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 MADAME DE MALGUET 
 
 A TALE OF 1820. 
 VOL. I.
 
 London : 
 
 Spottiswoode and Shaw, 
 
 New-street- Square.
 
 MADAME DE MALaUET: 
 
 A TALE OF 1820. 
 
 " In bunten Bildern wenig Klarheit, 
 Viel Irrthum, und ein Fiinkchen Wahrheit, 
 So wird der beste Trank gebraut, 
 Der alle Welt erquickt und auferbaut." 
 
 Prologlb to Gothe's Faust. 
 
 IX THRKE VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR 
 
 LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS, 
 
 PATERNOSTER-ROW. 
 
 1848.
 
 ^<5 5 
 
 HA 
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET, 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It was tlie Secretary's levee day at the Admiralty, 
 and the waiting-room was crowded. What a mass 
 of fears and sorrows, hope and doubt, did the petty 
 compass of those four walls enclose ! Two o'clock, 
 and still many an applicant loitered in the hope of 
 an audience, eagerly pressing forward to get " the 
 next turn" at the successive exit of each luckier 
 wight whose name had stood higher on the waiting 
 list. But the messenger, that true bred official 
 Cerberus, was inexorabl-e, and telling the expectant 
 ^ throng that •'* Gentlemen must have patience," he 
 "•^ sinsrled the next in rescular succession with an im- 
 ^ perturbable coolness, which could only have been 
 gained under a twenty years' experience of levee day 
 Ji^xecrations. 
 
 S VOL. I. B 
 
 V 
 
 4,
 
 2 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 INIany remember, and all may conceive, what was 
 the struggle, after the war in 1820, the epoch of our 
 tale, for naval employment. Veteran officers urged 
 their wounds and gallant services ; ministerial sup- 
 porters, borough interest and parliamentary influence ; 
 the Lady Elizas and Augustas pleaded in favour 
 of " birth, connection, and high family ; " their 
 husbands, fathers, and brothers more than hinted 
 in those high Tory days at possible equivalents for 
 kindnesses, at job for job; and the First Lord of 
 the Admiralty helped his own friends, and answered 
 the rest in turn by referring to naval reductions 
 and a peace establishment. In the mire of jobbery 
 that then existed, the modest merit of thousands of 
 the vigorous and serviceable class of officers was 
 trodden down and lost. It looked well to give a 
 ship now and then to some old battered sea-dog, 
 and moreover staved off the necessity of a pension ; 
 while under this occasional bonus to public opinion 
 it was convenient and profitable to serve court and 
 cabinet, the boudoir and the bureaucracy, by pro- 
 motions such as it pleased them to dictate. This 
 was the reason, I am inclined to think, why John 
 Merrick could not get a ship. 
 
 He sat in the waiting-room that hot June after- 
 noon, determined to ask this once, and then have
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. S 
 
 done with it for ever. No man had earned dis- 
 tinction better than he, and without interest to 
 assist him, save the good report of those he had 
 served under, he had attained his post-captain's rank 
 at the close of the war, and there found himself a 
 shelved man at thirty. "What to do and whither 
 to go in the event of failure in his last attempt at 
 procuring employment in the active duties of his 
 profession, he knew not. The gains of no few suc- 
 cessful cruises had been somewhat hardly indented 
 on by the gallant sailor in the intei*val between the 
 conclusion of the war and the date of his final efforts 
 to placate their high mightinesses, the Admiralty 
 Lords; and half-pay, like a blue devil in reduced 
 circumstances, stared him grimly in the face, and 
 haunted his quarter days with never-varying pre- 
 cision. He had asked himself "what he should do" 
 for the eighty-first time since he had entered that 
 weary waiting-room, accompanying each query with 
 an interrogatory pinch of snuff: and for the four- 
 score and first time had he answered it to anything 
 but his satisfaction, with the aid of a negative re- 
 course to one of his two or three silk handkerchiefs. 
 "Wearied out with the long expectancy in which a 
 tedious morning had crept away, he almost had 
 determined on giving up his chance of an audience, 
 
 B 2
 
 4 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 when the husky office voice which had been droning 
 out at intervals the names of his score of predecessors, 
 at last called for " Captain Merrick." He hastily 
 passed through the large open door before him, and 
 found himself in the presence of Mr. Coker, the 
 Admiralty secretary. 
 
 This gentleman, good-looking, shrewd-looking, 
 and, on this occasion, rude-looking, bowed his bald 
 head stiffly as the sailor advanced, and received him, 
 as is the use and wont sometimes of secretaries on 
 levee days, standing. The advantage of the posture 
 will be presently evident. 
 
 " Captain Merrick, I believe ? " The sailor bowed. 
 
 " Your business ? '* 
 <f J '» 
 
 " You commanded the Weymouth, I think ? " 
 
 "I did so, and " 
 
 ** Exactly, I perfectly understand" (a step for- 
 ward) ; ** but she is hardly likely to be in com- 
 mission again immediately, and as to another ship " 
 (another step) 
 
 " My services, however " 
 
 "Precisely; I comprehend your wishes" (a third 
 step, which brought him close to the captain) ; 
 " nothing can be more natural, and indeed the First 
 Lord is as anxious as can be to serve all deserving
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 5 
 
 and distinguished officers ; but reduction is so impe- 
 rative, our present establishment so limited, the 
 inevitable tranquillity which must ensue — I know, I 
 know, you would allude to Algiers, but, my dear sir, 
 it was a burst, a spurt I may say, a mere casual affair ; 
 — I really regret our inability^ but you must be aware 
 — messenger, the door I " 
 
 Merrick turned, and found himself close to it. 
 Mr. Coker, speaking with some gesticulation and 
 much volubility, had walked him back insensibly to 
 the place he had entered at by steadily and quietly 
 advancing as he talked. The inner door opened. 
 There was a short dark passage, across which the 
 messenger, who waited there, was moving to push 
 open the green baize covered portal at the other end. 
 
