And round the baby fast and close Her trembling grasp she folds.
And with a strong convulsive grasp The little infant holds.--SOUTHEY.
A wild storm had raged all the afternoon, hail and rain had careered on
the wings of the wind along the narrow street of the Three Fairies, at
the little Huguenot bourg of La Sablerie; torrents of rain had poached
the unpaved soil into a depth of mud, and thunder had reverberated over
the chimney-tops, and growled far away over the Atlantic, whose angry
waves were tossing on the low sandy coast about two miles from the town.
The evening had closed in with a chill, misty drizzle, and, almost May
though it were, the Widow Noemi Laurent gladly closed the shutters of
her unglazed window, where small cakes and other delicate confections
were displayed, and felt the genial warmth of the little fire with which
she heated her tiny oven. She was the widow of a pastor who had suffered
for his faith in the last open persecution, and being the daughter of a
baker, the authorities of the town had permitted her to support herself
and her son by carrying on a trade in the more delicate ‘subtilties’ of
the art, which were greatly relished at the civic feasts. Noemi was a
grave, sad woman, very lonely ever since she had saved enough to send
her son to study for the ministry in Switzerland, and with an aching
heart that longed to be at rest from the toil that she looked on as a
steep ladder on her way to a better home. She occupied two tiny rooms
on the ground-floor of a tall house; and she had just arranged her few
articles of furniture with the utmost neatness, when there was a low
knock at her door, a knock that the persecuted well understood, and as
she lifted the latch, a voice she had known of old spoke the scriptural
salutation, ‘Peace be with this house.’
‘_Eh quoi_, Master Issac, is it thou? Come in--in a good hour--ah!’
As, dripping all round his broad hat and from every thread of his gray
mantle, the aged traveller drew into the house a female figure whom he
had been supporting on his other arm, muffled head and shoulders in a
soaked cloak, with a petticoat streaming with wet, and feet and ankles
covered with mire, ‘Here we are, my child,’ he said tenderly, as he
almost carried her to Noemi’s chair. Noemi, with kind exclamations of
‘_La pauvre_! _la pauvre_!’ helped the trembling cold hand to open the
wet cloak, and then cried out with fresh surprise and pity at the sight
of the fresh little infant face, nestled warm and snug under all the
wrappings in those weary arms.
‘See,’ said the poor wanderer, looking up to the old man, with a faint
smile; ‘she is well--she is warm--it hurts her not.’
‘Can you take us in?’ added M. Gardon, hastily; ‘have you room?’
‘Oh yes; if you can sleep on the floor here, I will take this poor dear
to my own bed directly,’ said Noemi. ‘_Tenez_’ opening a chest; ‘you
will find dry clothes there, of my husband’s. And thou,’ helping
Eustacie up with her strong arm, and trying to take the little one, ‘let
me warm and dry thee within.’
Too much worn out to make resistance, almost past speaking, knowing
merely that she had reached the goal that had been promised her
throughout these weary days, feeling warmth, and hearing kind tones,
Eustacie submitted to be led into the inner room; and when the good
widow returned again, it was in haste to fetch some of the warm _potage_
she had already been cooking over the fire, and hastily bade M. Gardon
help himself to the rest. She came back again with the babe, to wash
and dress it in the warmth of her oven fire. Maitre Gardon, in the black
suit of a Calvinist pastor, had eaten his _potage_, and was anxiously
awaiting her report. ‘Ah! _la pauvre_, with His blessing she will sleep!
she will do well. But how far did you come to-day?’
‘From Sainte Lucie. From the Grange du Temple since Monday.’
‘Ah! is it possible? The poor child! And this little one--sure, it is
scarce four weeks old?’
‘Four weeks this coming Sunday.’
‘Ah! the poor thing. The blessing of Heaven must have been with you to
bear her through. And what a lovely infant--how white--what beauteous
little limbs! Truly, she has sped well. Little did I think, good friend,
that you had this comfort left, or that our poor Theodore’s young wife
had escaped.’
‘Alas! no, Noemi; this is no child of Theodore’s. His wife shared his
martyrdom. It is I who am escaped alone to tell thee. But, nevertheless,
this babe is an orphan of that same day. Her father was the son of the
pious Baron de Ribaumont, the patron of your husband, and of myself in
earlier days.’
‘Ah!’ exclaimed Noemi, startled. ‘Then the poor young mother--is
she--can she be the lost Demoiselle de Nid de Merle?’
‘Is the thing known here? The will of Heaven be done; but she can send
to her husband’s kindred in England.’
‘She might rest safely enough, if others beside myself believed in
her being your son’s widow,’ said Noemi. ‘Wherefore should she not be
thought so?’
‘Poor Esperance! She would willingly have lent her name to guard
another,’ said Master Gardon, thoughtfully; ‘and, for the sake of
the child, my little lady may endure it. Ah! there is the making of a
faithful and noble woman in that poor young thing. Bravely, patiently,
cheerfully, hath she plodded this weary way; and, verily, she hath grown
like my own daughter to me--as I never thought to love earthly thing
again; and had this been indeed my Theodore’s child, I could hardly care
for it more.’
And as he related how he had fallen in with the forlorn Lady of
Ribaumont, and all that she had dared, done, and left undone for the
sake of her little daughter, good Noemi Laurent wept, and agreed with
him that a special providence must have directed them to his care, and
that some good work must await one who had been carried through so much.
