The system of warfare carried on in Scotland, at the time we speak of,
was not of the most civilized character--generally a war of partisans,
which is always a bloody war. Mr. Rhind had known no other; and,
consequently, he was in a state of most exceeding alarm. Julia was
much less so, for the tranquil air of the young earl showed her at
once that nothing was to be feared. The earl's servants, too, who,
with their master, had seen a good deal of the world, seemed perfectly
quiet and at their ease; and Austin Jute whispered in a low tone to
one of the men, "By my fay, that is a splendid horse the fellow is
riding, somewhat heavy about the shoulder and the legs, but a noble
beast in a charge, I'll be bound."
"Remain quietly here," said the earl, addressing those who surrounded
him. "I will go forward and speak with this gentleman. Stay here, dear
Julia; there is not the slightest danger."
The person whom he approached, and who had reined in his horse, after
calling to the strangers to stand and give the word, was a man of the
middle age, or perhaps a little more, for he had certainly, by ten
years at least, passed that important division where the allotted life
of man separates itself into two halves. Oh, thirty-five, thirty-five,
thou art an important epoch, and well might be, to every man who
thinks, a moment of warning and apprehension. Up to that period, in
the ordinary course of events, everything has been acquisition and the
development of different powers. Thenceforward all is decay--slow,
gradual, imperceptible, perhaps, at first, but sure, stealthy, and
increasing with frightful rapidity. The stranger might be forty-six or
forty-seven years of age, but he looked a good deal older. His beard
and moustachios were very gray, especially on the left side; his face
was wrinkled a good deal at the corners of the eyes; and his very
handsome forehead--the only truly handsome part of his face--was
wrinkled also, with an expression rather of quiet and dignified
gravity than with age. His other features were by no means good; the
mouth sensual, though good-humoured; the nose aquiline, and somewhat
depressed at the point; and the eyes twinkling and keen, with an
expression of somewhat reckless merriment. There was a very peculiar
satyr-like turn of the eyebrow, too, which was gray and bushy, with a
thick tuft about the centre, where it ran up into a peak from the
nose. The dress of this officer--for officer he certainly appeared to
be--was of very plain materials, consisting of a brown cloth suit,
with no ornament whatever, except a gold chain round his neck. Above
his pourpoint he wore a sort of sleeveless coat, or rather small
mantle with arm-holes, trimmed with sable fur; and the fraise round
his neck was of plain linen, and so small as to be quite out of the
fashion of the times. His leather gloves extended to his elbow, and
his large coarse heavy boots came in front higher than the knee. There
were pistol holders at his saddle-bow, a long heavy sword by his side,
and the whole figure was surmounted by a broad-brimmed hat, with a
tall white plume of feathers, which kept waving about in the wind.
"Who are you, sir?" he said, in French, as the earl approached him,
"and whither are you going? Are you aware that you are within the
limits of the camp besieging Montmeillant?"
"I was not, indeed," replied the earl; "but being peaceably disposed,
and having no connexion with either party in the hostilities which I
understand are going on, I suppose there will not be any difficulty in
passing by the Pont Beauvoisin into France?"
"Upon my life, I cannot tell that," replied the other. "It will much
depend upon what is your country, what is your business, and whence
you came from last."
"I have come from Italy," replied the young earl, "passing quietly
through Piedmont; and my business----"
"Stay, stay," said the stranger. "You have come through Piedmont, have
you? Now that is not the country, of all others, from which France
courts visitors just now. Have you seen the Duke of Savoy lately?"
"I never saw him in my life," replied the earl, "unless I see him
now."
"Oh, no," said the stranger, "that you certainly do not. By your
speech I should take you for an Englishman. Is it so? If it be, pass,
in God's name, for if I tried to stop you, I should have my good
sister Elizabeth coming over to chastise me with her large fan. Ventre
Saint Gris! it does not do to enrage the island lioness."
"No, sire," replied the earl, "I am not one of her majesty's subjects,
being a native of a neighbouring country called Scotland."