 *^ I icillhaxQ a word though," thought Merrick, and 
 stood steadily by the open door determined to have 
 his say ; but the wily Secretary had fairly out-man- 
 oeuvred him. 
 
 " Good morning, Captain Merrick, a very good 
 morning — I am delighted to have seen a post- captain 
 of the present day, icho has nothing to ask for! — 
 messenger. Lord George Larboard ! " 
 
 At the same moment, and ere our captain, dumb- 
 founded at Mr. Coker's assurance, could recover 
 himself, a very young man, dressed in the extreme 
 
 B 3
 
 6 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 of the unmanly fashion of that day, walked quickly 
 through the farther door, and was warmly greeted by 
 the now gracious secretary. Merrick tried not to 
 listen as he walked down the passage, but he could 
 not help hearing 
 
 *^ My dear Lord George, nothing so easy — you 
 see, the Weymouth," and the door closed. 
 
 Poor Merrick ground his teeth, and dashed down- 
 stairs in a downright honest English passion. One 
 or two friends greeted him^ but he hardly saw them, 
 and it was only in the street his rage found vent. 
 Need we say what liis first word was ? 
 
 " tliat syllable intense, 
 Nucleus of England's native eloquence," 
 
 which was pronounced on this occasion with so hearty 
 a quarterdeck emphasis as to startle a gentleman, 
 who stood just at the Admiralty-gate, staring in a 
 critical manner down towards Whitehall, and like all 
 critics who take snuff, about to imbibe a first im- 
 pression simultaneously with a pinch of Macaba. 
 Merrick, who at that moment saw nobody and nothing 
 but an imaginary Lord George Larboard on the 
 deck of a visionary Weymouth, was unfortunate 
 enough to destroy both pinch and impression together, 
 and nearly to upset the equilibrium of the luckless
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 7 
 
 critic himself. He saved himself, but a resi^ectable 
 silver snufF-box did not ; it rolled on the dirty London 
 pavement, and mingled its odorous contents with the 
 mud. " Peste ! " said the critic. 
 
 Recalled at once to himself by the shock, moral 
 and physical, of his rude assault, our sailor hastened 
 to recover the fallen snufF-box, pouring forth such 
 hasty apologies as he could the while ; and carefully 
 wiping away the (fortunately) slight impurities it 
 had contracted in its contact with the muddy flag- 
 stones, he filled it from his own huge magazine-like 
 box, and returned it to its owner with a grace of 
 manner, a manly apology, and a sort of deprecatory 
 half smile that were perfectly irresistible. 
 
 " Sir," said the critic, " you are deserving to be a 
 Parisian." 
 
 After this speech there could be little doubt who 
 he was. It was a fair instance of the difference 
 between politesse and politeness. The one with 
 jaunty self-complacent smirk flatters and halves the 
 compliment he pays you: the other, w^ith less manner, 
 but more modesty, sinks self to raise you in your 
 self-opinion. 
 
 The respectable silver box dtdy refilled, its new 
 contents tasted, praised, and appreciated, and itself 
 once more restored to the recesses of a cavernous 
 
 B 4
 
 8 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 pocket, tlie critic begged to be informed what was 
 the building, " passably fine indeed for size, but of an 
 ignoble architecture," out of Vv hich the captain had so 
 suddenly issued ! Having been informed, he con- 
 tinued : — 
 
 " Aha ! the Admiralty ! I have then the advantage, 
 perhaps, of addressing a member of the so distinguished 
 navy of England. Captain Merrick, you say ? shall 
 I say John ? aha ! your smile assures me : I was 
 nearly certain to be right, for the plural number of 
 English name themselves John: — wdiat will you? 
 'tis a national phantasma ! You ask my name ? 
 Charles Auguste Picotot, righteously called De Co- 
 cove: but what will you? a man whose family 
 has lost all his lands may well cut off half of his 
 name. 
 
 " I am truly glad to make Monsieur Picotot's ac- 
 quaintance," said Merrick, who seeing his new^ friend 
 not much inclined to leave him, proposed that if their 
 way were the same they should w^alk together. 
 
 " Truly," said Picotot, " I have no way : I am 
 shortly in England for an object altogether particular, 
 and my w^isli is to w^ander hither thither, and bind 
 acquaintance with whichsoever person shall please 
 me: — I am happy" — (and here, of course, a compli- 
 ment, which Merrick civilly cut short).
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 9 
 
 " Might I ask, jMonsleur Picotot, without being 
 indiscreet, the nature of a business which renders 
 this i^rocess of acquaintance-making so necessary ? " 
 
 *' Sir," replied the Frenchman gravely, " I am 
 searching a pensionary." 
 
 " You are doing what ? " 
 
 *' I am searching a pensionary^ — that is — certain 
 pupils, if so of a noble house the better, which I shall 
 lead into France to instruct them radically in the per- 
 fect speech of the tongue, for having, effectively I may 
 say, a nearly complete knowledge of English " 
 
 " Pardon my not having paid you the compliment 
 you deserve at an earlier moment," replied the Cap- 
 tain with a smile, which strongly threatened to grow 
 riotous and laugh ; " your English is admirable, but 
 pray let me hear more of your scheme." 
 
