CHAPTER IV.
DESERTED!
It was, in fact, Mademoiselle Plouernel, who, coming from the manor ofMezlean, was approaching the spot of the tumult. She wore an elegantriding habit--a long skirt and closely fitting jacket of a pearl-greymaterial, trimmed with knots of ribbon of the same azure-blue color asher shoulder knot and the feathers in her broad-brimmed black felt hat.She rode with ease a palfrey white as snow, and richly caparisoned witha saddle-cloth of blue velvet trimmed in silver. An old equerry withgrey hair and dressed, like the lackey, in the Plouernel livery--green,orange and silver--accompanied Bertha. Her beautiful, yet pale anddelicate face, revealed the ravages of a protracted illness from whichshe was only recently recovered. The thinness of her cheeks imparted theappearance of abnormal size to her black and feverishly brilliant eyes.The melancholy of her physiognomy, coupled with a slight suggestion ofdespondency in her bearing, gave an irresistible charm to her person.Surprised at the cries and the clamor which she heard proceeding fromthe concourse ahead of her, from which she was still some hundred pacesdistant, she sent her equerry forward to ascertain the cause of thedisturbance. He obeyed, and, arriving near a group of weeping women, wasacquainted by them with the events that preceded. The equerry returnedto his mistress and informed her that the bailiff of the Count ofPlouernel had come to seize the teams and wagons of several peasants whowere on their way to the temple in order to celebrate a wedding; thatthe bride's father was to be arrested for poaching; and that a quarrelhad broken out between the peasants and the soldiers of the CrownRegiment who came to support the demands made by the Count's bailiff andthe usher of the fisc. Seized with pity, Mademoiselle Plouernel whippedup her palfrey, and rode at a gallop towards the very center of thecrowd, despite the humbly expressed apprehensions of her equerry.
Succumbing to the influence of the terror which they felt for thesoldiers, most of the peasants had responded but hesitantly to Tankeru'scall of "Let us disarm the red-coats!" The consequence of theirirresolution was that the three or four soldiers, who were at firstdisarmed, were able to recover their weapons, to charge upon theBretons, several of whom they wounded with their bayonets, andimmediately to disengage their sergeant. Seeing the turn affairs weretaking, Tankeru yielded to the entreaties of his daughter and friends,clambered up the bluff that bordered the road, glided through thehedges, and took flight across-field. He was out of danger.
The bailiff and the usher, on their part, had, since the start of themelee, endeavored to escape. They were in full flight when theyencountered Mademoiselle Plouernel as she arrived at a gallop on herpalfrey, which she immediately reined in upon recognizing them by theirblack habit and short cloak.
"Bailiff!" cried Bertha, warmly, "I order you, in the name of the Countof Plouernel, my brother, to renounce the seizure which you haveeffected. I order you to set at liberty the poacher whom you arrested!"
Aware of the recent arrival of Mademoiselle Plouernel at the manor ofMezlean, and seeing her accompanied by an equerry in the Count's livery,the bailiff did not question the young lady's identity. Respectfullybowing before her he answered:
"Mademoiselle's orders shall be executed."
"And you are the usher?" added Mademoiselle Plouernel, addressing theman of the fisc. "You also are to make a seizure against a poor familyof peasants?"
"Yes, mademoiselle--"
"You shall relinquish your pursuit. How much is due you?"
"_Item_, three francs; _item_, sixty-seven francs; _item_, seven francs,eight sous and six deniers; _item_, two hundred--I can state each itemwith costs and accessories."
"Enough! Du Buisson, pay this man," said Bertha to her equerry, passingto him a purse which she took from her pocket.
And turning again to the usher:
"Having received the money, you shall discontinue your pursuit of thesepeople."
"Certainly, mademoiselle, and I shall immediately notify the sergeantwho is charged to exercise the military constraint that I no longer needhis services, and that he can return to his quarters with his soldiers."
Judging Mademoiselle Plouernel's generous nature by these firstevidences, and anxious to ingratiate himself with his master's sister byseeming also to take an interest in the peasants, the bailiff put in:
"I feel bound to inform mademoiselle, in all justice, the vassals ofmonseigneur are not wholly to blame in the matter of the scuffle withthe soldiers of the Crown Regiment. The reason of the trouble was ajoviality of the sergeant's, who wished forcibly to embrace the bride.His joviality was altogether foreign to his office."
"Oh! These men of war--they always take themselves to be in a conqueredcountry," observed Mademoiselle Plouernel bitterly.
And addressing the bailiff:
"Go and fetch me the sergeant--I wish to speak to him;--instantly!"
The bailiff departed to execute the order. A group of women andchildren, witnesses of the scene, and as touched as they were surprisedby the generosity of Mademoiselle Plouernel--alas! the seigneurs andtheir families usually showed themselves harsh and contemptful towardsthe poor--showered blessings upon the young lady; they surrounded herhorse; and, in the effusiveness of their gratitude, asked her the favorof allowing them to kiss her hands. Moved to tears by the attitude ofthe good people, Bertha answered them by pointing to the little girlwho had performed the role of the "eglantine bud" at the nuptialceremonies, and saying:
"Bring yonder little girl to me."
And leaning forward on her saddle and stretching out her arms to receivethe child, she added:
"In embracing this child, I am embracing you all, my dear women."
The radiant mother raised her little girl up in her hands. Bertha tookher, placed her on her pommel, and tenderly kissed the child's rosycheeks. Charmed by these caresses, the child threw her arms around theneck of Mademoiselle Plouernel, who responded to the affectionatefamiliarity by embracing the child again, and again.
Bertha then turned to her equerry:
"Is there any money left in my purse?"
"Yes, mademoiselle, there are seven louis left."
