The Plowshare and the Sword Part 19

"I can smell the pines," she gasped, "and the salt sea, and the mountains. I can hear the roaring of water and see the soaring of eagles. Oh, oh!" she panted. "It is glorious to live!"

She cried as she drew him away impetuously:

"The black priest has gone. Let us hope that he has been blown away into a swamp, where the fairies shall bewitch him into a frog to croak at the world for ever. Come now away. Tell me whether you had dreams in the night. But stay!"

She drew away from him suddenly.

"Madeleine!" he exclaimed, wondering at her changed face.

"I must remove this mask," she cried in a stately fashion, frowning and placing her hands upon her sides. "Sir, who are you that you should strive to win the heart of Madeleine Labroquerie? Why, I have sworn to wed a knight, a man of t.i.tle and estate, and you, a smooth-faced boy, with long hair and cheeks as pink as mine, you come and speak to me of love. Sir, how dare you thus to use an innocent maid?"

She pa.s.sed on ahead of her astonished lover and the trees of the grove closed round them.

"Madeleine----" he began, protesting.

"Madeleine," she imitated. "Here is free-speech indeed. Now, sir, stand and let me show you what you are. You are an Englishman, an adventurer, one of a small band who think themselves strong enough to attack the power of France in this new land, and you, the enemy of my people, come to me with a tale of love, believing me to be a maid of the wilds to be won and cast aside at will. Speak not to me. I will not hear you. I am no simple provincial maid that I should fall in love with a soldier's handsome face. Last night, yes, last night, after an acquaintance of but three days, you dared to own your love, and to humour you--in truth I was afraid--I confessed that I also loved you. I, a French girl, such a traitress as to love an enemy of my people! I was but fooling you. How I laughed to myself at deceiving you so readily."

She laughed disdainfully and curled her lovely lip.

"I fear I have already tarried here too long," was all that Geoffrey could say.

"Stay one moment," cried the haughty beauty. "I should be base did I not warn you. Soldiers are waiting for you upon every side. East, west, north, and south they lie in wait for you."

"There are no soldiers nearer than the fortress," said Geoffrey wildly.

"You may believe so," replied the traitress. "But you have learnt little of this country if you do not know that military posts are set about from place to place. One such post is near at hand, and thither I sent our servant after your coming. Can you not perceive that I have betrayed you?"

Had Geoffrey looked he might have seen her shiver as she spoke.

"I thank you for your warning, but I may stay no longer," the young man said, and he stepped away with his head down.

"Which way do you take?" she demanded.

"I am southward bound."

"You are--brave, friend."

"Friend!" he exclaimed, with a sobbing note of indignation. "Would you have me trust in you again?"

"I had forgot," she admitted. "Are you going now?"

He moved on through the grove; but he had not made a dozen steps before she called to him.

"Have you, then, no word of farewell?"

He turned, but did not look at her as he said: "May you live to fortune and a happy future."

"You said you loved me," said Madeleine, her figure drooping. "Why did you deceive me?"

"I loved you," he said hotly, moving back a step. "And I love you still. When I first saw you standing by the fire with the sun falling on your head I loved you. When I have left you I shall see, not the girl who desired to betray me, but her who gave me this to hold for my protection while I slept."

He drew forth a long coil of golden-brown hair and held it in the wind.

"You cut it off," she faltered. Then her manner changed again. "Throw it down. Stamp upon it. Tread it into the ground."

"I use it," he said, "as I longed to use you." And he put the lock back into his bosom.

At that she ran forward with the cry: "You love me. Take me there, Geoffrey. That is my place. I will not be held out. Geoffrey, I love you. Oh, blind, blind! I love you with all my heart and soul."

She tried to force herself into his arms, warm, loving, and irresistible.

"I am the wickedest of liars," she breathed, twisting her fingers within his. "I would not have gone so far, but I thought that you knew. I thought that you feigned to hate me in return for my cruelty.

Ah, Geoffrey, I loved you when first our eyes met. I did so desire your love, but, sweetheart--foolish, credulous--I--I feared you might think I was won too easily. Will you value your prize the more, when I tell you that my treachery, the story of the soldiers, the settlement?--Oh, oh!"

He guessed what she would have said, and so had seized her.

"Betray you, blind love!" she whispered. "Dear foolish sweetheart, I would open my veins and give my blood for you. How I tortured you!

Knowing what a cruel nature your love possesses, knowing it, can you still love her?"

"Madeleine----"

"Stop," she entreated, lifting her violet eyes. "Repeat that name a hundred times, and find for it a new attribute of love each time. But let the first be false and the second fair."

"Sweet Madeleine!"

"Call me so, Geoffrey," she murmured. "And I shall not wish to change."

There was a hill beyond, its sides covered with bleached gra.s.s, and above a few gaunt pines beating their ragged heads together and stabbing one upon the other with jagged arms where limbs had been amputated by previous storms. To this place Madeleine led her lover.

It was a strange day. Though long past sunrise there was barely light.

The clouds swept low, grey or indigo ma.s.ses rushing south with the speed of rapids. The dark, solid wind of the lowlands came in a furious succession of great waves. The lovers might have been upon an island with the ocean roaring round in storm. Out of the gloom the wet rocks glimmered and the trunks of long-fallen trees described weird shapes upon the plain.

"This is life!" cried Madeleine. "Glorious life!"

Geoffrey held her closely, looking down upon her wet and radiant face.

"We can fight together, you and I," she went on. "No wind shall conquer while we hold together. It may roar at us, but we are young and strong, and the wind is old and worn. Think you that you can bear with me always? I promise you I will never use deceit again. We shall be together when the winds have all pa.s.sed under heaven, and the trees are gone, and the seas have dried. Our souls will live in the same life and the same love. Together while the old world crumbles, and the sun becomes cold, and the moon fades. There is no death. We shall close our eyes one day and change our home. Life will run on for us, the same magnificent life of love."

"There is no death," he repeated, as though the idea had not occurred to him before.

"How many thousand years has this wind rushed upon this hill? How many thousand shall it beat after we have changed our home? We are made to live, Geoffrey. It is not we who are sick, not we who are oppressed.

We are made of stuff that does not perish, not flesh and blood which wither, but breath and love. Kiss me, Geoffrey, kiss me with your soul."

"Sweet, you have more knowledge than I," cried Geoffrey as he kissed her eyes.

"See that huge cloud! How the monster wishes to smother us! There it rushes, flinging its rain to spite us."

"I shall see this wild spot for ever," he murmured.