 " In effect, then, I have in the department of Seine- 
 et-Marne a propriety in land ; also too a house, not 
 long from the exceedingly pleasing town of Plassy, 
 wliich yielding a simple sufficientness for myself and 
 Madame Picotot " 
 
 "Ah! you are so fortunate as to be married?" 
 said the Captain. 
 
 "Fortunate, say you? aha ," replied Monsieur 
 
 Picotot, with a sort of reflective leer as if he envied
 
 10 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 himself, — "eifectlvely — Madame Picotot has been 
 thought not without a certain charm " 
 
 '^ Indeed ! " 
 
 '^ But then she has expenses, which is the devil ; 
 so a friend advised me to search a pensionary in 
 England, some youth, or young man, to whom the 
 air of the country may be agreeable, with the agree- 
 ments of the chase, that is, shooting, the benefit of 
 light study, and such a society as we shall be able to 
 afford." 
 
 " A capital plan ! but you have not perhaps been 
 successful?" 
 
 " What will you ? I had two letters introductory, 
 wdiich did not profit me ; I have thrown money out 
 by the windows for three weeks here ; IMadame 
 Picotot annoys herself ; I am not so lucky to meet 
 every day such acquaintance as is yours — and so I 
 am almost fixed to return myself to Beaupre." 
 
 "Beaupre?" 
 
 " My propriety — in the intention of practising 
 philosophy with a rent of four thousand francs." 
 
 And here ensued a silence. They had w^alked 
 into St. James's Park, and reached nearly the upper 
 end of the Mall. As by common consent, both sat 
 down on one of the benches there, and Merrick took 
 a survey of his companion. He was a tall thin man
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 11 
 
 of about fifty, with the air of a gentleman, though 
 he took no pains evidently to study the advantages 
 of appearance. The expression of his face was 
 that of the intensest self-satisfaction ; his eyes, 
 hidden by clumsy spectacles, would doubtless have 
 confirmed what the lines of the mouth, surmounted 
 by an upper lip of portentous length, sufiiciently 
 declared. He wore a carelessly cut blue coat and 
 trousers, both of which might have been less dusty, 
 and a yellow waistcoat which might have been less 
 snuffy : his shirt frill had certainly not left the 
 washerwoman's hands that morning, and the tie of his 
 dubiously white neckcloth would, had Brummel been 
 dictator, have insured the wearer's strangulation. 
 
 " Monsieur Picotot," said jSIerrick abruptly, ^' I 
 am in the humour to make a series of confessions." 
 His new friend bowed, blew his nose explosively, 
 as he was pleased jocularly to observe, and prepared 
 to listen. '^ First and foremost, I do not understand 
 a word of French." 
 
 " That's a pity," said Monsieur Picotot. 
 
 " And I Jiave passed my life learning to hate the 
 language and the people." 
 
 The Frenchman shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " Monsieur Picotot, I do not know what to do 
 
 B 6
 
 12 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 with myself ; I have not money to live with at home, 
 nor interest to get a ship." 
 
 " Aha, take care ! you will get your Englisli 
 -complaint, the splin /" 
 
 The Captain laughed loud and long at the idea, 
 and certainly never looked a man less likely to be 
 troubled with the disorder. He was hardly above 
 the middle size, and of a stoutness which threatened 
 in time to become corpulence ; but he had the look and 
 bearing of a gentleman, the frank and open manners 
 of a sailor. His forehead was large, w hite, and high ; 
 his hair dark, very short, and slightly curling ; his 
 eye sloe-black and full of spirit ; his nose too short, 
 and his mouth ill formed, would have made him a 
 plain man had it not been for the whitest and most 
 regular teeth, and the most winning smile that ever 
 were owned by a post- captain in H. M.'s navy. His 
 beard was of the darkest blue-black, close shaved, 
 and almost guiltless of whisker ; and to complete the 
 sketch, his deep-toned voice and ringing laugh be- 
 spoke a sturdy spirit and a merry heart. 
 
 " If Madame Picotot be pretty," thought the 
 Captain, " and if he does not put any d — d French 
 screw on me, why should not I ? " 
 
 " Monsieur Picotot, I have a great mind to ask
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 13 
 
 you if you will take me for a pensionary, as you 
 call it." 
 
 Monsieur Picotot rose, and positively gasped for 
 breath. Words cannot express the Frenchman's 
 delight, his ecstasy. He had been living for four 
 months on the fixed idea of getting pupils at Beaupre, 
 had bothered his little wife to death about it, had 
 brought her to London, where she was dying of 
 enmd, had spent the fruits of two years' economy in 
 the (to him) costly voyage, and, at the very moment 
 when he was speculating on the abandonment of his 
 plans, comes there no common " pensionary ; " no 
 youth, no boy, but a positive actual English post- 
 captain, whom it might be possible to make a lion 
 of, a companion of, and, better than all, money of ! 
 
 " Mon cher ami," said the agitated Picotot, " I 
 will incessantly present you to my wife." And, so 
 saying, he literally grabbed the sailor by his stal- 
 wart arm, and bore him off in triumph to his hotel in 
 Leicester Square. 
 
 While Merrick and Picotot pursue their way to 
 the Sabloniere, the favourite caravanserai in those 
 days with foreigners of small fortune, let us not be 
 surprised at the sudden determination at which the 
 sailor had arrived, knowing, as we do, the very 
 recent annoyance he had undergone, and the bitter
 
 14 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 disgust of his honest heart thereat, and being 
 further in possession of the pressing reasons he had 
 for trying to make his small means go as far as pos- 
 sible. A stay in France offered him the excitement 
 of a nevf country to see, and a new people to study. 
 To work at the language would be employment, 
 — to shoot over the stubbles with Picotot, peopled 
 with quail and red-legged partridge, would be amuse- 
 ment, — economy in the country would enable him 
 to indulge in an occasional run up to Paris, — and 
 Merrick had moreover two points to decide, about 
 which, without being curious in natural history, he 
 had long entertained a desire of enlightenment, 
 
 1. As to V7hni a (jj'isette \yas. 
 
 2. As to the exact flavour of fresh truffles. 
 
 He had all a sailor's impulses, and so made up his 
 mind to settle these weighty questions with all con- 
 venient speed. 
 
