_The Episode Called "Sweet Adelais"_
1. _Gruntings at Aeaea_
It was on a clear September day that the Marquis of Falmouth set out for
France. John of Bedford had summoned him posthaste when Henry V was
stricken at Senlis with what bid fair to prove a mortal distemper; for
the marquis was Bedford's comrade-in-arms, veteran of Shrewsbury,
Agincourt and other martial disputations, and the Duke-Regent suspected
that, to hold France in case of the King's death, he would presently need
all the help he could muster.
"And I, too, look for warm work," the marquis conceded to Mistress
Adelais Vernon, at parting. "But, God willing, my sweet, we shall be wed
at Christmas for all that. The Channel is not very wide. At a pinch I
might swim it, I think, to come to you."
He kissed her and rode away with his men. Adelais stared after them,
striving to picture her betrothed rivalling Leander in this fashion, and
subsequently laughed. The marquis was a great lord and a brave captain,
but long past his first youth; his actions went somewhat too deliberately
ever to be roused to the high lunacies of the Sestian amorist. So Adelais
laughed, but a moment later, recollecting the man's cold desire of her,
his iron fervors, Adelais shuddered.
This was in the court-yard at Winstead. Roger Darke of Yaxham, the girl's
cousin, standing beside her, noted the gesture, and snarled.
"Think twice of it, Adelais," said he.
Whereupon Mistress Vernon flushed like a peony. "I honor him," she said,
with some irrelevance, "and he loves me."
Roger scoffed. "Love, love! O you piece of ice! You gray-stone saint!
What do you know of love?" Master Darke caught both her hands in his.
"Now, by Almighty God, our Saviour and Redeemer, Jesus Christ!" he said,
between his teeth, his eyes flaming; "I, Roger Darke, have offered you
undefiled love and you have mocked at it. Ha, Tears of Mary! how I love
you! And you mean to marry this man for his title! Do you not believe
that I love you, Adelais?" he whimpered.
Gently she disengaged herself. This was of a pattern with Roger's
behavior any time during the past two years. "I suppose you do," Adelais
conceded, with the tiniest possible shrug. "Perhaps that is why I find
you so insufferable."
Afterward Mistress Vernon turned on her heel and left Master Darke. In
his fluent invocation of Mahound and Termagaunt and other overseers of
the damned he presently touched upon eloquence.
2. _Comes One with Moly_
Adelais came into the walled garden of Winstead, aflame now with autumnal
scarlet and gold. She seated herself upon a semicircular marble bench,
and laughed for no apparent reason, and contentedly waited what Dame Luck
might send.
She was a comely maid, past argument or (as her lovers habitually
complained) any adequate description. Circe, Colchian Medea, Viviane du
Lac, were their favorite analogues; and what old romancers had fabled
concerning these ladies they took to be the shadow of which Adelais
Vernon was the substance. At times these rhapsodists might have supported
their contention with a certain speciousness, such as was apparent
to-day, for example, when against the garden's hurly-burly of color, the
prodigal blazes of scarlet and saffron and wine-yellow, the girl's green
gown glowed like an emerald, and her eyes, too, seemed emeralds, vivid,
inscrutable, of a clear verdancy that was quite untinged with either blue
or gray. Very black lashes shaded them. The long oval of her face (you
might have objected), was of an absolute pallor, rarely quickening to a
flush; but her petulant lips burned crimson, and her hair mimicked the
dwindling radiance of the autumn sunlight and shamed it. All in all, the
aspect of Adelais Vernon was, beyond any questioning, spiced with a
sorcerous tang; say, the look of a young witch shrewd at love-potions,
but ignorant of their flavor; yet before this the girl's comeliness had
stirred men's hearts to madness, and the county boasted of it.
Presently Adelais lifted her small imperious head, and then again she
smiled, for out of the depths of the garden, with an embellishment of
divers trills and roulades, came a man's voice that carolled blithely.
Sang the voice:
_"Had you lived when earth was new
What had bards of old to do
Save to sing in praise of you?
"Had you lived in ancient days,
Adelais, sweet Adelais,
You had all the ancients' praise,--
You whose beauty would have won
Canticles of Solomon,
Had the sage Judean king
Gazed upon this goodliest thing
Earth of Heaven's grace hath got.
"Had you gladdened Greece, were not
All the nymphs of Greece forgot?
