DEFIANCE.
The cheers of the people still rang in the streets, where several
puncheons of wine were set abroach by the master of the household;
the contents of these were quaffed by the German troops, who
thereafter, with great liberality, gave the loyal citizens the purple
staves to suck.
In my chamber I found my valise, which in the hurry and excitement of
recent events I had quite forgotten, although it contained the king's
despatches to the Duc de Lavalette, and Sir John Hepburn's baton and
diploma as Marechal of France. The documents I resolved to secure
about my person for the future, until I could place them in the hands
of those to whom they were addressed.
'How came this portmanteau here?' I asked my servant.
'An equerry of the Prince of Vaudemont found it, at an auberge near
the Meurthe--the auberge of the Three Willows; and M. le Prince at
once sent it here, believing it to belong to monsieur.'
'The Prince was right--I owe him many thanks.'
'He left word that he would be proud to see monsieur at his
apartments, on his leaving the presence of the Duke.'
'At his apartments--is he there now?'
'Yes, monsieur--awaiting you.'
'Please to conduct me to him.'
The servant bowed to the rosettes at his knees, and preceded me along
several passages all panelled with oak, and decorated in many places
by stags' heads and horns, and by trophies of ancient arms and
heraldic devices, amid which the winglets of Lorraine, mantled,
collared and coroneted, were ever the most prominent ornament. We
reached a door, before which a page was lounging on a fauteuil, and
within we heard voices laughing and in animated conversation, sounds
that jarred upon my ear, for my heart was sick and humbled.
I was ushered into a large apartment, the walls of which were hung
with rich old tapestry, representing the loves of heathen gods, and
scantily-attired goddesses; and of shepherds and shepherdesses, with
crook and flageolet; but who were much more occupied with each other
than with their sheep, which seemed to browse among clover composed
of cabbages and sunflowers. Several suits of old armour, numerous
stars of burnished weapons, and two lofty black oak cabinets,
profusely carved, decorated this room, in the centre of which stood a
table, whereon a luxurious luncheon was spread; and here De
Vaudemont, Count Pappenheim and De Bitche, were engaged in doing
every justice to the good things before them. A fourth place was
vacant, as the page intimated, for me.
'Welcome, M. Blane,' exclaimed the Prince, taking me warmly by the
hand, 'welcome, to our ancient home at Nanci!'
'I thank you, M. le Prince.'
'Ah, my friend, on that night, when we first crossed our swords in
the Place de la Grève at Paris, who could foresee to-day, or the
gratitude we owe you? How strangely things come to pass in this
changing world! And on that night at Paris, you fought in defence of
Marie Louise too, when she fled from Raoul d'Ische and me, for we
believed her to be but a little grisette, tripping before us in the
dark. You remember poor Raoul, and his favourite song,
'Vive le fils d'Harlette!
Normands,
Vive le fils d'Harlette!'
Poor Raoul; he was indeed a gallant spirit! These are my friends, M.
Blane; this is M. le Comte Pappenheim--''
'The brave son of a brave father,' said I, bowing; but Pappenheim
smiled disdainfully, and played with the shaggy moustache which
covered his upper lip--a lip thick and coarse, like that which since
the days of the Emperor Maximilian I. has been deemed fashionable,
and even royal, in Austria.
'And this is the colonel of my father's petardiers, M. le Comte de
Bitche, whom you have had the pleasure of meeting before--'
'And whom I have sworn to run through the heart!' I exclaimed, laying
my hand on my sword, and glad to find a legitimate object on which to
pour out all my long pent-up wrath and bitterness.
The Count sprang up, and was about to speak with all the fury
becoming his character and the occasion; when the Prince exclaimed,
'Silence, gentlemen! The hand that dares to draw a sword in the
palace of Lorraine, is forfeited to the public executioner. So be
wary, I command you--be wise, and become friends.'
'Never, while I have breath!' said I.
The Count smiled with a provoking expression of contempt, and gnawed
his wiry cavalier moustache. Then he reseated himself, and after
exchanging sinister glances with Pappenheim, continued restlessly to
pluck and stroke his thick black lansquenet beard.
'M. le Prince,' said Pappenheim, rising proudly and coldly, 'desire
your servants to leave the room; I have to make a communication which
they, at least, must not hear.'
'Retire, messieurs,' said the Prince, to his valet, and to two pages,
who withdrew, with faces expressive of disappointment.
'Comte de Bitche, draw the arras across the doors--so, thank you. I
presume there are here no panels or partitions to which the ear can
be applied?'
'None; but why all this provoking precaution?' asked the Prince, with
considerable hauteur, for rumours of Pappenheim's approaching
marriage with Marie Louise had caused the proud Imperialist to
receive an adulation, respect, and flattery from the officers and
courtiers of the ducal household, somewhat galling to the young heir
of Lorraine, who viewed it with mingled jealousy and mistrust; 'M. le
Comte, what the devil do you mean?'
