It was evident, from the manner in which La Tour and the old lady,
whom we called Dame Marguelette, received me, that they had been
already made acquainted with the fact of my being there; and,
therefore, there was no degree of astonishment whatever in their
countenances, though much joy. I thought they would have devoured me;
but when the first expressions of gladness and satisfaction were over,
I remarked a great change in the appearance of the good old pastor.
The few months that I had been absent seemed to have worn and broken
him more than several years had done at a preceding period; and there
were also lines of much care and thought about his brow and eyes,
together with a melancholy expression round his mouth, which was very
painful to me to behold. Nor was my good old friend Dame Marguelette
as well-looking or as hale as when I left her. Such were my
impressions; but they, on the other hand, could hardly find words to
express how much improved I appeared to them in personal appearance
since I had quitted the chateau.
After a few minutes given to mutual gratulations, my next question, of
course, was, where was the baron, and what brought them there.
"Alas! my son," replied La Tour, "where the baron is I cannot well
tell you; but I much fear that he is in the hands of the enemy. I
trust not with his own consent; but I fully believe with the consent
and by the arrangement of the woman whom he has so madly made his
wife. But I have a long story to tell you, Henry, which will explain
the whole; and I had better tell it you at once. Alas! you little know
what a change has taken place since you were at Blancford."
He then went on to tell me all that had occurred, drawing a sad
picture of a wretched and miserable family. The baroness he depicted
as harsh, haughty, and unprincipled--capricious to such a degree that
there was no calculating upon any determination for a whole day, and
only checkering the most idle and licentious levity with occasional
fits of violent passion or long hours of gloomy sullenness. The baron,
on his part, evidently both contemned and despised her; and yet, as we
so frequently see, the woman who had acquired a tie upon him by his
passions and his vices, ruled him like a slave by his weaknesses, even
after his passions had been sated. The conduct of both to the children
of the late baroness was anything, La Tour said, but what it should
be, though towards Louise, the old man added, her father displayed
strong affection, and sought her society when he seemed to fly from
that of any one else. As to the religion of the baroness, the
Protestant minister declared his solemn belief that she had none; but
if ever she had a leaning either way, it was towards papistry. He
feared very much too, he added, he feared very much that the baron
himself was wavering in his faith. "And that fear," he added, "has
induced me to cast every other consideration behind me, and to remain
with the poor children, still to guard their minds from perversion as
far as possible."
The time since my departure thus passed, he said, in the most
comfortless state of discontent on all parts, until at length the
baron had declared, that if he could not obtain a safe conduct to
reside unmolested in Paris with his whole household, he would take
arms and join the Protestant forces.
It was the policy of the court of France at that time, by every sort
of bribe, by every promise of immunity and inducement that could be
held out, to prevent the lukewarm Protestants from joining the more
zealous ones in arms. The words of the baron were speedily noised
abroad; and with no greater space of time than was necessary for a
courier to travel post-haste from Bordeaux to Paris and from Paris to
Bordeaux, a safe conduct for the baron, and every one whose name he
chose to insert in it, arrived at the Chateau de Blancford, with the
sole condition annexed, that he should present himself at the court as
speedily as possible, where every sort of honour and distinction, the
document said, awaited him.
"His resolution was taken in a moment," continued La Tour; "and he
proposed to me, ungraciously enough indeed, that my name should be put
into the list. For the children's sake, and especially for dear
Louise's sake, I suffered it to be done: and we advanced by slow
journeys altogether till yesterday morning, when the baroness declared
that, by pushing forward to Chatelherault, and thence to Leselle, they
would put the Vienne and the Creux between them and the contending
armies, and thus pass on to Paris without interruption. All the heavy
baggage, and several of the servants and retainers, together with the
old men and women, such as myself and Dame Marguelette, were to follow
more slowly; but I yesterday heard the baroness speaking with one of
the guides who had been hired to conduct their party not long before
they went, in such a manner as to convince me that she at least would
not be ill pleased to fall into the hands of the Catholic army. They
went on; and though they promised to send back a messenger to tell us
when they had safely passed the Vienne, none has ever come near us;
and this morning we fell in with the baggage of our own army, and came
on with it, thinking that we should be in greater security."
