The old syndic did not seem to know much more of his visitor than Edward
Langdale; but he called him Master Jean Baptiste, and asked him what
news from Niort.
"Nothing very good, monsieur," answered the stranger: "half a league
more of the Papist lines is finished, and it is hard to get through. It
was all done so quick and so quietly, no one knew any thing of it till
the day before yesterday, when some troops and a large supply of flour
were sent down to Ferriac."
"And where is the king himself?" demanded Clement Tournon, somewhat
anxiously.
"He is still at Nantes," replied the visitor. "But I want some talk with
you, Mr. Syndic, when I can have it alone; and it must be to-night,
too, for I have to go on by to-morrow at daybreak, if I can get a boat."
The old man at once raised a candlestick from the table and led the
stranger into another room, while Lucette and Edward remained together.
Now, the most natural thing in the world for a young lad between sixteen
and seventeen, and a young girl a year or two younger, when so thrown
upon their own resources, would have been to make love, or, at least, to
fall into it; and there was also a strong incentive in the gratitude
Edward felt for all Lucette's kind nursing and all the interest which
Lucette had taken in his illness and recovery. But the truth must be
told. They did not make love in any of the many ways in which that
article is prepared in any of the kingdoms of the earth. Moreover, they
did not fall in love in the least. I am sorry for it; for of all the
sweet and charming things which this world produces, that which is
scornfully called calf's love is the sweetest and most charming. If it
has really any thing to do with a calf at all, it is the sweetbread. Oh,
that early love! that early love! how pure, and tender, and soft, and
timid, and bright, and fragrant, it is! It is the opening of the
rose-bud of life, which may in after-times display warmer colors, give
forth more intense odor, but loses in delicacy and grace with every
petal that unfolds. But, as I have said, the truth must be told. They
neither talked of love nor thought of love, although Lucette was very
beautiful and believed Edward Langdale to be very handsome. She merely
made him describe to her the scenes in which his youth had been spent.
She talked to him of his mother, too; and he told her how sweetly that
mother had sung, and said to her that Lady Langdale's voice was very
like her own; and then he besought her to sing to him again; and she
sang to please him; and they fell into thought, and spoke of a thousand
things more, in which the reader would take no manner of interest, but
which interested them so much that, when Clement Tournon returned, they
fancied he had been gone but a few minutes; and he had been absent an
hour and a half.
His visitor did not come back with him, for he had taken some supper
and retired to rest; but the good old syndic's brow was gloomy, and the
news he had received, whatever it was, did not seem to have been very
favorable.
"To bed, to bed, Lucette!" said the old man: "we must not keep Master
Ned up late o' night. He will soon have to go travelling again; and he
must gather strength."
Lucette did not receive the intelligence that Ned must soon depart very
sadly, though she would have very well liked him to stay. She laughed
and kissed the old man, and ran away; but the syndic silently took hold
of the youth's hand and prevented him from retiring till the bright girl
was gone. "Stay a minute," he said, at length. "I have something to
speak to you about. How do you feel your strength and health to-night?"
"Oh, much improved," replied Master Ned. "I shall be as strong as ever
in a couple of days."
"That is well! that is well!" said Clement Tournon. "And whither do you
turn your steps when you leave Rochelle?"
"I have to traverse the whole of France, and even to approach close to
Paris," answered Master Ned; "for the end of my journey, as far as I yet
know, is to be at Dammartin. First, however, I must go to Mauzé, where,
I hear, the Duc de Rohan and Monsieur de Soubise are to be found. I have
letters for each."
The reply seemed to puzzle the old man a little, for he shook his head,
saying, "It will not do."
"Have they left Mauzé?" asked Edward. "This illness has been very
unfortunate."
"If you do not find them there, you will hear of them," answered the
syndic. "What I mean is, you cannot get straight to Mauzé. Things have
changed since you arrived, my son. The Papist troops are between us and
Mauzé; and you will have to make a long deviation from your way and come
upon the castle from the north."
