The Sword of a Gascon

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 73, 27 March 1900, Page 6

The Sword of a Gascon

By AMEDEE ACHAKD.

•({AN HISTORICAL BOMANGE.

CHAPTER XIII. A KISS IN THE DARK,

Hugues meanwhile did not wish, to fail in the promise which he had made to himself. The little altercation which he had juad with Count Chivry engaged him besides to keep it the soonest possible whatever might happen. Then the thing decided upon, why wait. Unfortunately the day was prolonged in divers amusements^ and not once had he found himself alone with Orphise. "My faith," said he to himself, "let it be tete-a-tete or publicly, the sun shall not rise to-morrow before she knows what Ithink."

This determination had thrown Hu-g-ues into a particular disposition of mind. Leaving scattered in the gardens the company with which he had mingled, he went at twilight to an out-of-the-way part of the chateau, where there was a chapel surrounded by an inclosure filled with green trees. The door was open; he entered. The chapel was empty. The widows flamed and bathed the heavy pillars and the columns with keen lights in which gold, purple 'and azure were mixed in one radiation. A great silence enveloped everything. Hugnes sat down in a dark corner. He questioned himself as if he had been in the presence of his mother, and sounded his conscience ■at the same time as his heart. He found in his conscience the immutable resolution of pushing on to the end, and in his heart the resplendent image f* Orphise. Kaising his eyes, lie perceived in. a window a radiant figure, surrounded with golden nimbus, which had a vague resemblance to that of wihich te had just evoked the thought. All enveloped with light, and in the dazzling reflection of the setting sun, with open arms, it seemed to gaze upon him.

With, his eyes fixed upon this radiant image, in the transport of his ecstasy: "Well, yes!" he exclaimed, "I make you the gift of my love, and I swear to consecrate my life to conquering you!"

When he went out from the chapel eveningl had come, the window was no longer lit up. Hugues entered the cloister, strolled along the arcades already filled with shadows, and penetrated an isolated gallery, which put ihim in communication with the chateau.

He was slowly advancing1 in this obscurity when it seemed to him that an uncertain form walked not fa,r from Mm, as if suddenly the wall had opened to deliver its passage. A vague sound, the rustling of a dress sweeping- the floor, suddenly caressed !his ear; he stopped, the noise seemed to draw near, and all at once, the repiration suspended, he felt upon, his face the passing- of a burning- breath, and in that breath a kiss sought his lips. Distracted, ihe extended .his arms, but already the invisible phantom had disappeared in the night, and ■while his hands were frying to seize its uncertain form, a.door opened in the centre of the gallery, and in the clear frame of this door he saw yanash the silhouette of a woman before even his eager locke «Duld divine its contour.

Hugues rushed forward, but his hands encountered ttte rough stone of a wall.

Hugues, who still felt upon his lips the impress of that rapid kiss ■which the ardent breath of a soul seemed to have exhaled itself, asked himself if •he had not been the plaything of a vision, but the pulsations of his heart answered him. Who, then, was concealed under the vague appearance of this phantom glimpse for a moment. Why this apparition? vVhy this flight? [Where would he find again the woman perceived for an instant, and ; v7ould he be able, to recognise her? When he arrived at the cha.teau, all the brilliant guests were congregated /there. An extraordinary profusion of lights was diffused from- the ceiling and made glitter the velvet coats and the satin dresses.

In spite of the bewilderment which caused him this sudden passage from the thick shadows of the galleries to the keen splendour of the chandliers, Hugues, at the first glance, perceived Orphise and the Princess Mauriani side by side.

"And come then," cried the princess to him in her musical voice, "you are the only one we were waiting for!'* "Were you perchance lost in pursuit of some wicked faary," Orphise asked him, fanning herself coquettishly.

Hugues looked at her in a penetrating fashion. "No, no, her face could not lie! . ,It is not she; but who Jhen," said Hugues to himself. "Could it be the princess ?"

The princess was smiling at Loudeac, and toying with a bouquet whose leaves she was stripping. Count Chivry approached the Gascon, while they were finishing the preparations for the play of ringl, and drawing him from his revery: "Is it an exercise which is practised an the country from which you come?" said he to him*.

"No, but it does not appear to me "that it is impossible to at once become proficient at it."

"Does it please you to try?' "Willing-ly." •

Hugues had his horse brought, and eight or ten cavaliers haying gathered together at one of the extremities of the inclosure, each one in his .turn rode forward.

On seeingl the rings carried away on the ends of the lances, Orphise clapped her hands. "I wish," said she, "to award a prize to the first among you, gentlemen, who shall deposit ten rings at my feet." "Zounds!" said Hugues to himself, who had recovered all his presence of

mind, "here is the desired occasion —never shall I find a better one."

And he rode forward at headlong speed, letting glide each time along the staff the rings which lie ran through with the fine point of his arm.

A quarter of an hour after he had threaded ten rings.

"You see," said he to Count Chivry who had only carried away eight, "that it is not more difficult than that."

Leaping then upon the sand of the arena, he advanced toward Orphise, and, bending- his knee before her, deposited the rings at her feet.

"And what do you claim from me for your triumph, count?" said Orphise coquettishly. "The right, niadame, to consecrate to j'OU my life, mv blood and my love."

