BY FIRE.
A STRANGE stillness came over the Vézère valley that evening at sundown.
Hardly a man was about, not a sound was heard save the barking of a dog
in a farm on one side of the river, and the answer of another dog in one
on the further side. There was, however, a mysterious hiss in the air
about every dwelling and cluster of habitations. Now and then a woman
was seen, but it was to call in her children who had run out, and,
forgetful of all that had passed, had begun to play.
The sun went down in the west, painting the rocks on the left bank of
the Vézère a daffodil yellow, and then slowly a cold, death-like grey
stole over the landscape. With the sun the life had gone; and yet,
strange to say, no sooner had this dead glaze come over the face of
Nature than the human beings woke to activity and began to issue from
their houses, cautiously at first, then with greater boldness as the
shadows thickened. The men bore their reaping-hooks, their
pruning-knives strapped to the end of poles, converting them into
formidable weapons. Others had their bills thrust through their leather
belts; and every bill and knife was fresh sharpened, explaining the
significance of the strange hiss which had been in the air. It had been
caused by the grindstones and the files in every house.
Presently the men who had been standing in knots were marshalled into
two distinct parties or bands. One, armed with their extemporised
halberds and lances, remained in Ste. Soure under Ogier, whereas the
other division, laden with sacks, with casks, with loads of faggots,
passed over the river, were joined by a contingent from the left bank of
the Vézère, and proceeded to ascend the hills. Behind this party, borne
by four men, was Rossignol, lying on his bed. His wife desired to
follow, and was with difficulty restrained and sent back to take care of
her children. Silently, patiently, the men ascended the steep flanks of
the hillside, each bearing his burden; even the wounded Rossignol
endured the inevitable jerking without a murmur.
A word must here be given to explain the salient character of the
country. Originally a vast region in Périgord--the Black Périgord, as it
was called from its sombre woods and deep cleft ravines, was one plateau
of hard chalk, raised from six hundred and fifty to nine hundred feet
above the sea. At some geologic period difficult to define an immense
rush of water passed over the plain and tore every rent formed by the
upheaval of the chalk into gorge and gully, down which the furious
waters poured, scooping out the sides and tearing themselves away. The
course taken by the flood is easily recognisable by this fact--that it
has left its wash on the tops of the plateau, where to the present day
lies a film of caoline, that is to say of feldspathic clay, the produce
of the granite ranges to the north and north-east; and this caoline lies
in some places in considerable pockets, white as chalk, and only
distinguishable from chalk by the experienced eye, and lies in
sufficiently important beds to be worked and exported to porcelain
factories. Nay, more than this: on the top of these great plateaux of
chalk are strewn boulders and pebbles of volcanic production, that were
derived unmistakably from the far away Auvergne mountains.
The flood that swirled over the chalk plains not only tore them into
islets, and ate out paths through every chink, but also left the
surfaces undulating, having washed away what beds were soft and left
those which were hard.
These plateaux are more or less untenanted by human beings, because more
or less soilless. They are given over to forest or to baldness.
The ravines, the river-valleys, are walled in by precipices with gulfs
here and there in their sides where the rock has crumbled away, or
caverns have collapsed, and which allow, as lateral combes, access to
the riverside. Up such a combe did the peasants now toil, zigzagging,
corkscrewing their way, far to the rear of the headland of l'Eglise
Guillem, and wholly invisible from it.
The Captain had so far paid attention to the challenge conveyed by the
scorched glove as to give the sentinel on the gate-tower warning to be
on the alert, but he had neglected to post anyone on the top of the
cliff that overhung his eagle nest. He anticipated no danger from that
quarter, for his castle was inaccessible thence, unless, what was
inconceivable, assailants should descend on him like spiders from above,
at the end of ropes.
"Bah!" scoffed the Chieftain; "a boor! What is Del' Peyra but a country
clown? I will teach him such a lesson in a day or two as will make him
skip. There is not a Seigneur in the land will lend him half-a-dozen
horsemen."