"So be it!" said Master Ned. "If we can but have a fair wind, we can get
to Marans, and, running up the Sevres, reach Mauzé from the north. It is
not much longer, if I recollect right. I would embark to-morrow
morning, but I have still some preparations to make."
"You seem to know the country well, my son," said the old man, "and your
scheme is a good one. But what preparations can you have to make?--not,
indeed, that I would have you go too soon, lest your health should
suffer. I should think as soon as you feel strong enough you will be all
ready."
"Not quite, Monsieur Tournon," answered the lad. "I must follow my
orders, and those I have are very reasonable commands. I have, as I just
said, to cross three-quarters of France, which I could not do as an
Englishman, since these last troubles, without a safe-conduct. One has
been procured for me, however, from young Sir Peter Apsley, who obtained
it in order to go to Geneva to study. He has changed his mind since, and
I am to represent him; but, as there are mentioned in the paper a page
and two servants, I must engage such followers of the most trusty
character I can find. I have already got Pierrot la Grange, who is an
adept at masquerading, and I did think of bribing Jargeau to accompany
me; but I had some suspicions of him before I landed, and soon found
that he is treacherous. I must therefore look for a man and a boy here
to-morrow; and you must help me, my good father, for it is of much
consequence that they should be trusty."
"They will soon be found," answered the syndic; "but I fear me you will
be soon discovered, my son. This cardinal has eyes in every quarter, and
almost, I might say, in every house. As to the page, I may have to think
a little," and then he added, musingly: "Did pages wear long tunics, as
in my young days, Lucette might do; but I doubt whether she would put on
boys' clothes as they are worn now."
"Lucette!" exclaimed Edward Langdale, in a tone of unfeigned
astonishment. "That would never do. She could not ride half through
France at the pace I should have to go; and besides----But tell me, in
the name of Heaven, could you part with her so easily and on such a
journey?"
The old syndic smiled faintly, saying, "I could and must part with her
whenever it is for her good, my son; but I did not propose she should go
with you farther than Mauzé, where you would have to find another page.
There she must go before Saturday, as I will explain. Listen; for it is
fit you should know all that is going on here, that you may tell it to
those whom you are about to see. I will make it all clear to you, and
then I will go and consult my pillow till to-morrow morning. The king
and the cardinal are determined to crush out Rochelle. We have stood a
siege here before, and may perhaps do so now,--though I do not think it,
for Richelieu is not following the rash measures of those who went
before him. He has been hovering over this devoted city like an eagle
over a hare half hidden in the brushwood, and now he is ready to swoop.
They say that he and King Louis have been stayed at Nantes by some
troubles in the court; but nothing is neglected: day by day the troops
are gathering round, and we are now wellnigh hemmed in by land. The sea
is still open to us; but I have learned from a sure hand this night that
the cardinal has gathered together a navy of small armed vessels in all
the neighboring ports,--Rochefort, Marennes, Royan, Bourgneuf,
Painboeuf, and others. They will soon be off our harbor,--on Monday
next, they say; and though, thank Heaven, we have ships and good ones,
yet in point of numbers we are nothing. The foolish men of what they
call the French party refused, as you know, to give entrance to the Earl
of Denbigh's fleet, which would have kept the sea open to us and insured
us against blockade forever. But, as things stand now, I cannot expose a
girl like Lucette to the horrors of a siege with probably no escape.
Indeed, every useless mouth we can remove from Rochelle the better for
us; and, besides, those who have a right have required me to send her
out of the city without loss of time."
"Had you not better go with her yourself?" asked Master Ned.
"I will not run away from my post," answered the syndic. "I once could
have struck a good blow in defence of my native city; and, though that
is past, I can still aid her with counsel. Besides, where could I go?
