Meanwhile Angele had gone through many phases of alternate hope and
despair. She knew that Montgomery the Camisard was dead, and a rumour,
carried by refugees, reached her that De la Foret had been with him to
the end. To this was presently added the word that De la Foret had been
beheaded. But one day she learned that the Comtesse de Montgomery
was sheltered by the Governor, Sir Hugh Pawlett, her kinsman, at Mont
Orgueil Castle. Thither she went in fear from her refuge at Rozel, and
was admitted to the Comtesse. There she learned the joyful truth that De
la Foret had not been slain, and was in hiding on the coast of Normandy.
The long waiting was a sore trial, yet laughter was often upon her
lips henceforth. The peasants, the farmers and fishermen of Jersey,
at first--as they have ever been--little inclined towards strangers,
learned at last to look for her in the fields and upon the shore, and
laughed in response, they knew not why, to the quick smiling of
her eyes. She even learned to speak their unmusical but friendly
Norman-Jersey French. There were at least a half-dozen fishermen who,
for her, would have gone at night straight to the Witches’ Rock in St.
Clement’s Bay--and this was bravery unmatched.
It came to be known along the coast that “Ma’m’selle” was waiting for a
lover fleeing from the French coast. This gave her fresh interest in the
eyes of the serfs and sailors and their women folk, who at first were
not inclined towards the Huguenot maiden, partly because she was French,
and partly because she was not a Catholic. But even these, when they saw
that she never talked religiously, that she was fast learning to speak
their own homely patois, and that in the sickness of their children she
was untiring in her kindness, forgave the austerity of the gloomy-browed
old man her father, who spoke to them distantly, or never spoke at all;
and her position was secure. Then, upon the other hand, the gentry of
the manors, seeing the friendship grow between her and the Comtesse de
Montgomery at Mont Orgueil Castle, made courteous advances towards her
father, and towards herself through him.
She could scarce have counted the number of times she climbed the great
hill like a fortress at the lift of the little bay of Rozel, and from
the Nez du Guet scanned the sea for a sail and the sky for fair weather.
When her eyes were not thus busy, they were searching the lee of the
hillside round for yellow lilies, and the valley below for the campion,
the daffodil, and the thousand pretty ferns growing in profusion there.
Every night she looked out to see that her signal fire was lit upon the
Nez du Guet, and she never went to bed without taking one last look over
the sea, in the restless inveterate hope which at once sustained her and
devoured her.
But the longest waiting must end. It came on the evening of the very day
that the Seigneur of Rozel went to Angele’s father and bluntly told him
he was ready to forego all Norman-Jersey prejudice against the French
and the Huguenot religion, and take Angele to wife without penny or
estate.
In reply to the Seigneur, Monsieur Aubert said that he was conscious of
an honour, and referred Monsieur to his daughter, who must answer for
herself; but he must tell Monsieur of Rozel that Monsieur’s religion
would, in his own sight, be a high bar to the union. To that the
Seigneur said that no religion that he had could be a bar to anything at
all; and so long as the young lady could manage her household, drive a
good bargain with the craftsmen and hucksters, and have the handsomest
face and manners in the Channel Islands, he’d ask no more; and she might
pray for him and his salvation without let or hindrance.
The Seigneur found the young lady in a little retreat among the rocks,
called by the natives La Chaire. Here she sat sewing upon some coarse
linen for a poor fisherwoman’s babe when the Seigneur came near. She
heard the scrunch of his heels upon the gravel, the clank of his sword
upon the rocks, and looked up with a flush, her needle poised; for none
should know of her presence in this place save her father. When she saw
who was her visitor, she rose. After greeting and compliment, none too
finely put, but more generous than fitted with Jersey parsimony, the
gentleman of Rozel came at once to the point.
