Bois-Doré

“ But the courtly marquis also stepped back.
"It is your right," he said; "a guest like yourself should take precedence of friends; but pray appreciate the sacrifice I make to you."
"I do appreciate it fully," replied D'Alvimar, as Lauriane placed her little hand lightly on his arm; "and of all your kindnesses to me, I value this most."
"I am rejoiced to see," replied Bois-Doré, walking at Madame de Beuvre's left hand, "that you understand French gallantry as did his late majesty, our Henri, of blessed memory." ”

“ Monsieur d'Alvimar and Lucilio had been invited by the marquis to be present.
"See," continued Bois-Doré, with ingenuous pride in his own penetration, putting aside the child's coarse white shirt, "his face is sun-burned, but no more than our peasants are in harvest-time; his neck is as white as snow, and he has feet and hands so small that serf or villein never could show the like. Come, my little imp, be not ashamed; and, as I am told that you understand French, answer our questions. What is your name?"
"Mario," the child replied without hesitation. ”

“ The valets were dismissed, the doors closed, and Bois-Doré, kneeling at dear little Lauriane's feet, addressed her in these terms:
"Queen of youth and beauty, you see at your feet a loyal servant whom a most momentous event has filled with pleasure and embarrassment, with joy and grief, with hope and fear. When, two days since, I offered my heart, my name and my fortune to the most amiable of nymphs, I deemed myself unfettered by any other duty or attachment. ”

“ In heaven's name, marquis, are you hit?"
"Not a scratch," replied Bois-Doré; "but I must say that you have some vile hounds in your party, to fire on a single man before they know whether he is friend or foe!"
"You are right, and I will do justice on them instantly," rejoined the wrathful young man. "Miserable knaves, which of you fired on the best man in the realm?"
"Not I! nor I! nor I! nor I!" cried Monsieur d'Ars's four servants with one voice.
"No, no!" said the marquis, "none of these honest fellows would have done such a thing. I saw the man who fired the shot, and there he is!" ”

“ Having dressed and perfumed himself, he sought the marquis and thanked him for the interest he had shown and the care that had been taken of him. Bois-Doré could not make up his mind to accuse even inwardly a man, still so young, of a bearing so distinguished, and a countenance whose habitual melancholy seemed to him genuinely touching; but when they were seated at the supper table, Lucilio being there, as usual, to furnish music, Bois-Doré remembered their agreement, and collected what he called his siege-guns, to make a violent assault upon his guest's conscience. ”

“ Shall we force the Pas de Suse to-morrow?"
"Yes, if you are in a state of grace," she replied disdainfully; "but as there is not a man among you who is not covered with mortal sins as with blotches of leprosy, I am sorely afraid for your soft white skins!"
"Stay," said someone, "we have here a chaste and gentle stripling, an angel from heaven, Mario de Bois-Doré! Let him begin the test and question the soothsayer."
"Mario de Bois-Doré?" cried Pilar, her sparkling eyes becoming dull and lifeless. "He is here, you say? where? where? Show him to me!" ”

“ Let us have no confidants among the churchmen and bourgeois of a small town, all of whom, in this province, are very bitter against men who have opposed the League and served under the late king."
"There is much truth in what you say," replied Bois-Doré; "but it is most distasteful to me to tie a stone around a dead man's neck and toss him into the river like a dog."
"Why, monsieur," said Adamas, "that man was worth less than any dog!" ”

“ On the road, Bois-Doré furnished his young kinsman with such precise details concerning his brother's death, the recovery of his nephew, the episode of the Catalan knife, the admission extorted from the culprit by his indignation, and finally the testimony of the ring, that Guillaume could not persist in upholding his friend's honor. ”

“ As soon as he arrived there, paying no heed to the new arrivals who were crowding through the door, he glided to Bois-Doré's side, who was cooking for dear life with Madame Pignoux, saying to himself that the sooner the enemy was at table, the sooner there might be some opportunity to escape.
"Ah! here you are, my child," said the marquis in an undertone; "have they maltreated you?"
"No, no," said Mario, "the captain and I are on the best of terms. Let me help you, father. We can talk while they are not thinking about us." ”

