The heart of poor Rose d'Albret beat so fast as she sat upon the
battlements, leaning her head and arm upon the stone-work of one of
the embrasures, that she feared she would faint before De Montigni
appeared. She longed eagerly to think over all that had taken place
that morning, over her own sensations, over her past, over her future
conduct. But her ideas were all in wild confusion; and she could not
command her mind sufficiently to give them anything like order and
precision. In a few minutes, however, she heard a step; and looking
round towards the door which led across the drawbridge into the
château, she saw De Montigni advancing towards her with a quick pace.
She trembled to meet him, but yet as she gazed there was nothing stern
or harsh or cold in his countenance. It was somewhat grave, perhaps;
but still there was a light in his eyes, a look of hopefulness and
satisfaction. It was more like that of the youth, who had left her
five years before, than it had appeared since his return; and, as he
came near he held out his hand towards her, saying, "Rose!--dear
Rose!"
She could not resist the tone and the manner; but starting up at once,
she placed both her hands in his, while the warm blood of emotion
mounted up into her cheeks and forehead, and made her whole face one
glow. The next moment her eyes were drowned in tears; but De Montigni,
without noticing them, drew her arm through his, and led her towards
the further part of the rampart, while good old Estoc, with a heavy
sword by his side, appeared upon the flying bridge, and leaned over
the chains, looking into the space below.
"Dry your tears, dearest Rose," said De Montigni; "dry your tears, and
calm your heart, and listen with your whole mind to one who has always
loved you, as a boy, as a youth, as a man--one who is ready at your
slightest word to make any or every sacrifice, but to procure you one
moment's happiness."
"Oh, De Montigni!" exclaimed Rose d'Albret, "do not speak to me so
tenderly, do not speak to me so kindly, or any little calmness, any
little power over my mind that I may hope to possess, will be lost
altogether."
"Nay, that must not be, Rose," replied De Montigni; "I have need of
your full attention, dearest Rose, and I have not come here to agitate
or afflict you. I have sought this interview that we may understand
each other clearly and fully, or rather, that I may know and be quite
sure that, in anything I do, I am really consulting your wishes and
your happiness, and that you are not deceived, as I have been, in
regard to the circumstances of your position."
"Alas, De Montigni!" answered his fair companion, "I fear no
explanation can deliver me from the terrible embarrassment in which I
am placed. Indeed, indeed, I know not which way to turn or what to do.
I would give worlds, I would do anything, to restore peace to this
family, but I have no right to ask you to make sacrifices, I have no
right to injure or to distress you."
"Talk not of sacrifices, Rose," replied De Montigni in a mournful
tone; "talk not of sacrifices to me. I am ready to make any, _all_ for
your dear sake. You have nothing to do but to command, and I will
obey; but it is upon the sole condition that I know it to be for your
happiness; and first, Rose, let me beseech you to tell me, how you
conceive you stand regarding this marriage."
"I do not understand you," replied Mademoiselle d'Albret; "how do you
mean, De Montigni?"
"We have but an hour, Rose, for all that we have to say," answered De
Montigni, "therefore forgive me if I ask you plain and straightforward
questions upon subjects into which I have, perhaps, no right to
inquire; and answer me candidly and frankly--I know you will. First,
dearest Rose, is it love, or what you consider duty, that binds you to
Nicholas de Chazeul?"
"Duty, duty," replied Rose d'Albret eagerly; then placing her hand
upon her brow, she thought for an instant, and added with a melancholy
shake of the head, "Love? Ah, no! Alas, love has little to do with it,
on either side!"
"Then almost all my questions are answered, Rose," replied De
Montigni, taking her hand, and pressing it in his own.
"Nay, do not, do not, Louis," said his fair companion; "you agitate,
you alarm me. I must do my duty, De Montigni; I have promised to
endeavour to restore peace to this household. Remember, I must obey--I
must fulfil the engagement entered into by my father."
"Then, Rose d'Albret," replied the young nobleman, "you are the bride
of Louis de Montigni, and not of Nicholas de Chazeul: the bride of one
who has loved you from infancy, not of a cold and heartless villain,
who loves nothing but himself."
Rose d'Albret turned, withdrew her arm, and gazed upon him for a
moment in pale and speechless astonishment. The next moment her lips
too turned white, and she would have fallen had not her lover caught
her in his arms.
Poor De Montigni knew little of woman's heart, and could ill
distinguish between the effects of mere emotion and distress. He
carried rather than led her to the side of the wall, and seating her
in one of the embrasures, hastened to reassure her, as he thought.
