He found an ancient dame in dim brocade.---TENNYSON
Madame la Duchesse de Quinet had been a great heiress and a
personal friend and favourite of Queen Jeanne d'Albret. She had
been left a widow after five years' marriage, and for forty
subsequent years had reigned despotically in her own name and that
of mon fils. Busied with the support of the Huguenot cause,
sometimes by arms, but more usually by politics, and constantly
occupied by the hereditary government of one of the lesser counties
of France, the Duke was all the better son for relinquishing to her
the home administration, as well as the education of his two
motherless boys; and their confidence and affection were perfect,
though he was almost as seldom at home as she was abroad.
At times, indeed, she had visited Queen Jeanne at Nerac; but since the
good Queen's death, she only left the great chateau of Quinet to
make a royal progress of inspection through the family towns,
castles, and estates, sometimes to winter in her beautiful
hereditary hotel at Montauban, and as at present to attend any
great assembly of the Reformed.
Very seldom was her will not law. Strong sense and judgment,
backed by the learning that Queen Marguerite of Navarre had
introduced among the companions of her daughter, had rendered her
superior to most of those with whom she came in contact: and the
Huguenot ministers, who were much more dependent on their laity
than the Catholic priesthood, for the most part treated her as not
only a devout and honourable woman, an elect lady, but as a sort of
State authority.
That she had the right-mindedness to respect and
esteem such men as Theodore Beza, Merlin, &c., who treated her with
great regard, but never cringed, had not become known to the rest.
Let her have once pronounced against poor little Esperance Gardon,
and public disgrace would be a matter of certainty.
There she sat in her wainscoted walnut cabinet, a small woman by
her inches, but stately enough to seem of majestic stature, and
with gray eyes, of inexpressible keenness, which she fixed upon the
halting, broken form of Isaac Gardon, and his grave, venerable
face, as she half rose and made a slight acknowledgment of his low
bow.
'Sit, Maitre Gardon, you are lame,' she said, with a wave of her
hand. 'I gave you the incommodity of coming to see me not openly
discuss en pleine sale.'
'Madame is considerate,' said Isaac, civilly, but with an open-eyed
look and air that at once showed her that she had not to deal with
one of the ministers who never forgot their low birth in
intercourse with her.
'I understand,' said she, coming to the point at once, 'that you
decline the proposals of Samuel Mace for your daughter-in-law. Now
I wish you to know that Mace is a very good youth, whom I have
known from his birth'--and she went on in his praise, Isaac bowing
at each pause, until she had exhausted both Mace's history and her
own beneficent intentions for him. Then he said, 'Madame is very
good, and the young man appeared to me excellent. Nevertheless,
this thing may not be. My daughter-in-law has resolved not to
marry again.'
'Nay, but this is mere folly,' said the Duchess. 'We hold not
Catholic tenets on merit in abstaining, but rather go by St. Paul's
advice that the younger widows should marry, rather than wax
wanton. And, to tell you the truth, Maitre Gardon, this daughter
of yours does seem to have set tongues in motion.'
'Not by her own fault, Madame.'
'Stay, my good friend; I never found a man--minister or lay--who
was a fair judge in these matters. You old men are no better than
the young--rather worse--because you do not distrust yourselves.
Now, I say no harm of the young woman, and I know an angel would be
abused at Montauban for not wearing sad-coloured wings; but she
needs a man's care--you are frail, you cannot live for ever--and
how is it to be with her and her child?'
'I hope to bestow them among her kindred ere I die, Madame,' said
Isaac.
'No kindred can serve a woman like a sensible husband! Besides, I
thought all perished at Paris. Listen, Isaac Gardon: I tell you
plainly that scandal is afloat. You are blamed for culpable
indifference to alleged levities--I say not that it is true--but I
see this, that unless you can bestow your daughter-in-law on a
good, honest man, able to silence the whispers of malice, there
will be measures taken that will do shame both to your own gray
hairs and to the memory of your dead son, as well as expose the
poor young woman herself. You are one who has a true tongue, Isaac
Gardon; and if you can assure me that she is a faithful, good
woman, as poor Mace thinks her, and will give her to him in
testimony thereof, then shall not a mouth open against her. If
not, in spite of all my esteem for you, the discipline of the
Reformed must take its course.'
'And for what?' said Isaac, with a grave tone, almost of reproof.
