I suppose — for I saw the giant’s colour change and his lip quiver as I spoke — that his previous words had been only a guess. For a moment the devil seemed to be glaring through his eyes; and he looked at Marie and me as a wild animal at its keepers. Yet he maintained his cynical politeness in part. “Mademoiselle desires my congratulations?” he said, slowly, labouring with each word it seemed. “She shall have them on the happy day. She shall certainly have them then. But these are troublous times. And Mademoiselle’s betrothed is I think a Huguenot, and has gone to Paris. Paris — well, the air of Paris is not good for Huguenots, I am told.”
I saw Catherine shiver; indeed she was on the point of fainting, I broke in rudely, my passion getting the better of my fears. “M. de Pavannes can take care of himself, believe me,” I said brusquely.
“Perhaps so,” Bezers answered, his voice like the grating of steel on steel. “But at any rate this will be a memorable day for Mademoiselle. The day on which she receives her first congratulations — she will remember it as long as she lives! Oh, yes, I will answer for that, M. Anne,” he said looking brightly at one and another of us, his eyes more oblique than ever, “Mademoiselle will remember it, I am sure!”
It would be impossible to describe the devilish glance he flung at the poor sinking girl as he withdrew, the horrid emphasis he threw into those last words, the covert deadly threat they conveyed to the dullest ears. That he went then, was small mercy. He had done all the evil he could do at present. If his desire had been to leave fear behind him, he had certainly succeeded.
Kit crying softly went into the house; her innocent coquetry more than sufficiently punished already. And we three looked at one another with blank faces, It was clear that we had made a dangerous enemy, and an enemy at our own gates. As the Vidame had said, these were troublous times when things were done to men — ay, and to women and children — which we scarce dare to speak of now. “I wish the Vicomte were here,” Croisette said uneasily after we had discussed several unpleasant contingencies.
“Or even Malines the steward,” I suggested.
“He would not be much good,” replied Croisette.
“And he is at St. Antonin, and will not be back this week. Father Pierre too is at Albi.”
“You do not think,” said Marie, “that he will attack us?”
“Certainly not!” Croisette retorted with contempt. “Even the Vidame would not dare to do that in time of peace. Besides, he has not half a score of men here,” continued the lad, shrewdly, “and counting old Gil and ourselves we have as many. And Pavannes always said that three men could hold the gate at the bottom of the ramp against a score. Oh, he will not try that!”
“Certainly not!” I agreed. And so we crushed Marie. “But for Louis de Pavannes—”
Catherine interrupted me. She came out quickly looking a different person; her face flushed with anger, her tears dried.
“Anne!” she cried, imperiously, “what is the matter down below — will you see?”
I had no difficulty in doing that. All the sounds of town life came up to us on the terrace. Lounging there we could hear the chaffering over the wheat measures in the cloisters of the market-square, the yell of a dog, the voice of a scold, the church bell, the watchman’s cry. I had only to step to the wall to overlook it all. On this summer afternoon the town had been for the most part very quiet. If we had not been engaged in our own affairs we should have taken the alarm before, remarking in the silence the first beginnings of what was now a very respectable tumult. It swelled louder even as we stepped to the wall.
We could see — a bend in the street laying it open — part of the Vidame’s house; the gloomy square hold which had come to him from his mother. His own chateau of Bezers lay far away in Franche Comte, but of late he had shown a preference — Catherine could best account for it, perhaps — for this mean house in Caylus. It was the only house in the town which did not belong to us. It was known as the House of the Wolf, and was a grim stone building surrounding a courtyard. Rows of wolves’ heads carved in stone flanked the windows, whence their bare fangs grinned day and night at the church porch opposite.
The noise drew our eyes in this direction; and there lolling in a window over the door, looking out on the street with a laughing eye, was Bezers himself. The cause of his merriment — we had not far to look for it — was a horseman who was riding up the street under difficulties. He was reining in his steed — no easy task on that steep greasy pavement — so as to present some front to a score or so of ragged knaves who were following close at his heels, hooting and throwing mud and pebbles at him. The man had drawn his sword, and his oaths came up to us, mingled with shrill cries of “VIVE LA MESSE!” and half drowned by the clattering of the horse’s hoofs. We saw a stone strike him in the face, and draw blood, and heard him swear louder than before.