"Listen to me, Rose, listen to me, dearest girl," he said; "De
Montigni is not about to take advantage of any circumstances of his
situation. It is for you, as I said just now, to command, and for me
to obey. I am ready at a word to renounce my inheritance, my rights,
my hopes--yes, Rose, even you yourself--if it be necessary for your
happiness--I forgive you for having deceived me but now. If you now
answer that you love this man, I am willing, ready to renounce all,
even my newly awakened joy, that you may be at peace. I shall soon
find repose on some field of battle."
"I have promised nothing," murmured Rose d'Albret to herself; "Thank
God, I have promised nothing! I have acquiesced in what they told me
was a duty--nothing more--Oh no, no, thank God, I have done no more;"
and she burst into a passionate flood of tears.
After a moment, however, she dried them suddenly and looked up. "What
was it you said, De Montigni?" she cried; "tell it me again! It seems
like a dream. Tell it me again. Surely you said I was not doomed to
wed Chazeul!"
Louis de Montigni gazed upon her with a look in which surprise, and
joy, and thankfulness gradually rose up like the increasing flame upon
an altar. "Oh, Rose," he said, "your words give me life. I did say you
were not doomed to wed Chazeul. Your fate depends upon your own
decision, and upon my actions, which your decision will rule. Listen
to me, dear one, and I will in a few short words explain all. We shall
have much to speak of afterwards, so mark well every point. My uncle,
the commander, will confirm all I say, if you doubt me."
"Doubt you, De Montigni? Doubt _you?_" asked Rose d'Albret, extending
her hand to him. "I'd sooner doubt myself. But speak, Louis, speak.
What have you to tell?"
"A brief tale, but a sad one," answered De Montigni. "In years long
gone, your guardian, the Count, being then married to your aunt, and
childless, the good old commander made a renunciation, on my father's
marriage, of all his claims to the estates of Liancourt in my mother's
favour. I became, therefore, the presumptive heir; and your good
father entered into a contract with my uncle, the Count, by which, in
case of his death, you were to become the ward of Monsieur de
Liancourt, and to wed the nephew to whom his estates naturally
descended. Since then, I find, the Count has been persuaded by some
persons--my aunt Jacqueline de Chazeul, I believe, and I fear the
priest also--to favour a scheme for substituting Chazeul in place of
myself. The particulars of the contract have been kept secret from you
and me. I have been sent afar till the whole plot was mature; you have
been taught to consider yourself as the promised bride of another. My
renunciation, however, was necessary, in order that, by rendering
Chazeul the heir of the estates of Liancourt, it might give validity
to your marriage with him, in the face of which stands my uncle's
contract with your father so long as the estates are entailed upon me.
For this purpose was I sent for from Italy, still kept in ignorance.
But I had never forgotten Rose d'Albret. I shrunk from signing away my
birthright without inquiry. Forgive me, Rose, forgive me, if I say I
would have done anything to obstruct--ay, even to delay for a day or
hour your marriage with another. Then came the priest to talk with me;
and from him--by a slip of the tongue I believe--I learned my claim to
the estates. In a private interview with my uncle, the commander, I
learned my whole rights, and the contract signed by your father. The
whole villanous scheme was in short exposed; and from others rather
than my own presumption, I learned to hope--what shall I say?--that
Rose d'Albret might as willingly unite her fate with the companion of
her girlhood, as with a man whom she must, when his fraud is all
discovered, in some degree condemn. Yet still, Rose, still, if your
heart leads you towards him, speak but the word! De Montigni is yours:
without you I am nothing--fortune, rank, hope, life itself, is an
empty bubble. All shall be resigned at your first bidding; and to know
I have made you happy by my own wretchedness, shall be the consolation
of my remaining days, the one sole light of a dark existence, the
friendly hand that closes my willing eyes in death. But if not--if you
have been but constrained by a cold sense of duty--if you can find
happiness with one who has always loved you--if you can give your
heart in return for passion such as you deserve--oh Rose, oh, my
beloved!"
He held out his arms to her as he spoke; the wall shaded them from
observation: he drew nearer, more near; and Rose d'Albret with a cheek
of crimson, and overflowing eyes, bent forward her head and sobbed
upon his bosom.
"Thou art mine! thou art mine! Thou dearest and best beloved," cried
De Montigni, clasping her to his heart. "But hark!" he exclaimed,
"there is the clock striking ten. We have but half an hour, Rose, to
settle all our plans. Thou art mine, however; and it shall be a strong
hand that tears thee from me."
"But, oh, De Montigni," exclaimed Rose d'Albret, withdrawing herself
from his arms and looking up with apprehension in her face, "How will
all this end? There will be strife--there may be bloodshed!"