"Had you trod Sicilian ways,
Adelais, sweet Adelais_,
"You had pilfered all their praise:
Bion and Theocritus
Had transmitted unto us
Honeyed harmonies to tell
Of your beauty's miracle,
Delicate, desirable,
And their singing skill were bent
You-ward tenderly,--content,
While the world slipped by, to gaze
On the grace of you, and praise
Sweet Adelais_."
Here the song ended, and a man, wheeling about the hedge, paused to
regard her with adoring eyes. Adelais looked up at him, incredibly
surprised by his coming.
This was the young Sieur d'Arnaye, Hugh Vernon's prisoner, taken at
Agincourt seven years earlier and held since then, by the King's command,
without ransom; for it was Henry's policy to release none of the
important French prisoners. Even on his death-bed he found time to
admonish his brother, John of Bedford, that four of these,--Charles
d'Orleans and Jehan de Bourbon and Arthur de Rougemont and Fulke
d'Arnaye,--should never be set at liberty. "Lest," as the King said, with
a savor of prophecy, "more fire be kindled in one day than all your
endeavors can quench in three."
Presently the Sieur d'Arnaye sighed, rather ostentatiously; and Adelais
laughed, and demanded the cause of his grief.
"Mademoiselle," he said,--his English had but a trace of accent,--"I am
afflicted with a very grave malady."
"What is the name of this malady?" said she.
"They call it love, mademoiselle."
Adelais laughed yet again and doubted if the disease were incurable. But
Fulke d'Arnaye seated himself beside her and demonstrated that, in his
case, it might not ever be healed.
"For it is true," he observed, "that the ancient Scythians, who lived
before the moon was made, were wont to cure this distemper by
blood-letting under the ears; but your brother, mademoiselle, denies me
access to all knives. And the leech Aelian avers that it may be cured by
the herb agnea; but your brother, mademoiselle, will not permit that I go
into the fields in search of this herb. And in Greece--he, mademoiselle,
I might easily be healed of my malady in Greece! For in Greece is the
rock, Leucata Petra, from which a lover may leap and be cured; and the
well of the Cyziceni, from which a lover may drink and be cured; and the
river Selemnus, in which a lover may bathe and be cured: but your brother
will not permit that I go to Greece. You have a very cruel brother,
mademoiselle; seven long years, no less, he has penned me here like a
starling in a cage."
And Fulke d'Arnaye shook his head at her reproachfully.
Afterward he laughed. Always this Frenchman found something at which to
laugh; Adelais could not remember in all the seven years a time when she
had seen him downcast. But while his lips jested of his imprisonment, his
eyes stared at her mirthlessly, like a dog at his master, and her gaze
fell before the candor of the passion she saw in them.
"My lord," said Adelais, "why will you not give your parole? Then you
would be free to come and go as you elected." A little she bent toward
him, a covert red showing in her cheeks. "To-night at Halvergate the Earl
of Brudenel holds the feast of Saint Michael. Give your parole, my lord,
and come with us. There will be in our company fair ladies who may
perhaps heal your malady."
But the Sieur d'Arnaye only laughed. "I cannot give my parole," he said,
"since I mean to escape for all your brother's care." Then he fell to
pacing up and down before her. "Now, by Monseigneur Saint Médard and the
Eagle that sheltered him!" he cried, in half-humorous self-mockery;
"however thickly troubles rain upon me, I think that I shall never give
up hoping!" After a pause, "Listen, mademoiselle," he went on, more
gravely, and gave a nervous gesture toward the east, "yonder is France,
sacked, pillaged, ruinous, prostrate, naked to her enemy. But at
Vincennes, men say, the butcher of Agincourt is dying. With him dies the
English power in France. Can his son hold that dear realm? Are those tiny
hands with which this child may not yet feed himself capable to wield a
sceptre? Can he who is yet beholden to nurses for milk distribute
sustenance to the law and justice of a nation? He, I think not,
mademoiselle! France will have need of me shortly. Therefore, I cannot
give my parole."
"Then must my brother still lose his sleep, lord, for always your
safe-keeping is in his mind. To-day at cock-crow he set out for the coast
to examine those Frenchmen who landed yesterday."
At this he wheeled about. "Frenchmen!"
"Only Norman fishermen, lord, whom the storm drove to seek shelter in
England. But he feared they had come to rescue you."
Fulke d'Arnaye shrugged his shoulders. "That was my thought, too," he
admitted, with a laugh. "Always I dream of escape, mademoiselle. Have a
care of me, sweet enemy! I shall escape yet, it may be."
