The Man at Arms: Or, Henri de Cerons ; a Romance

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Chapter I

It is difficult to discover what are the eract sources from which spring the thrilling feelings of joy and satisfaction with which we look back to the days of our early youth, and to the scenes in whidi our infancy Tvas passed. It matters not, or at least very little, what are the pleasures which we have enjoyed in after years, what are the delights that surround us, what are the blessings which Heaven has cast upon our lot. Whenever the mind, either as a voluntary act, or from accidental associations, recalls, by the aid of memory, the period of childhood and the things which surround it, there comes over us a gladdening sensation of pure and simple joys which we never taste again at any time of life. It must be, at least in part, that the delights of those days were framed in innocence and ignorance of evil ; and that He who declared that of such as little children consisted the kingdom of Heaven, has allotted to the babes of this world, in the brightness of their innocence, joys similar to those of the world beyond, joys that never cloy, and that leave no regret What though some mortid tears will mix with those de\i^t&> what ibough the £esb must suffer, and t\xe e^'A OTi<e^ ^^ir^ tempt ; yet the allotted pleasures have a zest which not even novelty alone could give, and an imperishable purity in their nature which makes their remembrance sweeter than the fruition of other joys, and speaks their origin from Heaven.

I love to dwell upon such memories, and to find likenesses for them in the course, the aspect, and the productions of the earth itself. I see the same sweetness and the same simplicity pervading the youth of all nature, and find in the dim violet, the youngest child of Spring, an image of those early joys — pure, soft, and calm, and full of an odour that acts upon the sense more than that of any other flower.

Thus it is, I suppose, and for these causes, that in looking back upon the days of my youth — ^though those days were not as happy and as bright as they are to many people — I feel a secret satisfaction, which I knew not at the time. Yet those hours, indeed, as one who gives a diamond to a child, bestowed upon me a gift, the value of which I knew not till many a year had passed away.

My first recollections refer to the period when I was about seven or eight years old, and to a sweet spot in the far south of France, called Blancford, not far from the great city of Bordeaux. The chateau in which I dwelt had belonged for ages to my ancestors ; and the little room in one of the turrets which was assigned to me, looked towards the setting sun, over manifold beautiful green slopes and wooded banks, with now and then a broken bit of yellow ground, that harmonised beautifully and richly with the warm tints of the spring and the autumn, and broke not less pleasantly the thick green of the mid year. Upon these banks and trees and slopes the sunshine seemed to dwell with peculiar fondness, and thither came the bright and smiling showers of spring and the rich vision-like light and shades of autumn. Gay hawking-parties, and many a splendid €»VAlcade ^om the wealthy and. xca^ot^AXLt^^Tiin the neighbourhood, diversified the scenery during the bright part of the year, and towards the winter time the beasts of the forest and the field used to change their more distant dwelling for the neighbouring woods, and afford sport and diversion to the inhabitants of the castle.

As I have said, that chateau had been for centuries the abode of my ancestors, ever since the arm of Du Guesclin and the wisdom of Charles had expelled the English from the shores of France ; but still that chateau was not mine, nor ever likely to be mine, for I was at that time a poor dependent upon the bounty of others ; without wealth, rank, station, or fortune of any kind, to give hope to my heart or energy to my efforts.

The lord of that castle, my father's first cousin, had taken me out of compassion for his relation, a poor soldier of fortune, who married thoughtlessly and died young ; and as he — ^himself a lover of pleasure, and even of licence — at the time he took me into his house, thought only of marriage as a remote evil, he treated me at first with so much kindness that the foolish persons who surrounded us imagined that a time might come when I should be his heir. Nothing, indeed, was further from his thoughts : he had always determined, and stUl held the resolution of wedding ultimately, in the hope of seeing his possessions descend to children of his own. The accomplishment of this purpose was hastened by accidental circumstances, which placed it in his power to marry a beautiful and wealthy bride, whom he brought home to the chateau in great pomp, and the festivities which followed her arrival are among the first events which I distinctly remember.

Surrounded by friends, and with scarcely a wish ungratified, my cousin might well consider himself a rich and happy man in the possession of one so fair as she was. But beauty was not the only quality which she brought to make him happy ; nor riches the only dowry that was settled upon her head. Nevex dv^Si \ ^^^voi^ one who combined more graces of pexaonm^uxw^^iSJka qualities of the heart, never any one who more merited the love of every one that approached her.

