"A LITTLE BOAST"
My new abode was more cheerful than the one I had quitted in the
citadel. It was not large, but it had a window, well barred,
through which came the good strong light of the northern sky. A
wooden bench for my bed stood in one corner, and, what cheered me
much, there was a small iron stove. Apart from warmth, its fire
would be companionable, and to tend it a means of passing the time.
Almost the first thing I did was to examine it. It was round, and
shaped like a small bulging keg on end. It had a lid on top, and in
the side a small door with bars for draught, suggesting to me in
little the delight of a fireplace. A small pipe from the side
carried away the smoke into a chimney in the wall. It seemed to
me luxurious, and my spirits came back apace.
There was no fire yet, and it was bitter cold, so that I took to
walking up and down to keep warmth in me. I was ill nourished, and
I felt the cold intensely. But I trotted up and down, plans of
escape already running through my head. I was as far off as you can
imagine from that event of the early morning, when I stood waiting,
half frozen, to be shot by Lancy's men.
After I had been walking swiftly up and down for an hour or
more, slapping my hands against my sides to keep them warm--for it
was so cold I ached and felt a nausea--I was glad to see Gabord
enter with a soldier carrying wood and shavings. I do not think I
could much longer have borne the chilling air--a dampness, too, had
risen from the floor, which had been washed that morning--for my
clothes were very light in texture and much worn. I had had but the
one suit since I entered the dungeon, for my other suit, which
was by no means smart, had been taken from me when I was first
imprisoned the year before. As if many good things had been
destined to come at once, soon afterwards another soldier entered
with a knapsack, which he laid down on the bench. My delight was
great when I saw it held my other poor suit of clothes, together
with a rough set of woollens, a few handkerchiefs, two pairs of
stockings, and a wool cap for night wear.
Gabord did not speak to me at all, but roughly hurried the
soldier at his task of fire-lighting, and ordered the other to
fetch a pair of stools and a jar of water. Meanwhile I stood near,
watching, and stretched out my skinny hands to the grateful heat as
soon as the fire was lighted. I had a boy's delight in noting how
the draught pumped the fire into violence, shaking the stove till
it puffed and roared. I was so filled, that moment, with the
domestic spirit that I thought a steaming kettle on the little
stove would give me a tabby-like comfort.
"Why not a kettle on the hob?" said I gaily to Gabord.
"Why not a cat before the fire, a bit of bacon on the coals, a
pot of mulled wine at the elbow, and a wench's chin to chuck,
baby-bumbo!" said Gabord in a mocking voice, which made the
soldiers laugh at my expense. "And a spinet, too, for ducky dear,
Scarrat; a piece of cake and cherry wine, and a soul to go to
heaven! Tonnerre!" he added, with an oath, "these English prisoners
want the world for a sou, and they'd owe that till judgment
day."
I saw at once the meaning of his words, for he turned his back
on me and went to the window and tried the stanchions, seeming much
concerned about them, and muttering to himself. I drew out from my
pocket two gold pieces, and gave them to the soldier Scarrat; and
the other soldier coming in just then, I did the same with him; and
I could see that their respect for me mightily increased. Gabord,
still muttering, turned to us again, and began to berate the
soldiers for their laziness. As the two men turned to go, Scarrat,
evidently feeling that something was due for the gold I had given,
said to Gabord, "Shall m'sieu' have the kettle?"
Gabord took a step forward as if to strike the soldier, but stopped
short, blew out his cheeks, and laughed in a loud, mocking way.
"Ay, ay, fetch m'sieu' the kettle, and fetch him flax to spin, and
a pinch of snuff, and hot flannels for his stomach, and every night
at sundown you shall feed him with pretty biscuits soaked in milk.
Ah, go to the devil and fetch the kettle, fool!" he added roughly
again, and quickly the place was empty save for him and myself.
"Those two fellows are to sit outside your cage door, dickey-bird,
and two are to march beneath your window yonder, so you shall not
lack care if you seek to go abroad. Those are the new orders."
"And you, Gabord," said I, "are you not to be my jailer?" I said
it sorrowfully, for I had a genuine feeling for him, and I could
not keep that from my voice.
When I had spoken so feelingly, he stood for a moment, flushing
and puffing, as if confused by the compliment in the tone, and then
he answered, "I'm to keep you safe till word comes from the King
what's to be done with you."
Then he suddenly became surly again, standing with legs apart
and keys dangling; for Scarrat entered with the kettle, and put it
on the stove. "You will bring blankets for m'sieu'," he added, "and
there's an order on my table for tobacco, which you will send your
comrade for."
In a moment we were left alone.
