Part 14 (1/2)
”Implicitly. It did not take them long to make their preparations. They went to the town hall and took the firemen's rifles, and the guns used for firing a salute on fete days; the mayor gave them the powder, and you heard----
”When I left Sairmeuse there were more than two hundred idiots before the presbytery, shouting:
”_Vive Monseigneur! Vive le Duc de Sairmeuse_!”
It was as d'Escorval had thought.
”The same pitiful farce that was played in Paris, only on a smaller scale,” he murmured. ”Avarice and human cowardice are the same the world over!”
Meanwhile, Chanlouineau was going on with his recital.
”To make the fete complete, the devil must have warned all the n.o.bility in the neighborhood, for they all came running. They say that Monsieur de Sairmeuse is a favorite with the King, and that he can get anything he wishes. So you can imagine how they all greeted him! I am only a poor peasant, but never would I lie down in the dust before any man as these old n.o.bles who are so haughty with us, did before the duke. They kissed his hands, and he allowed them to do it. He walked about the square with the Marquis de Courtornieu----”
”And his son?” interrupted Maurice.
”The Marquis Martial, is it not? He is also walking before the church with Mademoiselle Blanche de Courtornieu upon his arm. Ah! I do not understand how people can call her pretty--a little bit of a thing, so blond that one might suppose her hair was gray. Ah! how those two laughed and made fun of the peasants. They say they are going to marry each other. And even this evening there is to be a banquet at the Chateau de Courtornieu in honor of the duke.”
He had told all he knew. He paused.
”You have forgotten only one thing,” said M. Lacheneur; ”that is, to tell us how your clothing happened to be torn, as if you had been fighting.”
The young farmer hesitated for a moment, then replied, somewhat brusquely:
”I can tell you, all the same. While Chupin was preaching, I also preached, but not in the same strain. The scoundrel reported me. So, in crossing the square, the duke paused before me and remarked: 'So you are an evil-disposed person?' I said no, but that I knew my rights. Then he took me by the coat and shook me, and told me that he would cure me, and that he would take possession of _his_ vineyard again. _Saint Dieu_!
When I felt the old rascal's hand upon me my blood boiled. I pinioned him. Fortunately, six or seven men fell upon me, and compelled me to let him go. But he had better make up his mind not to come prowling around my vineyard!”
He clinched his hands, his eyes blazed ominously, his whole person breathed an intense desire for vengeance.
And M. d'Escorval was silent, fearing to aggravate this hatred, so imprudently kindled, and whose explosion, he believed, would be terrible.
M. Lacheneur had risen from his chair.
”I must go and take possession of my cottage,” he remarked to Chanlouineau; ”you will accompany me; I have a proposition to make to you.”
M. and Mme. d'Escorval endeavored to detain him, but he would not allow himself to be persuaded, and he departed with his daughter.
But Maurice did not despair; Marie-Anne had promised to meet him the following day in the pine-grove near the Reche.
CHAPTER VII
The demonstrations which had greeted the Duc de Sairmeuse had been correctly reported by Chanlouineau.
Chupin had found the secret of kindling to a white heat the enthusiasm of the cold and calculating peasants who were his neighbors.
He was a dangerous rascal, the old robber, shrewd and cautious; bold, as those who possess nothing can afford to be; as patient as a savage; in short, one of the most consummate scoundrels that ever existed.
The peasants feared him, and yet they had no conception of his real character.
All his resources of mind had, until now, been expended in evading the precipice of the rural code.