It was evident that she had heard of me before she came, and she greeted me with a warm and kindly smile, which went direct to my heart. She gazed npon me at the same time with a look of deep interest and scrutinizing inquiry, as if she thought to read my character in my face, or to divine what were the feelings with which I met her. Heaven knows that I had no feelings but those of sincere joy: I entertained not the slightest idea that her coming could have any evil effect upon my fate, that it would in the least change my destiny or affect my happiness. I was utterly ignorant of such things at that period; the joy that was around me found a ready echo in a heart naturally joyous, and I laughed and danced and sung with the rest, more unthinking of the morrow than the bird upon the wing.

If the fair lady of Blancford gazed at me when first she came, my cousin's eyes rested upon me many a time when he saw me so gay and happy. I know not what it was, but it seemed as if my happiness displeased him.

I have since learned to know that in the human heart there is often a great difference between remorse and repentance; and that when we have done a fellowcreature wrong, when we have pained, injured, aggrieved — ay, even when we only entertain the purpose of doing so — we hate that being on account of the very acts for which we should hate ourselves.

I do not mean to say that my cousin had injured me by his marriage ; for surely he had every right to wed where and when he thought fit ; but I am inclined to believe, from facts which I heard afterwards, that the first germ of harsh and unkind feeling towards me was produced by a conviction that he had treated me with greater kindness and distinction than he afterwards intended to keep up, and that it was his duty to make a ntorimon for me against Yrhkli ^a iQS&«>iQiT^ %\rcx%^^.

OB; HENBI DB CEBONS. 7

There were other matters, of which I may have to speak hereafter, which increased and perpetuated such fiselings. He could not but recollect, howerer," that before the death of my fether he had been liberal of promises and generous in words. He had said that he wouW breed me up for a soldier, and that he would take care I should have the means of advancing myself; and now, perhaps, his intentions were changed. If they were not then, they certainly became so after a short time.

My cousin was at that period a gay and gallant man, of about ^ve or six and thirty years of age, handsome in appearance, specious in manners and words, with no traces of profligate life in his language or appearance, and very well fitted to gain and keep the love of any young heart not thoroughly versed in the ways of mankind. Although his marriage, as most marriiages are, had been arranged entirely by tht relations of the lady, without any reference to her wishes ; yet there is no doubt that she married him with a heart free from other attachments, and even prepossessed in his favour.

From sudi feelings, of course, aifection readily sprang up ; and, had he merited it, love, deep, devoted, heartfelt, unchanging love would indubitably have followed. But, alas ! he did not deserve it, he took not the means to obtain it ; and though the attachment remained, that attachment was mingled with sadness, and perhaps with bitterness; and grave melancholy trod fast upon the steps of feasting and merriment.

For my own part, I was of a cheerful and happy disposition, a little fandfol, perhaps, and somewhat wild, oceasionaUy fond of solitary wandering and deep thought, but at other periods light and gay as a butterfly. Thus, then, I felt not — scarcely perceived, indeed — that the demeanour of the general servants and retainers of my cousin's house was at all changed towards me, althoogh it was changed from the very ^orai ^«:^ Ql\!a& mmmage» Btit bad k been chaxiiged ten 1^xfiA» %i& TSKSi^n had they treated me with neglect, or scorn, or contemptible malice, the pain would have been more than compensated by the love and tenderness of that sweet lady whom he wedded, and by the constant care she showed me.

She first it was who recollected that, bom of noble race, and connected with many of the great and proud in the land, it was neediul that I should have the common education and accomplishments of the day; and she argued, that, if I were poor and penniless, as her husband said, and required to make a name and fortune for myself, it was but the more necessary that, by the cultivation of my mind, even in an extraordinary degree, I should be provided with the means of accomplishing the more difficult task that was allotted to me.

My strength of body, and an eager, active spirit, had already rendered me familiar with manly exercises in a far greater degree than most youths of my age could boast of; but my mind was totally uncultivated. I could ride wild horses that many a man could not manage ; I could fence as well as my strength allowed me ; and my aim with the arquebus was true and firm ; I know not the time when I could not swim, and my cousin's pages, though considerably older than myself, were unable to compete with me in leaping or pitching the bar; but I could neither write nor read, and knew nothing of books or of the world, but by occasional words which I had heard spoken, and treasured up in my memory.

