the early sun was shining on as beautiful a morning of the merry month of may as ever lover dreamed or poet sang, over a gentle pastoral scene in the sunny land of france. it was a little winding dale between soft, sloping hills, covered with the tenderest spring verdure, and dotted with small brakes and thickets of hawthorn and sweet-brier; the former all powdered over, as if by a snowstorm, with their sweet, white blossoms, and the others exhaling their aromatic perfume from every dew-spangled bud and leaflet.
to the right hand the narrow dale widened gradually as it took its way—worn, doubtless, in past days by the waters of the noisy brooklet which flowed along its bottom over a bed of many-colored pebbles, among thickets of willow, alder, and hazel—toward a broad and beautiful valley, through which flowed the majestic volume of a great, navigable river. to the left it decreased in width, and ascended rapidly between steep banks to the spring-head of the rivulet, a clear, cold well, covered by a canopy of gothic architecture rudely chiselled in red sandstone.
above this the gorge of the ravine—for into such the dell here degenerated—was thickly overshadowed by a grove of178 old tufted oak-trees, which might well have rung to the brazen trumpets of the roman legions, and echoed the wild war-whoops of the barbarous gauls in the days of the first c?sar. sheltered and half-concealed by these, there stood a very small, old-fashioned chapel, in the earliest and rudest style of norman architecture, exhibiting the short, massive, clustered columns and round-headed arches of that antique style. it had never spire or tower; but on the summit of the steep, peaked roof there was a little crypt or vaulted canopy, supported by four columns, and containing a bell proportioned to the dimensions of the humble village-chapel.
the larger valley presented all the usual beauties of rural landscape scenery at that remote and unscientific day, when lands were principally laid down in pasture, and husbandry consisted mainly in the tending of flocks and herds. there were wide expanses of common ground, dotted here and there with few arable fields now green as the pastures with their young crops of wheat and rye; there were woodlands bright in their new greenery, and apple-orchards, glowing with their fragrant blossoms. there were scattered farmhouses among the orchards; and an irregular hamlet scattered along a yellow road in the foreground, among shadowy elm-trees, all festooned with vines; and far off, on the farthest slope on the verge of the horizon, the towers and pinnacles of a tall, castellated building towered above the grand and solemn woods, which probably composed the chase of some feudal seigneur.
the little dale which i have described was traversed by two separate ways: one, a regular road, so far as any roads of the fourteenth century could be called regular, and adapted for horses and such rude vehicles as the age and the country required; the other, a narrow, winding foot-path, following the bends of the rivulet, which the other crossed by a picturesque wooden bridge, at about five hundred yards below the well-head179 and the chapel.
at the moment when my tale commences, the doors of the chapel were thrown wide open, and the little bell was tinkling with a merry chime that harmonized well with the gay aspect of nature—the music of the rejoicing birds which were filling the air with their glee, and the lively ripple of the stream fretting over its pebbly bed.
as if summoned by the joyous cadence of the bells, a numerous party was now seen coming up the foot-path by the edge of the rivulet, apparently from the hamlet in the larger valley, wending their way toward the chapel. it needed but a glance to discover the occasion. it was a bridal-procession, headed by the gray-haired village priest in full canonicals, and some of the elders of the village.
behind these, lightly tripped six young girls, dressed in white, with crowns of may-flowers on their heads, and garlands of the same woven like scarfs across their bosoms. they were all singularly pretty, having been chosen probably for their beauty from among their playmates: they had all the rich, dark hair, flowing in loose ringlets down their backs; the fine, expressive, dark eyes; the peach-like bloom on the sunny cheeks, and the ripe, red lips, which constitute the peculiar beauty which is almost characteristic of the south of france. each of these fair young beings carried on her arm a light wicker basket, filled with the bright field-flowers of that sunny land and season—the purple violet, the rich jonquil, and pale narcissus, the many-colored crocuses from the mead, the primrose from the hedgerow-bank, the lily of the valley from the cool, shadowy grove—and strewed them, as they passed along, before the footsteps of the bride; chanting, as they did so, in the quaint old gascon tongue, the bridal strain:—
180
“the roads should blossom, the roads should bloom, so fair a bride shall leave her home, should blossom, should bloom with garlands gay, so fair a bride shall pass to-day!”
after these, followed by her bridesmaids, the bride stepped daintily and demurely along, the acknowledged beauty of the village, happy, and bright, and innocent—the young bride marguerite.
her hair was of the very deepest shade of brown—so dark, that at first thought you would have deemed it black; but when you looked again, you discovered, by the absence of the cold, metallic gloss upon its wavy surface, and by the rich, warm hue with which it glowed under the sunlight, what was its true color. her forehead was not very high, but broad and beautifully formed, and as smooth as ivory; while her arched eyebrows showed as black as night, and as soft and smooth as though they had been stripes of sable genoa velvet. her nose, if not absolutely faultless—for it had the slight upward turn which was so charming in roxabara—added an arch and sprightly expression to features which were otherwise passive and voluptuous rather than mirthful; but her eyes, her eyes were wonderful—like to no eyes on earth that have ever met my gaze, save thine, incomparable——, which still shine upon my soul, though long unseen, and far away, never, never to be forgotten!—not star-like, but like wells of living, loving, languid lustrousness—brown of the deepest shade, filled with a humid, rapturous tenderness, yet brighter than the brightest, but with a soft, voluptuous, luminous brightness; not flashing, not sparkling, but penetrating and imbuing the beholder with love at once and magic light. they were fringed, too, with lashes so long and dark, that, when her lids were lowered, they showed like fringes of raven-hued silk against the delicate blush of her round cheek. her mouth, though perhaps rather wide, was exquisitely shaped, with the arched upper lip and full, pouting lower lip, of the color of the ripe clove-carnation,181 that woos the kiss so irresistibly; with teeth as bright as mother-of-pearl, and a breath sighing forth sweeter than indian summer.