'What discipline can punish a woman for letting her infant wear a
coloured ribbon, and shielding it from a blow?'
'That is not all, Master Isaac,' said the Duchess, seriously. 'In
spite of your much-respected name, evil and censorious tongues will
have it that matters ought to be investigated; that there is some
mystery; that the young woman does not give a satisfactory account
of herself, and that the child does not resemble either her or your
son--in short, that you may be deceived by an impostor, perhaps a
Catholic spy. Mind, I say not that I credit all this, only I would
show you what reports you must guard against.'
'La pauvre petite!' said Isaac, under his breath, as if appalled;
then collecting himself, he said, 'Madame, these are well-nigh
threats. I had come hither nearly resolved to confined in you
without them.'
'Then there is a mystery?'
'Yes, Madame, but the deception is solely in the name. She is, in
very truth, a widow of a martyr of the St. Barthelemy, but that
martyr was not my son, whose wife was happy in dying with him.'
'And who, then, is she?'
'Madame la Duchesse had heard of the family of Ribaumont.'
'Ha! M. de Ribaumont! A gay comrade of King Henry II., but who had
his eyes opened to the truth by M. l'Amiral, though he lacked
courage for an open profession. Yes, the very last pageant I
beheld at court, was the wedding of his little son to the Count de
Ribaumont's daughter. It was said that the youth was one of our
victims at Paris.'
'Even so, Madame; and this poor child is the little one whom you
saw wedded to him.' And then, in answer to the Duchess's
astonished inquiry, he proceeded to relate how Eustacie had been
forced to fly from her kindred, and how he had first encountered
her at his own lurking-placed, and had accepted her as a charge
imposed on him by Providence; then explained how, at La Sablerie,
she had been recognized by a young gentleman whom she had known at
Paris, but who professed to be fleeing to England, there to study
the Protestant controversy; and how she had confided to him a
letter to her husband's mother, who was married in England, begging
her to send for her and her daughter, the latter being heiress to
certain English estates, as well as French.
'Madame,' added Gardon, 'Heaven forgive me, if I do the Youth
injustice by suspecting him, but no answer ever arrived to that
letter; and while we still expected one, a good and kindly citizen,
who I trust has long been received into glory, sent me notice that
a detachment of Monsieur's army was on its way from La Rochelle,
under command of M. de Nid de Merle, to search out this poor lady
in La Sablerie. He, good man, deemed that, were we gone, he could
make terms for the place, and we therefore quitted it. Alas!
Madame knows how it fared with the pious friend we left. Little
deeming how they would be dealt with, we took our way along the
Sables d'Olonne, where alone we could be safe, since, as Madame
knows, they are for miles impracticable for troops. But we had
another enemy there--the tide; and there was a time when we truly
deemed that the mercy granted us had been that we had fallen into
the hand of the Lord instead of the hand of cruel man. Yes,
Madame, and even for that did she give thanks, as she stood, never
even trembling, on the low sandbank, with her babe in her bosom,
and the sea creeping up on all sides. She only turned to me with a
smile, saying, 'She is asleep, she will not feel it, or know
anything till she wakes up in Paradise, and sees her father.'
Never saw I a woman, either through nature or grace, so devoid of
fear. We were rescued at last, by the mercy of Heaven, which sent
a fisherman, who bore us to his boat when benumbed with cold, and
scarce able to move. He took us to a good priest's, Colombeau of
Nissard, a man who, as Madame may know, is one of those veritable
saints who still are sustained by the truth within their Church,
and is full of charity and mercy. He asked me no questions, but
fed, warmed, sheltered us, and sped us on our way. Perhaps,
however, I was over-confident in myself, as the guardian of the
poor child, for it was Heaven's will that the cold and wet of our
night on the sands--though those tender young frames did not suffer
therefrom--should bring on an illness which has made an old man of
me. I struggled on as long as I could, hoping to attain to a safe
resting-place for her, but the winter cold completed the work; and
then, Madame--oh that I could tell you the blessing she was to me!-
-her patience, her watchfulness, her tenderness, through all the
long weeks that I lay helpless alike in mind and body at Charente.
Ah! Madame, had my own daughter lived, she could not have been
more to me than that noble lady; and her cheerful love did even
more for me than her tender care.'