 Monsieur Picotot was not the man to check so 
 laudable a spirit of inquiry. On the contrary, that 
 worthy gentleman poured into the attentive ear of 
 his companion a series of descriptions of the cheap- 
 ness of the living, the excellence of the sport, the 
 salubrity of the atmosphere, the beauty of the 
 country, the amiable character of the women, and 
 the admirable flavour of the wine in the environs of
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 15 
 
 Plassy ; to judge by which, that favoured region 
 might claim to put Montpellier to the blush, equal 
 at least the Cote Eotie, and fairly eclipse Tours, 
 with all its hundred beauties, natural and artificial — 
 the ladies of course included in one, or, if you will, 
 both classes. The effect of this eloquent and lengthy 
 panegyric was, it Is true, somewhat injured by the 
 habit, which it will have been perceiTcd the pane- 
 gyrist had, of thinking in one language while he 
 talked in another. Merrick was, however, exces- 
 sively amused by this jargon, of which he could but 
 comprehend one half, and of that half he set down a 
 moiety as a rather warmly coloured picture. " Still," 
 thought he, with a spice of John Bull prejudice, 
 " Frenchman though he be, there must be some truth 
 in what he says;" — and thus, taking a good deal 
 on trust, did he arrive in good humour with his new 
 and eccentric acquaintance at their point of destination. 
 The rooms Picotot occupied were on the third 
 story — small, hot, dull, and dusty. The look-out 
 on the square was anything but cheerful. The 
 grass in it was burned brown, the dingy dried-up 
 London trees looked like standing libels upon vege- 
 tation, and the still dingier sparrows that frequented 
 them seemed to hop from one smoky branch to 
 another, as if in despairing search of one green twig
 
 16 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 to sit on. There is nothing so dreary as a fifth-rate 
 London square in a hot summer's day, when no one 
 is about; and so seemed to think little Madame 
 Picotot, who sat listless at an open window as the 
 gentlemen entered, and started in surprise when her 
 husband, with immense importance, presented to 
 her " Captain Merrick, of the British Navy." As 
 she did not speak a word of English, our sailor 
 could do no more than smile and bow^, while Picotot 
 explained to his wife the mode of his acquaintance 
 with the captain, and the fortunate fact of his 
 having thereby procured a pupil. 
 
 " O heavens, how dehghtful ! " cried the little 
 woman ; " then Ave shall go back to France ! Where 
 is he — what is he — when is he coming — is he a very 
 young man — w^iat's his name? Picotot, mon ami, 
 why don't you answer ? what is the matter ? " 
 
 This deluge of questions the Frenchman might 
 have stemmed, had he not thought it fit to assume 
 so deliberate a style of ludicrous importance as to 
 enable the voluble little body to overwhelm him 
 with it, while he was drawing himself up to explain 
 who the pupil was. The dignity of having a posi- 
 tive pupil was immense, but the sense of that pupil's 
 being no less a man than such as Merrick, who had, un- 
 solicited, made himself over to be bear-led ])y him.
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 17 
 
 Picotot — the delight of raising his consequence 
 with his wife by the success he had achieved — who 
 could conceive it ! Monsieur Picotot was stupend- 
 ous when he said, with the air of a stage conqueror 
 indicating to his mimic sovereign the presence of a 
 captive monarch in tin chains, — 
 
 " Amandine, Monsieur is my pupil." 
 
 Whether Merrick, not altogether so ignorant of 
 French as he said he was, had understood the sub- 
 stance of the brief conversation, and enjoyed the 
 surprise of the female Picotot ; or whether the gro- 
 tesque effect of her husband's manner, joined to the 
 introduction of a grown man in the character of the 
 boy-scholar she had expected, had struck him as it 
 did her by the effect of its infinite absurdity, certain 
 it is that their eyes met, and both burst out into an 
 uncontrollable fit of laughter, to Monsieur Picotot's 
 intense discomfiture. He stood wofully turning 
 from one to the other, while the two, as is the wont 
 of cheerful hearts that laugh in concert, seemed to 
 vie as to which should laugh longest. 
 
 Poor Picotot looked so disconcerted that his good- 
 natured little wife was the first to recover her com- 
 posure, and beg her husband's pardon. 
 
 Her excuse was characteristic. — " It is the first 
 laugh I have had since I came to England, mon ami.
 
 18 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 SO you must forgive my ma^rring your introduction ; 
 but will Monsieur pardon me?" added she, addressing 
 Merrick. 
 