“ Guillaume and Bois-Doré were left alone for an instant, behind the others.
"Ah! cousin," said the young man, "what an extremely unpleasant thing it is to have to conceal a man's death, as if one had reason to blush for some dastardly deed, when, on the contrary——"
"For my own part, I should prefer to have no concealment whatsoever," the marquis replied. "It was you who urged me to this deception; but if it is burdensome to you——"
"No, no! Your rector seems to have some suspicions. My D'Alvimar made a great show of piety. ”

“ D'Alvimar was nailed to the earth by the marquis's long rapier; he had ceased to live.
Adamas had swooned.
At the cry of mercy, Bois-Doré's servants had hurried to the spot. The marquis was leaning against a rock, breathless and exhausted. But he showed no weakness, and, the moon having emerged from the cloud, he stood erect again to look at the body, and stooped to touch it.
"He is quite dead!" said Guillaume in a reproachful tone. "You have killed a friend of mine, monsieur, and I am unable to congratulate you upon it; for your suspicions must be unjust." ”

“ Bois-Doré was deeply wounded, and his face became sad; it was his only way of manifesting his displeasure to his friends.
Lauriane saw that she had gone too far; for she was sincerely attached to her old neighbor, and when he ceased to laugh at her teasing, she no longer cared to laugh herself.
"No, monsieur," she said to her father, "permit your daughter to tell you that you are only jesting. ”

“ And so, monsieur le marquis, you must depend for your future security upon my loyalty alone, and I hereby offer you its guaranty."
"On what conditions, monsieur le recteur?"
"Conditions? I make no more conditions, my brother! From this day I am a recluse, withdrawn from the world. I have implored from your kindness the Abbey of Varennes."
"Oho!" said Bois-Doré, "the abbey? A simple cell was all that you wanted a moment ago."
"Will you allow so venerable an abbey to go to ruin, and entrust to boors the management of a community which is expected to set a noble example to the world?" ”

“ The marquis was much less than twenty, and his conduct was all the more glorious."
"What! he was not twenty years old?" cried De Beuvre; "can it be that I have become, all of a sudden, the older of the two?"
"One is never older than one appears," replied Lauriane, "and it is only necessary to look at the marquis——"
She paused, lacking the courage to tell a downright falsehood even to console him; but the intention was enough, for Bois-Doré was content with very little. ”

“ Let me fight With him."
"With an old man and a madman? I cannot permit it."
"Come, come, Guillaume," exclaimed Bois-Doré, impatiently, "are you ready now to let me avenge my wrongs, and must I do Monsieur d'Alvimar the honor of striking him, in order to rouse him?"
"We are at your service, monsieur," replied D'Alvimar, shrugging his shoulders. "Come, my dear fellow," he said in a low tone to Guillaume, "you see that it must be! Don't be afraid! I will soon bring this old automaton to reason, and I promise you to strike his sword out of his hand as many times as you please. ”

“ Young Robin was afterward Abbé of Sorrèze. The elder Robin was a grateful and devoted debtor of Monsieur de Bois-Doré, and we may well believe that the marquis owed it to that friendship that he was never molested for his former acts of complicity in the crime of salt-smuggling.
So Bois-Doré opened his heart to that faithful friend concerning a part of the embarrassment with which he was threatened by the prince's visit, and confessed that he was particularly disturbed concerning worthy Lucilio, whose presence in his house the hypocritical zealots of the province regarded with an evil eye. ”

“ Lucilio, fearing a struggle, had seized the knife which lay on the table. D'Alvimar saw his movement and was afraid. He threw off the marquis's hands and grasped the hilt of his sword.
"Let your mind be at rest, fear nothing in this house," said Bois-Doré, calmly. "We are not assassins!"
"Nor am I, monsieur," rejoined D'Alvimar, seemingly overcome by this dignified procedure, "and since you do not propose to disregard the laws of honor, I will attempt to justify myself."
"Justify yourself? Nonsense! ”

