"WHAT HAVE I STUMBLED ON?"
"Now," said Andrew, standing a few paces off the other two, "let us
see a little skilful fence," and, his own rapier in hand, though with
the point resting on the stones of the court, he looked on as a
_maître d'escrime_ might gaze upon two pupils practising with the
foils.
"Gently, gently," he said quietly to the young fellow who was lunging
furiously at his adversary, "you will lose your breath else." And,
still with what seemed to that adversary, as he fought wildly,
infernal calm, he added, "thrust a little lower, otherwise you may
break your sword against his breast-bone. Thus you will find a better
entrance. Pass through him easier. So, so. That's better"; and he
stepped back and, looking on still with an easy approval, watched the
encounter.
But there was no heart left in the ruffian now; moreover, he knew he
was doomed, and he uttered, therefore, a piercing shriek for mercy to
which his opponent, his blood well up, answered with another angry
lunge.
"Well, then," exclaimed Andrew, "make an end of it. The people above
are opening their windows--the watch will be here next--prick him and
have done with it. Take him in the shoulder, he is not worth killing.
Good! that's it. A pretty thrust."
The lad had followed his instructions perfectly, and, beating down the
other's guard, had driven his point two inches into the fellow's right
deltoid, which he received with a yell, his blade clattering on to the
stones as it dropped from his wounded arm.
"Well done," said Andrew, "now come along." And, picking up first the
rich laced beaver, which had fallen off the young fellow's head in the
encounter, he took him by the arm and led him out into the Rue
Richelieu.
"A little breathless, eh?" he asked, as he heard the boy's lungs
working heavily. "A little blown! No matter, you fought a good
fight--though they might have beaten you in the end. I see," he added,
"you know something of the science."
"Yes," the other answered, while--they being now some distance from
the place where he had been attacked--he leant against the wall to
recover his breath. "Yes, I know something of it. And I could have
done better had I not drunk that last accursed bottle. But I was
athirst, as, indeed, I am now."
"Well. Well. Come into the nearest tavern and we will have
another--now is the time when a cup will do you good. Yet, arrange
yourself first, you are a little dishevelled, and your hat is dirty."
"Nay," said the other with a laugh, "no more taverns for me to-night.
But I live hard by, was taking a short way home when those fellows set
on me; come with me. There is some good wine at our house."
"Humph!" said Andrew, "the night is late--hark! there is St. Roch
striking midnight now--too late for wassailing! And--you do not know
me--yet you ask me to your house!"
"Not know you! St. Denis! I do, though. I know enough to see what you
are. First, an Englishman--good as you have the French your accent
tells that. I wonder," he interjected, "if you are going to join
Turenne? There are hundreds of your countrymen with him. Then
next----"
"Ay, next?" asked Andrew, not heeding the remark about Turenne. He was
going to join Turenne, or, at least, proceed to where his army was,
but he had seen the boy's eyes open when the name of one was mentioned
who was already with the great marshal, and, at present, he held his
peace. "What next?"
"Next, you are _un brave homme_. You saved my life--certainly saved me
from getting a bad wound--and prevented those vagabonds from pillaging
me; they saw this, I suppose," and he touched lightly with his fingers
a thick gold chain round his neck to which a medallion hung, "and
wanted it. And, if you had desired, you could have slain all three of
us," he continued, with another laugh that so touched Andrew's sense
of humour that, scarce knowing why, he laughed too. Then the boy
added, "Come, come! I must know more of you. You are a soldier, anyone
can see that; well, so am I. Come, I say."
"So you are a soldier, eh?" Andrew said, taken with a liking for the
young fellow and his frank open manner, and walking unresistingly now
by his side towards the house he was leading him to. "A soldier. A
young one, though you understand swordplay, or will later, as well as
many an older man."
"We are all soldiers in our family," his companion replied. Then he
looked proudly at the great form beside him, and said, "I have made
two campaigns, though I am but seventeen."
"Ay," replied Andrew, "no doubt. You French gentlemen go to the wars
early, I know. I have served with many such; younger, too, than you.
There was, now, at Choczim--so!" he broke off as the lad halted at a
great wooden door that doubtless opened into a large courtyard, "is
this your house?"
"It is," the other answered, kicking meanwhile against the lower part
of the huge door, as though, thereby, to summon someone from within.
"The fiend take old Pierre, he is again asleep." And he kicked once
more and hammered with his fist. Then, at Andrew's thoughtful
suggestion that the noise might wake his father or his lady mother, he
replied:
"Never fear! My lady mother, as you politely term her, sleeps at the
back looking over the garden, and my lady sisters above, while as for
my father--God rest his soul!--he has been dead these twelve years.
_Ciel!_ Must I beat down the door!"
Even though it had been possible for him to do so, there was now,
however, no necessity, since it opened a few feet at this moment, and
an elderly man peering out, and seeing who was there, instantly pulled
it further back to admit the young man and his companion. An elderly
man who shook his head a little--perhaps from oncoming age or, maybe,
from disapprobation of such hours--but who still stood aside very
respectfully. Yet, from a corner of his eye, he shot a glance up at
the big frame of the man who accompanied his master.
