A HAUNTED FOREST.
Beyond Chalons we rode for several miles in silence, for Nicola
seemed to be still displeased with me, and I felt a sadness and
irresolution for which I could not account, for this girl exercised a
strange and powerful fascination over me; but now, a storm which came
on suddenly was the fortunate means of bringing us to a satisfactory
explanation, somewhat after the fashion of the regal lovers in the
Æneid, save that we conducted ourselves with much more propriety than
Dido and her demigod.
About dusk we found ourselves somewhere on the borders of Lower
Champagne, near a large forest, amid the dingles of which we had lost
the right path; and now the darkening clouds, with the oppression of
the atmosphere, forewarned us of what was approaching. No house or
village appeared in sight; every way the forest tracks seemed to be
lost in a wilderness of trees. On a rock overhanging the forest
stood an old castle, at which we expected to find shelter or a guide;
but it proved to be a roofless ruin, destroyed probably in the wars
of the League: and two or three men, whom we had seen lurking near
it, disappeared on our approach, and accorded no response to my
shouts. This suggested the unpleasant idea of robbers; and my
hitherto brave little companion grew pale as the darkness increased,
and I carefully examined the pistols in my girdle and the petronels
at my saddle-bow.
In her anxiety Nicola forgot her displeasure, and prattled and spoke
to me again, keeping her horse close to my stirrup; for every minute
my hand was required to catch her bridle, as the brambles and stones
rendered the animal restive and liable to stumble.
Once a wolf bayed near us, and she uttered a faint scream. The
French forests were full of those animals. De Mezeray tells us that,
in 1437, wolves occasionally darted through the city barriers, and
devoured children in the Rue St. Antoine at Paris; and all the world
knows of 'the terrible wild beast' which appeared in the forest of
Fontainebleau and ate one hundred and forty persons alive, before it
was killed by M. de Brissac and twelve of the king's musketeers.*
* So lately as 1765, the forest of Soissons was full of wolves. A
ordinance of Henry III. directed the lords of manors to have a
general hunt every third month.
'Do not be alarmed, dear Nicola,' said I, 'for I have four bullets
and my dagger at your service.'
'These will avail you little, M. Blane, against a herd of wolves.'
'Well--a herd might, perhaps, prove rather troublesome!'
'Or a band of robbers--like those of Guillirez!'
'The devil! My dear mademoiselle, do not think of such things: yet I
would rather face the robbers than the wolves.'
'Indeed! do you hold your life a thing of little price?'
'Nay; I hold it, dear Nicola, exactly at the value your interest in
me gives it.'
'A very pretty compliment, M. Blane; but do not press my hand so,
pray: and ah, my heaven! there is lightning coming to increase our
annoyances! Moreover, this forest is haunted!'
'By what?'
'A spectre.'
'The deuce, mademoiselle! a real spectre?'
'Yes.'
'Come now, Nicola!'
'A tall, lean, ghastly man with a dreadful visage.'
'With wolves, robbers, and spectres for companions--a dark forest,
rain, thunder, and wind--we shall pass a pleasant night! now the
torrent begins to patter on the leaves! my poor little Nicola, you
will be quite drenched.'
'Mon Dieu! it was in this forest that Charles VIII. of France was
warned of his approaching death,' whispered Nicola, shuddering.
'Warned--by what?'
'The spectre--the demon who haunts it.'
'Ouf! we are to have a demon too! How came it to pass?'
'Charles VIII. was marching home from the conquest of Naples, and was
passing through this wood, accompanied by Anne of Brittany his queen,
and the Lady Beaujeu his sister, when suddenly a tall and ghastly
form like a skeleton, having a long white beard and enormous red
eyes, started from among the bushes, and grasped the royal bridle,
exclaiming with a shrill voice, like the whistling wind--
'"Stop! O King, whence go you?"
'"To Paris!" answered Charles, boldly; "but why?"
'"Because you are betrayed--beware of the orange-tree!" replied the
spectre, and vanished, for no trace of him could be found by the King
or his company. Charles therefore became alarmed, and tarried till
all the Scottish Guard, under the Lord Bernard Stuart d'Aubigne came
up, and with these he passed through the forest in safety; but the
terrible visage of the spectre was ever before him; so that he lost
his senses soon after, and died of a poisoned orange.'
Nicola also told me that, in the local superstition of the peasantry,
the forest was the haunt of a malevolent female spirit known as La
Bête Havette, who lived in wells and springs (like that watery spirit
which haunted our friend St. Fiacre), and was wont suddenly to pour
its fury upon children, drowning them, as the kelpies are said to do
in Scotland. Here, too, was heard St. Hubert's hunt, when the
yelling of fiendish dogs, the clank of hell-forged fetters, and
mournful cries swept at midnight over the tree tops, and died away in
distance, as the demons bore off the souls of the damned to
punishment; for such the terrified peasantry believed the passing
flocks of wild geese to be; but at last, as the darkness increased,
Nicola became terrified by her own legends; she ceased to speak, and
kept close to my side.