CHAPTER XXIV
THE HALL OF THE CHEVALIERS
The report of the capture of the Black Seigneur spread from Mount totown; from rock to shore. Pilgrims repeated, peasants circulated it;many credited; a few disbelieved. Like shadows had his comrades andthe escaped prisoners vanished, leaving no trace, save one--anover-turned car and severed rope at the foot of the _poulain_, withoutthe fortifications. And flocking to that point, of greater interestnow than shrine or sanctuary, the pilgrims gazed around; down therocks; up the almost perpendicular planking to what looked like a merepigeon-hole in the side of the cliff. Then ominous grumblings escapedthem; some shook their fists at the black wall; others scoffed atdistant sounds of priestly hallelujahs. Had the soldiers that dayappeared in the town or on the beach, serious trouble would haveensued. For the time, however, they remained discreetly housed, whilesupplies for pilgrims' needs were, by the commandant's orders, socurtailed, many of the indigent multitude, urged by pinched stomachs,began, ere night, to wend their way from strand to shore. But as theyleft the vicinity of the Mount, they turned last looks of hatred towardthe rock.
His Excellency, the Governor, wasted no time considering the humor ofthe masses; their resentment, or displeasure, signified nothing; hisown complacency left little room for speculation on that score. He wasundeniably satisfied; even the escape of the prisoners and the loss ofthe soldiers at the guard-house, or in the wheel-room, was overshadowedby the single capture. This contentment, however, he kept to himself;instigated a rigorous inquiry, and prepared to punish certainoffenders. But the principal of these he could not reach; whenreleased from the iron cage, the hunchback, knowing he would be calledupon to answer for his part in the night's work, had made the best useof his short legs to place a long distance between himself and theMount.
The sentinel that allowed the Black Seigneur to pass through theentrance near the barracks; the watchman encountered on the stairway,and the soldier that had been overpowered in the stable, his Excellencycould, however, lay hands on, and promptly ordered into custody toawait his official attention. For this last culprit, thecommandant--mindful, perhaps, of bolstering his ownposition--interceded; pointing out that the man had to get the gag fromhis mouth and give the alarm; also, that the mountebank's appearanceand acting had been calculated to deceive even one of the Governor'sdiscernment. Which remark his Excellency had received withsphinx-like, and not altogether reassuring, gravity; had reserved hisverdict, and continued, after his own fashion, to collect the detailsof the affair.
This searching process should have led him almost at once to hisdaughter--a puzzling figure in the maze of events; but the Governorexhibited no haste in approaching that important witness. Only when hehad marshaled his other testimony and put it in order did the scope ofhis sifting extend to the girl. And then had his manner been strictlyjudicial: maintaining an imperturbable mask, he professed not to noticethe pallor of her face, the unnatural brightness of her glance.
"When you sent for the mountebank to come to your apartments, did youknow who he was?" the Governor had asked.
"No."
"When did you find out?"
"When you entered the room."
"Why did you not give the alarm then?"
"Because," she hesitated; her face changed, "he would have killed you,I think--if I had!"
"Was that solicitude for me the only reason?"
"Why, what other could there be?"
"What other truly? And after he left with the commandant--why did younot, then, inform me?"
"You remember you had something important, from the King, to consider!"hastily.
"More important than this?"
"He was going to be locked up," was the best reply she could make.
"And in the morning set free!"
She did not answer.
"And yet, you gave the word that enabled us to capture him at thewheel-house! How, by the way, came you there--in the wheel-house?"
"I saw him from the abbot's bridge; heard him tell the watchman he hada message to deliver at your palace, and followed."
"Again feeling solicitude for me?"
"I did not know--he would dare much; and what does it matter now?"almost wildly. "You have captured him, shut him up somewhere in someterrible, deep dungeon, where--"
"He is safe? True; that is the main consideration."
Thereafter had the subject of the Black Seigneur been dropped betweenthem; the pilgrimage over, the Mount resumed its normal aspect, butonly for a little while! One day about a week later, a bright cortegewhose appearance was in marked contrast to that of the beggarlymultitude, late visitors to the rock, came riding down the road throughthe forest to the sea; at the verge of the sands, stopped for a firstdistant impression of the rock.
"Noble monument, I salute you!" Smiling, debonair, the Marquis deBeauvillers removed his hat.
"And the noble mistress thereof?" suggested one of his train.