“Oh!” cried Catherine, clasping her hands with a sudden shriek of indignation, “my letter! They will get my letter!”
“Death!” exclaimed Croisette, “She is right! It is M. de Pavannes’ courier! This must be stopped! We cannot stand this, Anne!”
“They shall pay dearly for it, by our Lady!” I cried swearing myself. “And in peace time too — the villains! Gil! Francis!” I shouted, “where are you?”
And I looked round for my fowling piece, while Croisette jumped on the wall, and forming a trumpet with his hands, shrieked at the top of his voice, “Back! he bears a letter from the Vicomte!”
But the device did not succeed, and I could not find my gun. For a moment we were helpless, and before I could have fetched the gun from the house, the horseman and the hooting rabble at his heels, had turned a corner and were hidden by the roofs.
Another turn however would bring them out in front of the gateway, and seeing this we hurried down the ramp to meet them. I stayed a moment to tell Gil to collect the servants, and, this keeping me, Croisette reached the narrow street outside before me. As I followed him I was nearly knocked down by the rider, whose face was covered with, dirt and blood, while fright had rendered his horse unmanageable. Darting aside I let him pass — he was blinded and could not see me — and then found that Croisette — brave lad! had collared the foremost of the ruffians, and was beating him with his sheathed sword, while the rest of the rabble stood back, ashamed, yet sullen, and with anger in their eyes. A dangerous crew, I thought; not townsmen, most of them.
“Down with the Huguenots!” cried one, as I appeared, one bolder than the rest.
“Down with the CANAILLE!” I retorted, sternly eyeing the ill-looking ring. “Will you set yourselves above the king’s peace, dirt that you are? Go back to your kennels!”
The words were scarcely out of my mouth, before I saw that the fellow whom Croisette was punishing had got hold of a dagger. I shouted a warning, but it came too late. The blade fell, and — thanks to God — striking the buckle of the lad’s belt, glanced off harmless. I saw the steel flash up again — saw the spite in the man’s eyes: but this time I was a step nearer, and before the weapon fell, I passed my sword clean through the wretch’s body. He went down like a log, Croisette falling with him, held fast by his stiffening fingers.
I had never killed a man before, nor seen a man die; and if I had stayed to think about it, I should have fallen sick perhaps. But it was no time for thought; no time for sickness. The crowd were close upon us, a line of flushed threatening faces from wall to wall. A single glance downwards told me that the man was dead, and I set my foot upon his neck. “Hounds! Beasts!” I cried, not loudly this time, for though I was like one possessed with rage, it was inward rage, “go to your kennels! Will you dare to raise a hand against a Caylus? Go — or when the Vicomte returns, a dozen of you shall hang in the market-place!”
I suppose I looked fierce enough — I know I felt no fear, only a strange exaltation — for they slunk away. Unwillingly, but with little delay the group melted, Bezers’ following — of whom I knew the dead man was one — the last to go. While I still
glared at them, lo! the street was empty; the last had disappeared round the bend. I turned to find Gil and half-a-dozen servants standing with pale faces at my back. Croisette seized my hand with a sob. “Oh, my lord,” cried Gil, quaveringly. But I shook one off, I frowned at the other.
“Take up this carrion!” I said, touching it with my foot, “And hang it from the justice-elm. And then close the gates! See to it, knaves, and lose no time.”
CHAPTER II.
THE VIDAME’S THREAT.
Croisette used to tell a story, of the facts of which I have no remembrance, save as a bad dream. He would have it that I left my pallet that night — I had one to myself in the summer, being the eldest, while he and Marie slept on another in the same room — and came to him and awoke him, sobbing and shaking and clutching him; and begging him in a fit of terror not to let me go. And that so I slept in his arms until morning. But as I have said, I do not remember anything of this, only that I had an ugly dream that night, and that when I awoke I was lying with him and Marie; so I cannot say whether it really happened.
