Читать книгу The Leopard and the Lily - Bowen Marjorie - Страница 4

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He came to the throne in a time of peace. Between him and his two brothers was perfect friendship, and the wars that tore France did not disturb Brittany, unmolested by foreigners, strong and respected at home.

From the hand of François himself came the glint of the sword that brightening smote the country into factions, the little quarrels that spread into civil war, the little whispers that grew into foul slanders, the petty jealousies and intrigues that became heartbreaks and miseries.

And the beginning of this was the coming to the court of Rennes, of Guy de Montauban, a penniless Breton noble.

That was five years ago and for those five years had his influence spread and his power grown, till the Duke was a mere puppet in his hands and Brittany, delivered to him, slipping fast into a state of weakness and internal disorders.

Men wondered what gave to Montauban his great power over the Duke. For Guy de Montauban was in every sense an ordinary man. He had neither charm, gaiety, splendour, nor brilliant talents to attract the senses; neither affection, honesty, devotion nor truth to attach the heart.

Born in Italy, of an Italian mother, educated in Padua with all the elegance of the time (a training that, while it gave him neither wit nor talents, yet gave him a certain power of concealing lack of ability, and a finish in his manner, a gravity and dignity in his demeanour, his indolent, narrow mind was far from confirming)—Guy de Montauban, by the mere chance infatuation of the Duke, found himself at the age of thirty-five in a position to dictate to a reigning Prince and to use a whole country, if he willed, for his sport.

Yet even those who hated him most could not say he had made any great ill-use of his power. Things went wrong in Brittany, it was more through de Montauban's carelessness than his ill-will, he had no more the capacity for great crimes than for great strength or heroism. Indifferent to most things, if he sundered the Duke from his brothers, it was through idle talk, more the result of his position than his character.

Placed so that he could have swept the younger princes from before him, for five years Montauban had tolerated them about the Duke; Pierre, the second brother, who was meek, content to be overlooked, he even helped and treated with kindness.

Indolent and infirm of purpose, he spent his days in amusements that wearied, and useless quarrels with the only person at the Duke's court he had any active feeling for, namely, Gilles of Brittany, the Duke's third and youngest brother.

High-spirited, handsome, honest-hearted, full of gaiety and ambition, Gilles would not brook the all-powerful favourite, and by mocks and taunts, open and covert, stung Guy de Montauban into a dull feeling of hate. But Gilles cared nothing. Defying Duke and favourite both, he openly demanded his appanage; declared the Duke was bewitched, and only the good offices of Pierre and the Duchess patched up a hollow truce between him and Montauban. But the gay Prince's laughing taunts were not forgotten. It was not long before Montauban induced the Duke to send Gilles on an embassy to England and so remove from his sight the man who humbled him in his own eyes.

But Gilles, seeing rightly enough who had dictated the move would not go; he feared Montauban would work his undoing in his absence.

Then Montauban made Rennes unbearable, until at last, now more mindful of the present than the future, light-hearted Gilles left Brittany, not for England indeed but for France, where, with a company of English mercenaries he did good service against the Duke of Burgundy.

Meanwhile François, already feeble in health, grew more sickly. Impossible he would live long, it was possible he might die in a few months. He left no children, Brittany would pass to Pierre, and Montauban's fortunes fall like a house of cards.

There was only one thing could secure them, a wealthy marriage, such as now in the heydey of his power he might make.

He had only to speak his choice. The Duke would confirm it. There was no lady in Brittany, however, rich enough to tempt him. France was impoverished and it would be impolitic to leave the Duke to seek further.

Meantime, Gilles, returning from France, came again to his brother's court and asked his consent to his marriage with Françoise de Dinan, an unknown and penniless lady whom he had seen by chance and, for pure love, would marry.

Now were the two brothers once more reconciled. François II. had no objection to the match, the granting of which brought his brother into subjection; nor had Montauban any dislike to seeing Gilles unite himself to one who could bring him neither position, influence nor money.

Françoise de Dinan was the niece of Robert de Dinan, one of the richest nobles in Brittany or France, lord of the great lands of the house of Rohan, Chateaubriand, Bain, Beaumanoir, Hardouinaye and Montafilan, in all a fortune for a Prince; yet she brought no dowry with her hand, for she was the daughter of Robert de Dinan's younger brother who, after marrying a French princess, having flung his fortune to the winds in luxury and extravagance, had left at his death wife and daughter penniless.

Françoise found with her uncle a home, nothing more. Two years ago he had betrothed her to his on and heir and all honour had been lavished on her, but now Philippe de Dinan was wedded to another and she lived alone with her attendants in the château of Hardouinaye.