'I must see her,' ejaculated the Duchesse; then added, 'But was it
this illness that hindered you from placing her in safety in
England?'
'In part, Madame; nay, I may say, wholly. We learnt that the
assembly was to take place here, and I had my poor testimony to
deliver, and to give notice of my intention to my brethren before
going to a foreign land, whence perhaps I may never return.'
'She ought to be in England,' said Madame de Quinet; 'she will
never be safe from these kinsmen in this country.'
'M. de Nid de Merle has been all the spring in Poland with the
King,' said the minister, 'and the poor lady is thought to have
perished at La Sablerie. Thus the danger has been less pressing,
but I would have taken her to England at once, if I could have made
sure of her reception, and besides---' be faltered.
'The means?' demanded the Duchess, guessing at the meaning.
'Madame is right. She had brought away some money and jewels with
her, but alas, Madame, during my illness, without my knowledge, the
dear child absolutely sold them to procure comforts for me. Nay'--
his eyes filled with tears--'she whom they blame for vanities sold
the very hair from her head to purchase unguents to ease the old
man's pains; nor did I know it for many a day after. From day to
day we can live, for our own people willingly support a pastor and
his family; and in every house my daughter has been loved,--
everywhere but in this harsh-judging town. But for the expense of
a voyage, even were we at Bordeaux or La Rochelle, we have nothing,
save by parting with the only jewels that remain to her, and those-
-those, she says, are heirlooms; and, poor child, she guards them
almost as jealously as her infant, around whom she has fastened
them beneath her clothes. She will not even as yet hear of leaving
them in pledge, to be redeemed by the family. She says they would
hardly know her without them. And truly, Madame, I scarce venture
to take her to England, ere I know what reception would await her.
Should her husband's family disown or cast her off, I could take
better care of her here than in a strange land.'
'You are right, Maitre Gardon,' said the Duchess; 'the risk might
be great. I would see this lady. She must be a rare creature.
Bear her my greetings, my friend, and pray her to do me the honour
of a visit this afternoon. Tell her I would come myself to her,
but that I understand she does not wish to attract notice.'
'Madame,' said Isaac, rising, and with a strange manner, between a
smile and a tear of earnestness, 'allow me to bespeak your goodness
for my daughter. The poor little thing is scarcely more than a
child. She is but eighteen even now, and it is not always easy to
tell whether she will be an angel of noble goodness, or, pardon me,
a half-petulant child.'
'I understand:' Madame de Quinet laughed, and she probably did
understand more than reluctant, anxious Isaac Gardon thought she
did, of his winning, gracious, yet haughty, head-strong little
charge, so humbly helpful one moment, so self-asserting and
childish the next, so dear to him, yet so unlike anything in his
experience.
'Child,' he said, as he found her in the sunny window engaged in
plaiting the deep folds of his starched ruffs, 'you have something
to forgive me.'
'Fathers do not ask their children's pardon,' said Eustacie,
brightly, but then, with sudden dismay, 'Ah! you have not said I
should go to the Moustier again.'
'No, daughter; but Madame de Quinet entreats--these are her words--
that you will do her the honour of calling on her. She would come
to you, but that she fears to attract notice to us.'
'You have told her!' exclaimed Eustacie.
'I was compelled, but I had already thought of asking your consent,
and she is a true and generous lady, with whom your secret will be
safe, and who can hush the idle tongues here. So, daughter,' he
added restlessly, 'don your hood; that ruff will serve for another
day.'
'Another day, when the morrow is Sunday, and my father's ruff is to
put to shame all the other pastors',' said Eustacie, her quick
fingers still moving. 'No, he shall not go ill-starched for any
Duchess in France. Now am I in any haste to be lectured by Madame
de Quinet, as they say she lectured the Dame de Soubrera the other
day.'
'My child, you will go; much depends on it.'
'Oh yes, I am going; only if Madame de Quinet knows who I am, she
will not expect me to hurry at her beck and call the first moment.
Here, Rayonette, my bird, my beauty, thou must have a clean cap;
ay, and these flaxen curls combed.'
'Would you take the child?'
'Would I go without Mademoiselle de Rambouillet? She is all her
mother is, and more. There, now she is a true rose-bud, ready to
perch on my arm. No, no bon pere. So great a girl is too much
for you to carry. Don't be afraid, my darling, we are not going to
a sermon, no one will beat her; oh no, and if the insolent
retainers and pert lacqueys laugh at her mother, no one will hurt
her.'