At any rate, if I had any feeling of the kind it did not last long; on the contrary — it would be idle to deny it — I was flattered by the sudden respect, Gil and the servants showed me. What Catherine thought of the matter I could not tell. She had her letter and apparently found it satisfactory. At any rate we saw nothing of her. Madame Claude was busy boiling simples, and tending the messenger’s hurts. And it seemed natural that I should take command.
There could be no doubt — at any rate we had none that the assault on the courier had taken place at the Vidame’s instance. The only wonder was that he had not simply cut his throat and taken the letter. But looking back now it seems to me that grown men mingled some childishness with their cruelty in those days — days when the religious wars had aroused our worst passions. It was not enough to kill an enemy. It pleased people to make — I speak literally — a football of his head, to throw his heart to the dogs. And no doubt it had fallen in with the Vidame’s grim humour that the bearer of Pavannes’ first love letter should enter his mistress’s presence, bleeding and plaistered with mud. And that the riff-raff about our own gates should have part in the insult.
Bezers’ wrath would be little abated by the issue of the affair, or the justice I had done on one of his men. So we looked well to bolts, and bars, and windows, although the castle is well-nigh impregnable, the smooth rock falling twenty feet at least on every side from the base of the walls. The gatehouse, Pavannes had shown us, might be blown up with gunpowder indeed, but we prepared to close the iron grating which barred the way half-way up the ramp. This done, even if the enemy should succeed in forcing an entrance he would only find himself caught in a trap — in a steep, narrow way exposed to a fire from the top of the flanking walls, as well as from the front. We had a couple of culverins, which the Vicomte had got twenty years before, at the time of the battle of St. Quentin. We fixed one of these at the head of the ramp, and placed the other on the terrace, where by moving it a few paces forward we could train it on Bezers’ house, which thus lay at our mercy.
Not that we really expected an attack. But we did not know what to expect or what to fear. We had not ten servants, the Vicomte having taken a score of the sturdiest lackeys and keepers to attend him at Bayonne. And we felt immensely responsible. Our main hope was that the Vidame would at once go on to Paris, and postpone his vengeance. So again and again we cast longing glances at the House of the Wolf hoping that each symptom of bustle heralded his departure.
Consequently it was a shock to me, and a great downfall of hopes, when Gil with a grave face came to me on the terrace and announced that M. le Vidame was at the gate, asking to see Mademoiselle.
“It is out of the question that he should see her,” the old servant added, scratching his head in grave perplexity.
“Most certainly. I will see him instead,” I answered stoutly. “Do you leave Francis and another at the gate, Gil. Marie, keep within sight, lad. And let Croisette stay with me.”
These preparations made — and they took up scarcely a moment — I met the Vidame at the head of the ramp. “Mademoiselle de Caylus,” I said, bowing, “is, I regret to say, indisposed to-day, Vidame.”
“She will not see me?” he asked, eyeing me very unpleasantly.
“Her indisposition deprives her of the pleasure,” I answered with an effort. He was certainly a wonderful man, for at sight of him, three-fourths of my courage, and all my importance, oozed out at the heels of my boots.
“She will not see me. Very well,” he replied, as if I had not spoken. And the simple words sounded like a sentence of death. “Then, M. Anne, I have a crow to pick with you. What compensation do you propose to make for the death of my servant? A decent, quiet fellow, whom you killed yesterday, poor man, because his enthusiasm for the true faith carried him away a little.”
“Whom I killed because he drew a dagger on M. St. Croix de Caylus at the Vicomte’s gate,” I answered steadily. I had thought about this of course and was ready for it. “You are aware, M. de Bezers,” I continued, “that the Vicomte has jurisdiction extending to life and death over all persons within the valley?”
“My household excepted,” he rejoined quietly.
“Precisely; while they are within the curtilage of your house,” I retorted. “However as the punishment was summary, and the man had no time to confess himself, I am willing to—”
“Well?”
