La Vendee Part 8

"She has fewer cares to trouble her; but we will help each other; it will be much to me to have her with me in your absence. I know she is giving up much in returning to Clisson, and she does it solely for my sake."

"How! what is she giving up? Will she not be better in her own home than elsewhere in such times as these."

"She might choose to change her home, Charles; I had a happy, happy home, but I should not have been contented to remain there till now. I found that something more than my own old home was necessary to my happiness."

"You have made but a sad exchange, my love."

"Would I for all the world recall what I have done? Have I ever repented? Shall I ever repent? No; not though your body were brought breathless to your own hall door, would I exchange my right to mourn over it, for the lot of the happiest bride just stepping from the altar in all the pride of loveliness and rank?"

"My own true love. But tell me, what is this you mean about Marie.

Surely she is not betrothed without my knowledge."

"Betrothed! Oh, no! Nor won, nor wooed, as far as I believe; but we women, Charles, see through each other's little secrets. I think she is not indifferent to Henri Larochejaquelin; and how should she be! How few she sees from whom to choose; and if all France were before her feet, how could she make a better choice than him."

"Poor Marie, from my heart I pity her; in any other times than these, how I would have gloried to have given Henri my sister; but now, these are no times to marry, or to give in marriage. Henri has stern, hard work to do, and he is bent on doing it; ay, and he will do it. No one will carry the standard of his King further into the ranks of the republicans than Henri Larochejaquelin."

"I know one, Charles, who will, at any rate, be beside him."

"But he is so full of glorious confidence--so certain of success. He will go to battle with the a.s.sured hope of victory. I shall fight expecting nothing but defeat."

"You are melancholy, tonight, my love: something ails you beyond your dread of the coming struggle."

"Can I be other than melancholy? I have no hope."

"No hope, Charles. Oh! do not say you have no hope."

"None in this world, Victorine. The Indian widow, when she throws herself on the burning pile, with a n.o.ble courage does what she has been taught to look upon as a sacred duty, but she cannot but dread the fire which is to consume her."

"You would not liken yourself to her?"

"Through the mercy of our blessed Saviour I am not so mistaken in my creed; but I am hardly less calamitous in my fate: but it is not the prospect of my own sufferings which disturb me; I at any rate may be a.s.sured of an honourable, even an enviable death. It is my anxiety for you--for our little one--and for dear Marie, which makes my spirit sad."

"G.o.d will temper the wind to the shorn lamb," said Madame de Lescure.

"Our trials will not be harder than we can bear."

"G.o.d bless you for those words, dearest: there is comfort in them--real, true comfort. But remember them yourself Victorine; remember them when you will most want them. When great sorrow comes home to your bosom, as it will do; when affliction is heavy on you, when worldly comforts are leaving you, when enemies are around you, when the voices of cruel men are in your ears, and their cruel deeds before your eyes, then remember, my love, that G.o.d will temper the wind to the shorn lamb."

"I will, my own Charles, I will," said she, now kneeling at his feet, and burying her face in her hands upon his knees; "if I am called upon to bear these miseries, I will remember it."

"And look up, Victorine; look up, dearest. I would have you prepared for the worst. Listen to me now calmly, love, and then I need not harrow you with these thoughts again. It may be G.o.d's pleasure that I should outlive this war; but as, with His will, I am determined that I will never lay down my sword till the soldiers of the Republic are driven from the province, it is most improbable that I should do so. You must teach yourself, Victorine, to look for my death, as an event certain to occur, which any day may bring forth; and when the heavy news is brought to you, bear it as a Christian woman should bear the afflictions of this, world. I do not ask you not to weep for me, for that would be putting too violent a constraint upon your nature, but do not weep over much. Above all, Victorine, do not allow your sorrow to paralyse your actions. You will have to act then, not only for yourself, but for your child--for my daughter; and if you then give way to the violence of sorrow, who shall think and care for her?"

She laid her beautiful head upon his bosom, and wept, and promised, and prayed for him. And when he had finished what he felt he had to say, what he wished to say once, and but once, before he left her, he became more cheerful, and seemed to have more spirit for his work than he had hitherto shewn.

"And so," he said, after a while, "poor Marie is in love."

"Nay; I did not say she was in love-not in the deep depth of absolute love--but I think she is not indifferent to Henri: were she truly and earnestly in love, she would have told me so."

"Not indifferent to him, and yet not in love. Faith, Victorine, I know not the difference; but you women are such adepts in the science, that you have your degrees of comparison in it."

"Marie, then, has not yet reached the first degree, for hers is not even downright positive love; but I am sure she is fond of Henri's society; and now, poor girl, she must give it up--and probably for ever."