His project was to remain here for a short time, to visit the flock who
had lost their pastor on the day of the massacre, and to recruit his own
strength; for he, too, had suffered severely from the long travelling,
and the exposure during many nights, especially since all that was warm
and sheltered had been devoted to Eustacie. And after this he proposed
to go to La Rochelle, and make inquiries for a trusty messenger
who could be sent to England to seek out the family of the Baron de
Ribaumont, or, mayhap, a sufficient escort with whom the lady could
travel; though he had nearly made up his mind that he would not
relinquish the care of her until he had safely delivered her to her
husband’s mother.
Health and life were very vigorous in Eustacie; and though at first she
had been completely worn out, a few days of comfort, entire rest, and
good nursing restored her. Noemi dressed her much like herself, in a
black gown, prim little white starched ruff, and white cap,--a thorough
Calvinist dress, and befitting a minister’s widow. Eustacie winced a
little at hearing of the character that had been fastened upon her;
she disliked for her child, still more than for herself, to take this
_bourgeois_ name of Gardon; but there was no help for it, since, though
he chief personages of the town were Huguenot, there could be no safety
for her if the report were once allowed to arise that the Baronne de
Ribaumont had taken refuge there.
It was best that she should be as little noticed as possible; nor,
indeed, had good Noemi many visitors. The sad and sorrowful woman had
always shut herself up with her Bible and her meditations, and sought no
sympathy from her neighbours, nor encourage gossip in her shop. In the
first days, when purchasers lingered to ask if it were true that Maitre
Gardon had brought his daughter-in-law and grandchild, her stern-faced,
almost grim answer, that ‘_la pauvre_ was ill at ease,’ silenced them,
and forced them to carry off their curiosity unsatisfied; but it became
less easy to arrange when Eustacie herself was on foot again--refreshed,
active, and with an irrepressible spring of energy and eagerness that
could hardly be caged down in the Widow Laurent’s tiny rooms. Poor
child, had she not been ill and prostrate at first, and fastened herself
on the tender side of the good woman’s heart by the sweetness of an
unselfish and buoyant nature in illness, Noemi could hardly have endured
such an inmate, not even half a Huguenot, full of little Catholic
observances like second nature to her; listening indeed to the Bible
for the short time, but always, when it was expounded, either asleep, or
finding some amusement indispensable for her baby; eager for the least
variety, and above all spoilt by Maitre Gardon to a degree absolutely
perplexing to the grave woman.
He would not bid her lay aside the observances that, to Noemi, seemed
almost worship of the beast. He rather reverted to the piety which
originated them; and argued with his old friend that it was better
to build than to destroy, and that, before the fabric of truth,
superstition would crumble away of itself. The little he taught
her sounded to Noemi’s puzzled ears mere Christianity instead of
controversial Calvinism. And, moreover, he never blamed her for wicked
worldliness when she yawned; but even devised opportunities for taking
her out for a walk, to see as much life as might be on a market-day. He
could certainly not forget--as much as would have been prudent--that she
was a high-born lady; and even seemed taken aback when he found her with
her sleeves turned up over her shapely-delicate arms, and a thick apron
before her, with her hands in Veuve Laurent’s flour, showing her some
of those special mysterious arts of confectionery in which she had been
initiated by Soeur Bernardine, when, not three years ago, she had been
the pet of the convent at Bellaise. At first it was half sport and
the desire of occupation, but the produce of her manipulations was
so excellent as to excite quite a sensation in La Sablerie, and the
echevins and baillis sent in quite considerable orders for the cakes and
patties of Maitre Gardon’s Paris-bred daughter-in-law.
Maitre Gardon hesitated. Noemi Laurent told him she cared little for the
gain--Heaven knew it was nothing to her--but that she thought it wrong
and inconsistent in him to wish to spare the poor child’s pride, which
was unchristian enough already. ‘Nay,’ he said sadly, ‘mortifications
from without do little to tame pride; nor did I mean to bring her here
that she should turn cook and confectioner to pamper the appetite of
Baillis La Grasse.’
But Eustacie’s first view was a bright pleasure in the triumph of her
skill; and when her considerate guardian endeavoured to impress on her
that there was no necessity for vexing herself with the task, she turned
round on him with the exclamation, ‘Nay, dear father, do you not see
it is my great satisfaction to be able to do something for our good
hostess, so that my daughter and I be not a burden to her?’
‘Well spoken, my Lady,’ said the pastor; ‘there is real nobility in that
way of thinking. Yet, remember, Noemi is not without means; she feels
not the burden. And the flock contribute enough for the shepherd’s
support, and yours likewise.’
‘Then let her give it to the poor creatures who so often come in
begging, and saying they have been burned out of house and home by one
party or the other,’ said Eustacie. ‘Let me have my way, dear sir;
Soeur Bernadine always said I should be a prime _menagere_. I like it so
much.’
And Madame de Ribaumont mixed sugar and dough, and twisted quaint
shapes, and felt important and almost light-hearted, and sang over her
work and over her child songs that were not always Marot’s psalms; and
that gave the more umbrage to Noemi, because she feared that Maitre
Gardon actually like to hear them, though, should their echo reach the
street, why it would be a peril, and still worse, a horrible scandal
that out of that sober, afflicted household should proceed profane tunes
such as court ladies sang.