 The worthy sailor was too conscious of having un- 
 intentionally mortified his new friend by spoiling an 
 effect (a thing a Frenchman does not easily forgive), 
 not to take the major share of the blame. He easily 
 re-established Monsieur Picotot's equanimity, and the 
 trio were soon on the footing of downright intimacy, 
 the little lady being in delight at discovering an 
 Englishman who knew how to laugh, which she 
 declared she had not seen one man, woman, or child 
 do since she landed in the island. Under her 
 auspices matters were soon arranged between the 
 master and the pupil as related to matters of busi- 
 ness. Merrick woidd have paid whatever had been 
 demanded of him unscrupulously, and Monsieur 
 Picotot would perhaps have been sufficiently uncon- 
 scionable, had not his little wife prevented his de- 
 manding much more than one third for lodging and 
 accommodation above what he ought to have done. 
 She already took the sailor under her special pro- 
 tection, eking out the meaning of her gracious little 
 speeches which Merrick failed to comprehend by such 
 " nods and becks, and wreathed smiles," as she knew 
 might show her off to the best advantage.
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 19 
 
 She was not, as said Monsieur Pico tot, " without 
 a certain charm," although perhaps its main merit 
 lay in its uncertainty, for where any particular beauty 
 existed it would have been hard to say. She knew 
 that a desire to please' constitutes after all the main 
 element in the art of pleasing; and thus little Madame 
 Picotot, with youth, gaiety, and good humour on 
 her side, positively cajoled you into thinking her a 
 very pretty woman, although her features were or- 
 dinary, and her figure insignificant. If plain women 
 would but adopt this principle, they would find it 
 invaluable, and would beat many a regular beauty 
 fairly out of the field. 
 
 It was arranged, then, that pending necessary pre- 
 parations for his departure, Merrick should take 
 daily lessons of French in Leicester Square, and as 
 he had hardly a relative, save a maiden aunt or two, 
 nor a friend out of London whom he required to see 
 before going abroad, he hoped, it being early in June, 
 to accompany his new friends to Beaupre in the first 
 week in August. One engagement only of any 
 consequence had he to get off. It was to a brother 
 oflicer, married, and settled near Belfast, to whom 
 he wrote the history of his disappointment, and of 
 his determination to try France for a year or two, 
 or till his prospects brightened. Yainly did the hos-
 
 20 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 pitable and friendly Irishman endeavour to tempt him 
 over to a delightful place, the name of which began 
 with Bally, and then became, to English utterance, 
 totally unpronounceable, offering him house and 
 home " for €ver, and a little after it." Merrick was 
 determined to live on his own resources, small as they 
 might be. His friend finding him inflexible, " to 
 show how an Irishman bears malice," as he said, 
 
 concluded his last letter as follows: ^^ Well, if 
 
 you wont, there's an end, but I must send you a re- 
 collection of Bally (especially as you're going 
 
 among the mounseers), which I hope you will prize 
 (and it is Irish, every bit of it), being a couple of the 
 sweetest setters you ever shot over, and named by 
 Rafferty (you remember him ? Paudieen, my keeper); 
 the appellations are not euphonious, but the French- 
 men will be none the wiser, and they're Rafferty's 
 own : he calls one dog Liver, ' bekase of the 
 colour,' and the other Lights, * bekase of the shade.' 
 Good bye. I have sent them to Ben White's at 
 Bays water, to wait till called for." 
 
 The friendly recollection was duly appreciated, and 
 well it might be so, for the dogs w^ere models of 
 beauty, ^' the best blood entirely in Ireland, and broke 
 to aquil Christians," according to the Rafferty afore- 
 named. Determined to have his sporting equipment
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 21 
 
 of unexceptionable character, were it but for the 
 honour of England, the Captain had furnished himself 
 with one of those guns which were looked upon in 
 those days as the perfection of art. Those were 
 the times when " flint and steel " still maintained a 
 struggle, doomed to be ineffectual, against "per- 
 cussion;" when every gunsmith had his patent, when 
 the science of gimcrack making was carried to its 
 highest pitch. Those were the days of " Pen- 
 dulum Sights," which secured infallible misses; of 
 " Gravitating Stops," which as often stopped as 
 gravitated, capricious as an April day or a pretty 
 woman ; of " Waterproof Detonators," which did 
 every thing but keep dry, and " Prime Self-primers," 
 whose merit lay in their title. Merrick, in obedience 
 to the reigning mode, gave eighty guineas for a 
 splendid complicated " Patent Wateq^roof Deto- 
 nator," whose intricate combination of springs and 
 catches, and the exquisite finish in lock, stock, and 
 barrel, would, he thought, " take the eye out of the 
 Frenchmen," and he was not far wrong there. 
 
 Sending on his heavier baggage before him, our 
 sailor soon found himself ready to take the Dover 
 road with those who were to serve him in the triple 
 character of tutors, hosts, and companions. The 
 daily French lessons, carried on with untiring energy
 
 22 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 on the part of both teacher and pupil, had begun to 
 show a great and triumphant result, owing, declared 
 little Madame Picotot, to the share she had in them, 
 insisting as she did on always assisting by her pre- 
 sence. JNIerrick had plenty of intelligence, untiring 
 perseverance, and a fund of good humour such as 
 few men ever owned beside. He threw aside, like 
 a sensible fellow as he was, grammar and exercises, 
 and began by reading Gil Bias, which Picotot, 
 horribly scandalised at this innovation upon estab- 
 lished habits, was obliged perforce to translate, and 
 teach the pronunciation of, word by word. (Believe 
 me, good reader, it is the best way of learning any 
 lanofuao'e.') Then, what shouts of lauo'hter from un- 
 controllable little Madame Picotot, when her gros 
 gargon, her " big boy," as she called him, made 
 some horrible mistakes in an attempt to speak a 
 sentence or two! How joyously would the sailor 
 enter into the fun of the error when explained to 
 him ! They were the merriest French lessons ever 
 taken within a league of Leicester Square, Pll answer 
 for it ; and, thanks to certain dim and misty recollec- 
 tions of words learned in old school-boy days, which 
 practice and association rummaged gradually out of 
 the inmost corners of the captain's brain, certainly 
 not the least profitable. It was about the beginning
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 23 
 
 of August that Merrick was declared capable of 
 making himself just understood ; and all prepara- 
 tions being made, the Picotots and their gros garqon 
 started for Paris, duly accompanied by Liver, Lights, 
 and the ineffable ** Detonator." 
 