No sooner did my cousin's wife find that this was the case, than she herself became my instructress; and, oh, how kindly did she teach me, day after day, with unwearied patience, her fingers playing with the curls of my hair, and her eyes often bent thoughtfully upon me, as if she were calculating, with some melancholy, my future destiny — ^and her own.

Perhaps I was stupid, perhaps I was by nature inat-

tentive; hnt the love, the deep love, that I felt towards

,ber made me exert every energy oi xsiy mm^lo ^^^ \xftr

OB, HBNBI DE CERONS.

pleasure and to make her task easy ; and though the undertaking must have been dull, and my progress slow at first, yet she always seemed well satisfied, and lured me on with words of bright encouragement.

A time soon came, however, when her instructions became somewhat painful, apparently; there was a languor in her eyes and in her tone which seemed to me strange ; and, without being told to do so, I spoke in a lower tone of voice, I paid more attention to everything she said, I avoided all that could disturb or trouble her. It seemed to me that she was ill, and nature taught me to spare her all exertion.

At length, one day, she said to me, '' I must give over teaching you for a time, Henri, but good Monsieur la Tour will take the task till I can follow it again;" and she put me under the charge of the minister of our little village, or rather, indeed, I may call him the chaplain of the chateau. He was a good man as ever lived, who had always shown himself fond of me, and who now followed up with zeal and kindness, that which she }iad so kindly and generously begun.

The whole family, and every one in the immediate neighbourhood, were, as is well known, of the reformed religion, and my cousin, the Baron de Blancford, was at that time absent with the protestant army. Shortly after, however, he returned ; sent for, I believe, to be present at the birth of his first child, and great anxiety manifested itself in the household for several days. Fears were entertained for the safety of the lady ; but at length I heard that the Baroness had given birth to a child, and that she herself was proceeding favourably. With my heart fiill of joy and satisfaction, I ran to congratulate my cousin, thinking that there could be nothing but similar feelings in his own heart. He pushed me angrily away from him, however, exclaiming, "You fool, it is only a girl."

Not understanding what he meant, or comprehending in the aUghtest degree why the birth o£ a ^\ ^ov^^ giye him less satisfEtction than if a son had been born, I ran to the rooms of Monsieur la Tour and told him what had happened ; and then it was for the first time that I was made to understand how great was the difference made by the customs of the world, between two classes of beings naturally equal. A vague idea, too, of my own circumstances was also communicated to my mind ; and firom that time, the change which had ti^en place, and which daily increased in the deportment of my cousin's servants towards me, was marked, understood, and felt painfully.

Two days after the birth of his daughter, the Baron again left the chditeau ; but he remained long enough to make me feel most bitterly that I was no longer the boy whom he had sported with and loved in former years.

The lady soon recovered, and resumed her care of me without a change. She loved to have me with her ; she loved to see me play with her infant ; and, as month after month proceeded, the child's affection for me grew strong, and more strong, till there was none but her mother that she loved so well.

About a year and a-half afterwards a son was bom, and then another; and from the birth of the first I found that I was no longer an object of consideration to any one, except to the good clergyman, whose affection towards me seemed to increase as that of the others diminished, and to the sweet lady, who never for a moment, in her love and care for others, forgot her love and care for me.

A change had come over the whole household of my cousin, however. The lover had long been forgotten in the husband ; the husband had now been forgotten in the man of pleasure. Whenever any short cessation of hostilities permitted him to visit the capital, it was in Paris that the Lord of Blancford's time was wholly spent ; and at other periods his days were generally passed in the pleasures of olihex ^eat toTRii*^, ^<dx\T<^\CL

OR, HENRI DS CERONS. ]1

the fiunily -wliich required his care and direction, and from the wife whose love he had cast away.