such was the face of marguerite, the bride of that may morning; nor was her form inferior to it. modelled in the fullest and roundest mould that is consistent with symmetry and grace, her figure was the very perfection, the beau-ideal of voluptuous, full-blown, yet youthful womanhood. the broad, falling shoulders; the fully-developed, glowing bust, swelling into twin hills of panting snow; the round, shapely arms, bare to the shoulder; the graceful and elastic waist; the rich curve of the arched hips, and the wavy outlines of her lower limbs, suggesting, by the rustling folds of her draperies as she walked the dewy greensward like a queen, the beauty of their unseen symmetry: these, combined with the exquisite features, the singular expression uniting, what would appear to be incongruous and contradictory, much roguish archness, something that was almost sensual in the wreathed smile, and yet withal the most perfect modesty and innocence, rendered marguerite, the may-bride of castel de roche d’or, one of the loveliest, if not the very loveliest creature that ever walked to church with her affianced lover in that fair land of france.
she wore, like her bridesmaids—who, all pretty girls, were utterly eclipsed by her radiant beauty—a may-wreath on her head, and a large bouquet of fresh violets on the bosom of her low-cut white dress, which was looped up at one side with bunches of narcissus and violets, to show an under-skirt of pale peach-colored silk, the tints of which showed faintly through the thin draperies of her tunic; but, unlike them, she wore a long gauze veil, intertwined with silver threads, floating down among her luxuriant tresses, below her shapely waist.
never was there seen in that region a lovelier, a purer, or a happier bride. immediately behind the bridesmaids, supported182 in his turn by an equal number of tall, sinewy, well-formed youths, dressed in their best attire, half-agricultural, half-martial, as feudal vassals of their lord, bound to man-service in the field, came on the stalwart bridegroom. he was a tall, athletic, well-made man of twenty-nine or thirty years, erect as a quarter-staff, yet showing in every motion an elastic pliability and grace, which, although in reality the mere result of nature, appeared to be the consequence either of innate gentility or of long usance to the habits of the upper classes.
his complexion was that of the south—rich, sunny olive, without a tinge of color in the clear, dark cheek; his hair black as the raven’s wing, and his eyes of that wild, fiery shade of black which perhaps indicates a taint of moorish blood. his features were very regular, and very calm in their regularity, though there was nothing pensive nor anything very grave in their expression. it was the calmness of latent passions, not the calmness of controlling principles—the stillness which precedes the thunderburst, not the stillness of the subsident and overmastered storm: for the firmly-compressed lips, the square outlines of the hard, massive jaw, the immense muscular development of the neck, and the deeply-indented frown between the eyebrows, intersecting a furrow crossing the forehead from brow to brow, would have indicated at once to the physiognomist that maurice champrèst was a man of the fiercest and most fiery energy and passions, concealed but not controlled—existing perhaps unsuspected, but utterly unchecked by any principle—and certain to start into a blaze at the first spark that should enkindle them.
his dress was the usual attire of a man in his station at the period, though of finer materials than was ordinary, consisting of a dark forest-green gambison, or short tunic of fine cloth, not very different in form from the blouse of the modern frenchman, gathered about his waist by a broad belt of black leather,183 fastened in front by a brazen buckle, and supporting on one side a heavy, buckhorn-hilted wood-knife, and on the other a large pouch or purse of black cordovan, bound with silver; his hose were of the same color with the tunic, fitting close to the shapely thigh, and above these he wore long boots of russet-tawny leather. his black hair fell in two heavy clubs or masses over each ear, nearly to the collar of his doublet, from beneath the cover of a small cap of black velvet, set jauntily on one side, and adorned with a single white-cock’s feather.
his appearance on the whole, though he was very far inferior in regard of personal beauty to the exquisite creature whom he was so soon to call his wife, was manly and imposing; while the character of his dress and equipments, as well as the decorations of marguerite and her attendant maidens, showed at once that they were all of a quality and station to the serfs employed in the cultivation of the lands of the great seigneurs, and indeed to that of the ordinary armed vassals and feudal tenants of the day.
in truth, maurice champrèst was not only the richest farmer, but the highest military vassal under the fief of raoul de canillac, the marquis of roche d’or, his ancestor having been banner-bearer to the first lord of the name, and his people having held and cultivated the same farm for many a century, bound only to homage and free man-service in the field under the banner of his lord, to which in war he was held to bring five spearsmen and as many archers in full bodynge, as it was then technically termed, and effeyre-of-war. he was, in short, though not noble, nor what could be exactly termed a gentleman, of the very highest of feudal territorial vassals, not far removed from the class which were in england designated as franklins, although with fewer privileges and smaller real freedom, france having always been more rigidly feudal than the neighboring island, owing to the absence of the large admixture of saxon184 blood and saxon liberty, the latter of which soon began to preponderate in the white-rocked isle of ocean. his beautiful bride marguerite, though not his equal in birth—for her grandfather and grandmother, nay, her father himself, in his early youth, had been serfs—was a free-born and a gently-nurtured woman; the old people having been manumitted and presented with a few acres of land, in consequence of the gallantry with which he had rescued the then seigneur of roche d’or, when unhorsed and at the mercy of the german communes at the bloody battle of bovines, stricken between philip the august and his rebellious barons.