"But I will not have you escape," said Adelais. She tossed her glittering
little head. "Winstead would not be Winstead without you. Why, I was but
a child, my lord, when you came. Have you forgotten, then, the lank,
awkward child who used to stare at you so gravely?"
"Mademoiselle," he returned, and now his voice trembled and still the
hunger in his eyes grew more great, "I think that in all these years I
have forgotten nothing--not even the most trivial happening,
mademoiselle,--wherein you had a part. You were a very beautiful child.
Look you, I remember as if it were yesterday that you never wept when
your good lady mother--whose soul may Christ have in his keeping!--was
forced to punish you for some little misdeed. No, you never wept; but
your eyes would grow wistful, and you would come to me here in the
garden, and sit with me for a long time in silence. 'Fulke,' you would
say, quite suddenly, 'I love you better than my mother.' And I told you
that it was wrong to make such observations, did I not, mademoiselle? My
faith, yes! but I may confess now that I liked it," Fulke d'Arnaye ended,
with a faint chuckle.
Adelais sat motionless. Certainly it was strange, she thought, how the
sound of this man's voice had power to move her. Certainly, too, this man
was very foolish.
"And now the child is a woman,--a woman who will presently be Marchioness
of Falmouth. Look you, when I get free of my prison--and I shall get
free, never fear, mademoiselle,--I shall often think of that great lady.
For only God can curb a man's dreams, and God is compassionate. So I hope
to dream nightly of a gracious lady whose hair is gold and whose eyes are
colored like the summer sea and whose voice is clear and low and very
wonderfully sweet. Nightly, I think, the vision of that dear enemy will
hearten me to fight for France by day. In effect, mademoiselle, your
traitor beauty will yet aid me to destroy your country."
The Sieur d'Arnaye laughed, somewhat cheerlessly, as he lifted her hand
to his lips.
And certainly also (she concluded her reflections) it was absurd how this
man's touch seemed an alarm to her pulses. Adelais drew away from him.
"No!" she said: "remember, lord, I, too, am not free."
"Indeed, we tread on dangerous ground," the Frenchman assented, with a
sad little smile. "Pardon me, mademoiselle. Even were you free of your
trothplight--even were I free of my prison, most beautiful lady, I have
naught to offer you yonder in that fair land of France. They tell me that
the owl and the wolf hunt undisturbed where Arnaye once stood. My château
is carpeted with furze and roofed with God's Heaven. That gives me a
large estate--does it not?--but I may not reasonably ask a woman to share
it. So I pray you pardon me for my nonsense, mademoiselle, and I pray
that the Marchioness of Falmouth may be very happy."
And with that he vanished into the autumn-fired recesses of the garden,
singing, his head borne stiff. Oh, the brave man who esteemed misfortune
so slightly! thought Adelais. She remembered that the Marquis of Falmouth
rarely smiled; and once only--at a bull-baiting--had she heard him laugh.
It needed bloodshed, then, to amuse him, Adelais deduced, with that
self-certainty in logic which is proper to youth; and the girl shuddered.
But through the scarlet coppices of the garden, growing fainter and yet
more faint, rang the singing of Fulke d'Arnaye.
Sang the Frenchman:
"Had you lived in Roman times
No Catullus in his rhymes
Had lamented Lesbia's sparrow:
He had praised your forehead, narrow
As the newly-crescent moon,
White as apple-trees in June;
He had made some amorous tune
Of the laughing light Eros
Snared as Psyche-ward he goes
By your beauty,--by your slim,
White, perfect beauty.
"After him
Horace, finding in your eyes
Horace limned in lustrous wise,
Would have made you melodies
Fittingly to hymn your praise,
Sweet Adelais."
3. Roger is Explicit
Into the midst of the Michaelmas festivities at Halvergate that night,
burst a mud-splattered fellow in search of Sir Hugh Vernon. Roger Darke
brought him to the knight. The fellow then related that he came from
Simeon de Beck, the master of Castle Rising, with tidings that a strange
boat, French-rigged, was hovering about the north coast. Let Sir Hugh
have a care of his prisoner.
Vernon swore roundly. "I must look into this," he said. "But what shall I
do with Adelais?"
"Will you not trust her to me?" Roger asked. "If so, cousin, I will very
gladly be her escort to Winstead. Let the girl dance her fill while she
may, Hugh. She will have little heart for dancing after a month or so of
Falmouth's company."