"Pierre, you sleep atrociously," that master replied. "Every night I
have to hammer and bang in the same way. However, in with you and
fetch a good bottle of the Muscadel from the cellar. Quick, hurry, I
say. We are athirst." Then, turning to Andrew, said, "Come, sir, I am
on the _rez-de-chaussée_. It suits my habits best, my mother says. We
shall not have far to go."
Following his new friend, Andrew glanced at the paved stone courtyard
across which they went, the old man, Pierre, preceding them with a
flambeau which he took from a socket by his lodge door and ignited.
Whereby the visitor saw that he was in the house of some great family,
great, possibly by rank, and undoubtedly so by wealth. The old pieces
of armour hanging on the courtyard walls, burgonets, coats of mail,
gambesons, scaled or of chain, lances, and swords--all symmetrically
arranged--seemed to prove the former, while, as they reached the door
giving entrance to the house itself, the flickering light of the torch
confirmed the fact that this was no home of a mushroom family of large
means, or of a rich merchant, since it shone upon a great gilt coronet
above the door, and, above that, upon armorial bearings which none but
nobles could possess.
Pierre, changing the flambeau for a huge wax taper, led the way down a
narrow passage giving off the hall, and, throwing open a polished
chestnut door over which some arras hung, ushered them into a large,
comfortably furnished apartment, though, like all the _entresols_ of
the period, low-roofed. Then, after lighting a dozen other wax candles
which stood in lustres and sconces, he withdrew, saying he would fetch
the wine.
"And quickly, too," said Andrew's host. "Dost hear, Pierre? Quick,
quick."
"_Si, Monsieur le Marquis_," the old fellow muttered, and so went off.
"Now," said the young man, "be at your ease. Take off, your sword,
unlace your jacket, and repose. Here is a couch on which I have slept
many an hour; there a fauteuil which no soldier need despise. My
doting mother chose it specially. I beg you to use as much freedom as
you would in your own house."
Andrew Vause accepted the gracefully proffered hospitality in the same
spirit that it was offered, and sank into the luxurious fauteuil,
while his eye, roaming round the room, observed with approval several
of the objects in it. For they all corroborated what his new
acquaintance had stated, that he was a soldier--nay, more, that he was
a soldier either on active service or about very soon to proceed on
such service. In one corner of the apartment was a bundle of swords of
the military type--spadroons and two or three heavy broadswords; in
another, hanging over a chair, was a passemented justaucorps, with
military gold braid and embroidery--an almost certain sign of the
owner's nobility, since scarcely any but officers of high social rank
were permitted to wear this garment; also a new bridle, some horse
fittings, and other things pertaining to a soldier, were strewn about.
"Now," said Andrew's host again, when Pierre had brought the wine,
which, as the former held it before one of the wax lustres, sparkled
like amber through its dusty, cobwebby encasing--"Now, we will drink a
toast to our better acquaintance. And, first, let us know each other's
names. Mine is Valentin Debrasques, commonly called the Marquis
Debrasques." And as he spoke he poured out the first glass of wine,
carefully following the old custom of emptying a spoonful from the top
into his own glass, and passed it over to Andrew.
"And mine," replied Andrew, "is Vause. The Captain Vause late serving
in the English Regiment, in Flanders and elsewhere, and to which one
of our soldiers, a Lieutenant-Colonel John Churchill, has recently
been appointed colonel by our King. Monsieur le Marquis, I drink your
health and to our future comradeship," and he raised his glass.
Debrasques had been filling his glass as Andrew spoke, yet, by some
clumsiness scarcely to have been expected from him, at the moment the
latter mentioned his name, the bottle slipped in his hand, and,
clinking on to the long glass beneath, broke it, while the outrunning
wine deluged the tablecover. "_Peste!_" He exclaimed, his face
scarlet, "I am a clumsy fellow. If I were older, one would say my hand
was no longer fit to grasp a sword since it cannot hold a bottle."
Then, going over to a huge buffet, on which stood several silver and
parcel-gilt cups, he took down one, blew the dust out of it, and,
after wiping it with his lace handkerchief, poured out some of the
wine left in the flask, and, touching Andrew's glass with it, drank to
him.
"So," he said, though now his face had somewhat lost its colour, and,
as Andrew thought, looked white and drawn, "you belong to our
auxiliary force supplied by your King, Charles. And--and--do you
proceed to join The English Regiment?"
"Yes," replied the older soldier. "Yes. Charles has given me a letter
to Colonel Churchill--he is ten years younger than I, but such is
fortune! Yes. I quitted the army to go home on some affairs connected
with my family. Now those affairs are arranged, and I go back to serve
under Turenne."
He spoke easily, yet all the time Debrasques knew that he was watching
him, perhaps considering why he had been so clumsy with the bottle,
and, because he himself knew what had caused him to drop it, he was
far from being at ease.