'Nay, child,' said Maitre Gardon; 'this is a well-ordered
household, where contempt and scorn are not suffered. Only, dear,
dear daughter, let me pray you to be your true self with the
Duchess.'
Eustacie shrugged her shoulders, and had mischief enough in her to
enjoy keeping her good father in some doubt and dread as he went
halting wearily by her side along the much-decorated streets that
marked the grand Gasche of Tarn and Tarascon. The Hotel de Quinet
stretched out its broad stone steps, covered with vaultings,
absolutely across the street, affording a welcome shade, and no
obstruction where wheeled carriages never came.
All was, as Maitre Isaac had said, decorum itself. A couple of
armed retainers, rigid as sentinels, waited on the steps; a grave
porter, maimed in the wars opened the great door; half a dozen -
laquais in sober though rich liveries sat on a bench in the hall,
and had somewhat the air of having been set to con a lesson. Two
of them coming respectfully forward, ushered Maitre Gardon and his
companion to an ante-room, where various gentlemen, or pastors, or
candidates--among them Samuel Mace--were awaiting a summons to the
Duchess, or merely using it as a place of assembly. A page of high
birth, but well schooled in steadiness of demeanour, went at once
to announce the arrival; and Gardon and his companion had not been
many moments in conversation with their acquaintance among the
ministers, before the grave gentleman returned, apparently from his
audience and the page, coming to Eustacie, intimated that she was
to follow him to Madame le Duchesse's presence.
He conducted her across a great tapestry-hung saloon, where twelve
or fourteen ladies of all ages--from seventy to fifteen--sat at
work: some at tapestry, some spinning, some making coarse garments
for the poor. A great throne-like chair, with a canopy over it, a
footstool, a desk and a small table before it, was vacant, and the
work--a poor child's knitted cap--laid down; but an elderly
minister, seated at a carved desk, had not discontinued reading
from a great black book, and did not even cease while the strangers
crossed the room, merely making a slight inclination with his head,
while the ladies half rose, rustled a slight reverence with their
black, gray or russet skirts, but hardly lifted their eyes.
Eustacie thought the Louvre had never been half so formidable or
impressive.
The page lifted a heavy green curtain behind the canopy, knocked at
a door, and, as it opened, Eustacie was conscious of a dignified
presence, that, in spite of her previous petulance, caused her
instinctively to bend in such a reverence as had formerly been
natural to her; but, at the same moment, a low and magnificent
curtsey was made to her, a hand was held out, a stately kiss was on
her brow, and a voice of dignified courtesy said, 'Pardon me,
Madame la Baronne, for giving you this trouble. I feared that
otherwise we could not safely meet.'
'Madame is very good. My Rayonette, make thy reverence; kiss thy
hand to the lady, my lamb.' And the little one obeyed, gazing with
her blue eyes full opened, and clinging to her mother.
'Ah! Madame la Baronne makes herself obeyed,' said Madame de
Quinet, well pleased. 'Is it then a girl?'
'Yes, Madame, I could scarcely forgive her at first; but she has
made herself all the dearer to me.'
'It is a pity,' said Madame de Quinet, 'for yours is an ancient
stem.'
'Did Madame know my parents?' asked Eustacie, drawn from her spirit
of defiance by the equality of the manner with which she was
treated.
'Scarcely,' replied the Duchess; but, with a smile, 'I had the
honour to see you married.'
'Ah, then,'--Eustacie glowed, almost smiled, though a tear was in
her eyes--'you can see how like my little one is to her father,--a
true White Ribaumont.'
The Duchess had not the most distinct recollection of the
complexion of the little bridegroom; but Rayonette's fairness was
incontestable, and the old lady complimented it so as to draw on
the young mother into confidence on the pet moonbeam appellation
which she used in dread of exciting suspicion by using the true
name of Berangere, with all the why and wherefore.
It was what the Duchess wanted. Imperious as some thought her, she
would on no account have appeared to cross-examine any one whose
essential nobleness of nature struck her as did little Eustacie's
at the first moment she saw her; and yet she had decided, before
the young woman arrived, that her own good opinion and assistance
should depend on the correspondence of Madame de Ribaumont's
history of herself with Maitre Gardon's.