"But where is Louise?" I cried immediately. "Have they taken her on
with them?"
"Alas! yes, my son," replied the pastor. "All the young people have
gone on; and I do not believe that the baroness will at all grieve
that they should be separated from those who have hitherto had the
charge and direction of their youth."
The tidings that I heard made me, I acknowledge, very uneasy; and I
meditated for some time without making any reply, revolving in my mind
some plan for gaining more certain information regarding my relations.
I judged that if they had followed the road towards Chatelherault and
been taken, they must have fallen in with some of the troops of the
Duke of Anjou's left wing, probably under La Vallette; and I therefore
made up my mind to make an excursion on my own right, if possible, the
next morning, and attempt to carry off some prisoners, who might give
me information. I found that the baggage of the baron and all his old
servants were in the immediate neighbourhood of the spot where they
had erected my tent, and I took care that everything should be done to
make the people comfortable.
I was somewhat uneasy, however, at not seeing good Martin Vern and his
nephew, who I knew must have remained with the baggage when the Prince
de Condé advanced. I accordingly sent out Andriot and one or two
others to find them, which was, perhaps, a difficult task; as the
wagons, and carts, and horses, and tents which formed my encampment
were spread over a very large space of ground. They were found at
length, however, in company with the Prince de Condé's intendant,
wandering about at the extreme end of the encampment, not choosing to
trust themselves without a guide in the wide chaos of all sorts of
rascals and lumber that it contained. Good Martin Vern seemed not a
little discontented with his expedition, and declared that, as soon as
he had seen the Prince de Condé on the following morning, and had
settled with him the business that brought him thither, he and his
nephew would make the best of their way to Paris.
I now bethought me that if, by the mistake or rascality of the guide,
the baggage of the Protestants had fallen into the hands of the enemy,
my whole little fortune would have been also swept away, and that I
should have been left almost in the same condition as that in which I
had joined the army. How to remedy this, and to put my treasure beyond
the chances of war, I did not know; but to consult good Martin Vern
seemed the surest plan of obtaining advice, and he immediately
proposed that I should place it in his hands, which, as he explained
to me, was the common custom with those who had floating sums of money
which they wished to put in security.
As, from all I had seen, I had not the slightest doubt of the good
man's integrity, I acceded without the slightest hesitation, but only
asked, "Are you not more likely to lose it in travelling through the
country, unprotected, than even I am in the midst of an army?"
"Not a single crown of it," he said, laughing, "Will ever go out of
this camp. The Prince de Condé will have it all, and glad to get it.
He is to receive two hundred thousand crowns at Niort from a Jewish
house with whom you yourself have had some dealings; part of the sum
is on my account, and gold and silver plate to the full amount is by
this time in my brother's hands in Paris. He will be glad enough to
have your six thousand crowns in ready money instead of my bill upon
Niort, which is the only way I should pay him. I give you an
acknowledgment for the money, payable on demand; and if you should
want it, or any part of it, you have nothing to do but to show my
acknowledgment to any banker or merchant, and draw upon me what is
called a bill of exchange. Were it not for these bills, my good young
friend, in such troublous times as the present, no merchant would
venture to stir out of his own city, for fear of being skinned alive
on account of the money on his person."
On this explanation, the money was soon sent for and readily found;
for my baggage had all been collected together round the tent, and the
ground in the immediate vicinity was kept clear by my own people.
After paying over six thousand crowns to Martin Vern, deducting the
sum that I had sent him for the redemption of the knife, there still
remained in my hands nearly five hundred crowns; and, with many
thanks, I repaid to the good pastor the sum I had borrowed from him on
quitting the Chateau of Blancford.