"That is true," Vernon assented; "but the match is a good one, and she is
bent upon it."
So presently he rode with his men to the north coast. An hour later Roger
Darke and Adelais set out for Winstead, in spite of all Lady Brudenel's
protestations that Mistress Vernon had best lie with her that night at
Halvergate.
It was a clear night of restless winds, neither warm nor chill, but fine
September weather. About them the air was heavy with the damp odors of
decaying leaves, for the road they followed was shut in by the autumn
woods, that now arched the way with sere foliage, rustling and whirring
and thinly complaining overhead, and now left it open to broad splashes
of moonlight, where fallen leaves scuttled about in the wind vortices.
Adelais, elate with dancing, chattered of this and that as her gray mare
ambled homeward, but Roger was moody.
Past Upton the road branched in three directions; here Master Darke
caught the gray mare's bridle and turned both horses to the left.
"Why, of whatever are you thinking!" the girl derided him. "Roger, this
is not the road to Winstead!"
He grinned evilly over his shoulder. "It is the road to Yaxham, Adelais,
where my chaplain expects us."
In a flash she saw it all as her eyes swept these desolate woods. "You
will not dare!"
"Will I not?" said Roger. "Faith, for my part, I think you have mocked me
for the last time, Adelais, since it is the wife's duty, as Paul very
justly says, to obey."
Swiftly she slipped from the mare. But he followed her. "Oh, infamy!" the
girl cried. "You have planned this, you coward!"
"Yes, I planned it," said Roger Darke. "Yet I take no great credit
therefor, for it was simple enough. I had but to send a feigned message
to your block-head brother. Ha, yes, I planned it, Adelais, and I planned
it well. But I deal honorably. To-morrow you will be Mistress Darke,
never fear."
He grasped at her cloak as she shrank from him. The garment fell, leaving
the girl momentarily free, her festival jewels shimmering in the
moonlight, her bared shoulders glistening like silver. Darke, staring at
her, giggled horribly. An instant later Adelais fell upon her knees.
"Sweet Christ, have pity upon Thy handmaiden! Do not forsake me, sweet
Christ, in my extremity! Save me from this man!" she prayed, with
entire faith.
"My lady wife," said Darke, and his hot, wet hand sank heavily upon her
shoulder, "you had best finish your prayer before my chaplain, I think,
since by ordinary Holy Church is skilled to comfort the sorrowing."
"A miracle, dear lord Christ!" the girl wailed. "O sweet Christ, a
miracle!"
"Faith of God!" said Roger, in a flattish tone; "what was that?"
For faintly there came the sound of one singing.
Sang the distant voice:
_"Had your father's household been
Guelfic-born or Ghibelline,
Beatrice were unknown
On her star-encompassed throne.
"For, had Dante viewed your grace,
Adelais, sweet Adelais,
You had reigned in Bice's place,--
Had for candles, Hyades,
Rastaben, and Betelguese,--
And had heard Zachariel
Chaunt of you, and, chaunting, tell
All the grace of you, and praise
Sweet Adelais."_
4. _Honor Brings a Padlock_
Adelais sprang to her feet. "A miracle!" she cried, her voice shaking.
"Fulke, Fulke! to me, Fulke!"
Master Darke hurried her struggling toward his horse. Darke was muttering
curses, for there was now a beat of hoofs in the road yonder that led to
Winstead. "Fulke, Fulke!" the girl shrieked.
Then presently, as Roger put foot to stirrup, two horsemen wheeled about
the bend in the road, and one of them leapt to the ground.
"Mademoiselle," said Fulke d'Arnaye, "am I, indeed, so fortunate as to be
of any service to you?"
"Ho!" cried Roger, with a gulp of relief, "it is only the French
dancing-master taking French leave of poor cousin Hugh! Man, but you
startled me!"
Now Adelais ran to the Frenchman, clinging to him the while that she told
of Roger's tricks. And d'Arnaye's face set mask-like.
"Monsieur," he said, when she had ended, "you have wronged a sweet and
innocent lady. As God lives, you shall answer to me for this."
"Look you," Roger pointed out, "this is none of your affair, Monsieur
Jackanapes. You are bound for the coast, I take it. Very well,--ka me,
and I ka thee. Do you go your way in peace, and let us do the same."
