Churl, upon thy eyes I throw
All the power this charm doth owe
MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
Her rival lived! The tidings could not but be communicated to
Diane de Selinville, when her father set out en grande tenue to
demand his niece from the Duke de Quinet. This, however, was not
till spring was advancing; for the pedlar had not been able to take
a direct route back to Nid-de-Merle, since his first measure had
necessarily been to escape into a province where the abstraction of
a Huguenot nobleman's despatches would be considered as a
meritorious action.
Winter weather, and the practice of his
profession likewise, delayed Ercole so much that it was nearly
Easter before he brought his certain intelligence to the Chevalier,
and to the lady an elixir of love, clear and coloured as crystal,
and infallible as an inspirer of affection.
Should she administer it, now that she knew her cousin not to be
the lawful object of affection she had so long esteemed him, but,
as he persisted in considering himself, a married man? Diane had
more scruples than she would have had a year before, for she had
not so long watched and loved one so true and conscientious as
Berenger de Ribaumont without having her perceptions elevated; but
at the same time the passion of love had become intensified, both
by long continuance and by resistance. She had attached herself,
believing him free, and her affections could not be disentangled by
learning that he was bound--rather the contrary.
Besides, there was plenty of sophistry. Her father had always
assured her of the invalidity of the marriage, without thinking it
necessary to dwell on his own arrangements for making it invalid,
so that was no reasonable ground of objection; and a lady of
Diane's period, living in the world where she had lived, would have
had no notion of objecting to her lover for a previous amour, and
as such was she bidden to rank Berenger's relations with Eutacie.
And there was the less scruple on Eutacie's account, because the
Chevalier, knowing that the Duchess had a son and two grandsons,
had conceived a great terror that she meant to give his niece to
one of them; and this would be infinitely worse, both for the
interests of the family and of their party, than even her reunion
with the young Baron. Even Narcisse, who on his return had written
to Paris a grudging consent to the experiment of his father and
sister, had allowed that the preservation of Berenger's life was
needful till Eutacie should be in their power so as to prevent such
a marriage as that!