Noémi

by S. Baring-Gould

  CHAPTER VIII.

  IN THE DEVIL'S CUPS.

  "A NEW companion must justify his election," said the sullen man, whohad throughout shown ill disposition towards Noemi.

  "The new companion shall do so," answered Noemi. A deep colour flushedher olive skin. "For that I ask you to follow me, as well as that othercomrade who was as inclined to be civil as you to be insolent. First,send down below and bid the two servants of the Tardes go on to Ste.Soure and tarry there till I go for them."

  "You--to Ste. Soure?" said her father.

  "Not now. But I do not desire to have the Tardes' men with me. They arenot of the Company."

  "What do you mean?"

  "That I will justify my election," said Noemi. "And for that I takethese two mates--and no others."

  "It is not well that I go," said the sulky man. "But, if go I must, itis unwillingly."

  "And I go with all my heart," said he whose name was Roger.

  "What do you intend to do, child?" asked her father, puzzled and uneasy."This is a farce. Take off the cross."

  "No, it is no farce. I will not remove the cross till I have shown thatI am worthy to be enrolled in your band."

  "Then what will you do?"

  "That is my secret."

  "And you demand two of the companions?"

  "Yes; two of the companions--he named Roger, and----"

  "Amanieu?"

  "Roger and Amanieu. I ask that they may accompany me and serve me and domy bidding--on my first _chevauchee_."

  "La Pucelle! Another Joan! To the English! To the English! Vive laPucelle de Domme! We will pit her against the Pucelle de Domremi." Themen shouted, hammered the table, and tossed the knucklebones about. Theytreated the matter as a joke.

  Amanieu, the sulky man, was very angry at being fixed upon to make oneof a party that would incur ridicule and expose him to the jeers of hisfellows.

  Le Gros Guillem now interfered. "If my daughter has said you are toattend, and I consent, you go. Guard her well."

  Amanieu murmured no more. There was no insubordination in a Company.

  The serving-men of the Tarde brothers were dismissed, and then Noemiprepared to depart along with her new attendants. Her father asked nofurther questions. The horses were brought from a stable cut in therocks. They were nimble and sure of footing. Access to the stable wasonly to be had by a drawbridge let fall over a chasm, and from thefurther side of the gap a narrow track descended rapidly to the bottomof the valley.

  At Noemi's request the men had drawn on jackets that concealed their redcrosses, and no one seeing the little party would have conjectured thatthe girl was attended by some of the greatest ruffians and cut-throatsin the country. She knew the character of the men, but was not afraid.The fear of her father entertained by all the band, and the disciplinemaintained in the Company, would prevent them from doing her harm.

  Guillem was a man of few words, but of decision in action. The look ofhis pale eyes was enough, as he sent the men with Noemi, to take fromthem any spirit of insolence or rebellion had they entertained it. Theyknew without more words than the three uttered by Guillem, that if shecame to harm through them, by their neglect, in any way, he was the manto put them to death by slow and horrible torture. They had seen thatdone once on a comrade who had disregarded a half-expressed order. Hehad been roasted over a slow fire.

  The two men asked no questions when Noemi took the road to Sarlat, andalong the road she did not speak with them. At Sarlat she bade them holdback while she went on alone and on foot to make an inquiry. Apparentlysatisfied at what she had learnt, she returned to the men, remounted herhorse, and said, "Forward!"

  She rode along the way to La Roque, a little ahead of the two men. Theday was closing in. It would be dark by the time they reached her home.

  Presently they came to a long and tedious ascent. The way had been atone time paved, but had not been repaired for a century. It ran up ahog's back or hill, through coppice that was cut every fourteen yearsfor the making of charcoal, direct to the point where was the Devil'sTable.

  She halted, and turned to her followers; and they drew rein.

