Noémi

by S. Baring-Gould

  CHAPTER VII.

  THE NEW COMPANION.

  ONE of the strangest features of a strange time was the manner in whichfamilies were broken up and neighbours were at feud. The sameindividuals shifted sides and were one day boozing together at table andthe next meeting in deadly conflict. Discord was in families. In thehouse of Limeuil the father was French, the son English; and the son wasEnglish merely because he desired to turn his father out of theancestral heritage and lord it in his room. Limeuil was stormed by theson, then retaken by the father; now sacked by English troops, and thensacked again by French troops, who cared nothing for the national causesof France or England. Prevost de la Force and Perducat d'Albret hadcastles facing each other on opposite sides of the Dordogne. Eachdesired to draw some money out of the commercial town of Bergerac on theplea that he was empowered to protect it from the other. Accordingly,one called himself French, the other English; and Perducat, when itsuited his convenience, after having been English, became French.Domestic broils determined the policy of the turbulent seigneurs. Ifthey coveted a bit of land, or a village, or a castle that belonged to abrother or a cousin of one persuasion, they went over to the opposed tosupply them with an excuse for falling on their kinsmen. The Seigneur dePons, because his marriage settlement with his wife did not allow himsufficient liberty to handle her means, turned French, and his wifethrew open her gates to the Duke of Lancaster. Whereupon the seigneurfought the English, to whom he had formerly been devoted, retook histown, and chastised his wife. The man who was French to-day was Englishto-morrow, and French again the day after. Some were very weathercocks,turning with every wind, always with an eye to their own advantage.

  Consequently, families were much mixed up with both parties. Unless aseigneur was out on a raid, he would associate on terms of friendlinesswith the very men whom he would hang on the next occasion. Kinsfolk werein every camp. The seigneurs had allies everywhere; but their kinsfolkwere not always their allies--were often their deadliest enemies.

  The mother of Noemi was akin to the family of Tarde. Indeed, her auntwas the mother of Jean and Jacques, who were, accordingly, her firstcousins. The Tarde family were French; no one in Gageac was English. Byinterest, by tradition, the place was true to the Lilies.

  A little way up the river, on the further side, was Domme, which washeld by the English. Noemi passed from the English to the French town,and nothing was thought of it that she was as much at home with hercousins in La Roque Gageac as among her mother's attendants at Domme.Even the young Tardes might have gone to the market in the English townand have returned unmolested.

  The bullies of Guillem in like manner swaggered where they listed,penetrated to Gageac, when there was a dance or a drinking bout; and, solong as they came unarmed, were allowed admittance.

  No one could say whether there was peace or war. There was a little ofone and a little of the other. Whenever a roysterer was weary of doingnothing, he gathered his men together and made a raid; whenever acaptain wanted to pay his men, he plundered a village. Otherwise, allwent on tolerably quietly. There was no marching across the country ofgreat bodies of armed men, no protracted sieges, no battles in whichwhole hosts were engaged. But there was incessant fear, there were smallviolences, there was no certainty of safety. There was no central powerto control the wrong-doers, no justice to mete out to them the reward oftheir deeds. When the lion and the wolf and the bear are hungry, thenthey raven for food; when glutted, they lie down and sleep. The baronsand free captains and little seigneurs were the lions, wolves, and bearsthat infested Guyenne and Perigord. They were now on the alert andrending, then ensued a period of quietude.

  Little passed between Jean del' Peyra and Noemi on the way. She wasmounted on a fresh horse, and attended by two serving-men of the Tardes,as Jacques and Jean could not accompany her, having duties connectedwith the little town to discharge that day which required theirpresence. Jean del' Peyra was on his fagged steed, and could not keep upwith the rest. Jean was not sanguine that the girl would prevail withher father, but he was grateful that she should make the attempt.

  On reaching the point at the junction of the Beune with the Vezere wherethe roads or tracks diverged, the one to the Church of Guillem, theother to the ford at Tayac, Noemi halted till Jean came up.