Bertha took the purse, and putting it in the hands of the little girl,said: "Take this, dear child; the gift will alleviate the misery of yourparents. Give them this purse."
Giving the child a parting kiss, Mademoiselle Plouernel returned her toher mother, who, breaking into tears, knelt down upon the ground, andclasping her hands, cried:
"Oh, our demoiselle! Blessings upon you! We shall ever love you!"
"Yes, yes; blessings upon you, our demoiselle! We shall ever love you!Blessings upon you!" repeated and re-echoed a large number of women,their voices tremulous with admiration at the scene they had justwitnessed.
Little by little, and from mouth to mouth, the report of MademoisellePlouernel's magnanimity, and the charitable orders that she issued tothe bailiff, spread among the peasants. Many of these, having joinedtheir wives and children, stood in a circle around the young lady as thebailiff returned, followed by Sergeant La Montagne, who was pale withrage. The man's insolent brutality did not seem to be ready to bendbefore the rank of Mademoiselle Plouernel. No sooner had he arrived inher presence than he ejaculated:
"By God's death, mademoiselle, I am neither a bailiff nor an usher! I ama sergeant in the Crown Regiment. I receive orders from my colonel only.Several of the rustics have dared to lay hands upon me, and to disarmme! They are now in the hands of my soldiers, who will take them toVannes. If you love pretty sights, mademoiselle, I shall afford you thepleasure of seeing the brigands hang by the neck. It is the will ofSergeant La Montagne that those rustics be hanged!"
Among the "brigands" whom the sergeant destined for the gallows, andwhom his soldiers held prisoner a little distance from whereMademoiselle Plouernel was looking down from her horse upon La Montagne,but too far away to be seen by her, were Nominoe, Salaun and Madok themiller. Shocked at the swash-buckler's words, the young lady sat uperect in her saddle, haughty, angry, threatening, and her eyes sparklingwith so m
uch indignation that, despite his brazenness, the sergeantlowered his gaze.
"Listen well to me," said Mademoiselle Plouernel incisively. "Yourcolonel, the Marquis of Chateauvieux, is now stopping at the Castle ofPlouernel, with my brother. Your colonel is a man of honor. He will nottolerate the insulting of women by his soldiers, as you had theimpudence to do a short time ago."
"Mademoiselle," stammered the sergeant upon learning that his colonelwas the guest of Mademoiselle Plouernel's brother, "I was only jokingwith the peasant girl."
"You lie!" replied Mademoiselle Plouernel with severity. "You profitedby the fear that your soldiers inspire in these good people to outragethe bride of this wedding. Remember this well--I shall send this veryday one of my men to the Castle of Plouernel with a letter to yourcolonel; I shall inform him of your unworthy conduct, and shall requesthim to punish the same as it deserves to be. He will not deny me thatsatisfaction."
"Oh! Mademoiselle will surely not seek to bring misfortune upon the headof an old soldier!" pleaded the sergeant, frightened at the threat."These rustics tried to disarm me!"
"They were in the right to avenge the outrage! Set them free--repairyour fault. Only upon that condition shall I consent not to demand yourpunishment at the hands of the Marquis of Chateauvieux."
La Montagne bit his moustache with repressed rage. It wounded his prideand his covetousness to free the prisoners who had disarmed him, andfrom whom he reckoned upon a ransom, before having them hanged.Moreover, he knew from a thousand precedents that he had nothing to fearfrom his colonel, who was utterly indifferent, as so many otherseigneurs, heads of regiments, to the acts of violence committed bytheir soldiers upon bourgeois and peasants. But the sergeant also knewthat the Marquis of Chateauvieux was a great gallant. It was impossiblethat he should refuse to punish an inferior officer if requested to doso by so beautiful a woman and one of such high rank as MademoisellePlouernel. These reflections caused the sergeant to raise his hat, and,bowing respectfully before Bertha, he said:
"I shall obey the orders of mademoiselle. I shall liberate thepeasants."
The sergeant again bowed respectfully before Mademoiselle Plouernel, andsaid to himself in an undertone:
"Breton brigands! You are about to triumph over my humiliation--butpatience! I shall yet be revenged! Each one shall have his turn."
La Montagne returned to the detachment which held Salaun, his son andMadok the miller prisoners, along with several others. When the scufflewith the soldiers began, Nominoe jumped off his horse, and leaving Tinain charge of his uncle, had disarmed one of the soldiers. Afterwards,seeing the struggle ended, he took his father's advice, and allowedhimself to be pinioned. A short while after, the name of MademoisellePlouernel and the benedictions showered upon her by the peasants reachedhis ears. Nominoe grew pale; he rose on the tips of his toes and sawBertha at a distance on horseback. His eyes filled with tears--soon hishead drooped, and growing ever paler he stood as one petrified. Fromthis spell he was awakened by the voice of a soldier, who said to him:
"I am going to untie you--you are free--go to the devil!"
"God be praised! You are given back to us!" murmured Tina, hardly ableto restrain her joy and stepping toward her husband. "Oh! I feel reborn!A minute ago I thought I would die!"
"My son, mount your horse, take your wife on the crupper, and let usdepart! We have escaped a double danger," said Salaun, who was just setfree, and who led by the bridle both his own mount and Nominoe's. ButNominoe, instead of obeying his father, fixed upon Tina a look of utterdistress, and cried in heartrending accents:
"Adieu! Adieu to you all! Never will you see me again!"
With these words Nominoe leaped upon his horse with a bound, turned itshead in the opposite direction, and, belaboring its flanks with hisspurs, dashed up the bank at a gallop. He cleared the hedge, reached theskirt of the forest of Mezlean with mad rapidity, and disappeared withinthe wood.