It was not Philippe's fault he had not married his cousin. She gave him back his troth to plight herself to Guy de Laval, an even richer match, who quarrelled with her over the Lord of Beaumanoir.

And he too parted in anger from her, and so at seven and twenty Françoise de Dinan was still unwed, when her schemes and her beauty brought Gilles' honest heart to her feet and she took the chance he offered.

She had never loved any; to dislike Gilles of Brittany was impossible, her lone life was growing well-nigh unbearable. He was a Prince and the Duke's brother.

These were her reasons and his was simply love.

Françoise de Dinan, older than Gilles by five years, was a poet, a musician, selfish, beautiful, passionately enamoured of the graces of life, colours, fancies, artificial emotions. Elegant in manner, refined, witty, brilliant, charming, she was by nature false and in that sense true, at least to herself.

She had played with her own soul, settled her life beforehand, laid down the path she was to tread and pursued it unfalteringly, scattering smiles, tears, frowns and caresses to help her to her self-appointed goal—of riches, independence, titles and worldly honour.

And so far she had passed along serene, her heart untouched; even to think of it moved to a passion out of her control, roused her laughter. In all her plans she reckoned without it, reckoned, too, without her passionate nature that had slept so long she did not know that it was there.

No one had passed beyond her smiles, more than dainty caresses she had given none. She kept herself inviolate, yet she had lost her many throws and not yet won a fortune.

Gilles of Brittany sincerely loved her. He was younger and, for all his high gaiety, more simple, than her former suitors; he had much of the ancient chivalry that never questioned a woman's word sworn to with kisses. She, too, with her twenty-seven years and her lost chances behind her, played more sanely now and lived more softly.

Then, with the same breath with which Gilles told her their marriage was assured and sworn to by the Duke's word before all Brittany, he told her too he had undertaken a delicate mission to England, that might mean some weeks' absence. The heart of Françoise de Dinan sank. She judged him by herself—supposing he forgot!

But in Gilles' mind was no doubt. His great love left no room for it. He trusted her as he did Heaven. He hoped much honour from this mission, and a rise in the Duke's favour, and they could spare a few weeks from a lifetime of happiness. He guessed nothing of her impatience to appear at the court of Rennes; how she shrank from the waiting weeks that might prelude another chance foregone. He took her dismay for grief at loss of him, and Françoise, when he spoke of it so, was moved to smile to herself, bitterly.

It was an October evening, the day before Prince Gilles sailed, that Françoise came from the château of Hardouinaye to take a last leave of him. The sun was sinking in a twist of golden vapour, tinging the flat gray rocks with colour, burning like fire in the little pools left by the rains of yesterday.

Beyond them the sea glinted, silver white. Françoise, shading her eyes from the level rays, looked down the road. The air was cold and from head to foot she was wrapped in a purple mantle; over her black hair was a hood that shadowed her fair face, a face that grew a little troubled as no one came down the straight road.

Impatiently she walked about under the trees; the last leaves of autumn burned bright as jewels against a sky the colour of dead forget-me-nots; always as she paced was that slight fear at her heart that he might grow indifferent.

But presently against the sun appeared the figures of two horsemen riding rapidly.

One was Gilles of Brittany; she waved her hand gaily and came to meet him, glancing at his handsome face to see if any doubt of her lurked there. But with gay brown eyes he smiled on her and Françoise's heart rose—of a surety he loved her and she could never lose him. Now with every word he spoke he confirmed it, as, outdistancing the man he rode with, he leaped to the ground and told her all his hopes, and spoke of what the journey to England might mean to both of them. For a while she listened smiling.

"But in England you will forget me," she said at last, and the fear in her voice was not all feigned—she found it hard to believe in sincere affection.

"Françoise, ma bien aimée," laughed Gilles of Brittany. "When the stars fall shall I forget!"

"Oh, Gilles!" she cried, looking up at him. "I would you were not going!"

"Now, why?" he answered smiling. "Only, Françoise, a few short weeks and my fortune may be made."

"If Montauban were not ever at the Duke's ear," said Françoise, "you would not have to go abroad to seek your fortune and leave me thus long." And in her heart she thought that, once she was the Prince's wife, it should go hard with her if she did not manage to overthrow the powerful favourite.

"Montauban is my one uneasiness," said Gilles tenderly, "yet he would never dare molest thee."

"Mon ami, he will not even deign to see me," she answered. "Even now he stays with mine uncle at Chateaubriand while I am imprisoned here—oh, Gilles, the one thing I care for in my dull life you take from me—I pray you do not go!"

The fear she could not lose put conviction into her voice; she clasped her delicate hands round his and her eyes were pleading.

"Mon Dieu!" cried Gilles. "After all why should I? I am my own master, ma chérie. Now ask again and, by my faith, I will not go!"