  "I am going to see my father," she said. "I will come on to Ste. Sourewhen I have his answer--but I trust I shall bring to you your men."

  "I thank you," answered the lad.

  "Come, Jean," said the girl; "you will not think so ill of me as youhave done. Give me your hand."

  "I cannot think ill now of one who is doing her best to relieve myfather and me in a case of pressing necessity, and of saving sevenfamilies from worse than death."

  He put out his hand and pressed hers, but without cordiality. The handhe took was that of the daughter of the scourge of the country. He couldnot forget that; he touched the hand of the child of the man who hadbrought desolation into the home of the Rossignols.

  Noemi left the attendants with her horse at the foot of the steep ascentthat led to the Church of Guillem.

  The ascent was up a slope of crumbled chalk and flints hardly heldtogether by a little wiry grass, some straggling pinks, and bushes ofbox and juniper. The incline was as rapid as that of a Gothichouse-roof. Of path there was none, for every man who scrambled upmounted his own way, and his footprints sent shale and dust over thefootprints of his predecessor. The plateau through which the river hassawn its way is some four hundred feet at the highest point above thebed of the stream; in some places the cliffs are not only perpendicular,they overhang. They rise at once from the river that washes their basesand undermines them, or from the alluvial flats that have been formed byfloods. This was not the case at L'Eglise Guillem. The stronghold ofGuillem occupied a terrace in the abrupt scarp where it rose out of animmense slope of rubble, very much as at Ste. Soure, a little below iton the further bank. Here, as there, the rubble slope was a protectionas great as a precipice. It was not as difficult to climb, but it couldnot be climbed without those in the stronghold being able to roll downrocks, discharge weapons at such as were laboriously endeavouring tomount. Noemi reached a spring that issued from the side of the cliff ina dribble, was received in a basin, and the overflow nourished a densegrowth of maidenhair-fern and moss. It was thence that the occupants ofthe castle derived their drinking-water. Hard by was the gateway. Hereshe was challenged, gave her name, and was admitted.

  L'Eglise Guillem was oddly constructed. The depth of the caves orconcave shelters was not great, not above twelve to fifteen feet,consequently would not admit of chambers and halls in which many mencould move about. To gain space, beams had been driven into the naturalwall of rock at the back of the caves, and brought forward to projectsome eight feet over the edge of the cliff. On these projecting rafterswalls of timber filled in with stone had been erected, and lean-to roofsadded to cover them, socketed into the cliff above the opening mouth ofthe cave or series of caves. This is still a method of construction inthe country, with this exception--that such modern dwellings are notpendulous in mid-air, as were those of the free captains, but are now onsolid floors, and consist of rooms, one half of which are caves, and theother half artificial excrescences.

  By means of this overhanging portion of the castle, by a ladder achamber could be reached, cut out in the face of the cliff immediatelyabove the mouth of the natural cavern, a chamber at the present dayvisible, but absolutely inaccessible, since the wooden excrescence hasdisappeared by which it was reached. This upper chamber was the treasuryof the castle.

  To the present day not two miles up the valley of the Beune is a hamlet,a cluster of houses, called Grioteaux, built in a huge cave, but withthe fronts somewhat beyond the upper lip of the cave; and in the face ofthe precipice above is precisely such a treasure-chamber, only to bereached by means of a ladder from the roof of the house below it.

  "What--you here!" exclaimed the
Great Guillem in surprise, when he sawthe girl enter the one room in which were himself and his men, about atable, on which were scattered chalices from churches, women'sjewellery, silken dresses, even sabots plucked off the feet of peasants.The captain was dividing spoil.

  The Great Guillem was much as Jean del' Peyra had described him--tall,gaunt, with a high head, and baldness from his forehead to the crown,his hair sandy and turning grey, dense bushy red eyebrows, the palest ofblue eyes, and a profusion of red hair about his jaws. The mouth waslarge, with thin lips, and teeth wide apart and pointed, as though theyhad been filed sharp. Men said he had a double row in his jaw. It wasthe mouth of a shark.