Fulke d'Arnaye put the girl aside and spoke rapidly in French to his
companion. Then with mincing agility he stepped toward Master Darke.
Roger blustered. "You hop-toad! you jumping-jack!" said he, "what do
you mean?"
"Chastisement!" said the Frenchman, and struck him in the face.
"Very well!" said Master Darke, strangely quiet. And with that they
both drew.
The Frenchman laughed, high and shrill, as they closed, and afterward
he began to pour forth a voluble flow of discourse. Battle was wine
to the man.
"Not since Agincourt, Master Coward--he, no!--have I held sword in hand.
It is a good sword, this,--a sharp sword, is it not? Ah, the poor
arm--but see, your blood is quite black-looking in this moonlight, and I
had thought cowards yielded a paler blood than brave men possess. We live
and learn, is it not? Observe, I play with you like a child,--as I played
with your tall King at Agincourt when I cut away the coronet from his
helmet. I did not kill him--no!--but I wounded him, you conceive?
Presently, I shall wound you, too. My compliments--you have grazed my
hand. But I shall not kill you, because you are the kinsman of the
fairest lady earth may boast, and I would not willingly shed the least
drop of any blood that is partly hers. Ohé, no! Yet since I needs must do
this ungallant thing--why, see, monsieur, how easy it is!"
Thereupon he cut Roger down at a blow and composedly set to wiping his
sword on the grass. The Englishman lay like a log where he had fallen.
"Lord," Adelais quavered, "lord, have you killed him?"
Fulke d'Arnaye sighed. "Hélas, no!" said he, "since I knew that you
did not wish it. See, mademoiselle,--I have but made a healthful and
blood-letting small hole in him here. He will return himself to
survive to it long time--Fie, but my English fails me, after these so
many years--"
D'Arnaye stood for a moment as if in thought, concluding his
meditations with a grimace. After that he began again to speak in
French to his companion. The debate seemed vital. The stranger
gesticulated, pleaded, swore, implored, summoned all inventions between
the starry spheres and the mud of Cocytus to judge of the affair; but
Fulke d'Arnaye was resolute.
"Behold, mademoiselle," he said, at length, "how my poor Olivier excites
himself over a little matter. Olivier is my brother, most beautiful lady,
but he speaks no English, so that I cannot present him to you. He came to
rescue me, this poor Olivier, you conceive. Those Norman fishermen of
whom you spoke to-day--but you English are blinded, I think, by the fogs
of your cold island. Eight of the bravest gentlemen in France,
mademoiselle, were those same fishermen, come to bribe my gaoler,--the
incorruptible Tompkins, no less. Hé, yes, they came to tell me that Henry
of Monmouth, by the wrath of God King of France, is dead at Vincennes
yonder, mademoiselle, and that France will soon be free of you English.
France rises in her might--" His nostrils dilated, he seemed taller; then
he shrugged. "And poor Olivier grieves that I may not strike a blow for
her,--grieves that I must go back to Winstead."
D'Arnaye laughed as he caught the bridle of the gray mare and turned her
so that Adelais might mount. But the girl, with a faint, wondering cry,
drew away from him.
"You will go back! You have escaped, lord, and you will go back!"
"Why, look you," said the Frenchman, "what else may I conceivably do? We
are some miles from your home, most beautiful lady,--can you ride those
four long miles alone? in this night so dangerous? Can I leave you here
alone in this so tall forest? Hé, surely not. I am desolated,
mademoiselle, but I needs must burden you with my company homeward."
Adelais drew a choking breath. He had fretted out seven years of
captivity. Now he was free; and lest she be harmed or her name be
smutched, however faintly, he would go back to his prison, jesting. "No,
no!" she cried aloud.
But he raised a deprecating hand. "You cannot go alone. Olivier here
would go with you gladly. Not one of those brave gentlemen who await me
at the coast yonder but would go with you very, very gladly, for they
love France, these brave gentlemen, and they think that I can serve her
better than most other men. That is very flattering, is it not? But all
the world conspires to flatter me, mademoiselle. Your good brother, by
example, prizes my company so highly that he would infallibly hang the
gentleman who rode back with you. So, you conceive, I cannot avail myself
of their services. But with me it is different, hein? Ah, yes, Sir Hugh
will merely lock me up again and for the future guard me more vigilantly.
Will you not mount, mademoiselle?"