"You care so much?" she whispered, well pleased at this proof of her power.

"Françoise," he answered eagerly. "For your sake I was going—I'll stay for the same reason, sweet, if you'll take me fortuneless; what care I for the Duke's displeasure?"

But Françoise reflected what the Duke's displeasure meant and looked up with a sigh and a smile.

"Gilles, this is only folly—because I love you so I Go, I would not have it otherwise—only—"

But Gilles stopped her with a kiss, taking her hands in his joyously.

"We'll have no talk of that!" he laughed. "There are no oaths needed between us—Françoise, I ask none, I know you love me, ma chérie."

"Indeed, enough," she answered. Her voice broke into a little sob, her eyes were full of tears. Gilles' frank heart was touched to the quick to see her grief; silent with her hand in his he sought for some comfort.

"I shall not leave you utterly alone," he said at last. "I found a friend in France would give his life for aught of mine. He, Françoise, shall look to the sending me word if need be—"

"Nay, I need it not," she answered. "Sure of thee I need no more."

Then she knew not what drove her to it, but she took his hand and said: "Whatever happens, whatever befalls, will I be true, Gilles!"

"Françoise," he whispered, "I would as soon doubt Heaven!"

At his grave eagerness she almost feared, and turning her head sharply, noticed with relief that the Prince's companion advanced toward them.

"'Tis my friend," said Gilles. "The Englishman. Mon Dieu! I hear he comes for me—now how can I ever use to you, ma chérie—the word 'farewell'?"

Françoise smiled and answered softly, then drew her hands away and turned toward the newcomer who led the Prince's horse.

"Now the good angels guard you, sweet," said Gilles with a catch in his throat. The rider was singing to himself. As he drew near he took his cap off, waiting, and Gilles led Françoise to his saddle bow.

"Françoise," he said. "This is my true friend, Captain Kristopher Fassiferne, true friend he will be to you, if for my sake and his own worth you will accept his services."

It had grown so dark that though she glanced curiously at the Englishman's face, it only struck her as she answered graciously that he was much older than Gilles and not the man she would have thought he would have chosen for a friend.

"Sure," said Captain Kristopher gravely, "there's a more powerful weapon than will be found in a soldier's armoury, an' that's in your possession already, my lady."

"What, Messire?" she asked. The voice was low and pleasant, she strained her eyes the more clearly to see the face.

"It's an honest, true heart, my lady," he answered. "An' a true faith an' love, so it's none of my help the Prince will be wanting—"

And he laughed as Gilles sprang into the saddle.

The words galled her. As she drew back from Gilles' stirrup her gold scarf caught in the Englishman's and as he stooped to disentangle it, she, glancing up, saw that he had bright blue eyes and a laughing mouth. The laugh made her flush.

A few moments more and they had gone; Françoise, standing alone, watched them go, still with a colour in her cheeks. She was strangely humbled in her vanity—it seemed to her the Englishman had read her like a book and laughed at her for her poor pretence.

But she angrily shook off the fancy.

"Had I been my uncle's heir," she thought bitterly, "I had had no need to cheat a boy into love for me." She went back to the château very swiftly.

It rained heavily that night. Françoise, restless in her chamber, could not sleep for the sound of it beating on the stonework without her window.

Discontented and weary, she lit a little lamp and stirring the embers of her fire together, sat over it, brooding.

Though still dark it was near dawn. In a few hours Gilles would sail. "He is a mere simpleton," thought Françoise. "Could I have feigned affection to that friend of his so? Dieu? If I were rich—"

She broke off her thoughts abruptly, and turning her head looked at herself in the mirror that hung above the lamp; looked long and earnestly.

She grew angry with herself, frowned at the shadow in the glass, calling it fool; then lay back in her chair sighing with a fair brooding face. She had chosen for herself and repentance was too late.

She was bound to him before all Brittany.

Outside the rain beat stronger, mingled with gusts of wind; the bare boughs creaked and groaned. The storm jarred on Françoise, she rose restlessly and began pacing the room.

A sudden loud knocking at the château gates made her start violently.

For a moment she stood still in absolute fear; thoughts of her powerful, lawless neighbour, the Lord of Dol, an outlawed robber, flashed into her mind. Hardouinaye was very lonely and this the dead of night.

Throwing a cloak over her loosened dress she went out on the stairs, and, calling one of her women bade her go and bring the seneschal.

But there was no need; the loud knocking had roused the whole establishment; consisting only of a few, for Françoise de Dinan was allowed no state.

Carrying a lantern, struggling against the wind and the rain, the seneschal made his way to the gate where a little band of horsemen waited for admittance. Their leader demanded to see the chatelaine at once; he came, he said, from Chateaubriand, from her uncle, and would tell no more.