  "Come here, little cat!" shouted the freebooter. "Here are we dogs ofwar dividing the plunder."

  "What plunder, father? Did you get all these silks and trinkets fromSte. Soure?"

  "From Ste. Soure indeed! Not that; nothing thence but wine-casks andgrain; and a fine matter we have had hauling the barrels up into ourkennel. What do you want with us, child?"

  The girl looked at the men; there were a dozen, and her father thethirteenth. They were in rough and coarse clothing, each with a redcross on his left arm--a badge of allegiance to the Cross of St. George.Some of the companies wore a white or blue cross when serving nopolitical party, but the Great Guillem was ostensibly in the Englishservice, and as such had been given the commandantship of Domme. The menhad been drinking, and were flushed, partly with wine, partly withexcitement, as the division of the plunder was made by lot, the lotbeing a knucklebone in a bassinet. A lawless, insolent company, and onedifficult to treat with.

  Noemi was puzzled what to do. But she was a bold, spirited girl, and shesaid: "This is the first time I have been here. I claim largesse."

  "Largesse!" laughed one of the men; "I say--the first time anyone entershe pays footing."

  "_He_, yes," said the girl; "but with a woman it is other. I claimlargesse."

  "What do you mean? A share of the loot?"

  "A large share," answered Noemi.

  "I have two lots to one; I will surrender one to you," said Guillem.

  "Of all the spoil?"

  "Of all for which we are raffling."

  "And the men--the seven men you took?"

  "They are not in the game. We wait till the ransom comes, and that willbe divided not by lot but by shares. Money is so divided, not----" Herfather tossed over some odds and ends with which the table was cumbered.

  "I want the seven men," said Noemi.

  A roar of laughter greeted this demand.

  "A hundred livres! That is a fine largesse," said one.

  "It cannot be," said Guillem. "They belong to us all."

  "Little one," shouted one half-drunken fellow, "we only divide amongourselves--merry companions. We take from those who are outside theband."

  "But I am the Captain's daughter."

  "That matters not; you are not a companion."

  "Father, give me a lot."

  "I will--my lot."

  "And grant me a request."

  "If you draw the highest lot, you shall have what you will--save a sharein the loot, and to that you can have no right. We have our laws and arebound to abide by them."

  "Let us draw, then."

  The bassinet was passed round, and each drew. There were fourteenknucklebones in it. Noemi put in her hand first and drew, then each insuccession.

  "Hands open," shouted Guillem, and each fist was thrust forward on thetable and opened flat, exposing the bone. The knuckles were numbered upto fourteen.

  "Fourteen!" exclaimed Guillem, as he looked at the rude die in hisdaughter's palm.

  "Best of three," said a man.

  "Again!" called the Captain, after the bones had been thrown into thebassinet and shaken.

  The same proceeding was gone through. Again each hand was exposed on thetable.

  "Fourteen again!"

  "A woman and the devil have luck!" shouted one of the men. "There is nobeating that!"

  "Aye! but there is. If next time she draws one," retorted another. "Sheis a woman; I wish her well."

  "Ah! you Roger; always honour the petticoat."

  "Again!" thundered the Captain.

  Once more hands were plunged into the iron cap, withdrawn, and placedclenched on the table.

  "Reveal!" cried Guillem, and immediately the hands were turned up withthe knuckle-bones.

  "Fourteen!" again he shouted, as he held up the piece his daughter hadexposed.

  "Was ever luck like this!" stormed one man. "And I--I never draw abovefive."

  "Well; what is your request?" asked Guillem.

  "You have sworn to grant it me."

  "Yes; if not against rule."

  "Then make me one of the Company!"

  A pause, then a shout: "The Red Cross! The Red Cross! Vive the newCompanion!"

  In an instant a piece of crimson silk brocade, an ecclesiasticalvestment, was torn to shreds, and the rough hands of the freebooterswere fastening two strips crosswise to Noemi's arm.