His voice was quiet, and his smile never failed him. It was this steady
smile which set her heart to aching. Adelais knew that no natural power
could dissuade him; he would go back with her; but she knew how
constantly he had hoped for liberty, with what fortitude he had awaited
his chance of liberty; and that he should return to captivity, smiling,
thrilled her to impotent, heart-shaking rage. It maddened her that he
dared love her thus infinitely.
"But, mademoiselle," Fulke d'Arnaye went on, when she had mounted, "let
us proceed, if it so please you, by way of Filby. For then we may ride a
little distance with this rogue Olivier. I may not hope to see Olivier
again in this life, you comprehend, and Olivier is, I think, the one
person who loves me in all this great wide world. Me, I am not very
popular, you conceive. But you do not object, mademoiselle?"
"No!" she said, in a stifled voice.
Afterward they rode on the way to Filby, leaving Roger Darke to regain at
discretion the mastership of his faculties. The two Frenchmen as they
went talked vehemently; and Adelais, following them, brooded on the
powerful Marquis of Falmouth and the great lady she would shortly be; but
her eyes strained after Fulke d'Arnaye.
Presently he fell a-singing; and still his singing praised her in a
desirous song, yearning but very sweet, as they rode through the autumn
woods; and his voice quickened her pulses as always it had the power to
quicken them, and in her soul an interminable battling dragged on.
Sang Fulke d'Arnaye:
_"Had you lived when earth was new
What had bards of old to do
Save to sing in praise of you?
"They had sung of you always,
Adelais, sweet Adelais,
As worthiest of all men's praise;
Nor had undying melodies,
Wailed soft as love may sing of these
Dream-hallowed names,--of Héloïse,
Ysoude, Salomê, Semelê,
Morgaine, Lucrece, Antiopê,
Brunhilda, Helen, Mélusine,
Penelope, and Magdalene:
--But you alone had all men's praise,
Sweet Adelais"_
5. _"Thalatta!"_
When they had crossed the Bure, they had come into the open country,--a
great plain, gray in the moonlight, that descended, hillock by hillock,
toward the shores of the North Sea. On the right the dimpling lustre of
tumbling waters stretched to a dubious sky-line, unbroken save for the
sail of the French boat, moored near the ruins of the old Roman
station, Garianonum, and showing white against the unresting sea, like
a naked arm; to the left the lights of Filby flashed their unblinking,
cordial radiance.
Here the brothers parted. Vainly Olivier wept and stormed before
Fulke's unwavering smile; the Sieur d'Arnaye was adamantean: and
presently the younger man kissed him on both cheeks and rode slowly
away toward the sea.
D'Arnaye stared after him. "Ah, the brave lad!" said Fulke d'Arnaye. "And
yet how foolish! Look you, mademoiselle, that rogue is worth ten of me,
and he does not even suspect it."
His composure stung her to madness.
"Now, by the passion of our Lord and Saviour!" Adelais cried, wringing
her hands in impotence; "I conjure you to hear me, Fulke! You must not do
this thing. Oh, you are cruel, cruel! Listen, my lord," she went on with
more restraint, when she had reined up her horse by the side of his,
"yonder in France the world lies at your feet. Our great King is dead.
France rises now, and France needs a brave captain. You, you! it is you
that she needs. She has sent for you, my lord, that mother France whom
you love. And you will go back to sleep in the sun at Winstead when
France has need of you. Oh, it is foul!"
But he shook his head. "France is very dear to me," he said, "yet there
are other men who can serve France. And there is no man save me who may
to-night serve you, most beautiful lady."
"You shame me!" she cried, in a gust of passion. "You shame my
worthlessness with this mad honor of yours that drags you jesting to your
death! For you must die a prisoner now, without any hope. You and Orleans
and Bourbon are England's only hold on France, and Bedford dare not let
you go. Fetters, chains, dungeons, death, torture perhaps--that is what
you must look for now. And you will no longer be held at Winstead, but in
the strong Tower at London."
"Hélas, you speak more truly than an oracle," he gayly assented.
And hers was the ageless thought of women. "This man is rather foolish
and peculiarly dear to me. What shall I do with him? and how much must I
humor him in his foolishness?"
D'Arnaye stayed motionless: but still his eyes strained after Olivier.
Well, she would humor him. There was no alternative save that of perhaps
never seeing Fulke again.
