The player's account of himself had interested me more than he knew,
especially that part of it which referred to the unfortunate Count de
Bagnols. There seemed something extraordinary in the chance, which
threw circumstance after circumstance of his history upon my
knowledge; and I felt a superstitious sort of feeling about it, which
was weak, I own, but which was pardonable perhaps in a mind labouring
like mine under a high degree of morbid excitement.
I fancied that I was destined to be the Count's avenger; and I felt,
at the same time, that I should be doing human nature good service in
ridding the world of such a man as the Marquis de St. Brie; nor did I
believe that the eye of Heaven could look frowningly upon so signal an
act of justice. I reasoned, finely too, upon the right of an
individual to execute that retributive punishment which either the
laws of his country were inadequate to perform, or its judges
unwilling to enforce. But where was there ever yet a deed
unsusceptible of fine reasoning to justify it to the doer? Acts well
nigh as black as the revolt of Satan have met able defenders in their
day; and in the prejudiced tribunal of my own bosom I easily found a
voice to sanction what I had already determined.
In regard to the papers of the Count de Bagnols, which had fallen into
my possession by so curious a train of circumstances, I had them still
about me; but I did not think fit to mention the circumstance to
Monsieur Achilles Lefranc, upon whose judgment I had no great reason
to rely. I determined, however, if fortune should ever permit me to
revisit my own country, to seek out the nearest relations of the
count, and to deliver the papers into their hands as an act of justice
to the memory of that unhappy nobleman; and I also felt a sort of
stern pleasure in the hope of once more measuring my sword with the
daring villain whose many detestable actions seemed to call loudly for
chastisement. There might be a touch of over-excited enthusiasm--of
that sort of exaltation of mind which men call fanaticism in religion,
and which borders upon frenzy, when it relates to the common affairs
of life, but I hope--I believe--nay, I am sure that there was no
thirst of personal revenge in that wish. I felt indignant that such a
man should have been allowed to live so long, and that neither private
vengeance nor public justice should yet have overtaken him with the
fate he so well merited; and my sensations, which were at all times
irritable enough, had been worked up, by the scenes and circumstances
I had lately gone through, to a pitch of excitement which not every
man could feel, and none perhaps can describe.
While little Achilles had been engaged in recounting his history, he
had kept close by my side, jogging on upon his ass, looking like a
less corpulent and more youthful Sancho Panza, accompanying a less
gaunt and grimly Quixote. Not that I believe my appearance had been
much improved by two such nights as I had passed, nor indeed was the
bandage round my head very ornamental; and in this respect was I but
the better qualified to represent the doughty hero of La Mancha. No
adventures, however, of any kind attended our journey; and we passed
the mountains and descended into Spain undisturbed. Towards three
o'clock, after having proceeded near ten miles in an eastern
direction, we reached a little village, which seemed a great resort of
the smugglers; for here every one of them was known, and several of
them had their habitations--if indeed such a name could be applied to
the spot where they only rested a few brief days in the intervals of
their long and frequent absences. The moment our cavalcade was seen
upon the hill above the village, a bustle made itself manifest amongst
the inhabitants; and we could perceive a boy running from house to
house spreading the glad news. A crowd of women and children assembled
in an instant, and coming out to meet us, expressed their joy with a
thousand gratulatory exclamations. The rich golden air of a spring
afternoon in Spain; the picturesque cottages covered with their young
vines, and scattered amongst the broken masses of the mountain; the
gay dresses of the Spanish mountaineers, the graceful forms of the
women and children, and the beautiful groups into which they fell as
they advanced to greet us,--all offered a lovely and interesting sight
to the eyes of a stranger. It was one of the pictures of Claude Gelée
wakened into life.
Every one sprang to the ground, and a thousand welcomes and embraces
were exchanged; the sight of which made my heart swell with feelings I
cannot describe. There were none to embrace or welcome me!
Amongst the foremost of those who came to meet us on our arrival, was
a beautiful young woman of the most delicate form and feature I ever
beheld; exquisitely lovely in every line; but so slight, so fragile,
it seemed as if the very breath of the mountain wind would have torn
her like a butterfly. She ran on, however, with a quicker step than
all the rest, and casting herself into the gigantic arms of Garcias,
gazed up in his face with a look of that tender affection not to be
mistaken, while a glistening moisture in her eye told how very, very
glad she was to see him returned in safety. She was the last person on
earth one would have imagined the wife of the fierce and daring man to
whom her fate was united. But Garcias with her was not fierce; it
seemed as if to him her tenderness was contagious; and the moment his
eye met hers, its fire sunk and softened, and it only seemed to
reflect the tender glance of her own.