  "Listen to me," she said. "You do not know whither I am leading you, forwhat purpose you follow me, or what is to be gained thereby. But onething you do know, that you are placed under my command by Le GrosGuillem, and that you disobey at your peril. I will tell you whereforeyou are following me; it is for your own advantage. You have carriedaway seven men from the Del' Peyras, and you have put them to ransom ata hundred livres. That is a large sum. It is to be divided among youinto fourteen equal shares. But let me tell you that if this sum be notfound--you will get nothing. The seven men will be no gain to you whencast away mutilated. Jean del' Peyra has been this day to Sarlat, he hasbeen to the Bishop, he has been to the Jew Levi, he has been to theTardes at Gageac, I cannot say where he has not been, to whom he has notapplied--but nowhere can he raise the sum. It was too large. But that isno concern of mine. The money must be found, or you get nothing. I cantell you where the sum is to be found, whence it can be taken. Butunderstand this--no more shall be exacted than the hundred livres. Iwill not have a denier more, nor a denier less. You agree to this?"

  "Yes, we shall be glad of the money; we do not want to hurt the men ofSte. Soure, and their wounds are no pay to us."

  "Very well. Then we understand each other. You would never receive anyransom but for me. It is I who bring you where it shall be paid."

  "And where is that?" asked Amanieu.

  "On the Devil's Table," answered Noemi.

  The men shrank back. Their superstitious fears were aroused.

  "Do not be alarmed. We shall not conjure up the foul fiend; but we shallsqueeze one of his servants. Let us ride on and await him at the Table."

  Then she turned towards La Roque, and in silence they continued toascend the hill.

  When they had nearly reached the summit she drew up again, and said tothe men--

  "I will explain it all. The Jew Levi comes this way. He has beengathering in money at La Roque, and my cousins have paid him a largesum. He has been engaged there all day, and he made my cousins, theTardes, promise to send servants with him to see him safe on his wayback to Sarlat. They agreed to send him on his way as far as the Devil'sTable; and he named the time at which he would be ready to start. Iknow, if he has started on his way as he proposed, that he will beapproaching now. From the Table onward to Sarlat he would be alone, butalone he could not convey all the money. What he purposes doing I cannotsay. We will wait and see. He desired that he might be attended all theway to Sarlat, but that the Tardes would not allow. The distance was toogreat, the men were needed, they would not be home till too late. He wasforced to accept half of what he had asked. Understand, no more is to betaken from the Jew than the ransom money. It were better that a Jewshould lose than that seven Christian households should be ruined."

  The men laughed. They were easy in their minds now that they understoodthey were to play a familiar game--only they grudged that they were tohalf accomplish it. If they caught a Jew let them squeeze and wring himout till not a drop of the golden syrup were left in him.

  Noemi had, however, her own ideas in the matter. She justified her actto her conscience as a deed of necessity. It was a marvel that herconscience felt any scruple in the matter, as in the Middle Ages nonehesitated to defraud a Jew, none considered that a son of Israel had anyright to have meted out to him the like justice as to a Christian.Before the Cathedral gates at Toulouse every Good Friday a Jew had topresent himself to have his ears boxed by the Bishop, and to acknowledgein his person on behalf of his race its guilt in having crucified theMessiah.

  "Here!" said the girl, "tie up your horses and mine and lie in thescrub."

  Before them, on the left hand of the track, rose the Devil's Table; amound of earth had anciently covered it, but rain had washed away theearth from the capstone and showed the points of those blocks whichup
held it. The slab was a singularly uncouth stone, with its flat oldbed underneath, the upper surface uneven and dinted with cup-holes.

  The _routiers_ had not been long in hiding before the voice of Levi washeard, and the tramp of his ass.

  "I thank you, good fellows. It was gracious of your master to lend meyour escort, for, Heaven knows! I am too poor to need one. My ass isladen with lentils. You eat them in your fasting times, and when notfasting, eat pig. I cannot touch the unclean meat, and so eat lentilsall the year. All my little moneys I carried with me have been expendedin lentils for my wife Rachel and me. Ah! this must last us a long time.We are so poor, and lentils are so dear."

