Part 62 (2/2)

And during the ceremony Friar Gilles of the order of the Carmelites stood up more reverently than any, for now, seeing that no better might be, he had definitely renounced Barran-Sathanas and cast in his lot with G.o.d Almighty.

”The sentence of this court is that you, Gilles de Laval, Lord of Retz, Marshal of France, and you, Poitou and Henriet, be carried to the meadow of La Biesse at nine of the clock on the morning of to-morrow, and that you be there hanged and burned till you be dead.

And to G.o.d the Just One be the glory!”

The voice of Pierre de l'Hopital rang out through the silence of the hall of judgment.

”Amen!” said Friar Gilles, devoutly crossing himself.

And so in due course on the meadow of La Biesse, by the side of the blue Loire, the evil soul of Gilles de Retz went to its own place with all the paraphernalia of repentance and in the full odour of a somewhat hectic sanct.i.ty.

The day after the burning, a little company of riders left the city of Angers, journeying westward along the Loire. It consisted of the maidens Margaret Douglas and Maud Lindesay, with Sholto MacKim and a dozen hors.e.m.e.n belonging to his Grace of Brittany. It had been arranged that they were to be joined, upon an eminence above the river on the right bank, by the Lord James, Malise, and Laurence, with the escort which was to accompany them to the port of Saint Nazaire. There (as was necessary in order to escape the troublesome navigation of the swift and treacherous upper reaches) they would find vessels ready to set sail for Scotland.

As the little cloud of riders left behind them the black towers of Angers, they pa.s.sed through woodland glades wherein, in spite of the lateness of the season, the birds were singing. The air was mild and delightsome. At last, leaving the river, they struck away inland, having the frowning towers of Champtoce on their left as they rode.

Presently they came to a forest, wherein in days before the great cruelty, Gilles de Retz had often hunted the wolf and the wild boar.

Here the woodland paths were covered deep with fallen leaves, and the naked branches spoke of the desolation of a dead year.

As the maids rode forward first of their company and talked, as was natural, of that which had taken place the day before at Nantes, they became aware of the Lady Sybilla riding towards them on her palfrey of white. She would have pa.s.sed them without speech, with her head downcast and her eyes fixed upon the dank ground with its covering drift of dead autumnal leaves.

But Margaret, grateful for that which the Lady Sybilla had done for them at Machecoul, spurred her steed and rode thwartwise to intercept her.

”Sybilla,” she said, ”you will come with us to Scotland. I have many castles there, and, they tell me, a princessdom of mine own. We shall all be happy together and forget these ill times. Maud and I can never repay that which you have done for us.”

”Yes, I pray you come with us,” said Maud, a little more slowly, ”we will be your sisters, and the ill times shall not come again.”

The Lady Sybilla smiled a sad subtle smile and shook her head.

”I thank you. I thank you more than you know. It eases my heart that you should forgive a woman such as I for all the evil she has brought you and yours. But I am now no fit companion for you or any. I am become but a wandering shape, speaking to one who cannot answer, and seeking him whom I can never find.”

The little Maid, being but a child, mistook her meaning.

”No, no,” she cried, ”your life is not done. If the one whom you love hath left you unkindly--well, bide awhile, and when the first smart is pa.s.sed, we will marry you to some braver and more handsome knight.

There are many such in Scotland. I pray you come with Maud and me even as we wish you. Why, there would not be three like us in all the land.

I wager we will set kings by the ears between us. Though, as for me, I can only marry a Douglas!”

The smile of the Lady Sybilla grew ever sadder and ever sweeter.

”The man whom I loved, and who loved me, I betrayed to the death.

There is no forgiveness for such as I in this life. Perhaps there may be in the next. At least, _he_ forgave me, and that is enough. He believed in me against myself, and I will wait. Till then I go hither and thither and none shall hinder me or molest--for upon Sybilla de Thouars G.o.d hath set the seal of Cain!”

Margaret Douglas flicked her steed impatiently, causing the spirited little beast to curvet.

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