After giving a delicious moment or two to the first sweet feelings of
his return, the smuggler appeared suddenly to remember me, and taking
me by the hand, he presented me to his wife as a French gentleman, to
whom he and his were indebted for much; adding, that all the
hospitality she could show me would not repay the kindness and
patronage he had received from my house. She received me with a
modesty, and a grace, and a simple elegance, I had hardly expected to
meet in an insignificant mountain village; and led the way to their
dwelling, which was by far the best in the place, not even excepting
that of the principal officer of the Spanish customs, who, somewhat to
my surprise, came out of his house to welcome back Garcias, with more
friendship than I could have supposed to exist between a smuggler and
a _douanier_.
Our arrival was the signal for feasting and merriment. Some of the
youths of the village had been very successful in the chase; and the
delicate flesh of the izzard, with fine white bread and excellent
wine, were in such abundance, that my poor little follower, Achilles
Lefranc, ate, and drank, and sang, and gesticulated, seeming to think
himself quite in the land of promise. He busied himself about
everything; and though he neither understood nor spoke one word of the
language, he was so gay, and so lively, and so well pleased himself,
that he won the goodwill of the whole village.
After affording us shelter till we had supped, as soon as the sun
began to sink behind the mountains every house in the place poured
forth its inhabitants upon a little green. In the centre stood a group
of high ash trees, under which the great majority seated themselves,
notwithstanding the disagreeable odour of the cantharides which were
buzzing about thickly amongst the branches; the rest took it in turns
to dance to the music of a guitar, which was played by the young
smuggler whose vocal powers I had already been made acquainted with.
Never in court or drawing-room did I see more grace or more beauty
than on that village green; while the awful masses of the mountains,
stretching blue and vast behind, offered a strange grand contrast to
the light figures of the gay ephemeral beings that were sporting like
butterflies before me. The mingling of the two scenes, and the calm
placidity which both tended to inspire, did not fail to find its way
to my heart, and to soothe and quiet the anguish which had not yet
left it. In the meanwhile, the musician joined his voice to the notes
of his guitar, and sang one of their village songs.
SONG.
I.
"Dance! dance! dance! Life so quick is past,
Seize ye its minutes for joy as they fly:
Existence' flowers so brief a space may last,
'Twere pity to see them but blossom and die.
II.
"Dance! dance! dance! On the roses tread,
That swift-fleeting Time shall let fall ere he go;
He's now in his spring, but full soon shall he shed
On every dark ringlet his wintry snow.
III.
"Dance! dance! dance! Cheat the heavy hours,
They're tyrants would bind us to Time's chariot fast;
Weave then a chain of gay summer flowers,
And make them our slaves while youth's reign shall last."
He had scarcely ended, and was still continuing the air upon his
guitar, when a horse's feet were heard clattering up over the stones
of the village, and in a minute or two after, a young man rode up,
dressed in a costume somewhat different from that of the villagers,
but still decidedly Spanish. On his appearance, the dance instantly
stopped, several voices crying, "It is Francisco from Lerida. He
brings news of Fernandez! What news of Fernandez?" together with a
variety of other exclamations and interrogatories, making a quantum of
noise and confusion sufficient to prevent his answering any one
distinctly for at least five minutes after his arrival. The horseman,
however, seemed but little disposed to reply to any one, slowly
dismounting from his horse with what appeared to me an air of assumed
importance.
"Ah! he is playing his old tricks," cried one of the merry boys of the
village; "he wants to frighten us about Fernandez."
"No, indeed!" cried Francisco, with a sigh; "I have, as the old
story-book goes, so often cried out _wolf!_ that perhaps you will not
believe me now when it is true: but I bring you all sad news, and with
a heavy heart I bring it. To you, my cousin, especially," he
continued, speaking to Garcias' wife, who sat beside her husband, with
her elbow leaning on his knee--"I know not well how to tell you what I
have got to relate; but I came off in speed this morning, to see what
we could all do to mend a bad business. Your brother Fernandez is now
in prison at Lerida, and I am afraid that worse may come of it."
"In prison! Why? How? What for?" exclaimed Garcias, starting up; "he
shall not be in prison long!"
"I fear me he will," replied the other, shaking his head,--"I fear me
he will, if ever he come out of it. You all know the dreadful state of
our province of Catalonia since that tyrant villain the count-duke has
filled it with the most lawless and undisciplined soldiers in Spain.