"I would not take it from you, my son," he said, "but I see your
exertions have been blessed with success, and that you have already
become what I may well consider enormously rich."
I would not tell him how changed my estimation of enormous riches was,
as I could not explain to him--perhaps not even to myself--the causes
of that change; but, even while we were speaking upon this subject, a
messenger from the Prince de Condé came to the tent, seeking his
intendant and Martin Vern, who accordingly sped away in all haste to
confer with that general.
"Will you let some of your men carry this gold for me?" said Martin
Vern, adding, with a smile, "This will ensure me a mighty warm
reception from his highness."
Taking care that he should have a sufficient escort, I turned when the
merchant was gone to his nephew, and asked him how he relished the
thoughts of this immediate journey to Paris, and whether his military
ardour was or was not at an end. To my surprise, however, I found that
he was as much changed in some of his feelings as I was in some of
mine; and for the first time I learned the cause of his whole conduct.
"You must know," he said, "That when I was living in Bordeaux, not
long before my father's death, we became acquainted with a merchant's
widow and her daughter, so well to do in the world that it was
proposed I should marry the young lady. She was very beautiful, and I
fancied myself in love with her. Indeed, I believe I was so; but she
had got her head filled with ideas of battles and military glory; and
though she coquetted with me a good deal, and gave me every
encouragement, so as to raise my passion to the highest pitch, yet she
declared that she would never give her hand to any one but a soldier,
or one, at least, who had seen some service. If I would go and fight,
she said, for two or three campaigns, she liked me well enough to
promise to marry me; but she would not upon any other conditions. My
father was so enraged that he broke off the match altogether; and,
dying shortly after, left me under the charge of my uncle, who was
even more averse to it than himself.
"Of course I could not see with their eyes at first, and thought of
nothing but how beautiful she was; but afterward, when I had done
quite enough to show that it was not fear prevented me from being a
soldier, and was lying at Angoulême in sickness and in pain, I began
to think that she must have been a very selfish and inconsiderate
person, to wish me to expose myself to such things for the mere
gratification of her vanity. If she loved me at all, she ought to have
loved me sufficiently as I was--plain Martin Vern; and if she did not
love me as I was, and could love nothing but a soldier, why, a soldier
let her have. As time went by--and I had plenty of opportunity of
thinking, as you know--I began to find out that I had not loved her as
much as I thought; and not at all doubting that the quality she most
loved in a soldier was a slashed pourpoint and the feather in his cap,
I began to think the only quality I had liked in her was a pair of
rosy lips and a pink and white complexion; and therefore, as soon as
my uncle proposed it, I expressed myself quite satisfied to go on with
him to Paris."
There was something amusing to me in the sort of debtor and creditor
account the young man seemed to keep with his own heart; but as it was
now beginning to wax late, I did my best to provide accommodation for
all the friends around me; and telling La Tour that I had a scheme for
gaining some information the next morning concerning the baron and his
party, I led him to another tent, leaving good Dame Marguelette where
she was, and for my own part took a station by one of the watch-fires
for the night.
The complete knowledge that we have of any little stratagem that we
attempt makes us always fear more than necessary that it will be
suspected by others; but on the present occasion I was not wrong in
supposing that an attempt might be made to discover the amount of our
force upon these heights. It was even probable that the extent of
ground which we occupied might create suspicion, as the position of
the admiral and the Prince de Condé was accurately known; and it was
not probable that they should weaken themselves by making a large
detachment occupy that hill. However, I caused a number of saddled
horses and armed men to wait at the point where our camp was most
easily approached, and I remained by the side of the fire, wrapped in
my cloak, dozing perhaps a little, but more frequently gazing upon the
red embers, and thinking of the fate of my sweet cousin Louise.
