FORGING THE CHAIN
In November we went into winter quarters. I was much in hopes that
Count Saxe would remain in Strasburg the whole winter, but the women
in Paris would not let him. They besieged the king to send for Count
Saxe; they nearly worried Dangervilliers, the minister of war, into a
madhouse, demanding that he order Count Saxe to Paris. Cardinal Fleury
declared that his days would be shortened by the importunate ones, who
implored him for Count Saxe. Is it any wonder, I say, that Count Saxe
was no anchorite with all this adulation and flattery bestowed upon
him--with women throwing themselves at his head and at his feet? He
went to Paris.
We reached Paris in January and remained until May. It was an
unusually tedious time for me, because I had not Gaston Cheverny with
me. There was but little for me to do. My master wrote his own love
letters--he had few others to write--so that I had many hours at my
disposal. There was a young baggage of an actress named Verieres, who
tried to play the poor lost Adrienne Lecouvreur's part to Count Saxe.
I know not whether she succeeded or not.
I heard several times from Gaston Cheverny. He was still in Poland,
over the border first of East Prussia and then of Russia, traveling
from place to place, following the instructions of the Duke of
Berwick. Every month he expected to be allowed to join his regiment,
but something more was always found for him to do. He was promised,
however, that he should not be detained in Poland longer than the
first month of the campaign.
The campaign, however, was unusually late in opening. Marshal, the
Duke of Berwick, reached Strasburg in March, but found everything in
confusion. Luckily, the enemy was in no better case than we. It was
May before it became necessary for Count Saxe to start for the Rhine.
We traveled by way of Brussels, and I made a request of Count Saxe
which had been burning in my heart all the winter. It was that I might
stop, if only for a night, at the chateau of Capello. To this, as the
most indulgent of masters, he readily agreed.
It was on a May day, in 1734, that I saw the chateau of Capello, after
four years of absence. It was late in the afternoon, and the shadows
were long in the boscages of the park and upon the fresh green
terraces of the chateau. As I drew near I looked toward the Italian
garden, and there I saw a figure pacing to and fro, which I at once
recognized as Francezka. A dog was at her side, and in him, too, I
recognized an old friend--Bold.
I threw my bridle to a servant at the foot of the terrace and went
straight to the Italian garden. As I entered it, Francezka was walking
meditatively up and down the box bordered walk, where stood the well
remembered statue of Petrarch, the sun dial and the stone bench. Her
eyes were bent upon the ground, and I saw her well before she noticed
me. She wore a gown of crimson brocade with a muslin kerchief crossed
over her white neck; and she had on dainty shoes with red heels--her
favorite affectation. I had heard that Francezka gave great scandal to
the ladies of Brabant by wearing silks and satins every day, which was
contrary to their custom. Francezka, however, had a well-developed
taste for luxury, which came with her warm Spanish blood.
The dog saw me first, and ran forward with a yelp of pleasure.
Francezka heard him and raised her eyes to mine. If ever any one in
the world showed joy at seeing Babache, it was Francezka then. She
advanced a step, and when I kissed her hand, she laid her other hand
on mine, while the warm tears dropped from her eyes. It is something
to have the loving friendship and confidence of such a woman. She told
me many times how glad she was to see me--told me so with her eyes as
well as her voice--as we walked up and down together. She was lonely
since Madame Riano had gone. It was her fate to be more admired by men
and envied by women than loved by either, and that is one reason why I
think my devotion was dear to her. She told me as much then. I asked
her if she was happy with Madame Chambellan.
"Madame Chambellan is a good soul; but, dear Babache, she is like that
simpleton, Bellegarde. How am I ever to stand her?"
From the moment Francezka began to speak, I became conscious of a
touching and beautiful change in her; an angelic softness had come
upon her--a softness most seductive which she had often assumed, but
which now seemed a part of herself. Before I had been ten minutes in
her company, I saw this change had gone deep. There had been in her
nature ever since I knew her a note of triumph. She could not remain
unconscious that she was the favorite both of nature and fortune. Her
active and penetrating mind had been occupied since her early years in
planning her own destiny, which was hers to decide. Other young girls
had their destinies decided for them, but Francezka knew, from her
childhood, that she would one day be mistress of herself and her
fortune. This had given her an exultant air, pretty and charming
enough, but after all, what is so becoming to a woman as humility? And
this sweet new humility of Francezka's was more winning than I can
say. The whole expression of her lovely face had changed. Her eyes,
instead of sparkling like stars, were soft, and had the quiet beauty
of a lake by moonlight. They had a supplicating look. Francezka was
yearning for something, like other human beings, and so, was more
nearly like the rest of the human family. We sat together on the stone
bench, the lake lying cool and somber before us; night seemed to have
come upon it although the sun still blazed in the west. The dog licked
my hand, and showed great friendship for me, and I told Francezka how
ingeniously he had escaped from me at Strasburg to join his master.