For the last three months our minds have been worked up to a pitch of
desperation which every day threatened to plunge us into anarchy and
revolt; wrong upon wrong, exaction after exaction, oppression outdoing
oppression----"
"But Fernandez--what of him?" cried Garcias. "Speak of him, Francisco.
We well know what you have endured."
"Well, then, all I can tell you of him is this," proceeded the
Catalonian, apparently not well pleased at having been interrupted in
the fine oration he was making: "as far as I could hear, for I was not
present, he interfered to prevent one of the base soldados from
maltreating a woman in the street. The soldier struck him. Fernandez
is not a man to bear a blow, and he plunged his knife some six inches
into his body. He was immediately arrested, disarmed, and carried to
the castle. If the soldier dies, he will, they say, be shot off from
one of the cannons' mouths; if he recovers, the galleys are to be
Fernandez's doom for life."
The wife of the smuggler had listened to this account of her brother's
situation without proffering a word either of inquiry or remark; but I
saw her cheek, like a withering rose, growing paler and paler as the
incautious narrator proceeded, till at length, as he mentioned the
horrible fate likely to befall the hero of his tale, she fell back
upon the turf totally insensible.
The effect of the history had been different upon Garcias; his brow
became bent as the speaker went on, it is true; but the passionate
agitation, which at first seemed to affect him, wore away, and he
assumed a cold sort of calmness, which remained uninterrupted even
upon the fainting of his wife. He raised her in his arms, however, and
bidding Francisco wait a moment till he could return, he carried her
away towards their own dwelling, accompanied by all the women of the
place, in whose care he left her. On coming back, he questioned the
Catalonian keenly to ascertain whether his brother-in-law had been in
any degree to blame; but from all the replies he could obtain, it
appeared that the conduct of the soldier had been gross and outrageous
in the extreme; that Fernandez, as they called him, had merely
interfered, when no man but a coward or a pander could have refrained,
and that he actually stabbed the soldier in defence of his own life.
Garcias made no observation, but he held his hand upon the pommel of
his sword; and every now and then his fingers clasped upon it, with a
sort of convulsive motion, which seemed to indicate that all was not
so quiet within as the tranquillity of his countenance bespoke.
"Well," said he, at length looking up to the sky, which by this time
began to show more than one twinkling star, shining like a diamond
through the blue expanse;--"well, it is too late tonight to think of
what can be done. Come, Francisco, you want both food and rest--come,
you must lodge with us. Monsieur de l'Orme," he added, turning to me,
and speaking in French, "you will find our lodging but hard, and our
fare but poor, but if you will take the best of welcomes for seasoning
to the one, and for down to the other, you could not have more of it
in a palace."
I returned home with him to his cottage; but not wishing to intrude
more than I could help upon his privacy, when I knew his wife was both
ill in body and in mind, and fearful also of interrupting any
conversation he might wish to have with his companion, I retired to a
room which had been prepared for me, and undressing myself with the
assistance of my little follower Achilles, who made a most excellent
extempore valet-de-chambre, I cast myself on the bed, hardly hoping to
sleep. A long day of fatigue had been friendly to me, however, in this
respect; and I scarcely saw my little attendant nestle himself into a
high pile of dried rosemary, with which the mountains abound, and
which, with the addition of a cloak, forms the bed of many a
mountaineer, before I was myself asleep. My slumbers remained unbroken
till I was awakened by Garcias shaking me by the arm. It was still
deep night, and starting up, I saw by the light of a lamp which he
carried, that he was completely dressed, and armed with more
precaution than even during his excursions into France.
"I have to ask your pardon, monseigneur," said he, in a low deep tone,
as soon as I was completely awake, "for thus disturbing you, and,
indeed, it was my intention not to have done so; but I am about to set
out for Lerida, and before I go, I wish to lay before you such plans
as are most feasible for your comfort and safety in Spain. In the
first place, you can remain here, if a poor village, and poor fare,
and mountain sports, may suit you; but if you do, your time may hang
heavy on your hands, and beware of lightening it with the smiles of
our women--remember, the Spaniard is jealous by nature, and
revengeful, too; and there is not a black-eyed girl in this village
that has not some one to watch and to protect her."
The blood rose in my cheek, and I replied somewhat hastily, "Were she
as unprotected as a wild flower, do you think I would take advantage
of her friendlessness? You do me wrong, Garcias; and by Heaven, were I
so willed, it would be no fear of a revengeful Spaniard would stand in
the way of my pursuit! But, as I said, you do me wrong,--great wrong!"
