The Casque's Lark Part 26

Despite her apparent resignation, my wife seemed to suffer so much under the restraint that she imposed upon herself, that for a moment I thought of requesting Victoria to transfer the commission to Captain Marion, to the end that I might remain at home. One consideration held me back from putting the thought into execution; the time was too short. Seeing that the journey had to be undertaken that same night, Captain Marion could not possibly start on the spot. It would take hours in order to post the captain upon a matter of which he knew absolutely nothing, and which demanded promptness for success. Yielding to my duty, and, I must also say, convinced of the idleness of Ellen's fears, I decided to depart. I clasped her in my arms, and recommending her to the tender care of Sampso, I mounted my horse and rode off.

It was ten o'clock at night. A rider was to serve as my escort and messenger in case I had occasion to write to Victoria on the road. The rider was chosen for me by Captain Marion, to whom I applied for a reliable man; I found him ready, waiting for me at one of the gates of Mayence, and we trotted forth together. Although the moon was not to rise until late, the night was luminous by the light of the stars. I noticed, although without attaching at the time any importance to the circ.u.mstance, that, despite the mildness of the season, my traveling companion had on a heavy coat the hood of which fell down deep over his casque, so that even in full daylight it would have been difficult for me to see the man's face. Although a simple soldier like myself, instead of riding beside me, he allowed me to ride ahead of him without exchanging a word. On any other occasion, and being like all Gauls of a chatty disposition, I would not have accepted this mark of exaggerated deference; it would have deprived me of the conversation of a companion during a long ride. But I was saddened by the condition in which I had left my wife, and as despite myself, my mind insisted upon turning upon the sad forebodings that alarmed her, the sense of sadness grew upon me in the measure that the distance separating us increased; consequently I did not regret being left to my reflections during a part of the night.

Thus, the rider following me, we traveled away from the town.

We had ridden about two hours without exchanging a word; the moon due in the sky towards midnight began to show her disk behind a hill that bounded the horizon. We had arrived at a crossing where four highways, built by the Romans, met. I slackened Tom-Bras's pace in order to ascertain the road I was to take, when suddenly my traveling companion raised his voice behind me and cried:

"Schanvoch, ride back home at full tilt--a horrible crime is being committed at this hour in your house!"

At these words I quickly turned in my saddle. By the glamour of the rising moon I could see the rider give a stupendous bound with his horse, clear the hedge that lined the road, and vanish in the shadow of the forest that we had been skirting for some time. Struck dumb with terror, I remained motionless for a moment; when, yielding to an impulse of curiosity and anguish, I thought of dashing after the rider and compelling an explanation of his words, it was too late. The moon was not yet far up enough to justify my pursuing the fugitive through the wood, which, moreover, was unknown to me. Besides, the rider had too much the lead of me. I listened intently for a moment, and I could hear in the profound stillness of the night the rapid gallop of the man's horse. He was far away. It seemed to me that he resumed the road to Mayence through the forest, consequently by a shorter route. For a moment I hesitated what to do. But recalling my wife's unaccountable forebodings and comparing them with the rider's words, I turned my horse's head and dashed back to the city.

"If," I thought to myself, "by some unconceivable accident the announcement to which I hearkened was as ill founded as Ellen's forebodings, with which, however, it strangely coincided; if my alarm turns out to be vain, I shall take a fresh horse at the camp and immediately resume my journey, which will have been delayed by three hours."

With voice and heels I urged on the rapid course of my horse Tom-Bras, and I rode headlong towards Mayence. In the measure that I approached the place where I left my wife and child, the gloomiest thoughts crowded upon me. What crime could it be that was being committed in my house?

Was it to a friend, or was it to an enemy that I owed the revelation? At times I imagined the rider's voice was not unknown to me, yet I could not remember where I had heard it before. That which, above all, added fuel to my anxiety was the mysterious accord between the announcement just made to me and the presentiments that alarmed Ellen. The rising moon aided the swiftness of my course as it lighted the road. Trees, fields, houses vanished behind me with giddy swiftness. I consumed less than an hour in covering the same route that I had just spent two hours over. At last I reached the gates of Mayence. I felt Tom-Bras trembling under me, not for want of ardor or courage, but because his strength was spent. Seeing a soldier mounting guard, I said:

"Did you see a rider enter town this night?"

"About a quarter of an hour ago," the soldier answered, "a rider wrapped in a hooded mantle went by at a gallop. He rode towards the camp."

"It is he," I said to myself, and resumed my course at the risk of seeing Tom-Bras expire under me. There could be no doubt; my traveling companion made a short cut through the forest, but why did he proceed to the camp, instead of entering the town? A few moments later I arrived before my house. I leaped down from my horse that neighed gladly as he recognized the place. I ran to the door and knocked hard. No one opened to me, but I heard m.u.f.fled cries within. Again I knocked with the handle of my sword, but in vain. The cries grew louder; I thought I heard Sampso's voice--I tried to break down the door--impossible. Suddenly the window of my wife's room was thrown open. I ran thither sword in hand.