Moric Endem, who had kept watch there during my absence, left me in
about half an hour, to get some refreshment. It was long ere he
returned; and, indeed, I cannot say that good Moric was ever famous
for shortening his potations. When he did come back, he cast himself
down at the other side of the fire, and fell as sound asleep on the
hard ground, in the face of the enemy, as if he had been it the
warmest bed of a well-fenced chateau. About five o'clock in the
morning, having no more wood to trim the fire, which was beginning to
grow very dull, I rose up and went out beyond the barricade which we
had constructed, gazing up at the stars, which were shining in all the
clear brightness of a frosty night.
As I so gazed I thought I heard sounds from below; and, looking down
the slope, I clearly saw a body of horse and foot advancing slowly and
silently towards our little camp. Going back quietly, but in haste, I
woke Moric Endem, got the men together without any noise, stationed
the arquebusiers among the carts and wagons, with directions for no
one to fire till the general order should be given; and then causing
my troopers to mount, I brought them close to the spot by which they
could issue forth upon the enemy. I could there also see the Catholics
as they approached; and, suffering them to advance till within the
distance of sixty yards from the camp, I stood a little forward, like
a sentinel, and challenged them. They made no answer, but only
quickened their pace; but then, instead of discharging my arquebus,
and leaving any one who liked it to follow my example, as a common
sentinel would have done, I gave the word to fire, and in a moment a
line of sharp flashes ran along the face of the carts and wagons, and,
springing on my horse, I led out the men, and charged the advancing
body down the hill. As well as I could see, I singled out their
commander, with the hope of making him prisoner, for the body was
evidently nothing more than a reconnoitring party, and not much
stronger numerically than my own.
The surprise--for they had not calculated upon such a reception--the
darkness, to fight in which they were altogether unaccustomed; and, as
I imagine, a want of complete knowledge of the ground, rendered the
resistance of the enemy but momentary; and we drove infantry and
cavalry down the hill together at the point of the spear, bearing to
the Catholic camp, and to Martigue, who had sent them, a somewhat
exaggerated account, I have a notion, of the strength upon the hill. I
somehow missed the commander in the dark; but I struck one man from
his horse as he fled with the staff of my lance, and then pointing the
iron to his throat, made him surrender, rescue or no rescue, and gave
him into the hands of the people who followed. We pursued the
reconnoitring party as far, or perhaps farther, than it was prudent;
and then returning, had the prisoner brought up to a somewhat better
lighted fire than the one I had been sitting at, and asked him the
questions which I had proposed.
I found that he was a common soldier, though of good family; and on my
inquiring strictly in regard to the Baron de Blancford and his party,
he said that he had heard a report in the corps to which he belonged
of that nobleman having either come in and surrendered himself, or
being made prisoner, with a promise of safety, by some of the roving
parties of the left wing. He described to me pretty accurately the
part of the camp where he imagined the baron to be lodged; and as his
own regiment could not be far from the spot, I took it for granted
that he was right. I then put him at a small ransom for the sake of
the men, and let him go upon parole; having taken especial care that
he should see nothing around him but the grim faces of steel-clad
horsemen, and the lighted matches of the arquebusiers.
By the time that all this was accomplished the eastern sky was
beginning to grow gray, and a faint buzzing, murmuring sound seemed to
me to indicate some early movement in the enemy's camp, although the
light was not yet sufficiently strong for any eye to discern what was
taking place. The murmur increased and grew louder; but of course I
could make no attempt under such circumstances without orders, and I
sent down a messenger immediately to tell the Prince de Condé what had
occurred, and to ask for his instant commands. The reply was short,
and written on a scrap of paper with a piece of black chalk.
"I think the enemy are decamping," it said: "if it should prove so,
take what men you have as soon as it is daylight, and hang upon the
rear. You shall be joined by fifty more as speedily as possible--all
under your command. But be not too rash; for it is now determined not
to risk a battle till the season is more advanced."
Before the messenger with this notification reached me, what the
Prince de Condé had foreseen had become evident. By the gray light of
the morning I could see the spears of the retreating army already
winding along the opposite hill, within two miles of the outposts of
the admiral. There was a thick, white mist in the valley, however,
which covered the Catholic camp, and prevented me from perceiving what
had taken place there; but I judged, from the distance at which the
cavalry were now seen, that their retreat might be considered as
secure.