"Well," replied Francezka, demurely, "no one can blame Bold for
running away to join such a master. I have read in old Homer
somewhere that Achilles tells Agamemnon he is as impudent as a dog. If
it is impudence like Bold's, Agamemnon might have taken it as a high
compliment."
To this frank expression of admiration for both Gaston Cheverny and
his dog, I said:
"I have had letters from Gaston Cheverny within the month. Perhaps you
have heard later?"
For answer Francezka looked at me for a whole minute in silence, her
eyes glowing with fire and dew and with a smile as soft and beautiful
as a summer dawn, and meanwhile, the eloquent blood hung out its
banners in her cheek. Then suddenly, her graceful figure drooped, and
she hid her face upon the dog's head, which lay upon her lap. I was
astounded; I had never seen Francezka overcome with bashfulness
before. I sat silent, watching her. She trembled, and in a little
while the red blood crept from her cheek, into her white neck under
her muslin kerchief. Some instinct told me that this soft tumult
referred to Gaston Cheverny, and that his fate and Francezka's were
now forever linked together. I said no word but waited until Francezka
raised her blushing face and spoke.
"Babache," she said, "I made Gaston promise that he would keep from
every human being the secret between us--and I confess, in the
agitation of parting, I overlooked my good Babache--but I can not keep
anything concealed from you, when your kind eyes are fixed upon me.
When Gaston was here--secretly--in September of last year--we were
married."
She said it calmly, but with an undertone of the deepest and serenest
joy; and rising, and once more wearing that look of happy exultation
which had been hers, she added:
"I am Gaston Cheverny's wife. Ought I not to be the happiest creature
on earth?"
I rose, too, and kissed her on the brow, the cheek and the hand, with
the greatest reverence. When I could speak, which was not at once, I
said, with the deepest sincerity:
"Nothing could be better than for you to have Gaston Cheverny for a
husband. Knowing him, my heart rejoices for you--not only for what you
have gained, but for what you have escaped. Ah, Francezka"--I used her
name without knowing it at the time--"when I remembered the horde of
fortune-hunters who surrounded you--when I thought that you might give
the treasure of your love to some man who would make merchandise of
it--my heart grew cold within me. But Gaston Cheverny would take you
in your smock--that I know."
"I know it, too," she answered, with a gleam of her old laughing
spirit. "All that I fear for the future is Gaston's supersensitiveness
about my fortune--but that I hope I have wit enough to manage. I shall
never make him anything but simple in his tastes. He thinks my
fondness for luxury childish, and he will endure it good-humoredly,
but I know him well enough to understand that he is a soldier and is
as superior to luxury as Cato himself."
"Tell me all," I said.
We seated ourselves, and Francezka told me, with many eloquent
pauses, with smiles, with shining eyes, with blushes, her short love
story.
"It was in September of last year that one day I sat where I am
sitting with the volume of Petrarch, out of which Gaston had often
read to me, upon my lap. I was thinking of Gaston at that moment--yes,
thinking of him and longing for him. And more, I will affirm, that I
have never seriously thought of any other man but Gaston since that
night at the prison of the Temple. Babache, I have loved him ever
since I loved you!" She said this with such an air of innocent
devotion--Francezka might change, but she could not cease to be
Francezka; and she had this way of saying sweet things to all whom she
loved. "And as I read, I yearned so for Gaston, that I spoke his name
aloud twice, and then, as if in answer to it, I looked up, and Gaston
was sitting on the bench beside me. Perhaps, like the rest of the
Kirkpatricks, I am superstitious, for I was afraid it was what my aunt
calls a 'wraith,' and I trembled and caught his hands, thinking he
would melt away into the air. Now you are laughing, Babache, but
remember, I am not incredulous like you French--I am Scotch and
Spanish--"
"But Gaston did not melt away. He grasped your hands--and--"
Francezka again hid her face upon the dog's sleek head, and with her
face so averted continued--
"He took my book away from me, and although I protested, he read some
things I had written in my Petrarch--some things meant for no eye but
my own--Gaston read them and interpreted them. He told me he had not
meant to make known his love to me until he had achieved something to
put us more on an equality, so he said--foolishly, I think--for it is
not what a man does so much as what he is; and he was looking forward
to promotion in this campaign,--and thinking then--then he could
speak--when, seeing me so moved, and reading what I had written in my
Petrarch, and all--I know not how it came about--but we were married
secretly before twenty-four hours."