"I am about to set out too," he said, after a moment's pause. "I am
sent to Listenai's Dragoons. I depart on Monday next."
He still seemed, however, as he spoke, to be suffering from the
nervousness which had attacked him from the time of breaking the glass
and spilling some of the Muscadel; nor was that nervousness decreased
by the fact that the great bronzed cavalier sitting in his fauteuil
evidently perceived his state. Yet the latter, beyond keeping his dark
eyes fixed on him, gave no other sign that he noticed anything.
Presently, after again filling Andrew's glass and his own goblet,
which brought the contents of the flask to an end, and for which the
young Marquis was profuse in apologies, offering to call Pierre and
bid him fetch another bottle--which hospitality his guest declined,
vowing he would drink no more that night--he said:
"I owe you a great debt, Captain Vause, for saving me from those
_filous_ this evening."
"Nay, nay," interrupted Andrew, with a twirl of his black moustache,
though still, as the boy saw, with his eyes upon him. "Nay, comrade
for comrade, that is all. I could not hear the scraping of steel
without being in the fray, and two to one was foul play. 'Tis nought."
"Let me try in some way to show, at least, that I recognize the
service. Now, how do you proceed to join Colonel Churchill?"
"Humph! In the soldier's way. I have a good horse, and I must find a
servant and a horse also for him. 'Tis easy. Also, I know the route.
From here to Metz, then through the country of Mont Tonnerre, and so
on to Heidelberg. There we shall come upon Turenne's outposts, a day
later reach the main army. Is it not so?"
"That is the road. Yet, Captain Vause, let me, at least, proffer this
much. You speak of a servant; 'tis not necessary. I set out on Monday,
as I say; to-day is Thursday. Now, with me there go six troopers from
our estate by Evreux. Till they take their place in my troop in
Listenai's they will act both as escort and servants. Sir, will you
not ride in my company; be my guest? 'Tis but little beyond good
fellowship."
Andrew reflected a moment--strange thoughts revolving in his mind as
he did so; thoughts that two incidents of the evening had given birth
to--then he spoke frankly, and said:
"_Mon brave gar_, I will. We go together."
"Good!" exclaimed Debrasques, "good! I thank you." And at last he
looked once more like himself, the colour returning to his cheeks and
his eyes sparkling. "Good!" Then, speaking very earnestly as Andrew
rose to go--for, borne on the soft air of the night as it came through
the open windows, were heard the chimes of St. Roch ringing out one
o'clock--he said:
"And we are comrades--sworn? Is it not so? Whatever may--can--befall
in the future, friends and comrades?"
"Why not, Monsieur Debrasques?" asked Andrew, looking down at the
slight young figure before him.
"Oh! I know not. But say it, say it. Comrades and friends, no matter
what befall."
"I say it," the other answered. "Comrades and friends," and he put out
his great sunburned hand and took the lad's delicate one in his, while
he saw the latter's fair complexion suffuse again, this time with
pleasure.
The Marquis did not summon Pierre to escort his visitor to the
courtyard door, but, instead, conducted him out himself, carrying in
his hand a candelabra of three branches from which the candles therein
threw forth a bright light. And by that light Andrew saw far better
than he had seen by the taper the serving-man had earlier exchanged
for the smoking flambeau, how the great square hall, with its
staircase on either side, was filled with paintings of men of various
periods--armed and looking, as the boy had said, as if all had been
soldiers in their day--and also with pictures of many well-favoured
women in whom he seemed to trace something of a likeness to the bright
grey eyes and soft complexion of Debrasques. Also he saw a nearly new
full-length portrait of a man--the oils were quite fresh, he noticed,
and not laid on the canvas many months--a man young and good-looking,
though the hair inclined to red, while the eyes, a bright blue, had a
steely, menacing glance in them, that gave to their owner a forbidding
look which seemed to warn those who gazed at the portrait to take heed
how they trusted him whom it depicted.
"Who is that, if I may be so bold as to ask?" inquired Andrew, pausing
a moment before this painting. "One of your house, I should suppose,
from its being honoured here."
"That!" said the Marquis, "that! Oh! 'tis a cousin of mine on my
mother's side. She cared for him--that is why he hangs here."
And, looking down at his host, Andrew saw by the light of the candles
that once more the young man's face was deathly pale.
* * * * * *
"What have I stumbled on?" he mused as he sought at last his inn,
after having paid the postponed visit to his horse and seen that all
was well with it. "What? What? Let me reflect. In the tavern this
young Marquis was startled at hearing the name of De Bois-Vallée--that
beyond all doubt; in his own house he was even more startled at
hearing mine--in his agitation his hand shook so that the glass was
broken by the bottle he held in it. There is some connection here!
Then the picture of that crafty-looking, blue-eyed cousin whom his
mother cared for--cared for! Is he then dead? And if not, who is he?
Well, we will see. Time will show. 'Twixt here and Heidelberg is a
long ride."
And musing still, and trying to piece one thing with another, Andrew
went at last to bed.