Fabiola : or, The church of the catacombs - Digital Repository Services

THE PORTRAIT IN MY UNCLE'S DINING-ROOM. 15
me ? How can T make myself worthy of your regard? If yon
nld not IK'
did but know how I love you, perlm .
so slow to return my
:iH\>ct inn.' ami aa she hurried on without
answering, I added, ' Do let me speak to you of n
You cannot object to it now that you look upon
'
future husband.' You liiul better say the highest bidder for
my hand,' she replied with a bitter sneer. I do not know why,
but at that moment a sudden suspicion flashed across my
miud. With a vague but violent feeling of jealousy I ex-
claimed, ' You care for somebody else. Who is it you prefer
'
to me?' You will soon know,' she boldly replied, and with-
out another word rushed into the garden."
CHAPTER VII.
MADEMOISEI/LE DE MALPEIRE'S MARBIAOE.
"I GBIEVE to say that even after my short conversation with
Mile, de Malpeire on the steps of the parterre, I did not make
up my mind to give her up. On the contrary, my love became
selfish and tyrannical, and I felt resolved to assert my claim to
her hand, in spite of the existence of a favored rival. So greatly
did passion blind and mislead me, that the idea of a forced
marriage no longer appeared to me as repugnant and odious as
it used to do. The time for delay and hesitation was gone by,
and I determined to speak to the Baron that very evening. We
had only to draw up the contract on the following morning,
and in three days I could be married to Mile, de Malpeire. It
was whilst I was sitting by the Baronne near the parapet,
oilier side of her mother, and never took her eyes off that scene.
I kept watching her, with feelings of jealousy, anger and ten-
derness. She tried to look composed, but the expression of
her countenance and the feverish flush on her cheeks betrayed
a secret agitation.
"'Look, my dear Count,' the Baronne said to me, 'the
games are going to begin. '
" Two half-naked men entered the lists, and seized one an.
other by the body. One of them was soon thrown down, and
silently withdrew from the ring. The other man stood bolt
upright, and awaited the next combatant, who, in his turn remained
master of the field, and then was vanquished by anoth-
er adversary. For more than an hour new wrestlers succes-
sively occupied the centre of the ring, and were one after another
rolled in the dust, amidst the shouts of the mob, who
greeted them with applause, or hissed and hooted at them,
according to the more or less strength and activity they evinced.
" After two or three encounters had taken place, the Baronne
'
turned to me, and said, with a slight yawn, It must be owned,
this is a little monotonous, especially as it is perfectly well
known beforehand who will be ,he conqueror. The Abbat is
sure to end by throwing them nil down, as he did last year,"
The strength of that fellow Pinatel is
extraordinary,' the
Baron observed; '
and he is also a wonderful poacher. If he
had belonged to the place, I should have made him the offer
of Choiset's situation sometime hence, and in the meantime oc-
cupied him as a woodman. '
" A moment afterwards Madame de Malpeire yawned again,
'
and exclaimed, This is decidedly very tedious. These fights
with the fists are inn tiresome. Let UK take a turn in the par.
I think I have already mentioned thut this parterre was
.1 pluU'^nn, supported by the rump. surrounded
with trellised walks, amongst whiHi mpnndered a mini'
'
. ithbox. This little miniature hanging
led up nil f
! front of
ild structures had
aed up and newly painted lanoe with these recent
alterations. At one f the angles of this portion of the
building, which was entirely devoted to Mndame de Mulpeire's
apartments, was a little turret, jutting out beyond the wall and
overhanging a precipice, the bottom of which was on a level with
the plain. In old times this turret was called the watcli-t
and when there were wars or disturbances in the country, a
sentinel was- placed in a little lodge at the top of it, to give notice
of the approach of hostile bauds. A slated roof had
substituted for the. watchman's sentry-box, and at the height
of the first story a large window had been made, the balcony of
which hung over a chasm full of briers and dark-colored mosses.
Mile, de Malpeire's room was in this tower. Aswe passed mar
it the Baronue stopped, and, pointing to the balcony with her
gold- headed cane, she said to me : 'I cannot look out of thai
window without feeling giddy. My daughter's nerves are
stronger than mine. I have often found her musing on a
moonlight evening with her elbows resting on the edge of that
swallow's nest.' I leant over the parapet to measure with my
eyes the tremendous height of the wall, and satisfied myself
that even if there had been a Romeo in the neighborhood, that
Juliet's balcony was inaccessible.
"Shortly before sunset loud acclamations arose from the
plain, and the pewter dish disappeared from the top of the
pole. 'It is over,' the Baroune said, peeping through the
'
sticks of her fan. The victor is proclaimed, and he is cross-
ing the square with his train. They will be coming up here.
Let us go in. '
It soon became dark, but the peasants lig
pine branches, which they carried in their hands. The flickering
light of their torches formed a curious moving illumination
as they ascended the hill. From the windows of the drawingroom
we saw parties of men parading about the village, with a
drummer at their head, singing various patriotic songs, and a
watching the games on the village green, that I turned over in
my head these plans and resolutions.
" The scene below was somewhat confused. Almost everybody
had left the place where the fair was held, and the crowd
pressed tumultuously round an enclosure formed with ropes
and stakes run into the ground. At one end of these lists, so
to call them, stood a pole, at the top of which glistened in the
rays of the setting sun a gigantic pewter dish. At the opposite
extremity a drum and fife formed the most discordant orchesfta
less numerous band of boys and girls dancing on the green. In
' a few minutes, Choiset, the game-keeper came in. The Abbat
ever infl cted on mortal ears. Mile, de Malpeire was on the is arrived,' he hastily announced ;
'
there is a great crowd fol-
lowing him. I am come to take M. le Baron's orders.'
" ' You will admit no one but the Abbat himself and his
twelve companions,' answered the old nobleman ; 'and if any
of the others try to force their way in, you will do as I told
you.' 'Come,' said the Baronue, smiling, 'let us go and
give audience to these gallant shepherds. Your hand, M. le
Baron. Come with us, my love,' she added, turning to her
daughter. Mile, de Malpeire followed them, holding
in her
hand the blue scarf unfolded. She looked very pale, and I
saw her hands tremble.
" They all went down stairs. I did not follow them ; the
whole affair was disagreeable to me, and I had not menut to be
present at the presentation of the scarf. I remained, therefore,
alone in the drawing-room, standing near a window, and
unconsciously gazing on the dark plain.
There was no moon,
and not a star was to be seen in the sky. The garden and
everything beyond it was veiled in profound obscurity. The
night wind moaned sadly through the trellised alleys. I leaned
my head on my hands, and fell into a melancholy fit ot
musing, which gradually softened my resentful feeling. The kind
of avowal which Mile, de Malpeire hjd volunteered, as il
to make to me, had created at first in my heart a paroxysm of
jealousy and anger, which was almost like hatred. \'>
dint of turning over in my miud the cruel words she had ut-
tered, I began to thiak that there was no occasion to attach any
importance to them ; that it was all an excuse and a subt
a mere threat that I had not, that I could not, have a
If I could be once persuaded of this, I felt I could easily for-
give her. coldness, endure her scorn. I was ready to fall
feet of the haughty girl, and to tell her that I 'should always
love, always be devoted to her, without
if such was her will her whim As 1 was indulging in
alternate moods of tenderness and any. r, 1 thought I peri I