Gilles

“ Gilles had spent four days at the hostelry of 'Les Trois Rois,' and here he would have liked to remain indefinitely and to continue the sentimental romance so happily begun beneath the casement-windows of the Archiepiscopal Palace. With the light-heartedness peculiar to most soldiers of fortune, he had during those four days succeeded in putting his rôle out of his mind. ”

“ Gilles came round the walls for a second time, nosing here and there, stopping, shaking his head, limping on. Then she heard the King's voice singing, high and sharp and spiring; his glorious voice, keener than any man's, as pure as any boy's, singing with astounding gaiety, 'Al entrada del tems clar, eya!'
Gilles stopped as one struck, and gaped up at the tower. To see his stupid mouth open, Jehane's bosom heaved with pride well-nigh insufferable. Had any woman, since Mary conceived, such a lover as hers! 'Oh, Gilles, Gilles, go you on with your knife in your vest. ”

“ He seems the model of a gentleman of his time; his life being divided between the chase, war, and his adventures. He had beauty, force, riches, and occupied the highest rank among the nobility of his province. To him, nature and fortune had been blindly prodigal in their gifts.
On Gilles’s return from service in the army of France, after the murder of Joan of Arc, he retired to his château, dwelling alternately at Machecoul and Tiffauges, with an occasional visit to his Hôtel de la Suze in Nantes. ”

“ It was in vain that Gilles gave to Prelati compacts signed with his blood, pledging himself to obedience in return for the three gifts of knowledge, wealth, and power; Barron would have none of them. The demon was offended with Gilles for not keeping a promise to make some offering to him; if a small request were made it should be a trifle, such as a pullet or a dove; if something greater it must be the member of a child. Children’s bodies were not scarce where Gilles resided, and he speedily placed in a glass vessel a child’s hand, heart, eyes, and blood, and gave them to Prelati to offer. ”

“ From this on, we have to treat Gilles as a changed man, not only in his conduct, but in his character and desires. He separated from his wife, but established her in the château of Champtocé, while he installed himself with his retinue, including his magician, in the two châteaux, one at Machecoul, which he had received from his father, Guy de Laval, but62 principally at Tiffauges, which he had received from his wife. Here we have to treat of him no longer as a soldier, or as a noble of France, but in his character of magician, necromancer, debtor, robber, murderer. ”

“ In the condition of his country at that time, it was but natural that this handsome, impetuous, rich, and powerful baron should take up arms as his profession. France and England were in the midst of the Hundred Years’ War. Brittany, Gilles’s own duchy, had been since the death of John IV. engaged in a civil war over the succession. The family of Montforts (son of a younger son) had gained the victory over the Penthièvres and Blois (daughter of an elder son) . Gilles’s father and his family had fought on the side of Blois, but on his defeat they had made their peace with the victorious Duke. ”

“ Gilles responded to the first fourteen articles, admitting in succession the powers of the Bishop and of the Vice-Inquisitor, the lawful constitution of the court, and that he was a member of the Church, and that the venue, as laid, was within the jurisdiction. Being further interrogated, he, however, denied all dealings with the Evil One, all performances of magic, all attempts at sorcery, or that he had ever, either by himself or by another, sought to have communication with the Evil One, or to invoke his power in any way in order to obtain riches, power, or long life. ”

“ Amongst the personages of a lower class, the most prominent is Toussaint Gilles, landlord of the Cheval Patriote, and son of one of the revolutionary butchers of the Reign of Terror; a furious republican, who wears a carmagnole and a red cap, inherits his father's hatred of the vile aristocrats, and prides himself on his principles, and on a truculent and immeasurable mustache. ”

“ Gilles, to whom the old counts of Toulouse had a particular devotion, especially Raymond IV., who is invariably styled in history Raymond de St. Gilles. This saint was very popular, not only in France, but in England and Scotland. A large hospital for lepers was built by the queen of Henry I. outside the city of London, which has given its name to a large district of that city; and St. Giles is the patron saint of Edinburgh, where a church was built under his invocation not later then 1359. This renders his shrine a place of interest to all who speak the English tongue. ”

