The Plowshare and the Sword: A Tale of Old Quebec

  CHAPTER XV.

  GLORIOUS LIFE.

  When Madame found La Salle gone and the fire black in the earlymorning, she frowned until her eyes became hidden and went back to thepalisade, passing her old servant, who was shredding ears of wild rice.She entered the windy house calling. Soon she came out, shaking awillow stick in her angry hand, and stopped opposite the old man, whocontinued his work, grumbling softly to himself, "Ah, Father Creator!Father Creator! Why do you send this north wind in summer time? Theday is dark and cold. Send us the west wind, Father Creator."

  "Have you heard noises in the night?" Madame's voice grated.

  "I slept with the wind in my ears," answered the native.

  "Have you seen my daughter, or the young Englishman?"

  "I have seen the light struggling to break, and the grey heavenrushing, and the thick wind beating. I saw a red fox run and ablue-bird chattering across the wind," said the old man.

  "Have you not seen the priest?" urged Madame.

  "I was up at the dawn," replied the stolid worker. "The fire was deadand the sleeping-place white with rain. A bear was seeking warmth uponthe embers."

  "I have been blind and deaf," cried Madame in a rage.

  At the first glance of light the cabin was as noisy as an ocean cave.Madeleine's brain became too active for sleep when she knew that theday was at hand. She rose softly, glowing with her new-foundhappiness, and as she stirred she murmured the intensely human line ofthat unhappy boy Kit Marlowe, who had perished in a tavern brawl a fewyears before her birth, "Whoever loved that loved not at first sight?"She darted up with that thought, but a coil of her long hair tightened,and there came a startled movement from beyond the wall.

  "Hush!" she whispered, lifting a pink finger, forgetful that he couldnot see.

  "Is it the day?" said Geoffrey.

  "Yes, yes. Release me. Let me fly. Do you not hear the wind?"

  "I am listening to you," he answered.

  "Forget me. Listen! That was like thunder. Are you listening?"

  "I am coming out with you," he said.

  Reaching the open, Geoffrey discovered Madeleine, her armsoutstretched, her hair rising in ripples above her head as she bathedin the wind, battling and panting, her lovely face all heather-pink.

  "I can smell the pines," she gasped, "and the salt sea, and themountains. I can hear the roaring of water and see the soaring ofeagles. Oh, oh!" she panted. "It is glorious to live!"

  She cried as she drew him away impetuously:

  "The black priest has gone. Let us hope that he has been blown awayinto a swamp, where the fairies shall bewitch him into a frog to croakat the world for ever. Come now away. Tell me whether you had dreamsin the night. But stay!"

  She drew away from him suddenly.

  "Madeleine!" he exclaimed, wondering at her changed face.

  "I must remove this mask," she cried in a stately fashion, frowning andplacing her hands upon her sides. "Sir, who are you that you shouldstrive to win the heart of Madeleine Labroquerie? Why, I have sworn towed a knight, a man of title and estate, and you, a smooth-faced boy,with long hair and cheeks as pink as mine, you come and speak to me oflove. Sir, how dare you thus to use an innocent maid?"

  She passed on ahead of her astonished lover and the trees of the groveclosed round them.

  "Madeleine----" he began, protesting.

  "Madeleine," she imitated. "Here is free-speech indeed. Now, sir,stand and let me show you what you are. You are an Englishman, anadventurer, one of a small band who think themselves strong enough toattack the power of France in this new land, and you, the enemy of mypeople, come to me with a tale of love, believing me to be a maid ofthe wilds to be won and cast aside at will. Speak not to me. I willnot hear you. I am no simple provincial maid that I should fall inlove with a soldier's handsome face. Last night, yes, last night,after an acquaintance of but three days, you dared to own your love,and to humour you--in truth I was afraid--I confessed that I also lovedyou. I, a French girl, such a traitress as to love an enemy of mypeople! I was but fooling you. How I laughed to myself at deceivingyou so readily."

  She laughed disdainfully and curled her lovely lip.

  "I fear I have already tarried here too long," was all that Geoffreycould say.

  "Stay one moment," cried the haughty beauty. "I should be base did Inot warn you. Soldiers are waiting for you upon every side. East,west, north, and south they lie in wait for you."