"Ha, ha!" cried the other, laughing. "What, one of the flock of my
dearly beloved cousin, King James? Heaven bless his most sagacious
majesty. How went it with him when last you heard?"
"Right well, sire," replied the earl; "but it is some time since I
heard any news except referring to my own private affairs."
"May I crave your name and business, good sir?" said the King of
France, who, while he had been speaking with Gowrie, had been eyeing
the young nobleman's little troop. "'Tis somewhat late to travel for
mere pleasure, especially with ladies in one's company."
"Business I have, unfortunately, none," answered the young earl,
gravely, "except to make my way back as fast as possible to my own
land, with my fair cousin, who takes advantage of my escort even at
this late season, seeing that she otherwise might not meet with an
opportunity for some time. My name, sire, is John Ruthven, Earl of
Gowrie."
"Ha! noble lord," said Henry, with a less constrained air. "I have
heard of you before,--an intimate of my old friend Beza's, if I
mistake not. You passed through France some five or six years ago on
your way to Padua, at least some one of your name did so."
"The same, sire," answered the earl; "I trust it will be your gracious
pleasure to afford me a pass and safe conduct."
"Assuredly," answered the king, with a gay and laughing air; "but you
must come and dine with me, cousin, if it be but for the service that
your name will do me."
"I know not how it can benefit your majesty," said Gowrie, anxious to
proceed as rapidly as possible.
"As a terror to favourites," replied Henry, with a meaning look. "The
name of Ruthven, methinks, should keep them in great awe. But I will
take no refusal. You and your fair cousin too, and any gentleman who
may be of your party, must come and partake of a soldier's dinner in
his tent. I left the king behind at Lyons; and, on my life, I like the
old trade better than the new. Ay, and even found more peace of mind,
cousin, when I had daily to fight for my breakfast, than when I sit
down in a palace, surrounded by men, some hungry for my treasures, and
some thirsty for my blood."
"As the season is drawing towards a close," replied Lord Gowrie,
without actually venturing to decline the king's invitation, "I am
anxious, sire, to proceed as rapidly as possible towards England."
"Fie, man!" exclaimed the king; "have I not said I will take no
refusal? Why, if I let you pass without some sign of hospitality, your
cousin and mine, worthy King James, the northern Solomon--though his
descent from David might be less honourable than clear--would think
that I had some ill-will to his high wisdom. And now I will ride back
with you. You, Monsieur de Chales, ride on to Rosni. Tell him I will
come to-morrow, unless he has taken the place in order to prevent me.
He is as jealous of his king as a spoilt woman. Come, my Lord Gowrie,
introduce me to this fair cousin of yours. We have wanted gallantry to
keep her waiting so long."
Thus saying, he spurred on, accompanied by the young earl, who,
obliged to give way, resolved to assume something of the king's own
humour, and said at once, as they rode up, "Sire, allow me to present
to you my cousin, the Lady Julia Douglas. Julia, this is that great
king of whom you have heard; who not only conquered his own throne,
but the affection of his own people; the one by the sword of war, the
other by the sword of justice."
"I kiss your hand, fair lady," said the king. "The Lady Julia Douglas!
What, one of the bleeding hearts? I trust, my lord count, that her
heart is safe in your keeping."
"In which case your majesty will not try to steal it from me,"
answered the young earl, to whom Henry's character for somewhat
vehement gallantry was not unknown.
"No, no; honour amongst thieves," answered the king. "Were I an
officer of Cupid's court I might stop you, having taken you in the
very act of carrying off your booty; but being merely a poor
pickpocket myself, I am not justified in interfering. Come, let us
forward," he continued, seeing that the colour had risen somewhat high
in Julia's cheek; and turning his horse, he rode on in the direction
of Chamberry.
A young lover is always like a miser with a jewel of great price. He
may feel certain of the strength of the bolts and bars which secure
his treasure; he may be confident that it is safe; but yet he never
feels entirely at his ease, when he knows that robbers are abroad; and
undoubtedly Gowrie was somewhat less than pleased to see the gallant
attentions of the king to his fair promised bride as they rode along.