"Fear not, dear one," answered her lover. "It is that which I would
fain avoid; and if Rose d'Albret will deign for the sake of De
Montigni, to overstep some cold proprieties, to trust herself entirely
to one in whom she has acknowledged she can confide, to fly to the
court of the King with her promised, her contracted husband, all
difficulties, all dangers will be at an end; and in our sovereign's
presence, with all the nobility of France to witness, we will pledge
our vows at the altar, let who will gainsay it."
"To fly!--Oh, Louis," cried Rose d'Albret; but the next moment she
bent down her eyes, placed her hand in his, and added in a low tone,
"But I am yours. Do with me what you will. I know you would not wrong
me."
"Not for the joy of heaven," answered De Montigni. "But it is the only
way, dear Rose, to avoid evils innumerable, strife, contention, and a
thousand black and terrible things hidden from us by the dark curtain
of the future. You must fly with me, dear Rose. You must fly with me
this very night."
"To-night!" said the young lady; "to-night, Louis?" but after a
moment's thought, she continued, "Yet it must be so, I believe.
To-morrow might be too late; and perhaps, they may not let me speak
with you again, Louis."
"If they discover the nature of our conversation most certainly they
will not," replied De Montigni; "but that we must conceal from them. I
am not one to teach you deceit, dear Rose. God forbid that you should
lose that bright candour which, to the mind, is what the hue of warm
health is to the face. But these people have dealt wrongfully with you
and me; to deliver you from their hands without long contention, there
is but one way open; and we are not bound to reveal our plans and
purposes, our views and feelings, to those who would misuse their
knowledge."
"But if they ask me?" said Rose d'Albret; "what can I do?--what can I
say?"
"Say as little as possible, my beloved," answered De Montigni. "Enter
into no particulars; merely tell them that you found me very resolute;
but add, that my decision must rest with myself, after what you have
said, and that you believe, upon due consideration of all the
circumstances, I will do what is right. Be sure too, dear Rose, that
you may safely say so; for I will do what is right to the utmost. Then
if they try to investigate more closely, boldly refuse to answer. Say
that, to tell them all the words which passed between us would be to
betray my confidence, and you will not do it. Let them not lead you on
from one thing to another, but keep your reply to as simple a
statement as possible."
"I will! I will!" replied Rose d'Albret; "I know the danger of
suffering them to entangle me in explanations or discussion."
"And particularly beware of the priest," added her lover. "He is not
honest, Rose, and has made himself their tool."
"I fear it is so," answered the young lady. "Even now he tried to
deceive me, and partly succeeded."
"Let him not do so again, dear one," said De Montigni; "but there is
another person of whom you must likewise have a care. I mean Madame de
Chazeul. She will be here soon, and though, perhaps, I judged harshly
of her while I was a boy, I find my good uncle, the commander, her own
brother, is but little more merciful to her character."
"If she be coming, I will hide myself," answered Rose. "Oh, she is a
horrible woman! I always avoid her; I always abhor her company. I
remember well things she has said that froze my blood. She scoffs at
the very thought of goodness and honour; and with her serpent-tongue
would have one believe, that no one is virtuous but in appearance; and
yet I have heard her as bitter against others for light faults, as if
she had none herself."
"She is treacherous too, as well malevolent, I find," replied De
Montigni; "therefore avoid her to-day as much as possible, dearest."
"I have a bad head-ach, Louis, with all this agitation," said Rose;
"but I am glad of it; for it will give me a fair excuse for lying down
again. Burdened with the secret now in my bosom, I would not spend a
day with that woman for the world. She would try all means, to make me
tell her everything that has passed or force me to a lie to conceal
it."
"Perhaps your plan may be the best," rejoined De Montigni; "but
remember, dear Rose, you will have to wake and rise an hour after
midnight, to fly with him who loves you."
"But how, Louis? how?" asked Mademoiselle d'Albret. "Remember in these
times the gates are guarded."
"All that is settled and laid out," replied her lover. "Only be ready,
dear one, to come with me at the hour I name. Bring little with you;
leave jewels, and clothes, and all behind. All I seek, all I desire,
is Rose herself; and though, perhaps, amidst these contentions, your
guardian may keep us long from our rights in your inheritance, yet De
Montigni has enough for himself and her he loves; and I do not think
that Rose will murmur at the want of splendour and high estate, if her
heart be satisfied with its choice."
