The Sword of a Gascon

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 61, 13 March 1900, Page 6

The Sword of a Gascon

AN HISTORICAL ROMANCE

By AMEDEE ACHAED

SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS,

CHAPTER I.—The Count Gedeon Paul cle Montestruc spuanderg the last of his Valuable inheritance at the gaming table at Lectoure, leaving a young wife and his heir, who is about 10 years old, destitute.

CHAPTER ll.—While her husband was having his linal fling at the gaming table, the Countess, who' all her married life ]ia.s been practically deserted, in a scenej at the castle, learns that her lover, Count! Jean de Coiigny, is returning to Paris j tby order oi the King. CHAPTEH HI. IN THE OPEN COUNTRY. Count Uedeon ascended a magnificent stairway, traversed a succession of rooms, and in a grand salon found himself in the presence of the Duke of Mirepoix, who advanced towards liim with bare head. "Count," said the old gentleman, ■with an air of nobility, "this matutinal visit makes me suppose that it has some importance. I would like to believe that it is a question of some service which I may have the good fortune to be able to render you." "I thank you for your kindness, your highness,' answered Montestruc, "but if it is a question of myself, it is a question still more of you."

Of me?"

"You shall have the proof of it presently. Pardon me at first if I recall to you a cruel recollection. You have a daughter?" The Duke of Mirepoix grew pale, end leaning upon the back of a chair:

"I no longer have her, monsieur. It is not death which has taken her. She has given herself to God, and each day I weep over her because each day I know that she is alive and that I shall see her no more." , "I know what a blow has struck your house. I know what name the wretch bears who has committed the crime. What astonishes me is that he is still alive." "I have no son. I have pursued the man of whom you speak. I have struck him. My arm has provoked ihim. You know the history of Don Diego, count—it is mine. He has "broken my sword and has left me my life, and I have no Cid to avenge ■me." "Then, if someone said to you I will kill the Baron Saccaraux or lose my life in the attempt what would you give him?" "Whatever he might wish. This hotel, my chateau, my lands—all, all! 'A corner in which to die would suffice me, and I would be content. "All this is too much. Keep your lands and chateau. Keep the hotel and those which you have at Auch and at Condon. It is I who charge myself with killing- the Baron Saccaraux—a small tiling for me, much for you, but. I wish nothing of all this wealth. I ask your protection for a wife and a child." "My house shall be open to them, I o-ive 3 rou my word for it. The name of this woman?"

"The Countess of Montestruc, -who will be a widow this evening and without resources, and who will bring yoxi my son." The duke, surprised, fixed his eyes upon the count. "Therefroe, what is rumoured is true then?" said ha.

"Yes, your highnets : and I am ruined. The last remhantt of my fortune have disappeared this-sight in a gaming house. The sweat mounts to my forehead Avhen I think of it, but it is because I have lived- badly that I Wish to die well. Blood -washes away every stain, they say, and mine will undoubtedly flow to-day, even to the exhaustion of my veins." Duke of Mirepoix made a movement. The count stopped him with a gesture. "My resolution is taken, your word is given me, the rest no longer concerns anyone but me." "But you know where this. Baron Saccaraux is?" "I know at least where to find his track. I will follow him as a hound follows the scent of a boar, and I will certainly reach him; I swear it to you. If I should come back—we Bhall see." ■ ■ ' The Duke of Mirepoix opened his arms to his interlocutor and the count threw himself into them. They, remained embraced for a moment .then having disengaged himself Monrtestruc marched towards the door jrcith head erect. "God preserve you!" exclaimed the 'duke. ■ . When he found himself agam.m the street on horseback Montestruc felt more easy at heart. His conscience told him that he was acting like a good gentleman. As he passed before the cathedral he dismounted, and throwing the bridle to Frantz entered fceneath the porch and knelt in the shadow of a pillar. 1 "The Baron Saccaraux is a rough customer," Count Gedeon said to himself "H he kills roe I wish if possible to keep my soul out of the *i£s S S- finished he arose and mounted again. The °-ates of Lectoure crossed, the threi* cavaliers fouud themselves in the riotm try trotting along the road in the S morning Sunshine. They were gotngyin the direction where they had leen the fire the evening before. The xoad wftich they were following passed (before Montestruc, whose towers could Ibe seen behind a curtain of trees on the summit of a hill. The count slackened his\hiorse's pace, looked a long .time at the towers, at the hill where arose the heavy circle of walls, at the great tree:? all around, at the valley which opened before him and softly 'descended to the Gers, at those landscapes where his eyes had first seen (the light, at\ that sky of a deep blue iwhich had smiled on his childhood—at all those places filled with recollections—the wioods, witnesses of his first hunts, the prairies over which he gal3oped on younsr horses, the river veiled iby -willows where he extended his Jines, that golden horizon where he.