  "You will give us something to drink your health, Levi," asked one ofTardes' men.

  "Oh! certainly. Open both your hands and I will fill them with lentils.When Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were in the palace of KingDarius, they refused the meats from the King's table that they might eatlentils. And they grew fat! Oh! Father Abraham, so sleek that theirfaces shone, and all the young ladies ran after them. Open your handsand I will give you lentils, and all the fair maids of La Roque willadmire you."

  The men laughed. "Come, come, Jew, keep the pulse for yourself, and giveus something more solid--money--and we will drink your health."

  "Money!" exclaimed Levi; "as if I had money! Oh, Fathers of theCovenant! poor Levi with money!--that is a comical idea. You are jestingwith me, and I like a jest."

  Those lying in wait listened to the altercation that ensued--the menmurmured, then there ensued an outcry from the Jew and a burst oflaughter from the men--they had raised and thrown down on the ground thesack which the ass was carrying.

  The Jew shouted and entreated and swore, but to no avail. The twoserving-men ran off on their way back to La Roque Gageac, full of glee,rejoicing that they had served the man such a trick, for they well knewthat he would hardly be able to replace the sack on his ass.

  After Levi had convinced himself that his appeals were in vain, hereturned to the fallen sack, and vainly endeavoured to lift it upon theass. He could raise it at one end, but not bear the entire weight. Hebecame very angry, and grumbled and cursed, and prayed to Heaven forassistance.

  Then, as his sole chance, he endeavoured to roll the sack up thesepulchral mound, and so to tilt it on to the Devil's Table. By thatmeans, if he drew up his ass by the mouth of the burial-chamber, wheretreasure-seekers had grubbed and made a hollow, he hoped to be able toreplace the burden on the back that was to bear it.

  "Oh, Fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Mother Sarah!" lamented the Jew, "cometo me in my necessity and help me."

  "We are here!"

  Hands were laid on his shoulder. With a scream of fear he sprang back,and saw two male and a female figure before him. Dusk had set in, and hecould not distinguish who they were.

  "Jew!" said Noemi, "we want a hundred livres."

  "A hundred lentils! Let me go! Help me with my sack, and they areyours."

  "Jew!" said the girl; "do not delay us and yourself. We will escort youwithin sight of the lights of the town--when you have paid us thehundred livres."

  "Hear her, Father Abraham!" cried the unhappy man. "She thinks that Ihave money, who have only a few lentils on which to feed my wife andme."

  "I know what you have," said Noemi. "You have all the money paid you bythe Tardes."

  "It is a lie--I have been paid no money; I have been given a sack oflentils instead."

  "Levi--I was present when it was paid."

  "You--you are a Tarde! and the Tardes are thieves!"

  "I am not a Tarde."

  "You are a Tarde--and these are Tardes' servants, and you will cheat androb me. I shall appeal to the Bishop!"

  "Strike a light," said the girl. "Let the man see who we are."

  With a flint and steel Amanieu produced sparks, and presently held awisp of dry grass blazing over his head.

  "Look here," said Noemi. "Do you know this?" She showed the red cross onher arm. "Look at the shoulders of my mates. Do you know who they are?Do you know me? I am Le Gros Guillem's daughter. Open your sack."

  "Oh, pity me! Pity me!" sobbed the terrified Jew.

  "One hundred livres--not a denier under, not a denier over," answeredthe girl. "See, in the Devil's Table are ten saucers; put ten livresinto each, and you, Amanieu, and you, Roger, count. Jew, when the lastcoin is paid, you shall go on with the rest. You do not stir till thesum is paid that I require."

  The Jew faltered, trembled, stuttered some unintelligible words.

  "Levi!" said Noemi, "you know how Guillem's men deal with therefractory. Ho! a string here for his thumbs."

  The ten cups were filled.