"Be not angry, my noble Count," replied the smuggler, with a calm
smile; "I know what youth and idleness may do with many a one, even
with the best dispositions? I warned you for your own good, and I am
not a man who values any of this earth's empty bubbles so highly as
not to say my mind when I am sure that it is right. But hear me
still:--humble as I am in station, I have one or two friends of a
higher class, and I can give you a letter to the new corregidor of
Saragossa, who will easily obtain you rank in the Spanish armies, if
you choose to employ yourself in war, which I know is the only
occupation that you nobles of France can hold."
"Not to Saragossa," replied I; "no, not to Saragossa; I cannot go
there. But you say the new corregidor; what has become of the former
one?"
"He died this last month," replied Garcias; "and a good man he
was--God rest his soul! He was much beloved by all classes of the
people. He died, they say, of grief for the loss of his only child.
But if you love not Saragossa, hark to another plan. I go to Lerida.
You can accompany me as far as the town gates, but you must not go
with me farther. You have heard of the fate of my wife's brother--he
must, he shall be saved, or I will light such a flame in Catalonia as
shall burn up these mercenary sworders by whom it is consumed, as by a
flight of devastating locusts--ay, shall burn them up like stubble!
What may come of my journey, I know not--death, perhaps, to many; and
therefore, though you may go with me to Lerida, turn off before you
enter the town, and make all speed to Barcelona, where you will find
many a vessel ready to sail for France. You will easily find your way
to Paris, where you may conceal yourself as well as if you were in
Spain; and as you will land in a different part of the country from
that where your appearance might prove dangerous to yourself, you will
run no risk of interruption in your journey; at the same time, you
will be able more easily to communicate with your family and friends,
and negotiate at the court for your pardon."
I did not hesitate in regard to which I should choose of the three
plans that Garcias propounded. At once, and without difficulty, I
fixed upon that course which, by carrying me directly to Paris, would
give me a thousand facilities that I could not possess in Spain.
Though so far from the capital, of course, a frequent communication
existed between my native province and Paris, and I thus hoped soon to
satisfy myself in regard to all the circumstances which had followed
my flight from the Château de l'Orme; I should also be in the
immediate neighbourhood of the Count de Soissons; and I doubted not,
that, by putting myself under his protection, I could easily obtain
those letters of grace which would insure me from all the painful
circumstances of a trial for murder: for although the severities which
the Cardinal de Richelieu had exercised upon the nobles, in every case
where they laid themselves open to the blow of the law, showed
evidently that my nobility would be no protection, yet, knowing little
of the politics of the court, I fancied that he would not reject the
intercession of a prince of the blood royal. There is no reason why I
should not acknowledge that, in these respects, I was most anxious
about that life which I would have cast into the most hazardous
circumstances--ay, even thrown away in any honourable manner; but to
die the death of a common felon, or even to be arraigned as one, was
what I could not bear to dream of. There is something naturally more
valuable to man than life itself--something more fearful than death;
for though my whole mind was bent on saving myself from the fate that
menaced me, at the same time with every thought came the remembrance
that it was Helen's brother I had slain--that she could never, never
be mine; and I cursed the life I struggled for.
As soon as my determination was expressed, Garcias pressed me to
hasten my movements; and as the little player had awoke, and, seeing
me about to depart, insisted on accompanying me, the next
consideration became, how to mount him, so as to enable him to keep up
with the quick pace at which we proposed to proceed. Horses, however,
were plentiful in the village; and the smuggler, although it was now
midnight, took upon himself to appropriate the beast of one of his
companions, for which I left three gold pieces as payment. I was soon
dressed; and Garcias having supplied me with some articles of apparel,
of which I stood in some need, we proceeded to the green, where we
found Francisco, who had brought the news of his kinsman's arrest,
together with the horses, and four or five of Garcias' associates,
armed like himself, and prepared to mount.
We were instantly in our saddles, and set off at all speed, greatly to
the annoyance of poor little Achilles; who, not much accustomed to
equestrian exercise, and perched upon the ridge of a tall strong
horse, looked as if he was riding the Pyrenees, and riding them ill. I
kept him close to myself, however, and contrived to maintain him in
his seat, till such time as he had in some degree got shaken into the
saddle; after which he began to feel himself more at his ease, and to
play the good horseman.