There was a long pause here. Francezka passed the silky ears of the
dog through her fingers, and looked into his tawny eyes, but her
thoughts were evidently in the happy past. There was no sound in the
still May evening, except the faint, mysterious moan of the lake.
"Truly," she said, after a while, "I know not how our marriage came
about, except that we loved each other and sought an excuse to bind
us, one to the other. The excuse was, that my aunt was going to
Scotland at once, and I was to be left alone--for Madame Chambellan is
scarcely a guardian for me. Gaston and I had already determined to be
married, before we spoke to my aunt. She, with her usual keen sense,
reminded us of the threat that had come, no one knew whence, or how,
of any roof that Gaston might have, being burned to the ground--and
also, of the many chateaux and houses belonging to French people which
had been burned. She suggested, therefore, for the present, that the
marriage be kept secret--if we were bent on being married--as Gaston
would be leaving in a few days, and his return would be uncertain. To
that we agreed--Gaston calling himself a blockhead for not thinking of
the usefulness of secrecy for a time. We were married in the village
church by Pere Benart, at sunset. No one was present, except my aunt,
Madame Chambellan, and old Peter. I made a fete for the village
people, so they were all in the fields, dancing and feasting and no
one saw us go or come from the church. It was a beautiful day, but at
sunset, while we were in the church, a terrible thunderstorm came up.
That frightened me a little; it did not seem a good omen."
"And this world is governed, not by the laws of God and Nature, but by
omens," I replied gravely. Francezka did not laugh at this. Truly, as
she said, she was not without superstition.
"Gaston comforted me, and I soon recovered my spirits. My aunt left
next day for Brussels, on her way to Scotland. Gaston remained with me
a week. Old Peter and my good old Elizabeth, who is Peter's sister,
managed to keep Gaston's presence a secret. We had one week of perfect
happiness. How many of God's creatures, think you, can say as much?"
"Few," I replied. "Certainly not Babache, captain of Uhlans."
"The recollection of that week of happiness is a treasure that can not
be taken away from me. Even the gods can not recall their gifts,"
continued Francezka. "My marriage seems to me like a covenant made in
a dream. My happiness, however, was very real. Gaston was in the
country some days longer," she went on, "and we had three brief
meetings. Once, with old Peter, I rode to Brussels by night, to spend
one half hour with Gaston--he was only stopping long enough to get
fresh horses--and he came here for an hour to bid me one last
farewell. When we parted, it was with the full expectation of his
return in November, when our marriage was to be proclaimed, and we
were to go to Paris for the winter.
"When the campaign opened, I was to follow Gaston as early as
possible, for he was determined not to leave me at Capello after it
was known that I was his wife, until the war should be over. But, as
you know, he was sent far away. You know, Babache, I am not the woman
to swerve a man from his duty. I love Gaston's honor even more than I
love him. And so, hard as the separation is, I thank God that he is
the man to choose his duty first. I felt that at our parting--which,
like our meeting, was in this Italian garden. I love this spot more
than ever now, because from here I can see the highroad, along which
Gaston will return to me. Here, Bold and I come once every day,
generally at sunset, to watch for the coming of the master of both of
us. It is one of my cherished fancies--superstitions, I suppose you
would call it--that in this spot Gaston and I shall meet again. I
shall see him and, and he will know where to look for me. Bold thinks
so, too,--don't you, my dog?"
The dog actually seemed to nod his head in assent, as Francezka
gravely interrogated him.
"Gaston said to me, when he gave me this dog, 'I give you one of my
best friends. Remember me as he does--for dogs never forget. In the
virtue of constancy, dogs are superior to men.' So, Bold and I love
and remember our master every hour in the day, and joyfully await his
coming."
Francezka was young, and full of hope. The thought that Gaston might
never return to her did not appear to have darkened her mind once.
Presently, her face, so full of peace and hope and joy--for in perfect
love there is peace and hope and joy--grew clouded. She gave me a
sidelong glance, and then said, sighing a little:
"But there is something else, something which occurred this very day,
that has troubled me. I can tell you, but I know not how to tell
Gaston. Yet, I must tell him some day." She paused again, and I waited
patiently for her to continue. "Perhaps it is known to you," she said,
blushing more deeply, "for Regnard Cheverny made no secret of it--"
"That he wished to marry you?" She nodded.