“My name is none too bad,” said he--“Raoul Lempriere, of the Lemprieres
that have been here since Rollo ruled in Normandy. My estate is none
worse than any in the whole islands; I have more horses and dogs than
any gentleman of my acres; and I am more in favour at court than De
Carteret of St. Ouen’s. I am the Queen’s butler, and I am the first that
royal favour granted to set up three dove-cotes, one by St. Aubin’s, one
by St. Helier’s, and one at Rozel: and--and,” he added, with a lumbering
attempt at humour--“and, on my oath, I’ll set up another dove-cote with
out my sovereign’s favour, with your leave alone. By our Lady, I do
love that colour in yon cheek! Just such a colour had my mother when
she snatched from the head of my cousin of Carteret’s milk-maid wife
the bonnet of a lady of quality and bade her get to her heifers. God’s
beauty! but ‘tis a colour of red primroses in thy cheeks and blue
campions in thine eyes. Come, I warrant I can deepen that colour”--he
bowed low--“Madame of Rozel, if it be not too soon!”
The girl listened to this cheerful and loquacious proposal and courtship
all in one, ending with the premature bestowal of a title, in mingled
anger, amusement, disdain, and apprehension. Her heart fluttered, then
stood still, then flew up in her throat, then grew terribly hot and hurt
her, so that she pressed her hand to her bosom as though that might ease
it. By the time he had finished, drawn himself up, and struck his foot
upon the ground in burly emphasis of his devoted statements, the girl
had sufficiently recovered to answer him composedly, and with a little
glint of demure humour in her eyes. She loved another man; she did
not care so much as a spark for this happy, swearing, swashbuckling
gentleman; yet she saw he had meant to do her honour. He had treated her
as courteously as was in him to do; he chose her out from all the ladies
of his acquaintance to make her an honest offer of his hand--he had
said nothing about his heart; he would, should she marry him, throw her
scraps of good-humour, bearish tenderness, drink to her health among his
fellows, and respect and admire her--even exalt her almost to the rank
of a man in his own eyes; and he had the tolerance of the open-hearted
and open-handed man. All these things were as much a compliment to
her as though she were not a despised Huguenot, an exiled lady of no
fortune. She looked at him a moment with an almost solemn intensity, so
that he shifted his ground uneasily, but at once smiled encouragingly,
to relieve her embarrassment at the unexpected honour done her. She had
remained standing; now, as he made a step towards her, she sank down
upon the seat, and waved him back courteously.
“A moment, Monsieur of Rozel,” she ventured. “Did my father send you to
me?”
He inclined his head and smiled again.
“Did you say to him what you have said to me?” she asked, not quite
without a touch of malice.
“I left out about the colour in the cheek,” he answered, with a smirk at
what he took to be the quickness of his wit.
“You kept your paint-pot for me,” she replied softly.
“And the dove-cote, too,” he rejoined, bowing finely, and almost carried
off his feet by his own brilliance. She became serious at once--so
quickly that he was ill prepared for it, and could do little but stare
and pluck at the tassel of his sword; for he was embarrassed before this
maiden, who changed as quickly as the currents change under the brow of
the Couperon Cliff, behind which lay his manor-house of Rozel.
“I have visited at your manor, Monsieur of Rozel. I have seen the state
in which you live, your retainers, your men-at-arms, your farming-folk,
and your sailormen. I know how your Queen receives you; how your honour
is as stable as your fief.”
He drew himself up again proudly. He could understand this speech.
“Your horses and your hounds I have seen,” she added, “your men-servants
and your maid-servants, your fields of corn, your orchards, and your
larder. I have sometimes broken the Commandment and coveted them and
envied you.”
“Break the Commandment again, for the last time,” he cried, delighted
and boisterous. “Let us not waste words, lady. Let’s kiss and have it
over.”
Her eyes flashed. “I coveted them and envied you; but then, I am but a
vain girl at times, and vanity is easier to me than humbleness.”
“Blood of man, but I cannot understand so various a creature!” he broke
in, again puzzled.
“There is a little chapel in the dell beside your manor, Monsieur. If
you will go there, and get upon your knees, and pray till the candles no
more burn, and the Popish images crumble in their places, you will yet
never understand myself or any woman.”