At the instant when I arrived at the cas.e.m.e.nt, the shutters were pulled open from within. I rushed through the pa.s.sage and found myself face to face with a man. The darkness prevented me from recognizing him. He was in the act of fleeing from Ellen's room, whose heartrending cries then reached my ears. To seize the man by the throat at the moment when he put his foot upon the window sill in order to escape, to throw him back into the pitch dark room, and to strike him several times with my sword while I cried: 'Ellen, here I am!'--all this happened with the swiftness of thought. I drew my sword from the body that lay at my feet and was about to plunge it again into the carca.s.s--my rage was uncontrollable--when I felt two arms clasp me convulsively. I thought myself attacked by a second adversary and forthwith ran the other body through. The arms that had been thrown around my neck immediately loosened their hold, and at the same time I heard these words p.r.o.nounced by an expiring voice:

"Schanvoch--you have killed me--thanks, my friend--it is sweet to me to die at your hands--I would not have been able to survive my shame--"

It was Ellen's voice.

My wife had run, dumb with terror, to place herself under my protection.

It was her arms that had clasped me. I heard her fall upon the floor. I remained thunder-struck. My sword dropped from my hand; for several seconds the silence of death reigned in the room that was perfectly dark except for a beam of pale light that fell from the moon through the lattice of one of the shutters that the wind had blown to. The shutter was suddenly thrown open again from without, and by the light of the moon I saw a tall and slender woman, clad in a short red skirt and a silvery corsage, resting with her knee upon the outer window sill and leaning her head into the room say:

"Victorin, handsome Tarquin of a new Lucretia, quit the house; the night is far advanced. I saw you enter the door at midnight, the hour agreed upon, the husband being away. You shall now leave your charmer's house by the window, the pa.s.sage of lovers. You kept your promise--now I am yours. Come, my cart awaits us. Venus will protect us!"

"Victorin!" I cried horrified, believing myself the sport of a frightful nightmare. "It was he--I killed him!"

"The husband!" exclaimed Kidda, the Bohemian, leaping back. "It must be the devil that brought him back!"

And she vanished.

Immediately afterwards I heard the sound of a cart's wheels and the clinking of the bell of the mule that drew it rapidly away, while from another direction, from the quarter of the camp, I heard a distant roar that drew steadily nearer and resembled the hubbub of a tumultuous mob.

My stupor was followed by a distressful agony lighted by a faint ray of hope--perhaps Ellen was not dead. I ran to the inside chamber; it was closed from within. I knocked and called Sampso at the top of my voice.

She answered me from another room, in which she had been locked up. I set her free, crying aloud:

"I struck Ellen with my sword in the dark--the wound may not be mortal;--run for the druid Omer--"

"I shall run to him on the spot," answered Sampso without asking me any questions.

She rushed to the house door which was bolted from within. As she opened it I saw a mob of soldiers advancing over the square where my house was situated and which was close to the entrance of the camp. Several soldiers carried torches; all uttered loud and threatening cries in which the name of Victorin constantly recurred.

I recognized the veteran Douarnek at the head of the mob. He was brandishing his sword.

"Schanvoch," he cried the moment he recognized me, "the rumor has just run over the camp that a shocking crime was committed in your house!"

"And the criminal is Victorin!" cried several voices drowning mine.

"Death to the infamous fellow!"

"Death to the infamous fellow, who violated the wife of his friend!"

"Just as he violated the wife of the tavern-keeper on the Rhine, who killed herself in despair."

"The cowardly hypocrite pretended to have mended his ways!"

"To dishonor a soldier's wife! The wife of Schanvoch, who loved the debauche as if he were his own son!"

"And who, moreover, saved his life in battle!"

"Death! Death to the wretch!"

I found it impossible to dominate the furious cries with my voice; Sampso vainly sought to cross the crowd.

"For pity's sake, let me pa.s.s!" Sampso implored them. "I wish to fetch a physician druid. Ellen still breathes; her wound may not be mortal! Let me bring her help!"

Her words only served to redouble the indignation and fury of the soldiers. Instead of opening a pa.s.sage for my wife's sister, they drove her back as they crowded towards the door. A compact and enraged ma.s.s stood there brandishing their swords, shaking their fists and vociferating:

"Death! Death to Victorin!"

"He slew Schanvoch's wife after doing violence to her!"

"She has died as the tavern-keeper's wife on the Rhine!"

"Victorin!" thundered Douarnek. "You will not this time escape punishment for your crimes!"

"We shall be your executioners!"

"Death! Death to Victorin!"

"It is impossible to break through the crowd and fetch a physician for my sister--she is lost!" Sampso cried out to me wringing her hands, while I vainly strove to make myself heard by the delirious crowd.

"I shall try to get out by the window," said Sampso.

Saying this the distracted girl rushed into the mortuary chamber, and I, making superhuman efforts to prevent the infuriated soldiers from invading my house in search of the general, for whose blood they thirsted, cried out to them:

"Withdraw! Leave me alone in this house of mourning! Justice has been done! Withdraw, comrades, withdraw!"

An ever heightening tumult drowned my words. I saw Sampso issuing from your mother's room carrying you, my son, in her arms. She was sobbing aloud and said:

"Brother, there is no hope! Ellen is rigid--her heart has stopped beating--she is dead!"

"Dead! Oh, dead! Hesus, have pity upon me!" I moaned and leaned against the wall of the vestibule; I felt my strength leaving me. Suddenly, however, a thrill ran through my frame. From mouth to mouth these words began to circulate among the soldiers:

"Here is Victoria! Here comes our mother!"