Eustacie had, for a year and a half, lived with peasants; and,
indeed, since the trials of her life had really begun, she had
never been with a woman of her own station to whom she could give
confidence, or from whom she could look for sympathy. And thus a
very few inquiries and tokens of interest from the old lady drew
out the whole story, and more than once filled Madame de Quinet's
eyes with tears.
There was only one discrepancy; Eustacie could not believe that the
Abbe de Mericour had been a faithless messenger. Oh, no! either
those savage-looking sailors had played him false, or else her
bele-mere would not send for her. 'My mother-in-law never loved
me,' said Eustacie; 'I know she never did. And now she has
children by her second marriage, and no doubt would not see my
little one preferred to them. I will not be HER suppliant.'
'And what then would you do?' said Madame de Quinet, with a more
severe tone.
'Never leave my dear father,' said Eustacie, with a flash of
eagerness; 'Maitre Isaac I mean. He has been more to me than any--
any one I ever knew--save----'
'You have much cause for gratitude to him,' said Madame de Quinet.
'I honour your filial love to him. Yet, you have duties to this
little one. You have no right to keep her from her position. You
ought to write to England again. I am sure Maitre Isaac tells you
so.'
Eustacie would have pouted, but the grave, kind authority of the
manner prevented her from being childish, and she said, 'If I
wrote, it should be to my husband's grandfather, who brought him
up, designated him as his heir, and whom he loved with all his
heart. But, oh, Madame, he has one of those English names! So
dreadful! It sounds like Vol-au-vent, but it is not that
precisely.'
Madame de Quinet smiled, but she was a woman of resources. 'See,
my friend,' she said, 'the pursuivant of the consuls here has the
rolls of the herald's visitations throughout the kingdom. The
arms and name of the Baron de Ribaumont's wife will there be
entered; and from my house at Quinet you shall write, and I, too,
will write; my son shall take care that the letters be forwarded
safely, and you shall await their arrival under my protection.
That will be more fitting than running the country with an old
pastor, hein?'
'Madame, nothing shall induce me to quit him!' exclaimed Eustacie,
vehemently.
'Hear me out, child,' said the Duchess. 'He goes with us to assist
my chaplain; he is not much fitter for wandering than you, or less
so. And you, Madame, must, I fear me, still remain his daughter-
in-law in my household; or if you bore your own name and rank, this
uncle and cousin of yours might learn that you were still living;
and did they claim you---'
'Oh, Madame, rather let me be your meanest kitchen-girl!'
'To be--what do they call you?--Esperance Gardon will be quite
enough. I have various women here--widows, wives, daughters or
sufferers for the truth's sake, who either are glad of rest, or are
trained up to lead a godly life in the discipline of my household.
Among them you can live without suspicion, provided,' the old lady
added, smiling, 'you can abstain from turning the heads of our poor
young candidates.'
'Madame,' said Eustacie, gravely, 'I shall never turn any one's
head. There was only one who was obliged to love me, and happily I
am nor fair enough to win any one else.'
'Tenez, child. Is this true simplicity? Did Gardon, truly,
never tell you of poor Samuel Mace?'
Eustacie's face expressed such genuine amazement and consternation,
that the Duchess could not help touching her on the cheek, and
saying, 'Ah! simple as a pensionnaire, as we used to say when no
one else was innocent. But it is true, my dear, that to poor
Samuel we owe our meeting. I will send him off, the poor fellow,
at once to Bourge-le-Roy to preach his three sermons; and when they
had driven you a little out of his head, he shall have Mariette
there--a good girl, who will make him an excellent wife. She is
ugly enough, but it will be all the same to him just then! I will
see him, and let him know that I have reasons. He lodges in your
house, does he? Then you had better come to see me at once. So
will evil tongues best be silenced.
'But hold,' the Duchess said, smiling. 'You will think me a
foolish old woman, but is it true that you have saved the Pearls of
Ribaumont, of which good Canon Froissart tells?'
Eustacie lifted her child on her knee, untied the little gray
frock, and showed them fastened beneath, well out of sight. 'I
thought my treasures should guard one another,' she said. 'One I
sent as a token to my mother-in-law. For the rest, they are not
mine, but hers; her father lent them to me, not gave: so she wears
them thus; and anything but HER life should go rather than THEY
should.'
'Hein, a fine guardian for them!' was all the Duchess said in
answer.