  "There are no soldiers nearer than the fortress," said Geoffrey wildly.

  "You may believe so," replied the traitress. "But you have learntlittle of this country if you do not know that military posts are setabout from place to place. One such post is near at hand, and thitherI sent our servant after your coming. Can you not perceive that I havebetrayed you?"

  Had Geoffrey looked he might have seen her shiver as she spoke.

  "I thank you for your warning, but I may stay no longer," the young mansaid, and he stepped away with his head down.

  "Which way do you take?" she demanded.

  "I am southward bound."

  "You are--brave, friend."

  "Friend!" he exclaimed, with a sobbing note of indignation. "Would youhave me trust in you again?"

  "I had forgot," she admitted. "Are you going now?"

  He moved on through the grove; but he had not made a dozen steps beforeshe called to him.

  "Have you, then, no word of farewell?"

  He turned, but did not look at her as he said: "May you live to fortuneand a happy future."

  "You said you loved me," said Madeleine, her figure drooping. "Why didyou deceive me?"

  "I loved you," he said hotly, moving back a step. "And I love youstill. When I first saw you standing by the fire with the sun fallingon your head I loved you. When I have left you I shall see, not thegirl who desired to betray me, but her who gave me this to hold for myprotection while I slept."

  He drew forth a long coil of golden-brown hair and held it in the wind.

  "You cut it off," she faltered. Then her manner changed again. "Throwit down. Stamp upon it. Tread it into the ground."

  "I use it," he said, "as I longed to use you." And he put the lockback into his bosom.

  At that she ran forward with the cry: "You love me. Take me there,Geoffrey. That is my place. I will not be held out. Geoffrey, I loveyou. Oh, blind, blind! I love you with all my heart and soul."

  She tried to force herself into his arms, warm, loving, andirresistible.

  "I am the wickedest of liars," she breathed, twisting her fingerswithin his. "I would not have gone so far, but I thought that youknew. I thought that you feigned to hate me in return for my cruelty.Ah, Geoffrey, I loved you when first our eyes met. I did so desireyour love, but, sweetheart--foolish, credulous--I--I feared you mightthink I was won too easily. Will you value your prize the more, when Itell you that my treachery, the story of the soldiers, thesettlement?--Oh, oh!"

  He guessed what she would have said, and so had seized her.

  "Betray you, blind love!" she whispered. "Dear foolish sweetheart, Iwould open my veins and give my blood for you. How I tortured you!Knowing what a cruel nature your love possesses, knowing it, can youstill love her?"

  "Madeleine----"

  "Stop," she entreated, lifting her violet eyes. "Repeat that name ahundred times, and find for it a new attribute of love each time. Butlet the first be false and the second fair."

  "Sweet Madeleine!"

  "Call me so, Geoffrey," she murmured. "And I shall not wish to change."

  There was a hill beyond, its sides covered with bleached grass, andabove a few gaunt pines beating their ragged heads together andstabbing one upon the other with jagged arms where limbs had beenamputated by previous storms. To this place Madeleine led her lover.

  It was a strange day. Though long past sunrise there was barely light.The clouds swept low, grey or indigo masses rushing south with thespeed of rapids. Th
e dark, solid wind of the lowlands came in afurious succession of great waves. The lovers might have been upon anisland with the ocean roaring round in storm. Out of the gloom the wetrocks glimmered and the trunks of long-fallen trees described weirdshapes upon the plain.

  "This is life!" cried Madeleine. "Glorious life!"

  Geoffrey held her closely, looking down upon her wet and radiant face.

  "We can fight together, you and I," she went on. "No wind shallconquer while we hold together. It may roar at us, but we are youngand strong, and the wind is old and worn. Think you that you can bearwith me always? I promise you I will never use deceit again. We shallbe together when the winds have all passed under heaven, and the treesare gone, and the seas have dried. Our souls will live in the samelife and the same love. Together while the old world crumbles, and thesun becomes cold, and the moon fades. There is no death. We shallclose our eyes one day and change our home. Life will run on for us,the same magnificent life of love."

  "There is no death," he repeated, as though the idea had not occurredto him before.

