we often see a student turn over the
pages of some foreign book, and collect their meaning at a glance.
"Well, Sirs," said he at length, "my knave tells me, that ye have failed
in executing my commands."
The Norman we have somewhat minutely described heretofore, now began to
excuse himself and his fellows; and was proceeding to set forth that
they had done all which came within their power and province to do, and
was also engaged in stating, that no man could do more, when Chavigni
interrupted him. "Silence!" cried he, with but little apparent respect
for these lords of the forest, "I blame ye not for not doing more than
ye could do; but how dare ye, mongrel bloodhounds, to disobey my strict
commands? and when I bade ye abstain from injuring the youth, how is it
ye have mangled him like a stag torn by the wolves?"
The Norman turned with a look of subdued triumph towards him who had
previously censured his forbearance. "Speak, speak, Le Blanc!" cried he;
"answer Monseigneur.--Well," continued he, as the other drew back, "the
truth is this, Sir Count: we were divided in opinion with respect to the
best method of fulfilling your commands, so we called a council of
war--"
"A council of war!" repeated Chavigni, his lip curling into an ineffable
sneer. "Well, proceed, proceed! You are a Norman, I presume--and
braggart, I perceive.--Proceed, Sir, proceed!"
Be it remarked, that by this time the influence of Chavigni's first
appearance had greatly worn away from the mind of the Norman. The
commanding dignity of the Statesman, though it still, in a degree,
overawed, had lost the effect of novelty; and the bold heart of the
freebooter began to reproach him for truckling to a being who was
inferior to himself, according to his estimate of human dignities--an
estimate formed not alone on personal courage, but also on personal
strength.
However, as we have said, he was, in some measure, overawed; and though
he would have done much to prove his daring in the sight of his
companions, his mind was not yet sufficiently wrought up to shake off
all respect, and he answered boldly, but calmly, "Well, Sir Count, give
me your patience, and you shall hear. But my story must be told my own
way, or not at all. We called a council of war, then, where every man
gave his opinion, and my voice was for shooting Monsieur de Blenau's
horse as he rode by, and then taking advantage of the confusion among
his lackeys, to seize upon his person, and carrying him into St.
Herman's brake, which lies between Le Croix de bois and the river--You
know where I mean, Monseigneur?"
"No, truly," answered the Statesman; "but, as I guess, some deep part of
the forest, where you could have searched him at your ease--The plan
was a good one. Why went it not forward?"
"You shall hear in good time," answered the freebooter, growing somewhat
more familiar in his tone. "As you say, St. Herman's brake is deep
enough in the forest--and if we had once housed him there, we might have
searched him from top to toe for the packet--ay, and looked in his
mouth, if we found it no where else. But the first objection was, that
an arquebuse, though a very pretty weapon, and pleasant serviceable
companion in broad brawl and battle, talks too loud for secret service,
and the noise thereof might put the Count's people on their guard before
we secured his person. However, they say '_a Norman cow can always get
over a stile_,' so I offered to do the business with yon arbalete;" and
he pointed to a steel cross-bow lying near, of that peculiar shape which
seems to unite the properties of the cross-bow and gun, propelling the
ball or bolt by means of the stiff arched spring and cord, by which
little noise is made, while the aim is rendered more certain by a long
tube similar to the barrel of a musket, through which the shot passes.
"When was I ever known to miss my aim?" continued the Norman. "Why, I
always shoot my stags in the eye, for fear of hurting the skin. However,
Mortagne--your old friend, Monsieur de Chavigni--who was a sort of band
captain amongst us, loved blood, as you know, like an unreclaimed
falcon; besides, he had some old grudge against the Count, who turned
him out of the Queen's anteroom, when he was Ancient in the Cardinal's
guard. He it was who over-ruled my proposal. He would have shot him
willingly enough, but your gentleman would not hear of that; so we
attacked the Count's train, at the turn of the road--boldly, and in the
face. Mortagne was lucky enough to get a fair cut at his head, which
slashed through his beaver, and laid his skull bare, but went no
farther, only serving to make the youth as savage as a hurt boar; for I
had only time to see his hand laid upon his sword, when its cross was
knocking against Mortagne's ribs before, and the point shining out
between his blade-bones behind. It was done in the twinkling of an eye."
"He is a gallant youth," said Chavigni; "he always was from a boy; but
where is your wounded companion?"
"Wounded!" cried the Norman. "Odds life! he's dead. It was enough to
have killed the Devil. There he lies, poor fellow, wrapped in his cloak.