From her uncle!

Françoise heard in utter amazement, it was many weeks since she had had any message from her uncle, and she half suspected a ruse.

For a moment she hesitated; then made a compromise between her prudence and her curiosity.

"Admit the leader and keep him in sight," she said. "I will see him in the hall." With her heart beating fast she went back into her chamber and arranged her dress.

What could her uncle have to say to her? Had his spite, or Philippe's, urged them to forbid her marriage?

Then the strange hour moved her wonder almost to fear.

With the purple mantle over her straight red gown, her black hair gathered away from her bare throat and flushed face, Françoise de Dinan descended into the hall, followed by her two women; her mind busy with a thousand fancies.

The great chamber, dimly lit by hastily brought lights, looked blank and dreary; the seneschal and her few serving men were there and, standing by the ash-strewn hearth, a man who had put his dripping mantle on the chair beside him and was looking impatiently toward the entrance.

In a certain excitement, a half fear, a half hope of—something—Françoise entered, her eagerness making her fair face more human, less calm than was its wont. The stranger came forward; appeared surprised, almost startled at her great beauty set off as it was by the soft light, the dark background and the quiet mystery of her surrounding.

"I am Françoise de Dinan," she said, fully aware of the effect she produced and in no way abashed.

Her great black eyes studied him, closely noting every detail. He was slight and slender; good-looking, of a pale face; hair and eyes as black as her own, but with a hard, sneering mouth. He was richly dressed; he carried sword and dagger by his side and twisted gloves and a riding whip in his hand.

"What I have to say," he began, speaking in a very humble voice, more natural than assumed, "will be my best excuse for this sore lack of ceremony."

"You come from Chateaubriand?" asked Françoise, "from my uncle?"

"I have ridden straight from there, madam," he hesitated. "Perhaps by name I am not so unknown to you," he added, smiling. "I am Guy de Montauban."

At mention of the most powerful name in Brittany, she could not conceal her utter surprise or find any words to answer him. For once in her life she was completely at a loss.

"I am the friend of your betrothed," went on Montauban, smiling the more at her surprise. "And I come with grave news."

As quickly as she had lost her self-possession she recovered it and came forward into the full lamplight.

"Welcome, my lord," she said, "whatever news you bring is for the bearer's sake, welcome."

"There was not much love between you and your uncle?" asked Montauban, looking full at her with much admiration.

Completely at her ease now, flattered and expectant, Françoise lifted her brilliant eyes and laughed.

"Mon Dieu! No!"

For a second Montauban paused.

"Robert de Dinan is dead," he said.

In the perfect silence that followed he looked at her keenly; she had fallen back a step, very white, but her eyes were ablaze.

"Well?" she whispered at last, "and Philippe?"

Montauban's sombre face lit up.

"Your discernment is excellent," he returned. "He too is dead. They were both drowned yesterday. I saw their boat sink with all on board. A pleasure sail on a lake—morbleu!—it has made you the richest woman in Brittany."

The colour ebbed slowly back into Françoise's face, she looked with dancing eyes at the bewildered faces of the servants, then at Montauban.

"Dead?" she murmured. "Both dead?"

She had not believed there was anything under. Heaven could move her as this news had done; she trembled and had to catch at the tapestry for stealthy support; yet she was not one whit bewildered nor confused. In a second she saw it all too clearly, what it meant, what difference it made, saw, too, something of Montauban's purpose in bringing the news to her thus.

"And Prince Gilles?" she asked, raising her eyes. "He does not know?"

Montauban, always closely observing her, smiled and came a step nearer.

"He has already embarked," he said. "This news must follow him, Countesse."

"'Tis no matter," answered Françoise quickly. "'Tis a great matter that I should thank you and somewhat fittingly—for this your trouble," she added. So calm she was, he could only guess at her great excitement, at the deep joy she kept even from her eyes.

"Some day I may be so glad to call upon the gratitude of the Countesse de Chateaubriand," he answered, "as to wrong myself by calling to your mind such a service even as this—now I would pray you only to forgive an intrusion that has fallen so far below my respect—and also, Countesse, to remember me for so long as it may be till we meet at Rennes."

"Messire, were it years hence I should not fail in that," said Françoise, with her eyes turned away to hide their exultation.

Guy de Montauban passing from the sombre château, anew into the driving rain, found nothing but satisfaction in his knowledge.

"I feared she might love the Prince," he thought. "There is no love. She shall marry me within a month."

Shaken from his habitual indolence he reflected keenly on his chances and the means of bettering them. The result of his reflections was that, instead of riding to Rennes, he turned his horse toward the coast and started rapidly for the little port where Gilles was to have, or had, embarked.