Rose d'Albret gazed at him with a bright smile, for she could not but
contrast with pleasure, his thoughts with those of Chazeul. "I will be
ready, Louis," she said, "and I will own, a crust of bread, with one
who feels as you do, will be better to me than splendour and feasting
with another. But there is one difficulty, Louis," she added,
suddenly, while the smile passed away, and a look of apprehension took
its place. "What can I do with my maid Blanchette? I thought the girl
was honest and true, but these people have corrupted her. Every one
who approaches me seems to have been gained by some means; and, with
those who have not been so gained, they have long suffered me to have
no private conversation. Even with the good old commander himself,
since he returned hither from Paris, about two months ago, they have
not allowed me to speak for a moment without some one being present.
But Blanchette, what is to be done about Blanchette? She owned this
morning that she had received bribes from Chazeul to a considerable
extent."
De Montigni mused. "We must find some remedy, dear Rose," he replied
at length: "a person who has received one bribe will generally not
refuse another, and I must try to outbid Chazeul. But why should she
have any part in the affair? Why should she know it at all?"
"She sleeps in my ante-room," answered Rose d'Albret. "I cannot pass
out without her hearing me."
"There is the window, dearest Rose," said her lover; "it is but a few
feet above the wall; and we must try that, if other resources fail. At
all events, be at the window at one. I will come to speak to you
there, and tell you what is arranged. You must be quite ready,
however, dearest Rose; for our safety may depend upon a moment."
"My heart sinks when I think of it," replied Rose d'Albret. "But yet,
Louis--but yet, Louis," she answered, "I will not hesitate; for it is
the only way to escape from a fate, of which I now feel, for the first
lime, all the wretchedness:--but how shall I know when you are beneath
the window?"
"I will reach up and knock with the point of my sword," answered
De Montigni, "and then we must speak low, lest any one should
hear.--Hark! there are voices; the time, I suppose, is at an end.
Adieu! dearest Rose, adieu! Be ready--pray be ready; for I feel sure
that happiness will attend us. Nevertheless, let us now have grave and
serious countenances; for we must not let them see, that there are any
warmer feelings in our hearts."
"I shall not find it difficult to look grave, Louis," replied the
lady; "for it is a hard necessity that drives me to do that which I
do.--But, hark! they are surely quarreling there!"
"'Tis Estoc will not suffer Chazeul to pass, I dare say, answered De
Montigni.
"Go, Louis, go," cried Mademoiselle d'Albret; "for heaven's sake, do
not let them dispute.--Adieu! adieu!"
They were at this moment on a part of the walls which, running round
from the drawbridge we have mentioned, passed under a defence which
was called _the cavalier_, and was concealed by it from the windows of
the building, as well as from the bridge and the rest of the rampart.
De Montigni felt strongly inclined to press his fair companion to his
heart before he left her; but he wisely refrained, and looking up to
the top of _the cavalier_, he had cause to be satisfied with his own
self-command; for just above the parapet, he caught sight of part of a
man's head, evidently watching them.
Taking Rose's hand, then, he bent his head over it, whispering, "We
are watched, Rose;" adding aloud, "Farewell, then, Mademoiselle
d'Albret, I will consider all you have said," he took a step back,
bowed low, and retired along the wall.
When he came within sight of the bridge, he found that, as he had
supposed, the good old soldier had thrust himself right in the way of
Chazeul, and holding his sheathed sword in his left hand, seemed ready
to draw it if the other attempted to pass him. Chazeul was in the act
of turning to speak to some person behind; and De Montigni heard him
exclaim aloud, "Call Monsieur de Liancourt!"
The moment, however, that Estoc caught sight of the young Baron
advancing rapidly along the wall, he dropped the sword back into its
place, and suffered Chazeul to come forward. The cheek and brow of the
latter were fiery red, and his eye flashing with anger, as he
exclaimed,
"This is very modest and proper indeed, Monsieur de Montigni! Do you
forget that you are in your uncle's château, that you thus set a guard
upon his walls to prevent his family from passing?"
"To ensure, Sir, that they keep their word with me," said De Montigni.
"I am quite well aware that I have but little more right than yourself
to command in this place; however, do not let us quarrel, Chazeul," he
added with a serious air; "we have things of more serious consequence
to think of--at least I have."
"I dare say you have," replied Chazeul with a triumphant smile,
judging from his cousin's countenance that all things had gone
according to his own wishes. "Well, what is the result of your
conference?"
"Of that hereafter," answered De Montigni, passing on. "Nay, no words
at present, good Estoc," he continued; seeing the old soldier eying
Chazeul with an angry glance, "let the past be forgotten, if you would
not grieve me."
"But one warning first to this young gentleman," said Estoc; "Do not
use such words again to a French gentleman, Monsieur de Chazeul; for I
give you fair notice, that, if I be the one on whom you spend them, I
will send my sword through your body, as I have done to many a better
man than yourself before now."