"As you said a while since, Victorine, how should she not like his society? I can fancy no man more fit to be the cynosure of a woman's eye than Larochejaquelin. He has that beauty which women love to look on: the bold bright eye, the open forehead, the frank, easy smile, and his face is only a faithful index to his heart; he is as frank as brave, and yet as tender-hearted as he looks to be; he is specially formed to love and to be loved."

"Poor Marie! I grieve that you brought her from Durbelliere."

"Not so, Victorine; this is the place for Marie now; indeed, dear girl, she knew that well herself. The Marquis pressed her hard to stay, and I said nothing; but Marie insisted on coming home. I thought Henri looked somewhat more sombre than is his wont, as he was leading her down the steps: but he cannot, must not, think of love now, Victorine. La Vendee now wants all his energies."

"But you would not forbid him to love her, Charles?"

"I could forbid him nothing, for I love him as Joseph loved his younger brother Benjamin."

"And he will be here now backwards and forwards, will he not?"

"Probably he will--that is as circ.u.mstances may arise--he is, at any rate, as likely to be at Clisson as Durbelliere."

"He will be more likely, Charles, take my word for it; you cannot prevent their meeting; you cannot hinder them from loving each other."

"Were the King upon his throne, it would be my greatest joy to give my sister to my friend, but now--it is the same for all of us--we must take the chance of these horrid times; and could they be taught to quench the warm feelings of their young hearts, it were well for both of them. The cold, callous disposition would escape much misery, which will weigh down to the grave the loving and the generous."

On the next morning, Madame de Lescure spoke to her sister-in-law on the same subject. She could not bring herself to look on things around her quite so darkly as her husband did. She could not think that there was no longer any hope in their once happy country for the young and the generous, the beautiful and the brave; of herself and her own lot, her thoughts were sombre enough. De Lescure had imbued her with that presentiment, which he himself felt so strongly, that he should perish in the conflict in which he was about to engage; but all would not surely be doomed to share her cup of sorrow. She loved Marie dearly, and she loved Henri, not only from what her husband so often said of him, but from what she knew of him herself; and she longed in her woman's heart that they should be happy together.

It was still March, but it was on a bright warm spring morning, that Madame de Lescure was walking with her sister-in-law in the gardens at Clisson. Marie was talking of her brother--of the part he was to take in the war--of the gallant Cathelineau, and of the events which were so quickly coming on them; but Madame de Lescure by degrees weaned her from the subject and brought her to that on which she wished to speak.

"M. Larochejaquelin will be much here as long as this fighting lasts and M. Denot: we shall have plenty of brave knights coming to and fro to lay their trophies at your feet."

"Poor M. Denot--his trophies if he gets any will be taken to Durbelliere; and I fear me, when he offers them, they will not be welcomed. Agatha loves him not; she thinks he shares his adoration too equally between her and his looking-gla.s.s."

"I do not wonder at it; no one can deny that M. Denot is attractive, but he attracts without retaining; were I ever so much in want of lovers, I could not endure M. Denot's attentions for more than one evening at the utmost; but our other knight--our other preux chevalier, sans peur et sans reproche--at whose feet will he lay his trophies, Marie? who is to wreath a crown of bay leaves for his brow?"

"His countrywomen should all unite to do it, Victorine--for he is going out to battle for them all--every village girl, whose lover is still left to walk with her on the Sabbath evening--every young wife, who can still lay her baby in her husband's arms--every mother, who still rejoices in the smile of her stalwart son; they should all unite to wreath a crown for the brow of Henri Larochejaquelin."

"And so they shall, Marie; but there will be others also, whose valour will claim a token of admiration from the grat.i.tude of their countrywomen; we will all do this for Henri and our other brave defenders; but if I know his character, the grat.i.tude of many will not make him happy without the favour of one, and she will be the lady of his love; the remembrance of whose smiles will bear him scatheless through the din of the battle."

"I should be vain, Victorine, if I pretended to misunderstand your questions," said Marie; "but why you should mix my name with that of M.

Larochejaquelin, without vanity I do not know."

"It does not offend you, Marie?"

"Offend me, dearest Victorine! how should I be offended with anything you could say?"

"But would it offend you to see Henri Larochejaquelin at your feet."

"Is there any girl in France who would have a right to be offended at seeing him there, if he came with a tale of true love?"

"You may be sure at least that Henri will never sully his lips with false vows," said Madame de Lescure.

"He has at any rate made no vows to me, Victorine, nor given me cause to suppose he ever will."

"But should he do so, Marie?"