"You'll live like a stuffed pig here," he said, "though 'twill
be cold o' nights."
After another pass or two of words he left me, and I hastened to
make a better toilet than I had done for a year. My old rusty suit
which I exchanged for the one I had worn seemed almost sumptuous,
and the woollen wear comforted my weakened body. Within an hour my
cell looked snug, and I sat cosily by the fire, feeding it lazily.
It must have been about four o'clock when there was a turning of
keys and a shooting of bolts, the door opened, and who should
step inside but Gabord, followed by Alixe! I saw Alixe's lips
frame my name thrice, though no word came forth, and my heart was
bursting to cry out and clasp her to my breast. But still with a
sweet, serious look cast on me, she put out her hand and stayed me.
Gabord, looking not at us at all, went straight to the window,
and, standing on a stool, busied himself with the stanchions and
to whistle. I took Alixe's hands and held them, and spoke her name
softly, and she smiled up at me with so perfect a grace that I
thought there never was aught like it in the world.
She was the first to break the good spell. I placed a seat for
her, and sat down by her. She held out her fingers to the fire, and
then, after a moment, she told me the story of last night's affair.
First she made me tell her briefly of the events of the morning, of
which she knew, but not fully. This done, she began. I will set
down her story as a whole, and you must understand as you read that
it was told as women tell a story, with all little graces and
diversions, and those small details with which even momentous
things are enveloped in their eyes. I loved her all the more
because of these, and I saw, as Doltaire had said, how admirably
poised was her intellect, how acute her wit, how delicate and
astute a diplomatist she was becoming; and yet, through all,
preserving a simplicity of character almost impossible of belief.
Such qualities, in her directed to good ends, in lesser women have
made them infamous. Once that day Alixe said to me, breaking off as
her story went on, "Oh, Robert, when I see what power I have to
dissimulate--for it is that, call it by what name you will--when I
see how I enjoy accomplishing against all difficulty, how I can
blind even so skilled a diplomatist as Monsieur Doltaire, I almost
tremble. I see how, if God had not given me something here"--she
placed her hand upon her heart--"that saves me, I might be like
Madame Cournal, and far worse, far worse than she. For I love
power--I do love it; I can see that!"
She did not realize that it was her strict honesty with herself
that was her true safeguard.
But here is the story she told me:
"When I left you, last night, I went at once to my home, and was
glad to get in without being seen. At nine o'clock we were to be
at the Chateau, and while my sister Georgette was helping me with
my toilette--oh, how I wished she would go and leave me quite
alone!--my head was in a whirl, and now and then I could feel
my heart draw and shake like a half-choked pump, and there was
a strange pain behind my eyes. Georgette is of such a warm
disposition, so kind always to me, whom she would yield to in
everything, so simple in her affections, that I seemed standing
there by her like an intrigante, as one who had got wisdom at the
price of a good something lost. But do not think, Robert, that for
one instant I was sorry I played a part, and have done so for a long
year and more. I would do it and more again, if it were for you.
"Georgette could not understand why it was I stopped all at once
and caught her head to my breast, as she sat by me where I stood
arranging my gown. I do not know quite why I did it, but perhaps
it was from my yearning that never should she have a lover in such
sorrow and danger as mine, and that never should she have to learn
to mask her heart as I have done. Ah, sometimes I fear, Robert,
that when all is over, and you are free, and you see what the world
and all this playing at hide-and-seek have made me, you will feel
that such as Georgette, who have never looked inside the hearts of
wicked people, and read the tales therein for knowledge to defeat
wickedness--that such as she were better fitted for your life and
love. No, no, please do not take my hand--not till you have heard
all I am going to tell."
She continued quietly; yet her eye flashed out now and then, and
now and then, also, something in her thoughts as to how she, a
weak, powerless girl, had got her ends against astute evil men,
sent a little laugh to her lips; for she had by nature as merry a
heart as serious.
"At nine o'clock we came to the Chateau St. Louis from Ste. Anne
Street, where our winter home is--yet how much do I prefer the Manor
House! There were not many guests to supper, and Monsieur Doltaire
was not among them. I affected a genial surprise, and asked the
Governor if one of the two vacant chairs at the table was for
monsieur; and looking a little as though he would reprove me--for
he does not like to think of me as interested in monsieur--he said
it was, but that monsieur was somewhere out of town, and there was
no surety that he would come. The other chair was for the Chevalier
de la Darante, one of the oldest and best of our nobility, who
pretends great roughness and barbarism, but is a kind and honourable
gentleman, though odd. He was one of your judges, Robert; and though
he condemned you, he said that you had some reason on your side. And
I will show you how he stood for you last night.