this event had taken place years before the birth of marguerite, and in fact when her father was a mere stripling; and, as her mother was a woman of free lineage, neither serf nor villeyn, she was, of course, beyond the reach of cavil. nay, more than this, the unusual courage of the old man on that dreadful day, and the consideration always manifested toward him by the then marquis and his immediate successor, had won for him a far higher standing than was usually accorded to manumitted serfs by the class next above them. her family, moreover, in both the last generations, had prospered in worldly wealth, for the old serf was shrewd and wary, had hoarded money, and increased the extent of his rural demesne, till marguerite, who was an only daughter, was not only a beauty but an heiress; and probably, with the exception of her husband, would be, on the death of her parents, the richest person in the hamlet. she had received, moreover, advantages at that period very unusual indeed; for having, when a mere child, attracted the attention of the late marchioness de canillac by her grace, her beauty, and the artless na?veté of her manners, she had been selected to attend, rather as a companion than a servant, on mademoiselle de roche d’or, a girl a few years her senior.
185 the young lady had become much attached to marguerite, and on being sent to a convent in the principal town of the department for her education, as was usual, had obtained permission that marguerite might attend her still; so that the young peasant had enjoyed all the advantages of mental culture granted to the high-born damsel; had profited by them to the utmost; and had parted from her orphaned mistress only when, after the death of her parents, she was removed with her brother, the present marquis, to the guardianship of their next relative, the prince of auvergne. in the meantime, while the marquis and his sister had breathed the atmosphere of courts and large cities, far away from their native province, marguerite had returned to the humble home of her parents which she had filled with happiness by the light of her loving eyes, and the harmonies of her soft, low voice; had expanded from the bud into the full-blown flower, admired and beloved of all; had burst from the frail and graceful girl into the exquisite and complete woman; and, having long been loved of maurice champrèst, and bestowed upon him all the tenderness and truth of her maiden affections, was now about to surrender her hand also to him unto whom she had been during the whole of the last year affianced.
and now, with pipe and tabor, with the old, time-honored bridal-chorus, with flowers scattered along the way, and garlands swinging from the hedgerows by which she was to pass, and decorating the rude pillars and stern arches of the old gothic church in which she was to wed, with all the village in her train, carolling and rejoicing at so suitable, so sweet a bridal, marguerite, the bride of may, was led to the ceremony that should of the twain make one for ever and for ever, of which the word of god himself declared that whom he hath united no man shall put asunder.
merrily, with louder strains and blither minstrelsey, they wound up the little dell among the oaks, paused for a moment at the rustic fount to cross their brows with its holy waters,186 and entered the low portals of the village-chapel. the bells ceased tinkling; the brief ceremony was performed by the old priest who had baptized them both; the hand of the down-eyed, blushing bride, still sparkling and smiling amid her happy, soft confusion, was placed in the ardent grasp of maurice, and she was now her own no longer, but a wedded wife.
she was wept over, blessed, caressed, and kissed, by half the company, and many a fervent prayer was breathed for the happiness, the complete and perfect bliss of marguerite, the bride of may—alas for human hopes and the vain prayers of mortals!—and then, while the bells struck up a livelier, louder chiming, and the bride-maidens trolled the chorus forth more cheerily—
“the roads should blossom, the roads should bloom, so fair a bride shall leave her home, should blossom, should bloom with garlands gay, so fair a bride shall pass to-day!”—
with many a manly voice swelling more lustily the nuptial cadence, they passed the little green descending to the horse-road, marguerite clinging now to his supporting arm and looking tenderly up into his with eyes suffused with happy tears and cheeks radiant with dimpled smiles and rosy blushes.
but at the moment when the bridal-train was wheeling down toward the road, and had now nearly reached the point of its intersection with the foot-path, the loud and noisy trampling of many horses, and the jingling clash of the harness of armed riders, was distinctly heard above the swelling chorus of the hymenean, above the chiming of the wedding-bells; and within a few seconds, two or three horsemen crossed the brow of the eastern hill, at a gentle trot, and were followed by a company of some fifty men-at-arms, under the guidance of an old officer, whose beard and hair, as white as snow, fell down over his gorget from beneath the small, black-velvet cap, which alone187 covered his head, for his helmet hung at his saddle-bow. the troopers were all armed point-device, in perfect steel, with long, pennoned lances in their hands, two-handed broadswords slung across their shoulders from the left to the right, and battle-axe and mace depending on this side or that from the pommels of their steel-plated saddles. their horses, too—strong, powerful brutes of the norman stock, crossed with some lighter strain of higher blood—were barded, as it was termed, with chamfronts and neck-plates, poitrels on the breast, and the bards proper covering the loins and croup; and all were arrayed under a broad, square banner, blazoned, as if every eye of the bridal-party could at once distinguish, with the bearings of the lords of castel de roche d’or.
no sooner had they discovered this, than they halted, and formed a line along the edge of the road, anxious to testify their respect to their young lord—who now, recently of age, was returning, after years of absence, from the chateau of his guardian—and eager to observe the passage of the cavalcade.