“To pay Father Pierre to say ten masses for his soul.”
The way the Vidame received this surprised me. He broke into boisterous laughter. “By our Lady, my friend,” he cried with rough merriment, “but you are a joker! You are indeed. Masses? Why the man was a Protestant!”
And that startled me more than anything which had gone before; more indeed than I can explain. For it seemed to prove that this man, laughing his unholy laugh was not like other men. He did not pick and choose his servants for their religion. He was sure that the Huguenot would stone his fellow at his bidding; the Catholic cry “Vive Coligny!” I was so completely taken aback that I found no words to answer him, and it was Croisette who said smartly, “Then how about his enthusiasm for the true faith, M. le Vidame?”
“The true faith,” he answered— “for my servants is my faith.” Then a thought seemed to strike him. “What is more.” he continued slowly, “that it is the true and only faith for all, thousands will learn before the world is ten days older. Bear my words in mind, boy! They will come back to you. And now hear me,” he went on in his usual tone, “I am anxious to accommodate a neighbour. It goes without saying that I would not think of putting you, M. Anne, to any trouble for the sake of that rascal of mine. But my people will expect something. Let the plaguy fellow who caused all this disturbance be given up to me, that I may hang him; and let us cry quits.”
“That is impossible!” I answered coolly. I had no need to ask what he meant. Give up Pavannes’ messenger indeed! Never!
He regarded me — unmoved by my refusal — with a smile under which I chafed, while I was impotent to resent it. “Do not build too much on a single blow, young gentleman,” he said, shaking his head waggishly. “I had fought a dozen times when I was your age. However, I understand that you refuse to give me satisfaction?”
“In the mode you mention, certainly,” I replied. “But—”
“Bah!” he exclaimed with a sneer, “business first and pleasure afterwards! Bezers will obtain satisfaction in his own way, I promise you that! And at his own time. And it will not be on unfledged bantlings like you. But what is this for?” And he rudely kicked the culverin which apparently he had not noticed before, “So! so! understand,” he continued, casting a sharp glance at one and another of us. “You looked to be besieged! Why you, booby, there is the shoot of your kitchen midden, twenty feet above the roof of old Fretis’ store! And open, I will be sworn! Do you think that I should have come this way while there was a ladder in Caylus! Did you take the wolf
for a sheep?”
With that he turned on his heel, swaggering away in the full enjoyment of his triumph. For a triumph it was. We stood stunned; ashamed to look one another in the face. Of course the shoot was open. We remembered now that it was, and we were so sorely mortified by his knowledge and our folly, that I failed in my courtesy, and did not see him to the gate, as I should have done. We paid for that later.
“He is the devil in person!” I exclaimed angrily, shaking my fist at the House of the Wolf, as I strode up and down impatiently. “I hate him worse!”
“So do I!” said Croisette, mildly. “But that he hates us is a matter of more importance. At any rate we will close the shoot.”
“Wait a moment!” I replied, as after another volley of complaints directed at our visitor, the lad was moving off to see to it. “What is going on down there?”
“Upon my word, I believe he is leaving us!” Croisette rejoined sharply.
For there was a noise of hoofs below us, clattering on the pavement. Half-a-dozen horsemen were issuing from the House of the Wolf, the ring of their bridles and the sound of their careless voices coming up to us through the clear morning air Bezers’ valet, whom we knew by sight, was the last of them. He had a pair of great saddle-bags before him, and at sight of these we uttered a glad exclamation. “He is going!” I murmured, hardly able to believe my eyes. “He is going after all!”
“Wait!” Croisette answered drily.
But I was right. We had not to wait long. He WAS going. In another moment he came out himself, riding a strong iron-grey horse: and we could see that he had holsters to his saddle. His steward was running beside him, to take I suppose his last orders. A cripple, whom the bustle had attracted from his usual haunt, the church porch, held up his hand for alms. The Vidame as he passed, cut him savagely across the face with his whip, and cursed him audibly.
Complete Works of Stanley J Weyman Page 2