Will you please to look upon him, Sir Counsellor?" and snatching up one
of the torches, he approached the spot where the dead man lay, under a
bank covered with withered brush-wood and stunted trees.
Chavigni followed with a slow step and gloomy brow, the robbers drawing
back at his approach; for though they held high birth in but little
respect, the redoubted name and fearless bearing of the Statesman had
power over even their ungoverned spirits. He, however, who had been
called Pierrepont Le Blanc by the tall Norman, twitched his companion by
the sleeve as he lighted Chavigni on. "A cowed hound, Norman!"
whispered he--"thou hast felt the lash--a cowed hound!"
The Norman glanced on him a look of fire, but passing on in silence, he
disengaged the mantle from the corpse, and displayed the face of his
dead companion, whose calm closed eyes and unruffled features might have
been supposed to picture quiet sleep, had not the ashy paleness of his
cheek, and the drop of the under-jaw, told that the soul no longer
tenanted its earthly dwelling. The bosom of the unfortunate man remained
open, in the state in which his comrades had left it, after an
ineffectual attempt to give him aid; and in the left side appeared a
small wound, where the weapon of his opponent had found entrance, so
trifling in appearance, that it seemed a marvel how so little a thing
could overthrow the prodigious strength which those limbs announced, and
rob them of that hardy spirit which animated them some few hours before.
Chavigni gazed upon him, with his arms crossed upon his breast, and for
a moment his mind wandered far into those paths, to which such a sight
naturally directs the course of our ideas, till, his thoughts losing
themselves in the uncertainty of the void before them, by a sudden
effort he recalled them to the business in which he was immediately
engaged.
"Well, he has bitterly expiated the disobedience of my commands; but
tell me," he said, turning to the Norman, who still continued to hold
the torch over the dead man, "how is it ye have dared to force my
servant to show himself, and my liveries, in this attack, contrary to my
special order?"
"That is easily told," answered the Norman, assuming a tone equally bold
and peremptory with that of the Statesman. "Thus it stands, Sir Count:
you men of quality often employ us nobility of the forest to do what you
either cannot, or dare not do for yourselves; then, if all goes well,
you pay us scantily for our pains; if it goes ill, you hang us for your
own doings. But we will have none of that. If we are to be falcons for
your game, we will risk the stroke of the heron's bill, but we will not
have our necks wrung after we have struck the prey. When your lackey was
present, it was your deed. Mark ye that, Sir Counsellor?"
"Villain, thou art insolent!" cried Chavigni, forgetting, in the height
of passion, the fearful odds against him, in case of quarrel at such a
moment. "How dare you, slave, to--"
"Villain! and slave!" cried the Norman, interrupting him, and laying his
hand on his sword. "Know, proud Sir, that I dare any thing. You are now
in the green forest, not at council-board, to prate of daring."
Chavigni's dignity, like his prudence, became lost in his anger.
"Boasting Norman coward!" cried he, "who had not even courage, when he
saw his leader slain before his face--"
The Norman threw the torch from his hand, and drew his weapon; but
Chavigni's sword sprang in a moment from the scabbard. He was, perhaps,
the best swordsman of his day; and before his servant (who advanced,
calling loudly to Lafemas to come forth from the wood where he had
remained from the first) could approach, or the robbers could show any
signs of taking part in the fray, the blades of the statesman and the
freebooter had crossed, and, maugre the Norman's vast strength, his
weapon was instantly wrenched from his hand, and, flying over the heads
of his companions, struck against the bank above.
Chavigni drew back, as if to pass his sword through the body of his
opponent; but the one moment he had been thus engaged, gave time for
reflection on the imprudence of his conduct, and calmly returning his
sword to its sheath, "Thou art no coward, after all," said he,
addressing the Norman in a softened tone of voice; "but trust me,
friend, that boasting graces but little a brave man. As for the rest, it
is no disgrace to have measured swords with Chavigni."
The Norman was one of those men so totally unaccustomed to command their
passions, that, like slaves who have thrown off their chains, each
struggles for the mastery, obtains it for a moment, and is again
deprived of power by some one more violent still.
The dignity of the Statesman's manner, the apparent generosity of his
conduct, and the degree of gentleness with which he spoke, acted upon
the feelings of the Norman, like the waves of the sea when they meet the
waters of the Dordogne, driving them back even to their very source with
irresistible violence. An unwonted tear trembled in his eye.