“ Machecoul; and 4. Craon. These families could trace their ancestry to the eleventh or twelfth centuries. Gilles’s father was a Laval or Montmorency-Laval, named Guy; his grandfather was also Guy, and many of his ancestry bore the same surname. His grandmother was a sister of the great Du Guesclin; his great-grandmother was Joan, called la Folle, or “the Crazy.”
The House of Rais in that day was represented by Joan la Sage (the Wise) , 1371–1406. Being without heirs she, in 1400, by solemn act, adopted Guy de Laval, the father of Gilles, as her heir and successor. ”

“ Gilles took his principal title from the barony of Retz or Rais, south of the Loire, on the marches of Brittany. As a youth he did nothing to justify an evil augury of his future, for he served with zeal and gallantry in the wars of Charles VI against the English and fought under Jeanne Darc at the siege of Orléans. In virtue of these services, and because of his shrewdness and skill in affairs, the King created him Marshal of France. ”

“ Moreover, the courtiers must have execrated the young man on account of his riches and luxuries; and the king, the same king who abandoned Jeanne d'Arc when he considered that she could no longer be useful to him, found an occasion to avenge himself on Gilles for the favours Gilles had done him. ”

“ This time Gilles was quite sure that she was doing her best to suppress a laugh.
'Do you think,' she said, 'that you could persuade His Magnificence to pay his respects to me unmasked?'
'Monseigneur will, I feel sure,' he rejoined stiffly, 'be honoured by the command, but——'
'But what, Messire?'
'He is strangely ill-favoured, Madame.'
'Oh! a woman is the best judge of that. Some of the ugliest men have proved most attractive.'
'But—but Monseigneur is scarred—badly scarred. He——'
'What matter? There is naught so glorious as scars on a soldier's face. ”

“ Gills looked out among the instruments in the window, to see if his nephew might be crossing the road. No. He was not among the bobbing umbrellas, and he certainly was not the newspaper boy in the oilskin cap who was slowly working his way along the piece of brass outside, writing his name over Mr. Gills’s name with his forefinger.
"If I didn’t know he was too fond of me to make a run of it, and go and enter himself aboard ship against my wishes, I should begin to be fidgetty," said Mr. Gills, tapping two or three weather glasses with his knuckles. "I really should. All in the Downs, eh! ”

“ It was English history she saw now when she went up to Oxford with Giles and Ruth, and English history was English character; whereas event, in French history, played so much more potent a part. Wandering in and out with Giles, the beauty of the town, with its significance, stole upon her mind and senses. Meditative, benign, and so humane, it seemed to smile at you like an old ecclesiastic with kindly eyes for youth. As one sat in a sun-steeped garden or dim, carved chapel, one felt its quiet like that of a tree, full of life and growth, so that, though it was old, it was also young ”

“ Behind him were two young gentlemen, one of whom held Sir Giles's horse by the bridle. My lady, of a pallor very death-like, and stumbling as she stepped down from the coach so that she was like to have fallen but for the ready support of his hands, said a few words to Sir Giles, but all in a voice so low from weakness of fatigue and the faintness of terror as no word of it to reach my ears. ”

“ Giles, Brittles, and the tinker, were recruiting themselves after the fatigues and terrors of the night, with tea and sundries, in the kitchen. Not that it was Mr. Giles’s habit to admit to too great familiarity the humbler servants, towards whom it was rather his wont to deport himself with a lofty affability, which, while it gratified, could not fail to remind them of his superior position in society. But death, fires, and burglary make all men equals ”

“ Saint Giles’s church clock, striking eleven, hums through our hand from the dilapidated door of a dark outhouse as we open it, and are stricken back by the pestilent breath that issues from within. Rogers to the front with the light, and let us look!
Ten, twenty, thirty—who can count them! Men, women, children, for the most part naked, heaped upon the floor like maggots in a cheese! Ho! In that dark corner yonder! Does anybody lie there? Me sir, Irish me, a widder, with six children. And yonder? Me sir, Irish me, with me wife and eight poor babes. ”