There was, however, an incident in the past that had entirely escaped
the memory of Guillem, even if he had heard of it.
At the end of the twelfth century, a carpenter, Durand by name, had
roused the peasants to free themselves of their oppressors. What the
king could not, what the nobles would not do, that they had done. They
had assembled in great multitudes, assumed a white linen hood, called
themselves "The Brotherhood of Peace," and hoped to initiate an era of
tranquillity by massacring without mercy every _routier_ in the land.
They had butchered many thousands, had defeated them in pitched battles,
but had themselves been quelled by a combination of the nobles when they
attempted to interfere with their turbulence.
That was a matter of two centuries ago, and was not likely to be
repeated. Two hundred years of the scourge had whipped every vestige of
independence out of the peasants. The Free Companion of the fourteenth
and fifteenth century no more feared a combination against him among the
peasants than the latter anticipated a revolt in his henroost whence he
gathered his eggs. But something had occurred in the north of the
land--in France proper--the rumour of which had travelled throughout the
country, and which, dimly, feebly, had brought out the idea of national
feeling in the south--that was the great success of the French under the
Maid of Orleans. Heaven had interfered; the Saints had interested
themselves for the afflicted people, for the humbled Crown. The Spirit
of God, as in the days of old, had raised up a deliverer--and that
deliverer a woman.
The advent of the Maid of Domrémi was of the past, but not forgotten.
There was something in the story of Joan to rouse the imagination of a
lively and excitable people, and to make them believe that the time was
come when Heaven would interfere to assist their feeble arms.
The outrage committed at Ste. Soure on Rossignol, the threat hanging
over seven others, had served to rouse the peasantry of the
neighbourhood, and as one man they placed themselves under the direction
of Ogier, a Seigneur indeed, but in so small a way, as to be but a step
removed from the peasant; a man whom they could almost consider as one
of themselves, and yet sufficiently raised above them to be able to
command obedience, and not incur their jealousy.
As the train of laden men toiled up the ascent, they were joined by
charcoal-burners from the coppice with their forks, who fell in,
relieved some of the most heavily burdened and said no word. One
resolution, one hate, animated the whole mass, combined to make one
effort to shake off the detested incubus. It was marvellous how rapidly
and how quietly the conjuration had been formed.
When the body of men had reached the top of the hill and were on the
plain, they found men there awaiting them from villages beyond, animated
by the same spirit, ready to move in the same direction, and to carry
out the warfare in the same way, for they also were laden like those
from Ste. Soure.
The whole troop now advanced through the brushwood to the bare space
above the precipice where trees were scanty.
The night had become very obscure. It was hard to distinguish where the
foot could be placed in safety. The very dearth of trees, moreover,
warned the men to advance with extreme caution.
Jean del' Peyra had drawn a white sleeve over his right arm, and this
was visible in the murkiness of ever-deepening darkness. With this white
arm he gave the signals. Orders were communicated in whispers. Behind,
under the coppice, at no great distance, was a charcoal-burner's heap.
The men who attended to the steaming pile stood by it with their spades
and prongs.
Jean raised his white arm. At once those behind him in a chain did the
same. At the signal a charcoal-burner drove his fork into the fuming
mass, made an opening, and a flame shot up. Next moment a sod was cast
on the gap and the flame extinguished.
One, two, three, four--to twenty-five, counted Jean. Again he lifted
his white arm. Again the signal was telegraphed back to the
charcoal-burners, and again was an opening made and a tongue of fire
shot up, to be again instantly extinguished.
One, two, three, four--to twenty-five. A third time Jean raised his arm,
and a third time the gleam of flame mounted and was blotted out.
A pause of expectation.
Then from the valley--from the further side of the Vézère--a flash.
One, two, three, four--to twenty-five.
A second flare.
One, two, three, four--to twenty-five.
A third gleam.
"My father is ready," whispered Jean. "Now we must find the exact spot."
It is one thing to know where is a cave or, indeed, any object marking
the face of a cliff when seen from below and quite another to discover
that same cave, to find out when and where you are immediately above it
as you walk on the summit of the precipice. Every feature that marks a
site as seen from below fails when you stand above.