"Monseigneur, I have done foul wrong," said he, "in thus urging you,
when you trusted yourself amongst us. But you have punished me more by
your forbearance, than if you had passed your sword through my body."
"Ha! such thoughts in a freebooter!" cried Chavigni. "Friend, this is
not thy right trade. But what means all this smoke that gathers round
us?--Surely those bushes are on fire;--see the sparks how they rise!"
His remark called the eyes of all upon that part of the dingle, into
which the Norman had incautiously thrown his torch, on drawing his
sword upon the Statesman. Continued sparks, mingled with a thick cloud
of smoke, were rising quickly from it, showing plainly that the fire had
caught some of the dry bushes thereabout; and in a moment after a bright
flame burst forth, speedily communicating itself to the old withered
oaks round the spot, and threatening to spread destruction into the
heart of the forest.
In an instant all the robbers were engaged in the most strenuous
endeavours to extinguish the fire; but the distance, to which the vast
strength of the Norman had hurled the torch among the bushes, rendered
all access extremely difficult. No water was to be procured, and the
means they employed, that of cutting down the smaller trees and bushes
with their swords and axes, instead of opposing any obstacle to the
flames, seemed rather to accelerate their progress. From bush to bush,
from tree to tree, the impetuous element spread on, till, finding
themselves almost girt in by the fire, the heat and smoke of which were
becoming too intense for endurance, the robbers abandoned their useless
efforts to extinguish it, and hurried to gather up their scattered arms
and garments, before the flames reached the spot of their late revels.
The Norman, however, together with Chavigni and his servant, still
continued their exertions; and even Lafemas, who had come forth from his
hiding-place, gave some awkward assistance; when suddenly the Norman
stopped, put his hand to his ear, to aid his hearing amidst the cracking
of the wood and the roaring of the flames, and exclaimed, "I hear horse
upon the hill--follow me, Monseigneur. St. Patrice guide us! this is a
bad business:--follow me!" So saying, three steps brought him to the
flat below, where his companions were still engaged in gathering
together all they had left on the ground.
"Messieurs!" he cried to the robbers, "leave all useless lumber; I hear
horses coming down the hill. It must be a lieutenant of the forest, and
the _gardes champétres_, alarmed by the fire--Seek your horses,
quick!--each his own way. We meet at St. Herman's brake--You,
Monseigneur, follow me, I will be your guide; but dally not, Sir, if,
as I guess, you would rather be deemed in the Rue St. Honoré, than in
the Forest of St. Germain."
So saying, he drew aside the boughs, disclosing a path somewhat to the
right of that by which Chavigni had entered their retreat, and which
apparently led to the high sand-cliff which flanked it on the north. The
Statesman, with his servant and Lafemas, followed quickly upon his
steps, only lighted by the occasional gleam of the flames, as they
flashed and flickered through the foliage of the trees.
Having to struggle every moment with the low branches of the hazel and
the tangled briars that shot across the path, it was some time ere they
reached the bank, and there the footway they had hitherto followed
seemed to end. "Here are steps," said the Norman, in a low voice; "hold
by the boughs, Monseigneur, lest your footing fail. Here is the first
step."
The ascent was not difficult, and in a few minutes they had lost sight
of the dingle and the flames by which it was surrounded; only every now
and then, where the branches opened, a broad red light fell upon their
path, telling that the fire still raged with unabated fury. A moment or
two after, they could perceive that the track entered upon a small
savanna, on which the moon was still shining, her beams showing with a
strange sickly light, mingled as they were with the fitful gleams of the
flames and the red reflection of the sky. The whole of this small plain,
however, was quite sufficiently illuminated to allow Chavigni and his
companion to distinguish two horses fastened by their bridles to a tree
hard by; and a momentary glance convinced the Statesman, that the spot
where he and Lafemas had left their beasts, was again before him,
although he had arrived there by another and much shorter path than that
by which he had been conducted to the rendezvous.
"We have left all danger behind us, Monseigneur," said the robber, after
having carefully examined the savanna, to ascertain that no spy lurked
amongst the trees around. "The flies are all swarming round the flames.
There stand your horses--mount, and good speed attend you! Your servant
must go with me, for our beasts are not so nigh."
Chavigni whispered a word in the robber's ear, who in return bowed low,
with an air of profound respect. "I will attend your Lordship--" replied
he, "--and without fear."
"You may do so in safety," said the Statesman, and mounting his horse,
after waiting a moment for the Judge, he took his way once more towards
the high road to St. Germain.