Chapter XLIX: Defiance

The cheers of the people still rang in the streets, where several puncheons of wine were set abroach by the master of the household; the contents of these were quaffed by the German troops, who thereafter, with great liberality, gave the loyal citizens the purple staves to suck.

In my chamber I found my valise, which in the hurry and excitement of recent events I had quite forgotten, although it contained the king's despatches to the Duc de Lavalette, and Sir John Hepburn's baton and diploma as Marechal of France. The documents I resolved to secure about my person for the future, until I could place them in the hands of those to whom they were addressed.

'How came this portmanteau here?' I asked my servant.

'An equerry of the Prince of Vaudemont found it, at an auberge near the Meurthe--the auberge of the Three Willows; and M. le Prince at once sent it here, believing it to belong to monsieur.'

'The Prince was right--I owe him many thanks.'

'He left word that he would be proud to see monsieur at his apartments, on his leaving the presence of the Duke.'

'At his apartments--is he there now?'

'Yes, monsieur--awaiting you.'

'Please to conduct me to him.'

The servant bowed to the rosettes at his knees, and preceded me along several passages all panelled with oak, and decorated in many places by stags' heads and horns, and by trophies of ancient arms and heraldic devices, amid which the winglets of Lorraine, mantled, collared and coroneted, were ever the most prominent ornament. We reached a door, before which a page was lounging on a fauteuil, and within we heard voices laughing and in animated conversation, sounds that jarred upon my ear, for my heart was sick and humbled.

I was ushered into a large apartment, the walls of which were hung with rich old tapestry, representing the loves of heathen gods, and scantily-attired goddesses; and of shepherds and shepherdesses, with crook and flageolet; but who were much more occupied with each other than with their sheep, which seemed to browse among clover composed of cabbages and sunflowers. Several suits of old armour, numerous stars of burnished weapons, and two lofty black oak cabinets, profusely carved, decorated this room, in the centre of which stood a table, whereon a luxurious luncheon was spread; and here De Vaudemont, Count Pappenheim and De Bitche, were engaged in doing every justice to the good things before them. A fourth place was vacant, as the page intimated, for me.

'Welcome, M. Blane,' exclaimed the Prince, taking me warmly by the hand, 'welcome, to our ancient home at Nanci!'

'I thank you, M. le Prince.'

'Ah, my friend, on that night, when we first crossed our swords in the Place de la Grève at Paris, who could foresee to-day, or the gratitude we owe you? How strangely things come to pass in this changing world! And on that night at Paris, you fought in defence of Marie Louise too, when she fled from Raoul d'Ische and me, for we believed her to be but a little grisette, tripping before us in the dark. You remember poor Raoul, and his favourite song,

'Vive le fils d'Harlette!
Normands,
Vive le fils d'Harlette!'

Poor Raoul; he was indeed a gallant spirit! These are my friends, M. Blane; this is M. le Comte Pappenheim--''

'The brave son of a brave father,' said I, bowing; but Pappenheim smiled disdainfully, and played with the shaggy moustache which covered his upper lip--a lip thick and coarse, like that which since the days of the Emperor Maximilian I. has been deemed fashionable, and even royal, in Austria.

'And this is the colonel of my father's petardiers, M. le Comte de Bitche, whom you have had the pleasure of meeting before--'

'And whom I have sworn to run through the heart!' I exclaimed, laying my hand on my sword, and glad to find a legitimate object on which to pour out all my long pent-up wrath and bitterness.

The Count sprang up, and was about to speak with all the fury becoming his character and the occasion; when the Prince exclaimed,

'Silence, gentlemen! The hand that dares to draw a sword in the palace of Lorraine, is forfeited to the public executioner. So be wary, I command you--be wise, and become friends.'

'Never, while I have breath!' said I.

The Count smiled with a provoking expression of contempt, and gnawed his wiry cavalier moustache. Then he reseated himself, and after exchanging sinister glances with Pappenheim, continued restlessly to pluck and stroke his thick black lansquenet beard.

'M. le Prince,' said Pappenheim, rising proudly and coldly, 'desire your servants to leave the room; I have to make a communication which they, at least, must not hear.'

'Retire, messieurs,' said the Prince, to his valet, and to two pages, who withdrew, with faces expressive of disappointment.

'Comte de Bitche, draw the arras across the doors--so, thank you. I presume there are here no panels or partitions to which the ear can be applied?'

'None; but why all this provoking precaution?' asked the Prince, with considerable hauteur, for rumours of Pappenheim's approaching marriage with Marie Louise had caused the proud Imperialist to receive an adulation, respect, and flattery from the officers and courtiers of the ducal household, somewhat galling to the young heir of Lorraine, who viewed it with mingled jealousy and mistrust; 'M. le Comte, what the devil do you mean?'