 "We will not follow them step by step in a journey 
 so well known. Suffice it to say, that our friend 
 the Captain was early installed as " Squire of Dames" 
 to little Madame Picotot ; an arrangement which 
 seemed to suit the convenience of her husband ad- 
 mirably. But while the sailor took care of his wife, 
 he, in another sense, looked after the sailor. It was 
 ludicrous beyond conception to see the magisterial 
 air assumed by Picotot towards his pupil; he ex- 
 plained to the grown man the novelties he saw, in 
 the style in which he would have addressed a lad 
 of sixteen ; he translated every word uttered around 
 them, in the most implacably literal style into English, 
 for the benefit of his scholar. On their landing at 
 Calais, one of the setters bounding, poor sea-sick 
 wretch ! in joyousness upon land again, came across 
 the porter who was groaning under the weight of 
 the captain's gun-case and portmanteau, and brought 
 the fellow down with a heavy fall. 
 
 " Sacre chien ! " growled the man. 
 
 " That is, sacred dog^"^ muttered Picotot.
 
 24 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 Need I instance the force of llterality further ? 
 Merrick, the innate tact of whose kind good heart 
 taught him that Picotot s happiness lay in parading 
 him as a pupil, humoured the worthy j)edant to the 
 top of his bent, and made his little wife laugh, I 
 must say, very irreverently, at the authoritative air 
 of her lord and master, who, firm in the steady 
 complacency of deep-rooted self-conceit, saw nothing 
 but himself and the dignity of his position as a 
 post-captain's bear-leader. Arrived at Paris (Hotel 
 Bergere, Rue Bergere — I like to be particular), 
 he gave Madame Picotot entirely over to the sailor's 
 charge, and for the ten days they staid there, 
 spent his mornings in calling on old friends, and 
 his evenings in a certain club, of which, while em- 
 ployed, as he had been for years, in a public office, 
 he had been in a great measure the founder, the 
 members of which met to sing their own songs, and 
 flatter one another, as if each possessed in himself 
 the choral talents of a Desaugiers or a Beranger. 
 Yes, Picotot was a poet ; one of those small poets, 
 so numerous in his nation, who, with a certain fa- 
 cility of rhyme, spend the leisure of their lives in 
 strinofino' toirether occasional verses — anacreontic, 
 warlike, or political ; a sort of human grasshoppers, 
 who, happy men, chirp through existence with small
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 25 
 
 care for ouglit alive but themselves. Thus devoted 
 to friendship and the muse, the tutor left his wife 
 and pupil to see sights and visit endless theatres by 
 themselves ; whereby, let me observe, our sailor 
 achieved a progress in French which Picotot re- 
 marked was, " in a so new beginning learner, perfectly 
 a prodigy," and of which he attributed all the merits 
 solely to himself. 
 
 Let me here observe, that during the latter part 
 of their stay in London, Madame Picotot's influence 
 had induced a slight change in their plans of living 
 when arrived at their place of destination. Beaupre 
 ("the propriety") was, she said, the most stupid 
 place in existence. It lay three miles from Plassy 
 by a cross country road, stuck in the midst of a dirty 
 village ; and it was, instead of, as Picotot had allowed 
 his scholar to suppose, a goodly country mansion, 
 a wretched bit of a box w^ith barely room for two 
 people, and not enough for three. The truth was, 
 Madame Picotot wanted to live at Plassy ; and as 
 Merrick of course observed, that in a town he should 
 have more people to speak to, and therefore more 
 practice in French than in the country, it was de- 
 termined that a house should be taken in Plassy 
 itself, and that there the party should establish 
 themselves. 
 
 VOL. I. C
 
 26 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 Plassy, or the town I choose to call so, lies not 
 very many leagues from Paris, on the main road to 
 the south of France, It is a type of the small old 
 French towns, very proud of dating its origin from 
 a Koman colony ; nay, having, she is proud to say, 
 some of her older towers placed on the foundation 
 of buildings laid by those lords of the ancient world. 
 Here is an upper and a lower town ; the former 
 perched on the bluff of a rising ground, the latter 
 cowering below the hill, as if claiming the protection 
 of her stronger sister. The grey old walls which 
 still surround the one, enclose stocks of crumbling 
 ruins which have once been churches, old detached 
 houses in which dowagers dream out the dozy rest 
 of their existence, a nunnery or two, a grammar- 
 school, and much waste land, where a scanty crop 
 of barley makes shift to grow among the stones 
 which composed the buildings that erst stood there. 
 The lower town, on the other hand, is a prosperous, 
 thriving little city, that has beaten down her ram- 
 parts, and made public walks of the place they held ; 
 a tributary of the Seine runs past and partly through 
 the space she occupies ; her streets are neat, and 
 her gardens trim ; she has barracks where troops 
 might be quartered : a theatre in which plays might 
 be acted — though both are for the time unoccupied;
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 27 
 
 and in short looks up to her elder relative with 
 such a sort of mingled awe, compassion, and con- 
 tempt, as Mowbray, the rich cotton spinner, might 
 do towards his penniless sixth cousin, that De 
 Mowbray, who has w^ith his forbears for three ge- 
 nerations enjoyed starvation and the family dignity, 
 guiltless alike of derogation or utility. 
 
 Sweeping past the walls of the older city without 
 entering them, and ratthng down a hill- side covered 
 with low-cropped vines, the huge diligence in which 
 sat our party rolled into Plassy, and thundered over 
 its rough pavement, until in the market-place it 
 stopped, arrested by Picotot, before the carriage 
 entrance of the house we will try to describe in the 
 next chapter. 
 