"She, of course!" he said, still surveying a scene different from thatfinal memory he had carried away with him. Then had the rock reareditself in all the glamour of a sunny day; now was the sky overcast,while through a sullen mist the Mount loomed like a shadow itself.
"A cold place for our gay Elise!" One or two who viewed the sight forthe first time looked disappointed; even the Marquis appeared for theinstant more sober; but immediately regained his lively demeanor.
"Wait until you have seen it at its best," he retorted carelessly, andset the pace across the sands.
Midway, where once on the sands the men of Brittany had engaged infierce conflict the ancient abbot's forces, were the new-comers met byan imposing guard; escorted with due honor through the gates, and upthe narrow street of the town.
As he climbed the winding highway, my lord, the Marquis, bestowedapproving nod and smile this way and that; it may be that he alreadyfelt a nearer affiliation with these people; for his glance, gracious,condescending in passing, was that of a man armed with the knowledgethat he, kinsman of the King, might some day be called upon to governhere. But to these advances, the townspeople responded ill, and theyoung noble's brow went delicately up, as if a little amused! _Mondieu!_ did not unfriendly eyes peer from every lurking place around theroyal palaces and pleasure grounds near Paris; and had they notencountered them all the way to the sea? People were the sameeverywhere; must be treated like bad children, and, with relays oftroops from the capital to the sea, from the strand to the Mount's hightop, one could afford to smile at their petty humors. Above all, whenone had more momentous matter for consideration! And my lord liftedhis head higher, toward a rampart, where some one had once bid him _aurevoir_, and where he might yet in fancy see a fluttering ribbon wave abright adieu!
But to-day my lady, the Princess of the Rock, was not there; waitedabove, with her father, to receive him--then--in the great Hall of theChevaliers. Until that morning she had not known of the coming of theMarquis, an impatient suitor, following the courier and the perfumedmissive acquainting her with the noble's near approach. Certainly hadshe shown surprise; but whether she was pleased or not, his Excellencycould not tell.
He was still uncertain; standing, near the raised gallery, in theancient _salle des chevaliers_, from time to time regarded herfurtively! Often had she looked from one of the round windows,commanding a view of the shore and the sands; many times turned away.At first sight of the company on the beach, the Governor had seen thegirl's face alter and noted the involuntary start she had given.Whereupon, moving toward one of the giant fireplaces, had he sought forthe sake of diplomacy and the end in view, to turn their conversationinto a channel that should have interested her; spoke of plans to bemade; preparations for festivities and merrymaking commensurate withthe circumstances. But to these suggestions of gaieties, the preludeto a stately ceremony, had she hardly listened; paused absently beforethe blazing logs; once or twice seemed about to say something andstopped.
She was silent now, a slender figure beneath that g
reat canopy of stonedesigned for the shelter of a score of knights; nervously twining andintertwining her fingers, she looked out at the shadows moving betweenthe columns, playing around the bases, or melting in the vaulting.
"They should be almost here now," observed his Excellency, againseeking to break that spell of constraint, when suddenly she stepped tohim.
"_Mon pere_," her voice sounded strained, unnatural, "it was you whowanted this marriage?"
"Yes," he had answered in some surprise; "yes."
"And I have not opposed you--the King--"
"Opposed? No! Of course not!"
"Then," more hurriedly, "must you do something in return for me! I donot want my--the wedding festivities--marred by anything unpleasant!Promise that nothing will happen to him, the Black Seigneur, untilafter--"
"Impossible!" The sudden virulence her unexpected request awoke couldnot be concealed.
"Very well!" Before the anger in his gaze, her own eyes flashed likesteel. "In that case, you can send the Marquis back! For I will notsee him--to-day, to-morrow or any time again!"
Long he looked at her; the white face; the tightly compressed lips; theeyes that would not flinch! They reminded him of another's--were ofthe same hue--so like, and yet so different! Unlike, in bespeaking awill he could not break! What he said, matters not; his face wore anashy shade. She did not answer in words; but he felt, with strangebitterness, a revulsion; she seemed almost suddenly to have becomehostile to him.
Gay voices sounded without; nearer; she walked to a door opposite theentrance their visitors were approaching. An instant, and she wouldhave passed out, when the Governor spoke.
But the Marquis, stepping quickly in a few moments later, noted nothingamiss between them. "Your Excellency!" With filial respect he greetedthe Governor. "My Lady!" Gaily, approvingly, his eye passed over her;then in that hall dedicated to chivalry, a graceful figure, he sank tohis knee; raised a small cold hand, and pressed it to his lips.