the persons who led the approaching band were three in number, two of whom rode a few horse-lengths in advance of the third, and were evidently of rank superior to the rest; while something seemed to indicate, though it was indefinite, and not very obvious how far it did so, that even between these two there subsisted no perfect equality.
he to the left was the elder by many years; a finely-formed and not ill-favored man, of some forty-five or fifty years; magnificently apparelled in a suit of rich half-armor, with russet-leather boots meeting the taslets or thigh-pieces at the knee; accoutred with heavy gilded spurs, and wearing on his head a crimson-velvet mortier, adorned by a massive gold chain, and a lofty plume of white feathers.
and he it was, who, although in his outward show he was the more splendid—though he bestrode his steed with an air188 of pride so manifest, that you might have fancied he bestrode the universe—though he addressed all his inferiors with intolerable haughtiness, and appeared to look upon all his equals as inferiors—yet, by his demeanor toward the youth who reined his arab courser by his side, and by his almost servile watching of his every motion, and lowering his voice at his every word, appeared to be oppressed in his presence by a sense of the utmost unworthiness, and scarcely to hold himself entitled to have an opinion of his own until sanctioned by that of the young marquis de roche d’or.
the features of this man were certainly well-favored rather than the reverse—for the brow, the eyes, the outlines, were all good; and yet the expressions they assumed, as he was moved by varying passions, were so odious and detestable, that on a nearer view, a close observer would probably have styled him hideous, and avoided his advances. pride, of the haughtiest and most intolerant form, would at one time writhe his lip and deform his every lineament; at another, it would yield to the basest, the most abject servility. cruelty alone sat fixed and permanent in the thick, massive, animal jaw, the low and somewhat receding forehead, and the oblique glances of the cold, clear, gray eye; but sensuality, and sneering sarcasm, and utter want of veneration or belief for anything high or holy, had left their hateful traces in the lines about his mouth and nostrils: nor were these odious, ineradicable signs of an atrocious character redeemed by the evident presence of high intellect and pervading talents, for that intellect was of a shrewd, keen, cunning caste, and was in no wise akin to anything of an imaginative, a noble, or a virtuous type.
such was the appearance, such the aspect, of a man renowned in his day far and wide through france, but renowned for evil only. such was canillac le fou—a soubriquet which he had won throughout his province, for the insane, frantic, and unnatural189 vice and crime which had marked his whole career from boyhood. canillac the madman!—and with good reason did the vassals of the old house of roche d’or shrink upon themselves, and draw instinctively one toward the other, like wild-fowl when they see the shadow of the soaring falcon, with a foreboding of peril near at hand, when they beheld this fierce, voluptuous, pitiless monster—whose favorite boast it was that he had never spared a woman in his passion, nor a man in his hatred—riding at the bridle-rein of their young lord, as his chosen friend and companion, and probably as the arbiter of his pleasures, instigator of his vices!
and of a truth they had good cause to shrink and tremble, an’ had they but then known that which was even now impending, to curse the very hour in which he or they were born—he to inflict, they to endure the last, worst outrages of feudal tyranny and wrong!
but they as yet knew nothing, nor, save instinctively, foreboded anything; but he, with his keen, furtive, ever-roving glances, noted (what none less sly, suspicious, and acute, would have suspected) the secret and intuitive horror with which the peasantry of castel de roche d’or regarded him, and vowed at once within his secret soul that they should have good cause to curse him, and that speedily.
his comrade, the young marquis, was, to the outward eye, a very different personage. having barely reached his twenty-first year, he was as graceful and finely-framed a youth as ever sat a charger. his face, too, was very fine and regular, with the large, liquid, dark eyes, and deep, clear, olive tint, which are so common in the south of france. his hair was black as the raven’s wing, with the same purplish, metallic lustre gleaming over its glossy surface, and fell in long, wavy, uncurled masses over the collar of the quilted gambison of rose-colored silk, which he wore under a shirt of flexible chain-mail, polished190 so brilliantly, that it flashed and sparkled in the morning sunbeams like a network of diamonds.
the ordinary expression of his countenance was grave, calm, and melancholy; yet it was impassive and cold, rather than thoughtful and imaginative, while there was an occasional flashing light in the sleepy eye, and a gleam of almost fierce intelligence in all the features, and a strange, animal curl of the pale lips, which seemed to tell that there lurked beneath that cold exterior a volcano of fierce and fiery passions, ready at any instant to leap into life, and consume whosoever should oppose his will.
the keen observer of humanity would have pronounced him one cold, rather than collected; selfish at once, and careless of the rights and happiness of others; sluggish, perhaps, and difficult to arouse, but, once aroused, impetuous, and of indomitable will—truly a fearful combination!
when the company had arrived within thirty or forty paces of the bridal-party, the villagers threw up their caps into the air, and raised a loud and joyous exclamation—“vive canillac! vive canillac! vive le beau marquis de roche d’or!”—and, for the moment, the boy’s face lighted up with a gleam of warm and honest feeling—gratification at the welcome of his people, and something of real sympathy with their condition.
but just as he had determined to ride forward and return their kindly greeting with words of cheer and promise of protection, the young and fiery arab on which he was mounted, terrified by the shoutings, and the caps tossed into the air, reared bolt upright, made a prodigious bound forward, and then, wheeling round, yerked out his heels violently, and dashed away with such fury, that before the young rider, who sat as firmly in his saddle as though he had been a portion of the animal, could arrest him, they were almost among the men-at-arms.