Henry saw his uneasiness, and was amused, though the earl concealed it
well; and with some good-humoured malice--for I believe in this
instance it was no more--the monarch strove to persuade his two young
guests that they might well spend a few days with him in Chamberry.
"You," he said, turning to the earl--"you, sprung from a race of
soldiers, and who have probably been in arms yourself, can you make up
your mind to leave a spot where high deeds are being performed?"
"I feel myself obliged to do so," replied the young earl, adding, with
a smile, to point his double meaning, "If there were nothing else,
this lady's presence would, of course, hurry my departure from the
scenes in which your majesty takes so much delight."
"Parbleau! there is no danger," cried the king. "Our camp is filled
with ladies. The town of Chamberry is in our hands. 'Tis but the
citadel holds out for honour; and Madame de Rosni gives a ball in the
city this very night.--What say you, fair lady? Will you not stay and
grace her entertainment?"
"It must be as a prisoner if I do, sire," replied Julia; "for duty
calls me on to Scotland as fast as possible, and, to tell truth in no
very courtly fashion, inclination too."
"On my life," cried the king, laughing, "you must be both disciples of
Rosni's. That hard-headed Huguenot will speak his mind however
unpalatable; and I find that the Scotch are as blunt, though they
cannot be more honest. Well, well," he continued, with a sigh, "as you
will not consent to cheer us by an importation of fresh thoughts and
fresh faces, I must even let you go, although I do believe I should be
justified in treating you both as rebels, and shutting you up as
prisoners, the one in the camp, and the other in the old Carthusian
convent, to do penance for your offence--I acting as father confessor
of course."
Julia looked anxiously to Gowrie, who replied, with a laugh, "That
would be a breach of the law of nations, sire. Francis the First
suffered his enemy, Charles the emperor, to pass unscathed; and as
your majesty deigns to call me cousin, good faith, I will only treat
with you as crown to crown."
"I call many a man cousin who is less so than yourself," replied the
king, seeing that he could not succeed in detaining them. "If I
remember right, your grandmother, or great-grandmother, was sister to
Mary Queen of France, and to Henry, the excellent King of England,
eighth of that name, who had an admirable expedient for ridding
himself of troublesome wives. Upon my life, I wish it were an
inheritance of kings. Parbleau! it would be a more valuable privilege
than that of curing the evil by our touch, which they say we kings
possess. I would rather touch my own sore and cure it, than that of
the lame beggars who crowd about the cathedral doors at Rheims."
"Methinks your majesty would not use it even if you did possess it,"
said Julia.
"Why not, fair lady?" cried Henry, quickly, for the subject was one
which always excited him.
"I mean the sharp touch which King Henry used to cure the ill of which
you speak," replied Julia.
"No, perhaps not that," said Henry, musing. "I am not cruel; and I do
not love such sharp remedies even with hard, iron-tempered men. I have
a notion, too, that ladies' necks were made for other things than to
bear an axe--to bear gay jewels and bright glittering chains, I mean.
That same fondness of the axe you speak of, especially in the case of
women, seems a particular characteristic of the Tudor race. Thank God,
it has not come hither. I do not think I should like the practice,
even on the worst of women; and by my faith, the dagger and the bowl,
which we have been rather fond of here in former years, is not to my
taste either. If I were to choose, I would rather be the victim than
the executioner. God deliver me from being either!"
There was something in the conversation, and the course which it had
taken, which brought a fit of deep thought upon Henry; and for the
next twenty minutes he said little or nothing; then looking up, he
pointed forward with his hand, saying, "There is fair Chamberry; but
it is some miles distant yet; and as you must needs go forward
to-night--which, after all, is perhaps better--I will send on to bid
them have my homely dinner ready, and a few spoonfuls more pottage
than is ordinarily supplied to the king's table. I can tell you,
cousin, the kings of France are almost sure to find their way to
Abraham's bosom, for there is much more of Lazarus than of Dives in
their condition on this earth. Things are rather better now, thanks to
Rosni; but in times past I have often wanted a dinner, and even now,
as you may see, and will see, I am neither clothed in purple and fine
linen, nor fare sumptuously every day."