"I have ever been cold to him, as a lover--though, for the past
months, when he has been several times at Castle Haret, I have
been kind to him, remembering that he was Gaston's brother--and I
think he misunderstood me. Often, when he has been to see me--and
urged his suit more with his eyes, than with his words--I have felt
frightened--and you know, I do not come of a race of cowards. There is
something to frighten one about Regnard Cheverny, he is so cool, so
quiet, so debonair when seeking his own will; not light of heart
like Gaston, nor full of sudden fury, nor impatiently renouncing what
does not please him--but Regnard pursues his object steadily, like
Fate. Well, then, this day, not two hours ago, as I was taking my
afternoon walk in this garden, and living over the hours I have
spent with my husband, I looked toward the highroad, and there, I
thought I saw him coming. I watched, with my heart almost leaping out
of my breast--but, presently, I knew it was not Gaston--but
Regnard. I saw him disappear under the hill, and ride up to the
courtyard--and then he was walking toward me across the grass."
She stopped suddenly and asked me:
"Have you noticed how much alike Gaston and Regnard have become?"
"Yes, Mademoiselle--or Madame Cheverny, I should say."
Francezka's face dimpled into a rosy smile.
"It is the second time to-day that I have been called Madame Cheverny.
It is the charmingest name in the world, I think."
She continued, her face becoming grave:
"When Regnard was bowing before me, I saw the resemblance more than
ever--and I drank in his words, because his voice is so much like
Gaston's; yet, I do not see how any one could take one for the other.
Bold was with me--he never leaves me--and he annoyed me by snapping
and snarling at Regnard--no mistake on good Bold's part of any one for
his master! Regnard seated himself with me on this bench in the very
spot where Gaston had sat last autumn, and I was trying to lose myself
in dreaming that it was Gaston and not Regnard who was with me--when
something he said brought me to myself with a shock. For he--" She
stopped, and I said:
"He told you of his love. Tell me all, Madame."
Again I saw that girlish flash of pleasure pass across her anxious and
pleading eyes. Francezka had something undyingly childlike in her
composition.
"He told me of his love so quickly I could not stop him--but I was
indiscreet in one thing. When he told me he regarded my fortune as
less than nothing, I _did_ whisper into Bold's ear, loud enough for
Regnard to hear--'So say they all--except'--the exception I meant was
Gaston. He is the only suitor I have yet had, who did not assure me
that my fortune was nothing to him. Regnard overheard me--and I saw he
was angered. He would not be stopped, although I rose and put up my
hand, and turned my back. But at last, I said to him:
"'And your brother, Monsieur?' for, of course, Regnard knew that
Gaston loved me. When I said this, I turned my eyes full upon him,
because I wished to intimidate him. He colored a little, but said,
coolly: 'Madame, I am not wanting in brotherly affection, but in these
matters my brother and I are as man to man.'"
It was just what I had heard Gaston say, nearly seven years before.
Francezka resumed:
"Then I said to him, without the least tremor in the world, and
feeling myself thrilled with joy and pride at the telling--'Monsieur,
I am, and have been for nearly a year, the wife of your brother,
Gaston Cheverny.'"
Being a natural actress, Francezka went through this scene so that it
was as if it were all happening again. She rose as she spoke and
actually grew taller, and her voice, although low, had a ring of joy
and exultation in it when she repeated the words, "I am the wife of
Gaston Cheverny."
Still standing, she came nearer to me--I had risen too--and kept on:
"I have not words to describe to you Regnard's countenance at that. It
was not disappointment; it seemed to be only the most overmastering
rage. It is his nature to bear a secret disappointment stoically, but
he knew that Gaston must hear of what had passed--and besides--he had
paid me court more steadily and assiduously ever since I was fourteen
than Gaston himself--for Gaston, you must know, has had periods of
jealousy and pique, and for months together, has sometimes refrained
from writing to me or seeing me. Not so Regnard. The words that would
inflame Gaston to anger, Regnard would pass with a cool smile--I liked
him none the better for it. But he was not cool then. He said in a
suppressed fury:
"'Madame, you have perhaps forgotten, that in the time you have been
my brother's wife, you have had many declarations of love from me, and
possibly from other gentlemen. True, I made not mine in set words, as
I have done this day--but it would have been as well to have confided
the secret of your marriage to me before this.'