 " Nous voici^ said jMadame Picotot. 
 
 c 2
 
 28 MADAME DE MALGUET, 
 
 CHAPTEK I. 
 
 I HAVE a special love and affection for a quiet, clean^ 
 small country town. After any tension of the mind 
 — the pressure of severe study — the excitement of 
 a struggle with the world — the sickness of dis- 
 appointed ambition — any thing, in short, which has 
 worn and shattered the mental frame, how exquisite 
 is the enjoyment of the quiescence of life such as one 
 sees it in such simple, tranquil communities. It is an 
 error to suppose that solitude is good in cases where 
 the soul is sick of active disquietudes. The contrast 
 between it and the recent busy scene of our exist- 
 ence is too great. The mind falls back upon itself, 
 and acts over again in reminiscence the causes of its 
 ailment. No; when ill at ease, thwarted, vexed, 
 and for the time hopeless, one should go off to mingle 
 with new persons and new faces, in scenes where 
 life is just active enough to give to thought sufficient 
 occupation, without need to labour for the present, 
 in order to create employment, or to fall back upon 
 sad thoughts of the past to supply the want of it.
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 29 
 
 In a countiy town, above all, on the continent, a man 
 may so manage as to create for himself for a while a 
 realisation of Thomson's "pleasant land of drowsy 
 head,'' so easily will life move on with simple com- 
 panions and innocent pursuits. 
 
 Our friend Merrick, who in his way was not 
 without a spice of practical philosophy which stood 
 him in good stead, had bethought him of all this ere 
 he consented to forego the comparative solitude of the 
 " propriety " Beaupre for a busier life in Plassy, and 
 on " turning out " next morning he had no reason to 
 regret his having given in to his own impressions 
 and the eloquent remonstrances of Madame Picotot 
 against " cet horrible Beaupre.'''' The house which 
 Picotot had taken might serve almost as a type of the 
 dwellings of the second or third class of the land- 
 owninor bouroreoisie of a French countrv town. It 
 opened on a street leading from the market-place of 
 Plassy, just fronting the open space before a large 
 stone fountain, much frequented by the gossips of the 
 neighbourhood, who drew thence the pure fluid while 
 they enjoyed the pleasure of blackening characters 
 perhaps as pure, to their full and infinite satisfaction. 
 The front of the building, which had been decorated 
 with armorial carving along the projecting eaves, and 
 the owner's scutcheon above the carriage entrance 
 
 c 3
 
 30 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 no longer possessed those aristocratic distinctions, 
 destroyed during the all-destructive days of that 
 universal liberty which prevented people from doing 
 as they pleased — the Revolution. The house was 
 plainly whitewashed, and the windows of both the 
 ground-floor (two of which were on either side the 
 gateway) and the upper story were totally without 
 ornament in or about them. Passing the carriage 
 gate through a convenient wicket, you entered a 
 passage going through the house, with a door of entry 
 in it to the apartments on either side : those on the 
 right were Merrick's, the other door led to the suite 
 of rooms sacred to the conjugal privacy of the 
 Picotots. You will ask why they selected a ground- 
 floor for their residence? — The rooms above were 
 destitute of fire-places, and looked the very picture 
 of discomfort. There were five of them, dreary, 
 rambhng chambers with alcoves for the beds, red 
 tiled floors, and doors endowed with so happy a 
 command over their own locks, as to be able to swing 
 open when they pleased, and remain steadily closed 
 when you tried to open them. These rooms were 
 reached by a staircase of heavy masonry, open on one 
 side to the court round which the house was built. 
 Opposite to it, on the other side, was the kitchen, and 
 next to the kitchen was a large empty coach-house
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 31 
 
 and cart shed. The stables again faced these build- 
 ings on the same side as the clumsy staircase, tenant- 
 less of steeds, for Picotot indulged not in such luxur3% 
 Liver and Lights, the only quadrupeds there now, 
 had the whole of the six ruinous stalls to their own 
 four-footed selves. 
 
 At the bottom of the court were what had been 
 the state-rooms. There were two of them, both on 
 the upper story, reached by a double stair from the 
 court. The door on the landing-place opened into 
 a sort of vestibule, whence on either side you entered 
 the two saloons, whereof one was handsomely floored 
 with inlaid oak, the only untiled flooring in the whole 
 building. These saloons were small, but elegantly 
 shaped old chambers, looking on one side on the court, 
 on the other upon the little garden attached to the 
 building. Both were full of lumber, to which, ac- 
 cording to Picotot, the proprietor attached great 
 value ; indeed he only procured a lease of the premises 
 by promising that the most scrupulous care should be 
 taken of the miscellaneous contents of these rooms. 
 When jMerrick and he entered them, they were sur- 
 prised at the quantity and value of the articles of 
 furniture they found there, all old fashioned, and in 
 a state of dilapidation more or less excessive ; but 
 had the fashion of the day in 1820 been as it is now, 
 
 c 4
 
 32 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 there were thousands on thousands of francs to be 
 made by the contents of these rooms. 
 
 " The rests of a noble family," said Picotot. 
 ' What will you ? This house was a secondary or little 
 house {petite maison, you know) once to the family 
 La Chalautre, and presently the proprietary of the 
 estate La Chalautre has succeeded to recover, not 
 only much of the estate, but also his appendages." 
 