Little conversation took place on the road, the mind of Garcias
labouring evidently under a high degree of excitement, which he was
afraid might break forth if he spoke, and I myself being far too much
swallowed up in the selfishness of painful thoughts to care much about
the schemes or wishes of others. I gathered, however, from the
occasional questions which Garcias addressed to Francisco, and the
replies he received, that the whole of Catalonia was ripe for revolt;
that the sufferings of the people, and the outrages of the Castilian
soldiery, had arrived at a point no longer to be endured; and that the
murmurs and inflammatory placards which had lately been much spoken
of, were but the roarings of the volcano before an eruption. Several
private meetings of the citizens and the peasantry had been held,
Francisco observed; and at more than one of these, aid, arms,
ammunition, money, and co-operation, had been promised on the part of
France. All was ready for revolt; the pile was already laid whereon to
sacrifice to the god of liberty, and it wanted but some hand to apply
the torch.
"That hand shall be mine," muttered Garcias;--"that hand shall be
mine, if they change not their doings mightily;" and here the
conversation again dropped.
For three hours we rode on in darkness, by rough and narrow paths,
which probably we might not have passed so safely had it been day; for
we went on with that sort of fearlessness which is almost always sure
to conduct one securely through the midst of danger. Although I felt
my horse make many a slip and many a flounder as we went along, I knew
not the real state of the roads over which we passed, till I found him
plunge up to his shoulders in a pit of water that lay in the midst. By
spurring him on, however, I forced him up the other side; and shortly
after the day broke, showing what might, indeed, be called by courtesy
a road, but which seemed in truth but an old watercourse, obstructed
with large stones and deep holes, and, in short, a thousand degrees
worse in every respect than any path we had followed through the
gorges of the Pyrenees.
No feeling, I believe, is more consistently inconsistent than
cowardice. Children shut their eyes in the dark to avoid seeing
ghosts; and as long as my little companion Achilles could not exactly
discover the dangers of the path, he proceeded very boldly; but no
sooner did he perceive, by the light of the dawn, the holes, the
rocks, and the channels, which obstructed the road at every step, than
he fell into the most ludicrous trepidation, and called down upon his
head many an objurgation from Garcias for hanging behind in the worst
parts, floundering like a fish left in the shallows.
During the whole of our journey hitherto we had passed neither house
nor village, as far as I could discover; and we still went on for
about an hour before we came even to a solitary cottage, where Garcias
drew in his rein to allow our horses a little refreshment.
Here he paced up and down before the door, seemingly anxious and
impatient to proceed, knitting his brows and gnawing his lip with an
air of deep and bitter meditation. I interrupted his musings,
nevertheless, to inquire whether he could convey a few lines to their
destination, which I had written to inform my father that I was, at
least, in safety.
"To be sure," replied he hastily, taking the letter out of my hand.
"Did I not deliver the packet safely to Mademoiselle Arnault, at the
château? and doubt not I will deliver yours too, if I be alive; and if
I be dead," he added with a smile, "I will send it."
"What packet did you deliver to Mademoiselle Arnault?" demanded I,
somewhat surprised; "I never heard of any packet."
"Nay, I know not what it contained," answered the smuggler; "it was
brought to me by a friend at Jaca, and I know nothing farther than
that I delivered it truly. That is all I have to do with it, and fully
as much as any one else has."
I turned upon my heel, again feeling the proud blood of the ancient
noble rising angrily at the careless tone with which a peasant
presumed to treat my inquiries; but the overpowering passions which,
under the calm exterior of the Spaniard, were working silently but
tremendously, like an earthquake preceded by a heavy calm, levelled in
his eyes all the unsubstantial distinctions of rank. Nor did I, though
struck by a breach of habitual respect, give above a thought to the
manner of his speech; the matter of it soon occupied my whole mind,
and for the rest of the journey I was as full of musing as the
smuggler himself. A packet from Spain!--for Helen Arnault! What could
it mean? She, who had no friends, no acquaintances beyond the circle
of our own hall! A new flame was added to the fires already kindled in
my bosom; I suppose that my mind was weakened by all that I had lately
suffered, for I cannot otherwise account for the wild, vague, jealous
suspicions that took possession of me. But so it was--I was jealous!
At other times my character was anything but suspicious; but now I
pondered over the circumstance which had just reached my knowledge,
viewed it in a thousand different lights, regarded it in every aspect,
and still the jaundiced medium of my own mind communicated to Helen's
conduct a hue that, however extraordinary, it did not deserve.
With thoughts thus occupied, I scarcely perceived the length of the
way, till, as we climbed a slight eminence, Garcias pulled in his
rein, and looking forward, I perceived at no great distance a group of
towers and steeples, announcing Lerida.