"I was more angry than he at that--but Babache, no woman can help
pitying a man who loves her, ever so little, if it but be true
love--and I believe Regnard loved me truly in his way. I replied to
this, therefore, with anger, but not without pity. 'You made me no
declaration in words, Monsieur,--and you must remember that every
dictate of prudence recommended in these uncertain times, that my
marriage with your brother be kept secret for the present, at least.'
"'If prudence was your chiefest consideration, Madame,' said Regnard,
with a bow, 'I wonder that you married my brother at all.'
"Babache, that would have angered any woman on earth, and as you know,
I am not the most long-suffering person in the world. So I said: 'Oh,
no, you mistake me, Monsieur. My chief object was to bind your
brother to me--for I love him so much that I could not bear the
thought that he should go away without forging a chain that would
bring him back to me!'"
Francezka, still unconsciously acting her part, said this with such a
depth of feeling, such love, devotion, admiration for Gaston Cheverny
expressed in every tone of her voice, every glance of her eye, that it
must have been wormwood to a haughty, jealous and disappointed man
like Regnard Cheverny. And I made not the slightest doubt that she
rather enjoyed Regnard's humiliation.
"I perceive, Madame," I answered, "that ladies can be cruel as well as
pitiful to a man who loves them."
"Perhaps so," replied Francezka, sitting again, and leaning her head
pensively on her hand. The dog had not stirred a foot from her in this
time, and was watching her with a human look of love and intelligence
in his tawny eyes. "And then Regnard, mastering his rage, said to me:
"'I thought your coldness to me came from a careless and heedless
indifference of an untouched heart. Now I know it to be the steady
deception of a woman already a wife. I could not forget this if I
would, and I would not forget it if I could. I have the honor to bid
you adieu, Madame Cheverny.' And he walked off, looking so like
Gaston! And then I suddenly began to feel frightened at being
frightened--do you know that feeling?"
"Yes," I replied. "It is the form that fear takes with the brave."
"I had thought," said Francezka, "that I was exempt from fear, and
now I find it is my lot, just as much as any one's, to feel fear as
one feels heat or cold or thirst. But fear is the most terrible thing
on earth. And now, Babache, I have opened all my heart to you. It has
been so comforting!"
We talked some time longer. As it seemed the likeliest thing in the
world that I should see Gaston Cheverny shortly, it was agreed that
she should prepare a packet for me that night, which I would take with
me next morning.
The purple twilight had fallen before we quitted the Italian garden,
and went to the chateau. Old Peter was glad to see me, and at supper I
met Madame Chambellan, the ancient _dame de compagnie_, warranted not
to interfere in any way with those she was supposed to watch over. She
promptly went to sleep as soon as supper was over, when we went to the
little yellow saloon. This room, Francezka had lined with books. I
found she was fast becoming learned. Her naturally active mind must
exercise itself on something in solitude, and she seized upon books
and music with avidity. I found out that nothing so far had been heard
of poor Lisa, although Jacques Haret had been seen of late in
Brussels. Francezka was firmly of the belief that the burning of
Gaston Cheverny's house had been instigated by that scoundrel of a
Jacques Haret, in revenge for the beating Gaston had given him.
We remained late, and after old Peter had shown me to my former
chamber, I had some wakeful hours. I sat at the window, looking out
upon the gardens, the lake, all bathed in the mellow moonlight of a
May night. And I saw certain things by "the moonlight of memory." So
Francezka's wild heart had found rest at last, and it rejoiced me. But
deep in my own heart was the sense of loss--the loss of those dreams
wherein Francezka was mine. One often suffers more from the loss of
the ideal than the real. And feeling this, I fell asleep, sitting at
the open window, and had the loveliest dream I had yet had of
Francezka. When I awakened, the moon had gone down, the air had turned
chill and I was oppressed with that strange feeling which comes from
physical discomfort when one is asleep. A light glowed from
Francezka's window, and I saw her graceful figure bending over her
writing table. She wore a white negligee of some sort, and her long
dark hair flowed free. She had probably risen from her bed to add
something to the packet she was preparing for Gaston. Soon her light
was put out, and tough soldier though I am, I was glad to get into the
great, soft bed provided for me.
I was to start at sunrise, and when my horse was led out next morning,
Francezka was down to bid me good by. She gave me a thick packet for
Gaston, saying:
"Tell him I am well, and as happy as ever I can be, away from him. And
that to see you, Babache, was as good as medicine to the sick. Do not
forget that, I charge you."
When I parted from her, she wore a smile of happy expectancy--a look
of jocund hope was in her dewy eyes. I never saw that expression again
on the face of Francezka Capello.