191 the whole passed in a minute; but that minute was of fearful import to many there assembled, many both innocent and guilty. even in the point of time when the wild horse was plunging forward to the bridal-party, the young lord’s eye, undiverted by the sense of his own keen peril, had fallen upon the lovely face and exquisite symmetry of the fair bride, who, moved by a timid apprehension for the safety of the handsome cavalier, leaned forward a little way in front of her young companions, with clasped hands and cheeks blanched somewhat by sympathetic fear and pity.
the blood rushed in a torrent to his cheek, and remained settled there in a red, hectic spot; a fierce, unnatural light gleamed from his glassy eye, and his lip curled with an odious smile. a volume of fierce passions rushed over his soul, overpowering in an instant all his better characteristics. he was determined, in that instant, by that one glance, to possess her, reckless what misery and madness he might cause—reckless of all things, human or divine!
and, whether the disembodied fiend, who, we are taught to believe, is ever ready at such moments of temptation to urge the incipient sinner on to deeper crime and ruin, did spur his wicked will or not—there was a human, sneering, tempting fiend, who, as he rode beside him, read his inmost soul in every look and gesture, and spared nothing of allurement to excite him onward on that fell road of evil passions which should insure his subjugation to his own sins and their readiest minister.
“ha! what is this?” exclaimed the young man, almost angrily, as he pulled up his violent horse, at length, beside the aged seneschal; “what is this, michael rubempré—or who am i, that my villeyns and serfs wed at their will, without my consent, or consideration of my droits and dues?”
“so please you, beau seigneur, these be no serfs,” replied the old man, bowing low, “but vassals of the highest class, in192 this your lordship of roche d’or—free vassals, beau sire, of the highest class. your consent was applied for duly, and granted, in all form, by me, as, in your absence, by letters of instruction, your representative and agent. the dues were all paid, and a large present above them, as a donation to mademoiselle, your sister, on whom the young bride attended, when she dwelt in the house of the ursulines, in clermont.”
darker and darker grew the brow of the young lord, as he listened; for he could not fail to perceive the obstacles which were opposed to the atrocious wrong he meditated. yet he listened sullenly to the end.
“ha!” he replied, moodily, “no droits, only dues, and those satisfied! the worse for them, by heaven and hell, and all who dwell therein!”
he paused a moment, with his hands clinched, and the veins upon his brow swollen into thick, azure cords, by the rush of the hot blood; and then resumed, in a low, hissing tone, widely different from his usually slow and modulated voice:—
“who be they, michael rubempré? i would give half my lands, they could be proved serfs. can not this be done, michael?”
“impossible, beau sire!” replied the old man, firmly, though there was much of anxiety, and even of alarm, in his eye; “utterly impossible. the forefathers of maurice champrèst came into the lands of roche d’or with the first canillac, and he holds the same farm still, under the first grant, by tenure of man-service, only on the field of battle. he is your lordship’s greatest vassal, and brings five spears and as many crossbows to the banner of roche d’or, serving himself on horseback.”
“ha! curses on it! curses on it! and she—who is she! by heaven, she is the loveliest creature i ever looked upon! who is she? ha!”
193 “her grandfather, beau sire, then a serf—permitted, through the exigency of the times, to bear arms in the field—saved the life of your lordship’s grandsire, by taking in his breast the pike-thrust intended for his lord. for this good deed, he was manumitted, with his wife and son, who is now a free vassal and a large tenant of roche d’or, bringing six crossbows to your banner. marguerite was selected by the marquise to wait on mademoiselle de canillac de roche d’or, and was educated with her, almost as a friend. she is the best girl, too, in all the village.”
“ha! so much the worse! curses on it—twenty thousand curses!”
and he had turned his horse’s head again, to ride on his way, apparently convinced that for this time, at least, his wicked will must be balked of its fulfilment; but at this moment, the voice of the tempter, canillac the madman—mad in his crimes alone, for his wily and diverse intellect was clear as that of catiline, whom he in some sort resembled—addressed him, calm, yet cutting and sarcastic:—
“what is it that has moved you so much, beau cousin? methinks your people’s greeting should enliven, not depress you.”
“tush!” the young man replied, almost savagely; “tush! you are no fool, canillac!”
“not much, i think; though they do call me canillac le fou! but what then, what then, beau cousin?”
“did you not see her? did you not see her, canillac? as i hope to live before god, she is the loveliest piece of woman’s flesh i ever looked upon! i would give—i would give half my lands, half my life, that i had droits seignorial over her; but i have dues, dues only, and they are satisfied. she is free—a free woman of her own right, and can not be mine.”
“were i you, cousin, and i so desired her as you do, she should be mine, ere nightfall!”
194 “how so? how so?” asked the young man, sharply. “did i not tell you she is free—free—that i have no droits over her, and do you tell me i can make her mine?”
“what if she be? she is but a peasant-wench—one of the mere canaille. i would regard her squalling no more than a kitten’s mewing; nay, rather i would glory in it, for i am sick to death of your complaisant beauties. besides, she is not free, if she was born while her father was a serf, unless she was named in the deed of manumission.”
“but she must have been born years afterward. look at her, man: she could not have been born in my grandfather’s time.”
“deny that she is free. have her up with us to the castle, now. hold her there as a hostage, till she be proven free. if you be not aweary of her, ere the week is ended, i will find twenty men who shall swear she was born in the days of sir noah in the ark, if it be needful.” and he laughed scornfully.