"I need not tell you how the supper passed, while I was
planning--planning to reach the Governor if monsieur did not come;
and if he did come, how to play my part so he should suspect
nothing but a vain girl's caprice, and maybe heartlessness. Moment
after moment went by, and he came not. I almost despaired. Presently
the Chevalier de la Darante entered, and he took the vacant chair
beside me. I was glad of this. I had gone in upon the arm of a
rusty gentleman of the Court, who is over here to get his health
again, and does it by gaming and drinking at the Chateau Bigot. The
Chevalier began at once to talk to me, and he spoke of you, saying
that he had heard of your duel with my brother, and that formerly
you had been much a guest at our house. I answered him with what
carefulness I could, and brought round the question of your death,
by hint and allusion getting him to speak of the mode of execution.
"Upon this point he spoke his mind strongly, saying that it was
a case where the penalty should be the musket, not the rope. It was
no subject for the supper table, and the Governor felt this, and I
feared he would show displeasure; but other gentlemen took up the
matter, and he could not easily change the talk at the moment. The
feeling was strong against you. My father stayed silent, but I could
see he watched the effect upon the Governor. I knew that he himself
had tried to get the mode of execution changed, but the Governor had
been immovable. The Chevalier spoke most strongly, for he is afraid
of no one, and he gave the other gentlemen raps upon the knuckles.
"'I swear,' he said at last, 'I am sorry now I gave in to his
death at all, for it seems to me that there is much cruelty and
hatred behind the case against him. He seemed to me a gentleman of
force and fearlessness, and what he said had weight. Why was the
gentleman not exchanged long ago? He was here three years before he
was tried on this charge. Ay, there's the point. Other prisoners
were exchanged--why not he? If the gentleman is not given a decent
death, after these years of captivity, I swear I will not leave
Kamaraska again to set foot in Quebec.'
"At that the Governor gravely said, 'These are matters for our
Council, dear Chevalier.' To this the Chevalier replied, 'I meant
no reflection on your Excellency, but you are good enough to let
the opinions of gentlemen not so wise as you weigh with you in your
efforts to be just; and I have ever held that one wise autocrat was
worth a score of juries.' There was an instant's pause, and then my
father said quietly, 'If his Excellency had always councillors and
colleagues like the Chevalier de la Darante, his path would be
easier, and Canada happier and richer.' This settled the matter,
for the Governor, looking at them both for a moment, suddenly said,
'Gentlemen, you shall have your way, and I thank you for your
confidence.--If the ladies will pardon a sort of council of state
here!' he added. The Governor called a servant, and ordered pen,
ink, and paper; and there before us all he wrote an order to Gabord,
your jailer, to be delivered before midnight.
"He had begun to read it aloud to us, when the curtains of the
entrance-door parted, and Monsieur Doltaire stepped inside. The
Governor did not hear him, and monsieur stood for a moment
listening. When the reading was finished, he gave a dry little
laugh, and came down to the Governor, apologizing for his lateness,
and bowing to the rest of us. He did not look at me at all, but
once he glanced keenly at my father, and I felt sure that he had
heard my father's words to the Governor.
"'Have the ladies been made councillors?' he asked lightly, and
took his seat, which was opposite to mine. 'Have they all conspired
to give a criminal one less episode in his life for which to
blush? ... May I not join the conspiracy?' he added, glancing round,
and lifting a glass of wine. Not even yet had he looked at me. Then
he waved his glass the circuit of the table, and said, 'I drink to
the councillors and applaud the conspirators,' and as he raised his
glass to his lips his eyes came abruptly to mine and stayed, and
he bowed profoundly and with an air of suggestion. He drank, still
looking, and then turned again to the Governor. I felt my heart
stand still. Did he suspect my love for you, Robert? Had he
discovered something? Was Gabord a traitor to us? Had I been
watched, detected? I could have shrieked at the suspense. I was
like one suddenly faced with a dreadful accusation, with which was
a great fear. But I held myself still--oh, so still, so still--and
as in a dream I heard the Governor say pleasantly, 'I would I had
such conspirators always by me. I am sure you would wish them to
take more responsibility than you will now assume in Canada.'
Doltaire bowed and smiled, and the Governor went on: 'I am sure
you will approve of Captain Moray being shot instead of hanged. But
indeed it has been my good friend the Chevalier here who has given
me the best council I have held in many a day.'