Adelais laid her hand upon his arm. "You love me. God knows, I am not
worthy of it, but you love me. Ever since I was a child you have loved
me,--always, always it was you who indulged me, shielded me, protected me
with this fond constancy that I have not merited. Very well,"--she
paused, for a single heartbeat,--"go! and take me with you."
The hand he raised shook as though palsied. "O most beautiful!" the
Frenchman cried, in an extreme of adoration; "you would do that! You
would do that in pity to save me--unworthy me! And it is I whom you call
brave--me, who annoy you with my woes so petty!" Fulke d'Arnaye slipped
from his horse, and presently stood beside the gray mare, holding a
small, slim hand in his. "I thank you," he said, simply. "You know that
it is impossible. But yes, I have loved you these long years. And
now--Ah, my heart shakes, my words tumble, I cannot speak! You know that
I may not--may not let you do this thing. Why, but even if, of your
prodigal graciousness, mademoiselle, you were so foolish as to waste a
little liking upon my so many demerits--" He gave a hopeless gesture.
"Why, there is always our brave marquis to be considered, who will so
soon make you a powerful, rich lady. And I?--I have nothing."
But Adelais had rested either hand upon a stalwart shoulder, bending down
to him till her hair brushed his. Yes, this man was peculiarly dear to
her: she could not bear to have him murdered when in equity he deserved
only to have his jaws boxed for his toplofty nonsense about her; and,
after all, she did not much mind humoring him in his foolishness.
"Do you not understand?" she whispered. "Ah, my paladin, do you think I
speak in pity? I wished to be a great lady,--yes. Yet always, I think, I
loved you, Fulke, but until to-night I had believed that love was only
the man's folly, the woman's diversion. See, here is Falmouth's ring."
She drew it from her finger, and flung it awkwardly, as every woman
throws. Through the moonlight it fell glistening. "Yes, I hungered for
Falmouth's power, but you have shown me that which is above any temporal
power. Ever I must crave the highest, Fulke--Ah, fair sweet friend, do
not deny me!" Adelais cried, piteously. "Take me with you, Fulke! I will
ride with you to the wars, my lord, as your page; I will be your wife,
your slave, your scullion. I will do anything save leave you. Lord, it is
not the maid's part to plead thus!"
Fulke d'Arnaye drew her warm, yielding body toward him and stood in
silence. Then he raised his eyes to heaven. "Dear Lord God," he cried, in
a great voice, "I entreat of Thee that if through my fault this woman
ever know regret or sorrow I be cast into the nethermost pit of Hell for
all eternity!" Afterward he kissed her.
And presently Adelais lifted her head, with a mocking little laugh.
"Sorrow!" she echoed. "I think there is no sorrow in all the world.
Mount, my lord, mount! See where brother Olivier waits for us yonder."
* * * * *
JUNE 5, 1455--AUGUST 4, 1462
_"Fortune fuz par clercs jadis nominée, Qui toi, François, crie et nomme
meurtrière."_
_So it came about that Adelais went into France with the great-grandson
of Tiburce d'Arnaye: and Fulke, they say, made her a very fair husband.
But he had not, of course, much time for love-making.
For in France there was sterner work awaiting Fulke d'Arnaye, and he set
about it: through seven dreary years he and Rougemont and Dunois managed,
somehow, to bolster up the cause of the fat-witted King of Bourges (as
the English then called him), who afterward became King Charles VII of
France. But in the February of 1429--four days before the Maid of Domremy
set forth from her voice-haunted Bois Chenu to bring about a certain
coronation in Rheims Church and in Rouen Square a flamy martyrdom--four
days before the coming of the good Lorrainer, Fulke d'Arnaye was slain at
Rouvray-en-Beausse in that encounter between the French and the English
which history has commemorated as the Battle of the Herrings.
Adelais was wooed by, and betrothed to, the powerful old Comte de
Vaudremont; but died just before the date set for this second marriage,
in October, 1429. She left two sons: Noël, born in 1425, and Raymond,
born in 1426; who were reared by their uncle, Olivier d'Arnaye. It was
said of them that Noel was the handsomest man of his times, and Raymond
the most shrewd; concerning that you will judge hereafter. Both of these
d'Arnayes, on reaching manhood, were identified with the Dauphin's party
in the unending squabbles between Charles VII and the future Louis XI.
Now you may learn how Noël d'Arnaye came to be immortalized by a legacy
of two hundred and twenty blows from an osierwhip--since (as the testator
piously affirms), "chastoy est une belle aulmosne."_