“by heaven, i will not weary of her in a week of years! but it is well advised. i will essay it.”
“essay nothing: do it! promise to hold her in all honor. promises cost no man anything, nor oaths either, for that matter, which is fortunate; for, by mine honor, she is fitter to be a prince’s paramour than a jacque’s wife. so forward!”
and, with the word, they galloped forward, and pausing exactly in front of the bride, who stood between her husband and the priest—shrinking with modesty and terror from the ardent and licentious gaze which he riveted on her glowing charms—he began to rate the latter for daring to wed a serf-girl to a free vassal without his lord’s consent, and the former for presuming to defraud his seigneur of his droits.
in vain the good curate explained and expostulated; in vain twenty oaths were proffered by contemporaries of the girl’s grandsire, that she was free; in vain the husband tendered security, and offered rich donations; in vain the village-195maidens grovelled before the young lord’s charger’s hoofs, and clasped his knees in an agony of fruitless supplication! the wrong was predetermined; the wronger was a strong man, armed; and how should humble innocence prevail against the might which makes the right, where violence is masterful, and law its abject servitor?
to make a sad tale short, raoul de canillac announced his determination to carry her up to the castle presently, and hold her there in trust, until such time as a “court-baron” could be held to decide on the question of her manumission. he plighted his knightly word, however, his honor, as a peer of france, that she should be treated with all tenderness, as one who had waited on his sister; and returned to her husband, in all honor, should she be pronounced free: but this on the condition only that she should render herself freely up and gently, and go without resistance or complaint. to this he added, that, as an act of grace and favor, and to prove that he would deal with them in all faithfulness of honor, he would himself hold court at high noon to-morrow, at which he cited all his vassals to appear, and enjoined it on the priest, the parents, and the bridegroom, then and there to produce the testimonials of her birth or manumission; or, failing that, to remain for ever mute. lovely as ever, if not lovelier, paler than the white lily, and like it drooping when its fair head is surcharged with dewdrops, and deluged with soft, silent tears, the miserable marguerite sank on her husband’s breast in one last, long embrace.
fire flashed from the dark eyes of raoul de canillac, and the blood literally boiled in his veins, as he saw that lovely form clasped close by arms other than his own—those lips polluted, as he termed it, by the kiss of a peasant!
“enough of this!” he cried. “set her upon the palfrey—the gray palfrey we brought down for my sister. you, amelot de l’aigle, guide it,” he continued, “but keep her in the middle196 of the lances.”
but the wretched girl had fainted; and they were forced to place her on a cloak, doubled upon the bows of the demipique, in front of the page, to whose waist she was bound by a silken scarf, to prevent her falling to the ground. the tears stood in the eyes of the good old seneschal; and the faces of many of the men-at-arms, who were all of the same class with the bridegroom, and many of them his comrades and friends, were dark and sullen. none, however, dared to remonstrate, much less to resist the authoritative mandate of the feudal tyrant.
no words, however, can express the scene which ensued as the cavalcade swept onward at a rapid pace, leaving behind them agony, and desolation, and despair, where all, before their coming, had been happiness, and innocent, quiet bliss, and hopeful peace! the stifled wailing of the girls, the silent agony of the hopeless bridegroom, the deep, scarcely-smothered execrations of the men—it was a scene as terrible and heart-rending as that which preceded it had been delightful and cheering to the soul.
at length the priest, raising his arms toward heaven, cried in a low and plaintive voice—
“my children, let us pray; let us pray to the most high god, that he will keep our sweet sister marguerite in innocence and honor, and give her back to us in happiness and peace. let us pray!”
and every voice responded of all who heard his words; every voice, save one, responded, “let us pray!” and every knee was bent as they bowed them in a sorrowing circle around their monitor and friend—every knee, save that of maurice champrèst; but he stood erect, and pulled his hat over his brows, and folded his arms across his chest, and exclaimed, as the ravishers of his sweet wife wound through the dale into the larger valley: “earth has no justice, heaven no pity! man197 has no honor, god no vengeance!”
but on rode the tyrants, onward—careless of the ruin they had wrought, ruthless toward the innocence they had determined to destroy; confident in the puissance of their prowess, and almost defying the thunders of heaven, which were even then rolling and muttering far away among the volcanic peaks of the mont d’or. were these the omens of a coming storm?
they reached the esplanade before the castle-gates, and marguerite was still unconscious. happy had she nevermore regained her consciousness! but as the horses’ hoofs thundered over the echoing drawbridge, the clang roused her from her swoon. she raised herself up, drew her hand across her brow, as if to clear away some imaginary mist obscuring her mental vision, and gazed wildly and hurriedly around her on the strange objects which met her eyes, as if she had not as yet realized to herself her condition, nor altogether knew her destination. as she was carried, however, through the dim, resounding vault of the barbacan, and heard the grating clang of the portcullis when it thundered down behind her, a sense of her lost condition flashed upon her soul, and a voice seemed to whisper in her ear those words of horrible import which danté, in after-days, inscribed upon the gates of hell; “on entering here, leave every hope behind!”
still she shrieked not, nor wept, nor craved or sympathy or pity; for too well did she know that the hearts of those to whom she should appeal were harder, colder than their own iron breastplates; her only confidence was in her own strenuous virtue, her only hope in him who alone can save.