Giving orders to Moric Endem to get every man that he could muster
under arms as fast possible, I ran to the tent of good old La Tour,
and besought him not to quit the army till my return, promising to
bring or send some news of the baron and his family, if possible.
Martin Vern I had not an opportunity of seeing, though I trusted, as
he had all my little wealth, and had not even given me such a receipt
as he had promised, that I should find him on my return. Not that I in
the slightest degree doubted his honesty or honour, but that I knew I
might have need of a part of what I had given him at a moment's
notice. No time, however, was now to be lost; and, getting into the
saddle as speedily as possible, I put myself at the head of my men and
of the horse arquebusiers, and dashed down into the enemy's camp at
full speed. A portion of the baggage, and that in some degree
valuable, was left; and Moric Endem, whom I had christened the
plunder-master-general, as he conducted all that part of our military
proceedings, made a goodly booty in less than half an hour.
Ere we reached the end of the valley in pursuit, a body of fifty more
spears joined us, sent, according to his promise, by the Prince de
Condé, from whom I received, by their leader, an order to follow the
enemy as far as possible, and not to leave them, unless I was
compelled, till they were two days' march from their former camp. I
had neither tents nor any other kind of baggage with me, and for a
moment thought of sending back to bid the servants and horseboys
follow; but recollecting of how much importance it was to lose no
time, I urged on the pursuit, and speedily overtook a small body
straggling from the rear-guard, whom we drove in upon the rest at the
point of the spear.
The appearance of the horse-arquebusiers behind us, for they had not
been quite so rapid in their movements as we were, gave the idea of a
much more considerable body of pursuers than really followed the
enemy; and a small troop of cavalry faced about and charged. Among
them was one who seemed a mere youth; but the whole were routed in a
moment, and the lad, thrown to the ground, was absolutely under my
horse's feet. How he escaped unhurt I do not know; but I helped him to
rise, and, scarcely thinking what I did, but looking on him as a mere
child, I bade him remount his horse and get back to his own people as
fast as he could. He took me at my word, and I did not see him again,
though more than once during the rest of the day we met a body of the
enemy in pretty sharp encounter.
On that night I slept at a small village somewhat in the rear of the
enemy, and on the following day found it necessary to follow the
pursuit somewhat more cautiously; for here we were, in all not one
hundred and twenty men, nearly thirty miles distant from the
Protestant army, and without anything to fall back upon nearer than
that. To cut off stragglers, therefore, was all that we could do; but
towards evening we took some prisoners, from whom I learned tidings
that I was anxious to obtain.
The Duke of Anjou had by this time halted and encamped for the night;
and the prisoners informed me that they belonged to the regiment of
Monsieur de la Valette. On questioning them concerning the Baron de
Blancford, one of them, who seemed their leader, informed me that that
gentleman and all his family were detained as prisoners by the Duke of
Montpensier. He seemed a somewhat willing prisoner, the man added, and
was not guarded at all strictly, but left under the eyes of the
Marquis de la Valette and his regiment. Their tents, he said, were on
the extreme verge of the camp, to the right of the line of march; and
the ease of carrying off the whole party seemed to me so great, that I
determined to make the attempt that night.
We were still at some distance from the camp; but, to make the attempt
more secure, I retired a little farther still, to a village called
Scorbe, and there remained quiet, waiting with not a little impatience
for the first hour of night, which, as I well knew, is of all others
the time when a camp is left most exposed; when the men, first feeling
themselves relieved from the vigilance, activity, and labour of the
day, are thrown more completely off their guard than at any other
period.
Here, in the mean time, I made all my arrangements with Moric Endem
and the leader of the arquebusiers. The prisoners were safely locked
up in a barn belonging to a neighbouring farm, and their horses,
appropriated to our use, were destined to act a part which will
speedily be seen.