Nowhere but to England. I may send what gold I have got to that country,
if I can find means; but my fate is with Rochelle, and Lucette's must
lie far away. God help us! we are at a dangerous pass, my son; and the
hunter's toils are tighter round us than some of our senseless citizens
will believe. As to Jargeau, you cannot trust him. Of Pierrot I have
doubts,--not of his honesty, for he is truthful and sturdy when he is
sober, nor of his ability, for he is a thing we often see in this
strange world, _a clever fool_,--shrewd enough in every thing that
imports but little, but weak as water in matters on which his own
fortunes and his soul's salvation rest. I doubt his power to abstain
from a vice which has ruled him for ten long years. True, he has been
sober ever since he has been here, and he promises sturdily; but, alas!
my son, I have seen so many a drunkard fall away from all good
resolutions with the first moment of a strong temptation that I wish you
had a better follower."
"I will keep him sober," answered Master Ned, boldly. "He knows I am not
to be trifled with. I think he has every inclination to reform but only
wants the strength of mind. I will give him the strength. Many a man is
feeble in some point till he has support, just as a pea trails upon the
ground till we plant a strong pole by it. I will be his pea-stick,
Monsieur Tournon. But as to another man and the page. If Mademoiselle
Lucette only goes to Mauzé, and you will trust her with me, I will see
her safe there if I get there myself, upon my honor; but I know not why
she should have to change her dress, for the distance is so small from
Maran's that----"
"You may be stopped and have to show your safe-conduct," answered the
syndic. "You know not how rapidly this cardinal is drawing the net
around us. But surely we can equip her so that she shall remain
concealed and yet not shock her modesty."
"Oh, yes," replied Master Ned: "'tis still the mode with us to wear a
loose, long, hanging coat over the justaucorps in cool weather; and this
is cool enough. I have one in my bags, and they are so freely fitted
that it matters not whether it be somewhat large or not. But what I fear
is her long, beautiful, amber hair. No boy's head ever bore such a
profusion,--though it is the custom now to wear it very long behind."
"We must have it cut," said the syndic, with as little reverence for
love-locks as any Puritanical preacher of the coming epoch: "a woman may
well yield her hair to save her liberty and her religion,--nay, perhaps
her life. But we will talk more to-morrow, my son, and we had better
both seek rest now and rise by dawn to-morrow."
The results of this conversation may easily be divined by the reader,
whose business it is, in a novel as well as in a tragedy, to supply from
his own wit or imagination all the little facts and circumstances which
it may please an author to omit. Yes, dear reader, always recollect that
you have your responsibilities as well as your privileges, your duties
as well as your powers, and then if you and I do not understand each
other it is not your fault.
The following evening, about seven o'clock, there assembled in the
little saloon, the syndic, Edward Langdale, a strong, supple-looking
man, of whom more hereafter, Pierrot la Grange, and a beautiful boy,
apparently some two years younger, and much shorter, than Master Ned. He
entered the last, dressed in one of the broad-brimmed hats of the day, a
handsome doublet, and a loose black velvet coat with hanging sleeves. It
descended nearly to the knees, and almost met a pair of large
riding-boots, which, together with the hat and feather, and a small
gold-hilted dagger on the left hip, gave the wearer a sort of cavalier
look which accorded well with the character assumed,--yes, assumed; for
a warm mantling blush that spread over Lucette's fair face, and the shy
impulse with which she threw herself into the old man's arms, would have
betrayed her sex to any one who was not in the secret. Every thing,
however, was now hurry, for a good-sized fishing-boat had been engaged
for a somewhat earlier hour; and, with a few words of admonition to
Lucette from the syndic, and some directions to the men, the whole party
set out for the port. Marton gave them egress, kissing Lucette tenderly
as she passed the door; and in ten minutes Clement Tournon held the
young girl in his arms by the side of the boat, taking one last embrace.
He wept not, it is true; but he heaved a heavy sigh. Edward Langdale
lifted her into the little bark, and, as the boat pushed off, he felt
that tears had fallen upon his bosom.