“There’s no question of Popish images between us,” he answered, vainly
trying for foothold. “Pray as you please, and I’ll see no harm comes to
the Mistress of Rozel.”
He was out of his bearings and impatient. Religion to him was a dull
recreation invented chiefly for women. She became plain enough now.
“‘Tis no images nor religion that stands between us,” she answered,
“though they might well do so. It is that I do not love you, Monsieur of
Rozel.”
His face, which had slowly clouded, suddenly cleared. “Love! Love!” He
laughed good-humouredly. “Love comes, I’m told, with marriage. But we
can do well enough without fugling on that pipe. Come, come, dost think
I’m not a proper man and a gentleman? Dost think I’ll not use thee well
and ‘fend thee, Huguenot though thou art, ‘gainst trouble or fret or any
man’s persecutions--be he my Lord Bishop, my Lord Chancellor, or King of
France, or any other?”
She came a step closer to him, even as though she would lay a hand upon
his arm. “I believe that you would do all that in you lay,” she answered
steadily. “Yours is a rough wooing, but it is honest--”
“Rough! Rough!” he protested, for he thought he had behaved like some
Adonis. Was it not ten years only since he had been at Court!
“Be assured, Monsieur, that I know how to prize the man who speaks after
the light given him. I know that you are a brave and valorous gentleman.
I must thank you most truly and heartily, but, Monsieur, you and yours
are not for me. Seek elsewhere, among your own people, in your own
religion and language and position, the Mistress of Rozel.”
He was dumfounded. Now he comprehended the plain fact that he had been
declined.
“You send me packing!” he blurted out, getting red in the face.
“Ah, no! Say it is my misfortune that I cannot give myself the great
honour,” she said; in her tone a little disdainful dryness, a little
pity, a little feeling that here was a good friend lost.
“It’s not because of the French soldier that was with Montgomery at
Domfront?--I’ve heard that story. But he’s gone to heaven, and ‘tis vain
crying for last year’s breath,” he added, with proud philosophy.
“He is not dead. And if he were,” she added, “do you think, Monsieur,
that we should find it easier to cross the gulf between us?”
“Tut, tut, that bugbear Love!” he said shortly. “And so you’d lose a
good friend for a dead lover? I’ faith, I’d befriend thee well if thou
wert my wife, Ma’m’selle.”
“It is hard for those who need friends to lose them,” she answered
sadly.
The sorrow of her position crept in upon her and filled her eyes with
tears. She turned them to the sea-instinctively towards that point on
the shore where she thought it likely Michel might be; as though by
looking she might find comfort and support in this hard hour.
Even as she gazed into the soft afternoon light she could see, far over,
a little sail standing out towards the Ecrehos. Not once in six months
might the coast of France be seen so clearly. One might almost have
noted people walking on the beach. This was no good token, for when that
coast may be seen with great distinctness a storm follows hard after.
The girl knew this; and though she could not know that this was Michel
de la Foret’s boat, the possibility fixed itself in her mind. She
quickly scanned the horizon. Yes, there in the north-west was gathering
a dark-blue haze, hanging like small filmy curtains in the sky.
The Seigneur of Rozel presently broke the silence so awkward for him. He
had seen the tears in her eyes, and though he could not guess the cause,
he vaguely thought it might be due to his announcement that she had
lost a friend. He was magnanimous at once, and he meant what he said and
would stand by it through thick and thin.
“Well, well, I’ll be thy everlasting friend if not thy husband,” he said
with ornate generosity. “Cheer thy heart, lady.”
With a sudden impulse she seized his hand and kissed it, and, turning,
ran swiftly down the rocks towards her home.
He stood and looked after her, then, dumfounded, at the hand she had
kissed.
“Blood of my heart!” he said, and shook his head in utter amazement.
Then he turned and looked out upon the Channel. He saw the little boat
Angele had descried making from France. Glancing at the sky, “What fools
come there!” he said anxiously.
They were Michel de la Foret and Buonespoir the pirate, in a
black-bellied cutter with red sails.