'A jealous regard, Monseigneur le Prince, for the honour of your
father's house, and of your sister, Mademoiselle of Lorraine.'
'Milles barbes! what do you say, Count Pappenheim?' asked Vaudemont,
changing colour, while De Bitche gave me a covert and ferocious smile.
'I mean simply _this_,' replied Pappenheim (who was the Prince's
senior by nearly ten years, and a taller man by at least half a
head), as he came close to him, and spoke in a hoarse German accent,
with his eyes sparkling, and a face flushed by anger; 'I mean, Prince
of Vaudemont, that to spare this Scotsman's life is in you an act
alike unwary and unwise.'
'Parbleu! you are mad.'
'I am not mad; but I know that death alone can make a secret sure.'
'A secret?' reiterated the Prince, with an air of perplexity.
'What secret, Count of Pappenheim?' I demanded, keeping my hand still
on my sword.
'I am addressing the Prince of Vaudemont,' replied the Count, with
exasperating hauteur, 'not you, monsieur.'
'To the point!' said the Prince, stamping his foot.
'I mean that your sister, Mademoiselle Marie Louise of Lorraine, the
intended bride of Wolfgang Count of Pappenheim, was most unworthily,
most unwisely, and most indelicately, committed by the French king's
mistress to this Scotsman's care, to travel with him together for
many nights and days, these two hundred miles or so, through
Champagne and Lorraine. You understand me now, monseigneur, I
presume.'
'Peace, Count; you alone are unwise and ungenerous, to noise it thus
abroad, and while in anger, too. The Scot has performed his trust
honourably and faithfully, and for one feature in the affair only do
I feel shame. That Marie Louise, when suddenly leaving the court of
France on our quarrel with Louis, had to take refuge with the
Lorrainer d'Amboise; but that woman, though the mistress of the King,
is the daughter of an old and faithful adherent of our house, who
fell by my father's side at Prague; and more honourable would it have
been in Clara d'Ische, and in Mademoiselle my sister, to have trusted
their secret to the honour of M. Blane, and made him fully aware that
the disguised girl he was conducting to Nanci was the only daughter
of Duke Charles IV., and not the soubrette of a licentious
Parisienne, of mature age.'
'Do not add that as an additional invective, my dear Prince,' said De
Bitche; 'king's mistresses are always dames of mature age--it is an
historical fact.'
'They ought fully and amply to have trusted to him,' resumed the
Prince, without heeding the Count.
'I would to heaven they had done so!' said I, in a half-stifled
voice; 'for then much mental misery had been spared me--I had never
raised my eyes or hopes so high.'
'Arthur Blane,' said the Prince, who alone had heard something of
this soliloquy, 'thou art a fine fellow, and a brave one, and I love
thee better every day--ay, too well to suffer Pappenheim to do thee
wrong.'
'I thank you, M. le Prince.'
'And I thank you, too,' added Pappenheim, with a courtier's sneering
smile; 'I thank you for the jealous care you have of your sister's
honour, believing, however, it would be all the greater were you
both, as you are not, the children of one mother.'
'Coarse Austrian!' began the Prince, passionately, but suddenly
moderating his tone, he said, 'M. le Comte, your sneer is alike
insolent and unjust, and I repel it with the scorn it merits.
Mademoiselle is the daughter of a former marriage, true, and my
senior by a year or more, yet do I love her as my own life, more even
than my father does, for all his hopes and pride are centred upon me,
as his only heir. Beware, Count, how you approach this delicate
subject again, for though pliant as a willow to Marie Louise, you may
find me tough as the mountain oak to her intended husband.'
'Enough, monseigneur,' replied the Count, assuming his plumed hat,
and retiring with repeated bows towards the door; 'I shall not renew
this subject again, but at the same time crave leave to choose my own
friends, and beg to be excused sitting at table with your new
Scottish ally, with whom I here proclaim I shall neither make peace
nor truce.'
'Neither will I,' added De Bitche, retiring also, and from the door,
hurling his leather glove at me.
'Take back your glove, De Bitche,' said the Prince, snatching it from
my hand, and tossing it along the corridor; 'and on peril of your
life, fight in this matter without my knowledge.'
He closed the door after nis guests, and turning towards me, said,
with a ruffled air,
'My poor M. Blane; these two irritable Counts mean you mischief. I
saw it in their eyes, and De Bitche has the yellow orbs of a snake.
Milles barbes! I wish that you were beyond our lines, among your own
people, safely out of Lorraine, and in the French camp; for these two
will leave no means untried to compass your destruction!'
With this comfortable assurance, I seated myself at table; and we
filled our cups with wine.