'A jealous regard, Monseigneur le Prince, for the honour of your father's house, and of your sister, Mademoiselle of Lorraine.'

'Milles barbes! what do you say, Count Pappenheim?' asked Vaudemont, changing colour, while De Bitche gave me a covert and ferocious smile.

'I mean simply _this_,' replied Pappenheim (who was the Prince's senior by nearly ten years, and a taller man by at least half a head), as he came close to him, and spoke in a hoarse German accent, with his eyes sparkling, and a face flushed by anger; 'I mean, Prince of Vaudemont, that to spare this Scotsman's life is in you an act alike unwary and unwise.'

'Parbleu! you are mad.'

'I am not mad; but I know that death alone can make a secret sure.'

'A secret?' reiterated the Prince, with an air of perplexity.

'What secret, Count of Pappenheim?' I demanded, keeping my hand still on my sword.

'I am addressing the Prince of Vaudemont,' replied the Count, with exasperating hauteur, 'not you, monsieur.'

'To the point!' said the Prince, stamping his foot.

'I mean that your sister, Mademoiselle Marie Louise of Lorraine, the intended bride of Wolfgang Count of Pappenheim, was most unworthily, most unwisely, and most indelicately, committed by the French king's mistress to this Scotsman's care, to travel with him together for many nights and days, these two hundred miles or so, through Champagne and Lorraine. You understand me now, monseigneur, I presume.'

'Peace, Count; you alone are unwise and ungenerous, to noise it thus abroad, and while in anger, too. The Scot has performed his trust honourably and faithfully, and for one feature in the affair only do I feel shame. That Marie Louise, when suddenly leaving the court of France on our quarrel with Louis, had to take refuge with the Lorrainer d'Amboise; but that woman, though the mistress of the King, is the daughter of an old and faithful adherent of our house, who fell by my father's side at Prague; and more honourable would it have been in Clara d'Ische, and in Mademoiselle my sister, to have trusted their secret to the honour of M. Blane, and made him fully aware that the disguised girl he was conducting to Nanci was the only daughter of Duke Charles IV., and not the soubrette of a licentious Parisienne, of mature age.'

'Do not add that as an additional invective, my dear Prince,' said De Bitche; 'king's mistresses are always dames of mature age--it is an historical fact.'

'They ought fully and amply to have trusted to him,' resumed the Prince, without heeding the Count.

'I would to heaven they had done so!' said I, in a half-stifled voice; 'for then much mental misery had been spared me--I had never raised my eyes or hopes so high.'

'Arthur Blane,' said the Prince, who alone had heard something of this soliloquy, 'thou art a fine fellow, and a brave one, and I love thee better every day--ay, too well to suffer Pappenheim to do thee wrong.'

'I thank you, M. le Prince.'

'And I thank you, too,' added Pappenheim, with a courtier's sneering smile; 'I thank you for the jealous care you have of your sister's honour, believing, however, it would be all the greater were you both, as you are not, the children of one mother.'

'Coarse Austrian!' began the Prince, passionately, but suddenly moderating his tone, he said, 'M. le Comte, your sneer is alike insolent and unjust, and I repel it with the scorn it merits. Mademoiselle is the daughter of a former marriage, true, and my senior by a year or more, yet do I love her as my own life, more even than my father does, for all his hopes and pride are centred upon me, as his only heir. Beware, Count, how you approach this delicate subject again, for though pliant as a willow to Marie Louise, you may find me tough as the mountain oak to her intended husband.'

'Enough, monseigneur,' replied the Count, assuming his plumed hat, and retiring with repeated bows towards the door; 'I shall not renew this subject again, but at the same time crave leave to choose my own friends, and beg to be excused sitting at table with your new Scottish ally, with whom I here proclaim I shall neither make peace nor truce.'

'Neither will I,' added De Bitche, retiring also, and from the door, hurling his leather glove at me.

'Take back your glove, De Bitche,' said the Prince, snatching it from my hand, and tossing it along the corridor; 'and on peril of your life, fight in this matter without my knowledge.'

He closed the door after nis guests, and turning towards me, said, with a ruffled air,

'My poor M. Blane; these two irritable Counts mean you mischief. I saw it in their eyes, and De Bitche has the yellow orbs of a snake. Milles barbes! I wish that you were beyond our lines, among your own people, safely out of Lorraine, and in the French camp; for these two will leave no means untried to compass your destruction!'

With this comfortable assurance, I seated myself at table; and we filled our cups with wine.