she was lifted from the horse, not only with some show of gentleness, but even of respect, without receiving word or sign of intelligence from the young lord of roche d’or, who strode away, accompanied by his ill-counsellor, canillac the madman, toward the banqueting-room, wherein the noontide meal was198 prepared already, and where the flower of the knights and nobles of the province were assembled to welcome the new-comer. then she was conducted by the page through several long, winding passages, to a sort of withdrawing-room, in which she found several female-servants of the higher class, to the care of one of whom she was consigned, with a few words of whispered orders, by her conductor, who bowed low and retired. the girls looked at her for a moment or two earnestly, inquiringly—eying her gay bridal-dress, so ill-suited to the mode of her arrival, with an air between suspicion and sympathy—until, at length, one of them seemed to recognise her, and exclaimed: “mon dieu! mon dieu! if it be not the fair marguerite!”
and then, as pity seemed to prevail over all other feelings, they crowded round her kindly and respectfully; and after a few kindly-intended but little-meaning words, one of them offered to conduct her to her appointed chamber, promising to bring her refreshments shortly, and saying that doubtless she would prefer to take some repose, and be alone.
through dark, circuitous passages, vaulted with solid stone, and ribbed as though they had been hewn out of the living rock, and up interminable winding stairs, she led her, until her brain whirled round and round, and her senses were almost bewildered. at length they reached the topmost story of the huge, square tower, and, opening a low, arched door, the hapless bride was ushered into a room so sumptuously furnished as marguerite had never seen or dreamed of; and then, with a deep reverence, and a half-compassionate air, the attendant maiden left her, a prisoner; for she heard the lock turned from without, and her heart fell at the sound.
the sun, which had turned already toward the westward, was pouring a rich stream of light through the oriel window, over the tapestried walls and floor; over the velvet bed in a deep alcove; over the soft arm-chairs, and central table covered with199 a splendid carpet, and strewn with illuminated books, and rich, sculptured cups and vases. but it was on none of these that the eyes of marguerite dwelt meaningly; for, as they wandered over these, half-marvelling amid her terrors at their beauty, she discerned an oaken prie-dieu, in a small niche beside the window, with a missal on its embroidered cushion, and a crucifix with the sacrificed redeemer looking down from it on the repentant sinner.
in an instant, she was on her knees before the image of her god, pouring forth the whole of her innocent and spotless soul, in the holiest of supplications. she prayed for aid from on high to preserve her unstained virtue; she prayed for strength from on high to resist temptation; she prayed for pardon from on high for her sins and errors past, for grace that she might err no more in future; she prayed that he, who alone could pity human suffering—for that he had suffered as no man suffereth—would touch the hearts of her ruthless persecutors, through his virgin mother; she prayed that he would console her sorrowing parents, and him whom she scarcely dared think of, so terrible she knew must be his anguish; lastly, she prayed for pardon to her persecutor, and that, if she were doomed that night to perish, her soul might be received to grace, through the intercession of the saints, and her, the ever-blessed, the virgin mother mary!
her prayer, if in form it were erroneous, in spirit was sincere and fervent; and, as sincere and fervent prayers will ever, surely must hers have found a hearing at the throne of mercy, for she arose from her knees confirmed, if not consoled, and strengthened in her virtuous principles, and calm by the very strength of her resolves.
then, opening the oriel window, she stepped out into the little balcony, or bartizan, which projected out beyond the face of the wall—perhaps in the hope of finding some means of200 escape; but, alas! if such a hope had flattered her, it was delusive; for there was no egress from it, nor any method of descending; and it impended far over the broad, deep moat, a hundred feet or more above its dark, clear waters—which, she remembered to have heard men say, were fifty feet in depth to the bottom of their rock-hewn channel. long, long she gazed over the lovely sunlit valley of her birth, which all lay mapped out in the glorious glow before her eyes; the happy home among the limes, beneath which she was born; the happier home of promise, into which she had hoped that day to be led by him whom she loved the best; the little chapel in the dell, among the oaks, in which she had plighted, that very morn, her faith for ever, until death, and death alone, should dissolve the bonds.
“and death alone,” she exclaimed, as the thoughts swelled upon her soul, “and death alone shall dissolve them! but i must not look upon these things—i must not think of him—or my spirit will sink into utter weakness!” then she paused, and, leaning over the low breastwork of the bartizan, looked down with a steady eye into the abyss, and crossing herself as she rose—“may god assoil my soul, if i be driven to do this thing, as do it of a surety i will, if otherwise i may not save my honor!”
then she returned into the chamber, leaving both lattices of the oriel open; and seated herself calmly near the window, with her eyes fixed on the effigy of her dying god, expecting that which should ensue, in trembling and shuddering of the spirit, it is true, yet in earnest resignation and fixed purpose.
ere long, a step approached the door, but it was light and gentle; and, when the lock was turned, it was the girl who had led her thither, bearing wine and refreshments on a silver salver: but, though the attendant pressed her kindly to take comfort and to eat, that she might be strengthened, she refused all consolation, and only drank a deep draught of the cold spring-water,201 to quench the feverish thirst which parched her very vitals. seeing at once that the prisoner would not be consoled, nor enter into any conversation, the maiden bade her “good-night, and god speed her!” and added that she believed she would not be disturbed that night, for the gentles were revelling furiously in the great hall: and the feast, she believed, would efface all thought of her.