“ The marquis turned pale: he had maintained his tranquillity in face of danger to himself; his friend's danger terrified him.
"Do you admit it?" said the councillor, carelessly. "For my own part, I think that the poor devil was punished enough, and I wish him no other harm than what has already been inflicted on him. You can tell me everything. I will try to divert the prince's suspicions."
"Monsieur Lenet," rejoined Bois-Doré, obeying a sudden inspiration, "the man to whom you refer is not a heretic, he is an astrologer of the most marvellous learning. ”

“ Despite all these titles, Bois-Doré does not belong to the great nobility of the province, and we are related to him by marriage only. He is a simple gentleman whom the late King Henri IV. made a marquis solely through friendship, and who made a fortune, no one very well knows how, in the wars of the Béarnais. We are compelled to believe that he must have done more or less sacking and pillaging, as the custom was in those days, and as is the well recognized privilege of partisan warfare. ”

“ It seemed to him a very fine thing that Lauriane's vassals were neat and well-fed, and very amusing that Bois-Doré's were stout; but when he was told that, at Saint-Denis-de-Touhet, the peasants died like flies during the epidemics; that at Chassignoles and Magny they did not know the taste of wine and meat—hardly that of bread; and that, in the Brenne country, they ate grass, while in other even more unhappy provinces they ate one another, he would say:
"What do you expect to do about it? Everybody cannot be happy!" ”

“ You are a young man, and a society man; you saw only the courtier and the smooth talker; but we old provincials know our petty provincial tyrants, I tell you! I wish that Monsieur de Bois-Doré would tell you how that illustrious warrior effected the glorious conquest of Sancerre by falsehood and treachery!"
"Bless my soul!" said Bois-Doré, with some temper, "how do you expect me to remember such things?"
"Why should it not please you to remember them, I pray to know?" retorted De Beuvre, paying no heed to the marquis's annoyance ”

“ We stand on no ceremony with him, and we should offend him by delaying our repast to await his coming."
"Should I not," said D'Alvimar, when he had been seated at the upper end of the table, "go and present my respects to Monsieur de Bois-Doré in his apartments, before taking my place at the table?"
"No," laughed Lauriane, "you would vex him terribly by surprising him at his toilet. Do not ask us why; you will understand for yourself as soon as you see him." ”

“ We shall lose our best men, and probably gain nothing! Let us take measures to work in a useful way."
"Yes, to be sure," replied Bois-Doré, "try to keep them back. A moment more or less will not prevent my barn from burning; I care more for the lives of those good Christians than for all my crops. Call them back and calm them! I must attend first of all to this child, who causes me much anxiety."
As he spoke the marquis led Mario aside. ”

“ If I did wrong, punish me; but don't blame monsieur le comte; for, by the name of—, he's a fine little—, who pounded those—Germans like a—, and who will soon be a—, like you, master!"
"Enough, enough flattery, my good fellow," rejoined Bois-Doré, pressing the coachman's hand. "If you must teach your young master to disobey, at all events do not teach him to swear like a heathen."
"Did I disobey you, father?" said Mario; "you forbade me to attack the gypsies, but you didn't say anything about the reitres." ”

“ No matter! I see that the dear man has lost all idea of time with respect to other people as well as himself; but here he comes; I am going to stir him up a little."
Bois-Doré, being called upon by De Beuvre to explain, declared most solemnly that he had but one word, and that, having pledged his liberty and his faith to Lauriane, he considered himself her slave, unless she gave him back his promise.
"I give it back to you, dear Celadon!" cried Lauriane. ”

“ Certainly in those days it would have been impossible to find one gentleman in a thousand who would not have deemed himself possessed of the right to put to death by torture, or at least to order hanged before his eyes, a guilty wretch like D'Alvimar, and who would not have censured or ridiculed the excessively romantic sense of honor which Bois-Doré had displayed in his duel. ”

“ De Beuvre shrugged his shoulders.
"You are all very foolish," he said; "and as to you, Bois-Doré, I consider you thrice mad to have fed this poor schoolboy's brain on your absurd romances. You see the result of spoiling a child. He deems himself a man, and wishes to marry, forsooth! at an age when all he needs is the birch."
These harsh words put the finishing touch to Mario's despair; they made the marquis seriously angry. ”