“ You know, Giles, that I had so many expenses with your poor father's illness and death that I have not paid the rent due last quarter-day; and you know it is in our landlord's power to turn us into the streets to-morrow.
'Well, mother,' cried Giles, bursting into tears, 'Master Charles must have the rabbit. But oh!' continued he, 'he does not love you as I do, my pretty Snowball; he will not feed and take care of you as I have done, and you will soon die, and I shall never see you again.' And his tears fell fast on the white head of his little pet as he spoke. ”

“ Giles laughed, though aware of ambiguous cross-currents. “I’m glad you find us noble.”
“She is quite right, mon ami,” André said cordially. “You are a race of adventurers. And it is as adventurous to reflect among a people indifferent to thought as it is to set forth with a bundle on your back and conquer a continent by chance. You are a people, in other words, who do not need to see your goal.”
“But you prefer your own rationality,” said Giles.
“I prefer it; yes. I distrust instinct; perhaps because in our history, as mademoiselle Alix has pointed out, we have so often been foiled by it. ”

“ I think my readers got so well acquainted last month with black Giles the poacher, that they will not expect this month to hear any great good, either of Giles himself, his wife Rachel, or any of their family. I am sorry to expose their tricks, but it is their fault, not mine. If I pretend to speak about people at all, I must tell the truth. I am sure, if folks would but turn about and mend, it would be a thousand times pleasanter to me to write their histories; for it is no comfort to tell of any body's faults. ”

“ So Gilla went to the front of the castle and stood outside at the door; but he could go no further for the crowd, and no one looked at him. At last he shouted: "This is a very hospitable feast, and you are a people of fine manners not to ask a stranger is he hungry or thirsty."
"You are right," said the king, who turned to the people and said: "Give the pot of plenty to the stranger till he eats his fill."
The people obeyed the king, and when Gilla na Grakin got hold of the pot he made for the ship, and never stopped till he was on board. ”

“ Constance implored. "Indeed there is nothing in my heart that you would disapprove, could I bare it to your eyes. Does not this day's experience throw a light upon Giles?"
"Giles! How? Why?" exclaimed her father.
"Giles is as like you as are two peas in a pod, dear Father. He does not count himself a boy any longer. He hath felt that he was dealt with for offences that he had not done. He has been wounded, angry, sore, sad—and most of all because he half worships you. The governor, Mr. Winslow, no one is to you, nor can hurt you, as you can hurt Giles. ”

“ Sitting there in the French sunlight, Giles felt again his old sense of astonishment that such computations should, so inevitably, on this soil, occur to him; that he should feel himself, with whatever moral bitterness, accepting situations that could hardly, in England, present themselves to his imagination. He felt himself immersed in madame Vervier’s milieu ”

“ Solomon Gills is in the act of seeing what time it is by the unimpeachable chronometer. The usual daily clearance has been making in the City for an hour or more; and the human tide is still rolling westward. "The streets have thinned," as Mr. Gills says, "very much." It threatens to be wet to-night. All the weather glasses in the shop are in low spirits, and the rain already shines upon the cocked hat of the wooden midshipman.
"Where’s Walter, I wonder!" said Solomon Gills, after he had carefully put up the chronometer again. "Here’s dinner been ready, half an hour, and no Walter!" ”

“ The whisper is that Mr Gills’s money has begun to turn itself, and that it is turning itself over and over pretty briskly. Certain it is that, standing at his shop-door, in his coffee-coloured suit, with his chronometer in his pocket, and his spectacles on his forehead, he don’t appear to break his heart at customers not coming, but looks very jovial and contented, though full as misty as of yore.
As to his partner, Captain Cuttle, there is a fiction of a business in the Captain’s mind which is better than any reality. ”