"To this Monsieur Doltaire replied: 'A council unknown to
statute, but approved of those who stand for etiquette with ones
foe's at any cost. For myself, it is so unpleasant to think of the
rope'" (here Alixe hid her face in her hands for a moment) "'that I
should eat no breakfast to-morrow, if the gentleman from Virginia
were to hang.' It was impossible to tell from his tone what was in
his mind, and I dared not think of his failure to interfere as he
had promised me. As yet he had done nothing, I could see, and in
eight or nine hours more you were to die. He did not look at me
again for some time, but talked to my mother and my father and the
Chevalier, commenting on affairs in France and the war between our
countries, but saying nothing of where he had been during the past
week. He seemed paler and thinner than when I last saw him, and I
felt that something had happened to him. You shall hear soon what
it was.
"At last he turned from the Chevalier to me, and, said, 'When
did you hear from your brother, mademoiselle?' I told him; and he
added, 'I have had a letter since, and after supper, if you will
permit me, I will tell you of it.' Turning to my father and my
mother, he assured them of Juste's well-being, and afterwards
engaged in talk with the Governor, to whom he seemed to defer.
When we all rose to go to the salon, he offered my mother his
arm, and I went in upon the arm of the good Chevalier. A few
moments afterwards he came to me, and remarked cheerfully, 'In this
farther corner where the spinet sounds most we can talk best'; and
we went near to the spinet, where Madame Lotbiniere was playing.
'It is true,' he began, 'that I have had a letter from your brother.
He begs me to use influence for his advancement. You see he writes
to me instead of to the Governor. You can guess how I stand in
France. Well, we shall see what I may do.... Have you not wondered
concerning me this week?' he asked. I said to him, 'I scarce
expected you till after to-morrow, when you would plead some
accident as cause for not fulfilling your pretty little boast.' He
looked at me sharply for a minute, and then said: 'A pretty LITTLE
boast, is it? H'm! you touch great things with light fingers.' I
nodded. 'Yes,' said I, 'when I have no great faith.' 'You have
marvellous coldness for a girl that promised warmth in her youth,'
he answered. 'Even I, who am old in these matters, can not think of
this Moray's death without a twinge, for it is not like an affair
of battle; but you seem to think of it in its relation to my
"little boast," as you call it. Is it not so?'
"'No, no,' said I, with apparent indignation, 'you must not make
me out so cruel. I am not so hard-hearted as you think. My brother
is well--I have no feeling against Captain Moray on his account;
and as for spying--well, it is only a painful epithet for what is
done here and everywhere all the time.' 'Dear me, dear me,' he
remarked lightly, 'what a mind you have for argument!--a born
casuist; and yet, like all women, you would let your sympathy rule
you in matters of state. But come,' he added, 'where do you think
I have been?' It was hard to answer him gaily, and yet it must be
done, and so I said, 'You have probably put yourself in prison,
that you should not keep your tiny boast.' 'I have been in prison,'
he answered, 'and I was on the wrong side, with no key--even locked
in a chest-room of the Intendance,' he explained, 'but as yet I do
not know by whom, nor am I sure why. After two days without food or
drink, I managed to get out through the barred window. I spent three
days in my room, ill, and here I am. You must not speak of this--you
will not?' he asked me. 'To no one,' I answered gaily, 'but my other
self.' 'Where is your other self?' he asked. 'In here,' said I,
touching my bosom. I did not mean to turn my head away when I said
it, but indeed I felt I could not look him in the eyes at the
moment, for I was thinking of you.
"He mistook me; he thought I was coquetting with him, and he leaned
forward to speak in my ear, so that I could feel his breath on my
cheek. I turned faint, for I saw how terrible was this game I was
playing; but oh, Robert, Robert,"--her hands fluttered towards me,
then drew back--"it was for your sake, for your sake, that I let his
hand rest on mine an instant, as he said: 'I shall go hunting THERE
to find your other self. Shall I know the face if I see it?' I drew
my hand away, for it was torture to me, and I hated him, but I only
said a little scornfully, 'You do not stand by your words. You
said'--here I laughed a little disdainfully--'that you would meet
the first test to prove your right to follow the second boast.'
"He got to his feet, and said in a low, firm voice: 'Your memory
is excellent, your aplomb perfect. You are young to know it all so
well. But you bring your own punishment,' he added, with a wicked
smile, 'and you shall pay hereafter. I am going to the Governor.
Bigot has arrived, and is with Madame Cournal yonder. You shall
have proof in half an hour.'
"Then he left me. An idea occurred to me. If he succeeded in
staying your execution, you would in all likelihood be placed in
the common jail. I would try to get an order from the Governor to
visit the jail to distribute gifts to the prisoners, as my mother
and I had done before on the day before Christmas. So, while
Monsieur Doltaire was passing with Bigot and the Chevalier de la
Darante into another room, I asked the Governor; and that very
moment, at my wish, he had his secretary write the order, which he
countersigned and handed me, with a gift of gold for the prisoners.