"You might not find me quite tranquil under such an honour, Master
Estoc," replied Chazeul; "but I will take care that you shall be
chastised for your insolence, by those whom it may better become to
meddle with you:" and thus saying, he followed De Montigni over the
bridge and through the passage into the hall.
To say the truth, the heart of Louis de Montigni was not quite at
ease: for, how long he had been watched from _the cavalier_, and how
much of what he had said had been overheard, he could not tell. The
small part of the man's head which he had observed, did not enable him
to judge who it was that had been playing the eaves-dropper; and he
more feared the priest than any one else. But when he entered the hall
he found father Walter there, and his uncle absent; and, the moment
after, Monsieur de Liancourt himself appeared with an air of so much
satisfaction, that De Montigni's apprehensions of discovery were at an
end.
"Well, Louis," said the Count, "I trust you are satisfied, and that
you have made up your mind to yield all this idle resistance, and sign
the papers at last with a good grace."
"I have promised my reply before noon to-morrow," replied De Montigni
with a frown upon his brow; for he was not well pleased with the
pitiful art which had been used towards him. "Before I sign anything,
however, I must read the papers, and consider them well; it is but
fair to know, what I am asked to do."
"You are mightily long and deliberate, Monsieur de Montigni," said
Chazeul; "I understood that you were to make up your mind by what
Mademoiselle d'Albret thought fit to say. Now I will take it upon
myself to affirm, that she did ask you to sign them."
"You are wrong, Monsieur de Chazeul," replied his cousin, turning upon
him sternly, "she did not."
"You are too frank and noble, my son, I am sure," observed father
Walter, "to have recourse to an evasion; and we have every reason to
suppose that, if the young lady did not actually ask you to put your
hand to these documents, she did what was tantamount, and expressed
some wish that it should be so."
"I have every reason to think so too," said Monsieur de Liancourt;
"nay, indeed, I am sure of it. Come, Louis, be frank, and tell us what
she did say upon the subject."
De Montigni mused for a moment, and then replied, "Our conversation
was long, Sir, and I have neither will nor power to repeat it all; but
the only words which she used, that could at all bear the
interpretation you would give to them, were, as far as I can remember
them, these; that she would give worlds, she would do anything to
restore peace to the family, but that she had no right to ask me to
make sacrifices, or to injure or to distress me."
"I think nothing could be more plain," said father Walter; "surely, my
son, you cannot pretend to misunderstand her meaning?"
"I do not pretend to misunderstand her at all, good father," answered
the young nobleman; "and I am in no degree disposed to cavil or to
evade. I will not be hurried, however, in any of my proceedings. By
what Mademoiselle d'Albret judges best for her own happiness, I will
be guided; and, as I said before, ere noon to-morrow I shall be
prepared to act decidedly. In the meantime I require to see these
papers; and as, perhaps, it may be needful that I should have some one
with me to explain to me, while reading them, anything I do not
understand, I should wish uncle Michael, or father Walter here, or
both, to be present with me while I look over them."
"Oh, father Walter by all means!" cried Monsieur de Liancourt; "you
know my brother Michael, though as good a soldier as ever lived, is
nothing but a soldier. He does not understand these things at all."
"And I but little," rejoined the priest. "However, if Monsieur de
Montigni is content that I should be his fellow-student, I am most
willing to give him any explanation in my power."
"Madame de Chazeul is just coming into the court-yard, my lord," said
a servant, hurrying up the hall and addressing Monsieur de Liancourt.
"I must go down to receive her," exclaimed the Count. "Then it is
understood, De Montigni, that you will read the papers with father
Walter? Fix the hour yourself, and you shall have them."
Thus saying he hastened away; and, after a few minutes' more
conversation with the priest, De Montigni went in search of his uncle,
the commander, whom he found walking up and down the corridor. Father
Walter remained for an instant talking to Chazeul, but the old
commander had scarcely time to say to his nephew, "Well, boy, well, is
all settled?" and De Montigni to answer, "To my heart's content, my
dear uncle," when the step of Chazeul was heard approaching.
"Devil fly away with the fellow," said the old soldier: "when I found
that you were with our dear little Rose, I got out of his way, for
fear I should betray myself; and now here he comes again. Keep it
close, Louis, keep it close! No stratagem ever succeeded but with a
shut mouth.--Ah, Chazeul! are not you going to see your mother? She is
in the court they tell me."
"She will be here directly, Sir," replied Chazeul, "then I shall see
her;" and, attaching himself to their party, he remained for the
evident purpose of preventing any private communication between them.