On her part she showed not the slightest inclination to depart from his expressed wish that she wonld remain at the chateau of Blancford. She loved not great dties ; she sought not to indemnify herself for her husband's neglect, by following the same evil course in -which he led the way ; she enjoyed iully and entirely the pleasures of rural life, and foxmd in the duties of a mother the greatest consolation and delight. Once in the course of the month, perhaps, she visited Bordeaux with the state becoming her rank and station, called upon some of the chief ladies of the city, and returned home after having remained there but a few hours. Very frequently on these occasions I accompanied her, and the kindness with which she mentioned me to all who were really good and estimable, seemed to bespeak lor me their future protection and regard, although she never even hinted at such an object

I was her companion almost always in her walks, too, and from her conversation I daily gained information upon subjects with which otherwise, most probably, I should never have been acquainted; for she took a delight in forming and enlarging my mind ; and while she endeavoured to instil principles, even more than knowledge, she illustrated for me the lessons she gave by fiurts and examples, which often drew her on to ftirther explanations, and which certainly remained in my memory, storing it with much that was curious, interesting, and beautiful.

Indeed, there was scarcely a circumstance which ever happened to me in after life, which did not cause me to recollect something valuable in her instruction ; something which might teach me to know the right from the wrong, to choose the good from the bad, or to return from the evil, when I had been led into wrong, by the shortest and most expeditious way.

Id short, though she often fell into fita oi xrwaVa^, when we were out together, she seldom lost an opportunity of givmg my mind improvement. If I fixed upon a wild flower, she told me its nature and its qualities ; if I watched a passing cloud, she explained to me how sweet and beneficial to the earth's surface are the light vapours that float gently over it, descending in light rain to render everything fertile and productive ; and she would teach me, as well as she could, what were the beneficial effects produced by the winds and storms, which seemed to my imagination only destructive — pointing still to the all-powerful hand of Providence shaping the events of this world with never-erring wisdom, directing all with never-failing might.

From her conversation, from her train of thought, my mind took the peculiar turn which it ever after retained; and even to the present day — after scenes of peril and danger, and activity; after having gained by sad experience knowledge of the world, and become hackneyed and keen in the cunning of the earth — many of the words that she spoke to me, many of the counsels that she gave, come back upon my ear in all the fresh sweetness of the tones in which they were originally spoken ; and I feel myself better, happier, more contented, when I thus dwell with her for a moment in the wide tracts of memory, than I do when fulfilling any of the ordinary duties of my state and station.

What the lady herself could not do to improve my mind the good priest did : he applied himself to teach me sciences, to read other languages than my own, both dead and living ; to argue by rule, to write my native tongue with accuracy, to calculate arithmetically, and to do all, in short, that he himself could do, which was more, perhaps, than my after-fate required.

It was some years, of course, ere I gained much facility in anything ; but ere four years had passed after my cousin's marriage, I had become quite a different being. The formidable obstacles that await us at the entrance of every science liad gi\ea -vja.^ ; a.wd during

0B> HENRI DB CERONS. 13

the following year, which was the fourteenth of my age, I made greater progress than I had done in any other, I had now acquired a taste for the poetry which has descended to us from other days ; and from that high and ennobling source I drank long, deep draughts of pure and unmingled delight. I found, too, that there were works of infinite value, full of fancy and of wit, fail of instruction and amusement, in other languages besides either French, or Greek, or Latin ; and, almost unaided, for my good preceptor knew little of that tongue himself, I made myself a tolerable master of the Italian language, and felt like one who had suddenly discovered a treasure, when the old works of Dante and Boccaccio, and the newer poems of Tasso, fell into my hands.

Nevertheless, I did not in any degree neglect the usual exercises of which I had formerly been fond. There were always a number of old military retainers about the house, who were willing and eager to teach me everything that could be taught in the profession to which they had devoted themselves. I did not, it is true, follow any study with great regularity, but I followed all and each with eagerness, zeal, and devotion.

When the Baroness could give me any of her time, she was always the first I sought, and next to her the good minister, La Tour. But he had many duties to perform, and during the part of the day when I could find neither of those friends, I followed with eagerness every sport of the field that was going on. Every instruction I could get in military exercises I sought continually, and listened with deep and profound atten* tion both to all that the old officers or soldiers could tell me of discipline and of tactics, and to their tales of terrible sieges, well-fought fields, and marvellous escapes, I was one of the best of auditors, and, flattered by the attention that I paid them, they were always willing to amuse or to instruct me. The court-yard of the castle hecame the mimic £eld of battle : the Y?8i\VA) \)[i!& d%\ATc&^

14 THE HAN AT ABMS ;

the stable, were the fortifications of a besieged city; and everything that was at hand was pressed into our service, either as the animate or inanimate materials of war. All i^e tales they told were delightful to me, but more especially so were those in which my £a,ther's name was introduced, and in which I always heard deep regrets expressed for his early death, and praises of the prowess and skill whidi he had displayed as a soldier and a commander.