would have found happiness easily, if a demon had not urged him elsewhere. An emotion of which he was not then master took possession of his heart, i Astonished, himself, at what he experienced, he passed his hand lover his eyes. One or two tears moistened his eyelids. ■ | He did not wish to stop at the sad : ideas which assailed him, and setting spurs to his horse which acted as if about to enter the road which led to Montestrac, ;he made him gallop in the direction of Auch. ! "Do you know where the master is taking" us?" asked Frantz of Giuseppe. ! quite low. j "Xo; but be sure it is to some devil- ; try." Will en he encountered on the way some groups of peasants who were ! walking" fast the count questioned i them to know if perchance they were acquainted with the place where the Baron Saccaraux could be found. At this dreaded name some grew pale. He had been seen in the direction oi! St. Christie, where, for pure amusement, he had burned four or five houses. "It is true," said an old fellow, "that a wheel-wright of the country has come near felling him with a btow from a hammer because he maltreated (his daughter." "And what has the baron done?" "He has thrown the man into a ditch after having smashed his head, and he has carried away the daughter." "Always thei same!" murmured the count. At. St. Christie he saw the still smoking ruins of four or five huts, around which poor women and unhappy children were lamenting. No exile, n.o provisions, no bread. And the winter was'approaching! "And tihis- night I hare lost at play six thousand pistoles!" he said to himself, seized with a sentiment of indignation, against his own folly. After leaving St. Christie Count Gedeon totok his course in the direction of Ram.bert. A troop of Bohemians whom.he came across informed him that the baron and his band had gone in the direction of St. Jean, where he intended to pass the day in a hostelry, the master of which had the reputatiion of furnishing- the best roast geese to be found in tlie country. "Who has told you this?" asked the count of one who answered for her comrades. "He, himself, I have told his fortune for him." "And what was your prediction?" "That he would live a hundred years, provided he lived till the end of the week." "And what day of the week is this?" "Saturday." "Eh! eh! he may not live a long time then. And he ihas given you?" "Two cuts with a whip. Therefore, I have spat in .his direction and made the sign of the cross with the left hand." Tlhe count moved away and then came back. "And how many villains does his band contain?" he asked. "Twenty at least, and all armed to the teeth." "Hum! and we are three in all!" said he. Then straightening himself up. "Yes; but one who counts for ten, which makes twelve, and twelve whom I command against twenty. The party is equal." The count saluted the woman, and pursued his route. j Already the cathedral of Audi was visible upon its hill, when the count ; made a sign to his two companions to approach. In a wink of the eye they were at his side, ITrautz to his left, Giuseppe to his right,. "Come, my brave fellows, axe you much attached to life?" Frantz shrugged his shoulders. "At fifty years!" he exclaimed. "Why I can scarcely empty five or six flagons. I am falling- into ruin. I feel heavy when I have eaten three capons, atfd if I do not snore at dessert for eight or ten hours I have the headache. This disgusts me." "And you, Giuseppe?" "Oh, me!" said the Italian. "I am like him! What's the use of living at my age? I had a fever the other day as the result of having made thirty leagues at a gallop and without stopping." "Then it would make no difference to you if you left on the journey from which no one returns?" "Pooh! If you march, we shall foli low you. Am I not right, Frantz?" "Undoubtedly." "Then hold yourself in readiness, both. When a Montestruc points put a place where men die, he is the first to fly to it. "Therefore, we are going " said Giuseppe. "To attack the, Baron Saccaraux in the inn where he is making merry i with his rascally companions." "Who are twenty, I believe, and with him make twenty-one," said Frantz. "You recoil?" "No, I make a calculation." "We shall kill him, or he shall kill • us." The three cavaliers, leaving Audi to their right, had just entered the valley which leads to St. Jean, when the count, stopping- under a clump of trees, half despoiled of their leaves, drew his sword, and brandishing it: "Now, comrades, let us pass in review our arms. The baron must not find us unprepared!" said he. ■ Each one drew his sword and poniard from its sheath to assure himself that it played freely therein; that the point was finely sharpened and the edge also. They examined the charges in the pistols, renewing the priming, and thoroughly easy on this score set out on their march again.

They soon found themselves in, that part of the valley where the houses of St. Jean were grouped together. Women and girls, crying, were running along paths through the fields like chickens when they perceive a fox. Children, were weeping as they tried to follow them and tottering at each step. A great uproar was heard in the village. "All this proves to us that the man whom we seek has not decamped," said the count. , •He seized by the arm a good woman who was flying, carrying a bundle of clothes upon her head. She fell to her knees, believing herself dead.

"Rise up and tell me what is taking place down there." "Ah!- my dear Jesus! ifc is the devil turned loose upon the country." "Yes, the devil or the baron —it is the same tiling. And what is lie doing?" "All that which is not permitted, ray kind sir. At first the band seemed fatigued, and spoke of sleeping; the chief had ordered dinner to be prepared for them as soon as they awoke. The innkeeper put the pots on the fire, and set a great table in the court; but when they opened their eyes they were so many demons, and scarcely had they emptied some bottles when they conducted themselves like pagans,"

"All drunk, then?" "Yes." "So much the better." "What did you say? They speak of sacking- the village for amusement. 1 had come, like the others, for seeing, but at this threat I made my escape. Hold, listen to them!" In fact a great noise was heard mixed with detonations. Some loose animals came from St. Jean. The old woman started on a ran. The count took his way to the village. "Attention, my children, the ball is g-oing- to begin. ' When 1 give the signal, enter on the dance. "And what is the signal?" "Zounds! the sword high! When you see me draw, fire upon this rabble and charge!" (To be continued daily.)