  "How many thousand years has this wind rushed upon this hill? How manythousand shall it beat after we have changed our home? We are made tolive, Geoffrey. It is not we who are sick, not we who are oppressed.We are made of stuff that does not perish, not flesh and blood whichwither, but breath and love. Kiss me, Geoffrey, kiss me with yoursoul."

  "Sweet, you have more knowledge than I," cried Geoffrey as he kissedher eyes.

  "See that huge cloud! How the monster wishes to smother us! There itrushes, flinging its rain to spite us."

  "I shall see this wild spot for ever," he murmured.

  "In years to come," said Madeleine, "a city perchance may grow in thissolitude, and where we now sit a palace or a cathedral may be built, aking may command, a pastor teach his people, bells may ring forChristmas, and heralds sound their trumpets. But we shall not see thatcity, my Geoffrey. We shall look below the brick and the stir ofpeople, and we shall see a hill of white grass with old pines atop, andbelow streaming rocks and decaying trunks, with beyond a grove allcovered in damp gloom and lashed by wind."

  "I can see the faces of my friends," he muttered.

  The girl turned upon his shoulder and drew his face lower with her coldhand, lifting her own until their eyes met.

  "Look there," she entreated. "Tell me what you see."

  "Heaven opening." He paused. "I see also my duty to my neighbour."

  Madeleine's head drooped. Presently a small voice whispered out of thewind, "I would have you obey that message, lest by offending God wewreck our happiness."

  "I live upon your will."

  "You must leave me. You shall not see me shed a tear. But I must haveyou for this day, and afterwards"--she caught her breath. "Had ever ayoung soldier so brave a love?"

  He kissed her hands, and her cold face, and her hair, which drippedlike seaweed.

  "No ifs," she implored, when her ears caught his broken words. "Thedoubter fails. Look upon the deed as done, and God shall pardon thepresumption, because He was once a young man upon earth, and He knowsthe longing of a brave heart. Already I think of you, not as goingforth to duty, but as returning to claim me for your bride."

  "I shall succeed," he cried, in a voice which defied the winds."Madeleine, you have made me strong. Listen, sweet. I have a home inVirginia, most fair, they say, of England's colonies, and I come totake you there. I have a house in a garden where the sun never sets,and where a river runs gently to the sea between banks of flowers.There is no hard winter or rough wind there, neither enemy nor noise ofbattle to terrify your dear heart. There the potato grows, and thewhite tobacco blooms scent the night, and there the voice of Naturesings of peace. Will come with me, sweet?"

  "You have learnt your lesson," she sighed, content.

  Misty rain smote them, but they strained at each other and laughed atit. The cold numbed their feet, but their hearts were so warm thatthey did not heed it. Nature thundered at them, but the roar of menacebecame a triumphal march, and the shriek of the fiends a benediction.

  "This one day you shall spare to me," said Madeleine. "Let us spend itas a day to be remembered. I have a cave down yonder, around which Ihave trailed the bushes and taught ivy to grow. There we will build afire and I will be your housewife. Come! let us run along the wind."

  He bent to assist her, and she feigned to be stiff with cold, thelovely traitor, so that she might feel his arms about her. Hand inhand they ran, the rain and wind driven upon their backs, the angry skylowering upon the two who thus dared to endure the perils of life sohappily. But the lovers knew that behind the damp gloom and the stormsmiled the kindly sun; and they knew that he would conquer in good time.

  So that happy day drew to its end in mist and rain, and the wind dieddown, and the storm clouds went out of the sky one by one. The moonbroke wanly into light and a pale star of hope gazed serenely down.Nature wearied of her tumult, and old AEolus drove the turbulent northwind back into its cave and set his seal upon the mouth.

  Geoffrey and Madeleine stood struggling to part. There was no tear inthe violet eyes of brave beauty as she looked up smiling, dwellingalways upon the future to sweeten the bitterness of the present. "Lovemust be tested," she murmured with her radiant philosophy. "Heartsmust be tried. Geoffrey, I love you."

  "Madeleine, I love you."

  She stood alone, swaying weakly, her face as pale as the moon. Thenshe laughed to drown the beating of her heart, threw out her hands, andran breathlessly up the hill where the ragged pines merely nodded, anddown into the plain towards the grove, crying to the solitude:

  "Life is glorious--glorious!"