In the mean while the greater part of the servants and retainers of the household treated me merely as the poor dependent : the little services I required were neglected; any direction that I gave was heard in silence, or replied to with contemptuous lightness ; and, in order to keep myself from the irritation of petty insolence, I was obliged to avoid all communication, as far as possible, with the domestics of the chateau.

In the presence of their mistress, indeed, the servants dared not behave in such a manner, and when her eye was on them they showed me every sort of reverence and respect ; once, also, I remember her rebuking one of the grooms for neglecting my horse, speaking to him in a manner so severe as to work a permanent dbiange in his conduct, and in some degree to affect his companions.

These slight inconveniences, however, did not in the least depress my spirit or keep down my gaiety. Youth's buoyant and happy blood beat in every limb, my heart was light, my cheerfulness unchecked ; and, though I learned when any one neglected me to punish by a cutting word, yet it was always done with light and happy gaiety, and forgotten almost as soon as it was spoken, at least by myself.

Thus years rolled on, and during the frequent and longcontinued absence of my cousin, his children learned to love me with a strong afiPection; and taking a model from the domestic circle of a neighbouring family, my imagination pictured for me a future fate, like that of a person whom I frequently beheld situated in very

OB, HENBI DB CEB0N8. 15

similar drcumstanceg. He was at this time a man well advanced in life, and, like me, the cousin of the lord of the castle ; but he had gained considerable renown in arms. The &therof the family, who was now withheld from active service by the effects of severe wounds, confided to him the leading of his retainers, the children dung to him with reverence and affection, and Hie two eldest were, even at that very time, trying their first arms under the sword of their veteran cousin. He pos* sessed no property, he sought none ; but he lived with people who reverenced and loved him ; he had his own honoured seat by the hail fire, his tales were listened to and sought iot with delight by all, and his counsel or assistance was asked by the fEither, when any matter of real danger or difiiculty arose, by the eld^ sons in the mysteries of the chase or the mew, and by the younger ddldren in any of the small sorrows or difficulties which were to them as important as wars or sieges.

I fanded myself, I say, like him : winning renown in arms, gaining a station by my own deeds, and seeing Ihe young beings that I loved so tenderly as babes, grow up round me as round an elder brother.

But oh, how vainly, how youthfully did I calculate ! My cousin, when he returned to the castle after any of hb long absences, had now become harsh and stem. Me he treated with utter neglect and coldness ; he saw me dine at his table without addressing a word to me ; he met me without any kind gratulation; he heard me wish him joy of his return with scarcely an answering word. When he looked at me, it was coldly; and I could not but feel that I was a burthen to idm.

"When I was about fifteen years of age, he one morning took the pains to ask what progress I had made in my studies. The question was addressed to Monsieur La Tour, but in my presence. The clergyman replied with high praise, higher, I believe, than I deserved ; and the Baron's reply was, " Don't you think you can contrix^ io make a priest of him, La TourT*

My blood boiled, I confess ; but my cousin turned away without waiting for any reply, having satisfied himself that, by the question he had asked and the sug' gestion he had made, he quite fulfilled his duty towards me, at least for the time.

I thought, however, of the days when I had sat upon his knee, and when he had said that he would make a little hero of me ; that I should be a Bayard or a Du Guesclin.

He was absent after that visit for more than two years; and there were tales reached the chS,teau of some fair dame in the capital who vnthheld the Baron from his wife, his children, and his duties, and kept him in bonds stronger than the green withies of Delilah.

The health of the Baroness had for some time been declining ; she had now been married ten years ; and of that period she had known a few months, perhaps, of visionary happiness, two or three years of calm unmurmuring tranquillity, and six or seven of anguish and sorrow. Her little girl, Louise, was now nine years of age, the image of her mother in everything, — ^features, complexion, disposition ; there was the difference of course between the woman and the child, but still there was the same small taper hand, the same beautiful foot, the same brilliant complexion, the same clear, open forehead, the same thoughtful but ingenuous smile. She was with her mother constantly or with me, and it was she who even at that age first discovered the progress of illness in the being she best loved, and pointed out to me the flushed cheek, the bright and glittering eye, the pale lips, and the features daily becoming sharp.