The voice, the gesture, the accent, the look gave to these few words a value which separated them from the triteness of gallant formulas; it was impossible to misapprehend them. Orphise became purple, the princess grew pale; there was a slight whispering around them. "Is it a piece of sport, sir?" exclaimed Caesar, whom anger tormented.

Eising up then, but without answering him, and addressing himself to Orphise, with a mixture of respect and pride:

"I am of a race which is accustomed to say precisely what they think; it is that which engages me to speak to you as I do, inadame. 1 will add that this love dates from the moment I saw you."

"It has existed for two or three days, then?" said Caesar. ".Two or three days in fact, madaine, -as your cousin, Count Chivry ( says; but it will endure till my last breath. 1'

, -"What do you say to this language, gentlemen?" exclaimed Count Chivry, addressing himself to the circle who surrounded him; "it is evident thai Count Montestruc comes from quite a distance."

This time Hugues spoke in a louder tone.

"This language is that of a good gentleman, sir," said he with a look of fire, "and from whatever distance he may come, this gentleman defies on foot and on horseback, with dagger and with sword, whoever crosses his path "

Count Chivry made a step; Orphise stopped him with a gesture. "The count has my word," said she; "I shall keep it."

She let her glance wander around the assembly ' which thronged about her. Then, with a mixture of coquetry and dignity: "Have you not claimed, count, the right to consecrate to me your life, and to prove to me your love by your devotion?"

"Yes, and if I do not succeed, at the price of the most constant efforts, to make of you Countess of Montestruc, my wife, I shall sacrifice my life in the attempt." While he was speaking, the princess 'crushed-with-a nervous hand the flowers of her bouquet and scattered i around her the fragments. Caesar !had become frightfully pale. He was astonished that a man who permitted himself such an excess of audacity in his presence was still erect; and he was about to burst forth, when Lo.ideac,-. who-had-succeeded in stepping1, to his side, whispered in his ear: "If you do not give way, take care," he murmured; "she will break with you." _ •"I adjourn you, my cousin, ana Count Montestruc for three years; I am eighteen, when I am twenty-one, you will return, and if you are still desirous of the hand of a person who esteems herself at such a high price, well, gentlemen, I shall see." A thunderbolt bursting at his feet would not have produced on Count Chivry a more terrible effect than this declaration. Made before the Madame d'Ureelles, who had almost the authority of a guardian, since she alone represented the family of Mademoiselle Orphise Montlucon, made before twenty witnesses, it had the value of an engagement. A fantasy of Orphise transformed into a serious thing what ought to be in her thought only the caprice of an evening! "Do you accept?" said Orphise, suddenly looking at Hugues. "I accept," answered Hugues, grave-

lyAll eyes were turned toward Count Chivry. His colour .was that of a corpse. He did not mistake the violence of the blow which had struck him. Adjourned to three years, he who the evening before still flattered himself On winning her, and this for a cavalier whom Orphise scarcely knew! But if from the first day he encountered such obstacles, what would it be in a month, in a year? His hand nervously clasped Ihe guard of his sword, he bit his lips. The gravity of the situation was made evident by his very silence. Each one of the auditors held his breath.

"You make me wait, I believe?" said Orphise, in a clear voice. Caesar trembled. It was necessary to decide, and to decide promptly. "I also accept, madame," he finally said.

A sigh of relief raised Orphise's breast.

"Amadis of Gaul would not have done better," said d'Ureelles.

Caesar was not listening to her, but looking at his cousin moving away in the company of his rival. Left alone with his confidante, Count Chivry, livid and mad with rage, stamped and gave vent to his anger: "Snared! tricked! and by whom? By an insignificant adventurer from Gascony.".

"Did I not tell you that he was more redoubtable than you supposed!" cried Loudeac

■ "But ii is your fault also! Had it not been for the words which you murmured in my ear, we would have fought, and this evening he would be dead!"

"Some one would have been dead, I am certain. The question is to know which had been killed, he or you?" "Oh!" said Caesar, shrugging his shoulders.

"Do not be too confident! ''"herehas come to me from Annas-;;:. ■ ;i certain history which leads <> believe that Count Montestrv . -ipable of measuring himself v " v most skilful. Besides there ' i>ie time before you to take up tv f'nir again." toudeac passed his n i under that of Count Chivry, and in an insinuating voice:

"My friend," said lie, "do not listen to the counsels of anger; it rarely gives good ones. It does not pay to stake everything upon one throw of dice. What will you have accomplished when you shall have received through the body five or six inches of iron which will lay you up for five or Six months, if it does not send you to

meditate in the other world upon the instability of things human! Learn to have recourse to open force, for disembarrassing yourself of an enemy, only when you have exhausted all the means wlv h cunning can furnish. Do not expos •■ yourself in person except at the la.it hour, but then do it resolutely, and pounce upon yonr adversary like a tiger upon its prey." "Well," replied Caesar, "1 shall forget, for some time, that Alexander has cut the gordian knot with his sword, and I shall let mine sleep in its scabbard; but as true as my name jis the Count Chivry, I shall kill this I Montestruc or he me."

(To be continued.)