“god grant that it may be so,” she replied, fervently; “for if i live scatheless until to-morrow morn, i am free and happy! no court on earth can dare decide against the testimony we shall show to-morrow.”
but, in his wisdom—we, blind wretches, can not discern, may not conjecture wherefore—he did not grant it.
the sunlight faded from the sky, as the great orb went down; and the stars came out, one by one; and then the moon arose, nigh to the full, and filled the skies with glory, and the maiden may-bride’s heart with increasing hope on earth, and gratitude toward heaven. but little did she dream that he, she had that morning wedded, lay, even now, at the verge of the moat, watching her oriel window, with agony and desperation at his heart; yet so it was. when she stepped on the bartizan, he had been observing the castle with an angry and jealous eye from the skirts of the nearest woodland; and, though it was nearly a mile distant, the lover’s glance of instinct had at once detected the loved and lovely figure. as the shades of evening closed, and night fell thick before the moon arose, he had crept up, pace by pace, till he had reached the brink of the moat, unseen of the warders on the keep and the flanking walls; and now he lay couched in the rank grass, almost within reach of his beloved, able to hear every sound—should sound come forth—from her gentle lips, yet powerless to succor, impotent to save!
202 it was now nigh midnight, and marguerite had begun to frame to herself a hope that she was indeed forgotten; when suddenly the sound of feet, coming up the winding stair, aroused her. the sounds were of the feet of two men: the one, heavy and uncertain, as of a person who had drunk too deeply; the other light and agile.
she rose to her feet, with her heart throbbing as though it would have burst her boddice. “the time of my trial hath come! my god, my god, now aid, or, if need be, forgive thy servant!”
the door flew open, and at the sight hope fled her bosom, if any hope had so long dwelt within it.
flushed with wine—inebriate, almost—with his doublet unbraced, and his points unfastened—with a glowing cheek, a sparkling eye, and an unsteady gait, raoul de canillac stood before her—the page amelot bearing a waxen torch before him, which he placed in a candelabrum near the bed, and that done, retiring.
as the door closed, the young lord moved toward her, while she stood gazing at him like a deer at bay, with a sad, liquid eye, and the tears rolling down her cheeks, yet motionless and dauntless.
“dry thy tears, sweet one,” he exclaimed, “or rather weep on, till i kiss them from thy cheeks, and replace them by smiles of rapture. girl, i adore thee. be but mine, and i will change thine every bunch of silly-flowers for gems worth an earl’s ransom; better to be—”
“seigneur raoul de canillac,” she interrupted him, in tones so calm, that he was compelled to pause and listen—“marquis of roche d’or, knight of the holy ghost, as you are prince and noble, as you are peer of france and belted knight, hear me, and spare me! by the soul of your mother, who was chaste wife to your lordly father! by the honor of your sister, who is spotless demoiselle! spare me, who am at once chaste wife203 and spotless maiden! conquer me you may, perchance, by brute force; win me, by words, you never can! nor would i yield to thee one favor, were death itself the alternative!”
“brute force, then, be it!” he replied, though, half-awed by her manner, he advanced no farther; “for, conquer thee i will, if i may not win thee, though my mother’s soul stood palpable between us, and my sister’s honor were trampled underneath my feet, as i spring on to seize thee!”
“false knight, your plighted honor! bad lord, your promised faith!” she cried, so loud and clear, that her every accent reached the ear and tore the heart of maurice champrèst below.
“honor!” he shouted, sneeringly; “to the wild winds with honor! faith! who kept faith with a woman ever?”
and he dashed at her with a bound so sudden and unexpected, that he cleared the space between them, and had his arms around her, in an instant.
she thought that she was lost, and uttered one wild shriek, so long, so shivering, so thrilling, that not one ear that heard it but felt as if a lance had pierced it. but virtue gave her strength, as vice and excess had robbed him of it; and, with a perfect majesty, she thrust him from her, that he staggered and fell headlong.
one spring, and she had cleared the oriel window; another, and she stood upon the dizzy brink. “my god, forgive mine enemy! jesus, receive my soul!”
she veiled her head with her bridal-veil, and, with her white arms clasped above it, stooped herself, and plunged headlong!
for one second, there was seen by every eye, within eye-shot, a long, white gleam, glancing downward through the misty moonlight—
for one second, there was heard by every ear, within ear-shot, a dreadful, hurtling sound—
204 and then a sudden plash, and the waters of the moat flashed upward in the serene moonlight, and closed over the head of chaste, unspotted marguerite!
but another plunge followed instantly; and, within one second, she was drawn forth and clasped in her husband’s arms, shattered and stunned, and beyond all hope of life, yet still not wholly dead.
a few long minutes passed—minutes as long as years—and then, warmed into life by the pressure of that fond breast, she revived; her dying eyes looked into his; she knew him—she was blest!—
“maurice—i am thine—in death, as in life—thine own, thine own, pure marguerite—kiss—kiss me! i am gone—hus-husband!”
and she died, happy—died, may we not trust, forgiven!—
and he howled out a hideous curse against the castle, and against its lord, and against all whom its guilty walls protected; and then, bearing his dead bride in his arms, away through the darkness of the night—away, with a speed mocking the fleet pursuit of horses!
the sunrise of the morrow shone down upon the corpse of marguerite, clad in her bridal-veil and marriage-garments, dripping and soiled with moisture, outstretched upon the very altar before which the preceding dawn had seen her wedded.
but years elapsed ere maurice champrèst was seen again in the hamlet of castel de roche d’or; and, when he was seen there, it was a sorry sight to many a noble eye, and the very stones cried “wo!” when the vassal’s wife was avenged on her destroyer.