As he left my mother and myself, Monsieur Doltaire came back with
Bigot, and, approaching the Governor, they led him away, engaging
at once in serious talk. One thing I noticed: as monsieur and Bigot
came up, I could see monsieur eying the Intendant askance, as though
he would read treachery; for I feel sure that it was Bigot who
contrived to have monsieur shut up in the chest-room. I can not
quite guess the reason, unless it be true what gossips say, that
Bigot is jealous of the notice Madame Cournal has given Doltaire,
who visits much at her house.
"Well, they asked me to sing, and so I did; and can you guess
what it was? Even the voyageurs' song,--
'Brothers, we go to the Scarlet Hills,
(Little gold sun, come out of the dawn!)'
I know not how I sang it, for my heart, my thoughts, were far
away in a whirl of clouds and mist, as you may see a flock of wild
ducks in the haze upon a river, flying they know not whither, save
that they follow the sound of the stream. I was just ending the
song when Monsieur Doltaire leaned over me, and said in my ear,
'To-morrow I shall invite Captain Moray from the scaffold to my
breakfast-table--or, better still, invite myself to his own.' His
hand caught mine, as I gave a little cry; for when I felt sure of
your reprieve, I could not, Robert, I could not keep it back. He
thought I was startled at his hand-pressure, and did not guess the
real cause.
"'I have met one challenge, and I shall meet the other,' he said
quickly. 'It is not so much a matter of power, either; it is that
engine opportunity. You and I should go far in this wicked world,'
he added. 'We think together, we see through ladders. I admire you,
mademoiselle. Some men will say they love you; and they should, or
they have no taste; and the more they love you, the better pleased
am I--if you are best pleased with me. But it is possible for men to
love and not to admire. It is a foolish thing to say that reverence
must go with love. I know men who have lost their heads and their
souls for women whom they knew infamous. But when one admires where
one loves, then in the ebb and flow of passion the heart is safe,
for admiration holds when the sense is cold.'
"You know well, Robert, how clever he is; how, listening to him,
you must admit his talent and his power. But oh, believe that,
though I am full of wonder at his cleverness, I can not bear him
very near me."
She paused. I looked most gravely at her, as well one might who
saw so sweet a maid employing her heart thus, and the danger that
faced her. She misread my look a little, maybe, for she said at
once:
"I must be honest with you, and so I tell you all--all, else the
part I play were not possible to me. To you I can speak plainly,
pour out my soul. Do not fear for me. I see a battle coming between
that man and me, but I shall fight it stoutly, worthily, so that in
this, at least, I shall never have to blush for you that you loved
me. Be patient, Robert, and never doubt me; for that would make me
close the doors of my heart, though I should never cease to aid
you, never weary in labor for your well-being. If these things, and
fighting all these wicked men, to make Doltaire help me to save
you, have schooled to action some worse parts of me, there is yet
in me that which shall never be brought low, never be dragged to
the level of Versailles or the Chateau Bigot--never!"
She looked at me with such dignity and pride that my eyes filled
with tears, and, not to be stayed, I reached out and took her
hands, and would have clasped her to my breast, but she held back
from me.
"You believe in me, Robert?" she said most earnestly. "You will
never doubt me? You know that I am true and loyal."
"I believe in God, and you," I answered reverently, and I took
her in my arms and kissed her. I did not care at all whether or no
Gabord saw; but indeed he did not, as Alixe told me afterwards,
for, womanlike, even in this sweet crisis she had an eye for such
details.
"What more did he say?" I asked, my heart beating hard in the
joy of that embrace.
"No more, or little more, for my mother came that instant and
brought me to talk with the Chevalier de la Darante, who wished to
ask me for next summer to Kamaraska or Isle aux Coudres, where he
has manorhouses. Before I left Monsieur Doltaire, he said, 'I never
made a promise but I wished to break it. This one shall balance all
I've broken, for I'll never unwish it.'
"My mother heard this, and so I summoned all my will, and said
gaily, 'Poor broken crockery! You stand a tower among the ruins.'
This pleased him, and he answered, 'On the tower base is written,
This crockery outserves all others.' My mother looked sharply at
me, but said nothing, for she has come to think that I am heartless
and cold to men and to the world, selfish in many things."
At this moment Gabord turned round, saying, "'Tis time to be
done. Madame comes."
"It is my mother," said Alixe, standing up, and hastily placing
her hands in mine. "I must be gone. Good-bye, good-bye."
There was no chance for further adieu, and I saw her pass out with
Gabord; but she turned at the last, and said in English, for she
spoke it fairly now, "Believe, and remember."