If this be the case in broad daylight what must it be by night?
There was but one way in which Jean del' Peyra could discover the exact
position of the Church of Guillem, and that was by being held by the
feet and extending himself, lying prostrate, over the edge of the cliff.
Leaning over the abyss he looked below and to the right and left in the
darkness, then signed to be withdrawn.
"Too much to the left!" he said.
He walked cautiously along the edge till he came to what he believed to
be the right spot. Again he was extended over the brink, and was again
out in his reckoning.
A third attempt was more successful. With a rapid wave of his hand he
signed, and was drawn back.
"I have looked down their chimney," he said, "and heard their laughter
come up with the reek, and seen the glow of their hearth. Here! build it
here!"
At once a hundred hands were engaged in piling up faggots, heaping casks
on them and emptying the sacks over the wood. These sacks had been
filled with mutton fat. Stones also were planted on the extreme edge.
The process was slow. Caution had to be used lest any of the combustible
matter should fall over before set alight, and, dropping on the
projecting roof or galleries, give the alarm.
The wall of stones erected outside the faggots served a double purpose.
In the first place it contained the masses of pine-wood and other
combustibles, and preserved them from lapse, but the main object aimed
at was, when overthrown, to break in the tiles of the roof so as to
allow the molten pitch from the barrels and the flaming tallow to run in
among the woodwork and set it on fire. But for this, there would be no
assurance of success.
Considerable time was allowed to pass. It was thought advisable not to
precipitate action, but to allow the freebooters to retire to rest.
The men seated themselves in perfect stillness on the grass and on
stones. On the inner face of the enormous pile of combustibles lay
Rossignol on his bed.
The night was without wind. Not a leaf stirred--there was not even a
whisper among the short grass--only the continuous twitter of the
crickets and, now and then from far below, yet audible at that height,
the croak of a bullfrog in a backwater of the Vézère.
The sky had been overspread with clouds, which had rendered the night
one of pitch blackness; but these dissolved. Whither they went was
inexplicable--they were not rolled away by the wind, but appeared to
evaporate, and let the stars shine through. Then, in the starlight, the
valley below became visible, and the river gleamed up, reflecting the
feeble light in the sky.
A low-lying fog formed in the valley of the Beune, and lay upon the
spongy level, like a fall of sleet.
Jean made a sign; he was again thrust forward over the edge of the
cliff, and remained for some minutes looking down and listening.
Then slowly, with upraised hand, he made the requisite signal. He was
hastily drawn back.
"All is still," he said. "The fire is nearly out."
"Then the other fire shall be kindled!" said one of the men.
"Nicole!" said Jean. "A brand."
The man addressed went to the charcoal-burner's heap. A thrill ran
through the throng. All rose to their feet; even the mutilated man on
the mattress lifted himself to a sitting posture.
Silently the men moved between the faggots and the wall of loose stones
they had raised, each armed with a stout pole.
Jean put a cow-horn to his mouth and blew a blast that rang into the
night as the blast of Judgment. Instantly the rocks and stones were
levered over the edge, and instantly the brand, spluttering and blazing,
was put into the hand of Rossignol.
It was fitting that he should light the pyre--he who had most suffered.
That was why he had been borne to the head of the cliff.
Rossignol drove the flaming torch into the mass of vine-faggots, and
instantly up leaped the flame. It ran aloft in the mass, licked and
lighted the tallow, it caressed, then exploded the casks of tar, and the
whole pyre roared as a beast ravening for its prey.
And its prey was given it.
With their forks, with staves, the whole flaming, raging mass was cast
over the edge after the avalanche of stones had been discharged.[3]
[3] The rock castles on the Vézère and the Dordogne all bear
traces of having been burnt. History is silent, but
tradition among the peasantry is very precise. They state
that it was they who, at the close of the Hundred Years'
War, ridded themselves of the Free Companies, and that they
did it by the means described in this chapter.