 " Ah ! then we occupy one of the minor dwellings 
 of an emigrant family ? " 
 
 " Effectively we do : the proprietary, or, I should 
 to speak purely say, owneress, for she is a woman, is 
 Madame de Malguet, who coming back with les chers 
 amis, the Bourbons, has with dint of familiar interest 
 recovered much of her family lands, which had been 
 sold or confiscated." 
 
 " Then she is wealthy ? " 
 
 " Eh, eh — pretty well — not so bad — the lands of 
 La Chalautre have splendid woods." 
 
 " But why leave all this fine old furniture, these 
 family relics, these arms ; see, look at that noble 
 silver-mounted partizan, with the shaft even covered 
 with velvet ! look at that cuirass with the scutcheon 
 on it ! — why leave these things to rot here? " 
 
 " What will you ? why be a woman, my captain ? 
 what says the excellent Virgil? varium et mutahile 
 semper ; and more, Madame de Malguet is "
 
 MADAME DE MAI>GUET. 33 
 
 •' Yery fine, truly," said little Madame Picotot, 
 who tripped up the brick staircase, and stood in the 
 doorway ; '•' very fine, this, gentlemen, to be rummag- 
 ing musty rooms while I am waiting breakfast for 
 you I Past eleven o'clock, and the omelette cold, I 
 declare I The new cook, whom you in your good 
 taste chose to call pretty. Monsieur Merrick "(and she 
 shook her tiny fist at him in playful menace), " is in 
 despaii', and Picotot has not got out the wine. Go, 
 mon ami — off with you : — no, r/ros gargon " (her pet 
 name for the sailor), " you stay here : there is nothing 
 to see down the passage that goes to the garden, but 
 the wood-house under these rooms ; and Marie is 
 not there. Monsieur Merrick, I can tell you." 
 
 So saying she made obedient Picotot lock the 
 door of the dreary old rooms, and lost the as obedient 
 Captain the story of Madame de Malguet, of whom 
 in truth he thought no more, nor would have again 
 thought, but for an incident which will occur in its 
 due course in this veracious history. 
 
 Quietly established in this new abode, Merrick 
 proceeded to make acquaintance with the magnates 
 of the place, the sous-prefet, for there was one at 
 Plassy, the mayor, one or two of the landed pro- 
 prietors who lived in the town itself, and other 
 grandees of the little town. The English, who since 
 
 c 5
 
 34 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 the time we write of have so overrun France as to 
 threaten fairly to dispossess the inhabitants of certain 
 towns of their actual local habitation, were then in 
 many parts of the country wholly unknown by sight 
 or sound: the vision of drab breeches and the 
 vocal impression of " damns " were things as yet to be 
 in those lands. Plassy, it is true, being on the high 
 road, saw occasionally dash through the streets beings 
 reported by the waiter, who had served them at the 
 inn where they changed horses, as English people ; 
 but Plassy was a place where no one stopped. She 
 remained, therefore, unaware of aught that was 
 Anglican ; the last time that the representatives of 
 our insular nation presented themselves within her 
 walls in the quality of residents, having been one 
 night in the year 1379, when some three hundred 
 Free Lances scaled the ramparts, and took the upper 
 town. Having been besieged by no less a man than 
 Du Guesclin in then- new possession, and driven to 
 the citadel, they were in the end compelled to sur- 
 render, and all (the survivors) decapitated by the 
 enraged townspeople over a gate, afterwards ordered 
 to be built up as a place of ill omen, and to this day 
 known as poi^te aux Anglais. This little incident, 
 which an old chronicler calls " a right knightly and 
 well-ordered feat of chivalry, whereby these stout
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 35 
 
 varlets, though losing their lives, became greatly 
 honoured of all brave men, " caused the English to 
 be held in Plassy in a sort of traditional disfavour. 
 
 As a seaman, Merrick was looked upon with double 
 distrust. The inhabitants of the inland parts of 
 France had, so late as 1820, a horror of the sea, of 
 which they could form no idea, and of all belonging 
 to it. An English captain ! Heavens ! a fellow that 
 doubtless went about with a boarding pike in one 
 hand, and a speaking trumpet in the other ! It was 
 gravely discussed among the ladies, whether it was 
 likely he would insist upon dancing his national 
 hornpipe (for of course he knew no other dance) at 
 all the balls ? whether Madame Picotot really fed 
 him on raw "biftek?" whether he could be admitted 
 into a sitting-room in the event of his appearing in 
 his uniform, that is, duck trowsers, blue jacket, no 
 neckcloth, check shirt, and canvas hat, according to 
 a drawing which some one had sent from Paris as 
 an " Officer of the British Navy" — a hoax which the 
 simple folk religiously gave into ? All this, I know, 
 will be called exaggeration; but it is not the less true, 
 as the very disputants afterwards confessed to 
 iVlerrick's self ; and when one remembers that, after 
 all, they were but the bourgeoisie, ill-educated and 
 unenquiring, of a little inland town, and that the 
 
 c 6
 
 36 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 nation, upon the officers of whose navy they thus 
 speculated, had l^een recently at war with them for 
 some twenty years, it is not altogether so surjorising. 
 It is perhaps needless to say, that, after the first 
 difficulties in the way of making acquaintance were 
 overcome, the sailor's success with the simple and 
 really kind-hearted people he lived among w^as im- 
 mense. Instead of finding the Englishman the sort 
 of being the French stage then used to represent, in 
 his shape as a denizen of the land, fat, gross, rude, 
 j)roud, money-loving, in eternal drab breeches, and 
 continuations to correspond — 
 
 " Lax in his gaiters, laxer in his gait," — 
 
 and considerably addicted to the practice of selling 
 his wife with a halter round her neck ; or as a 
 seaman, coming up to their ideal creation of a fellow 
 with a queue and a cutlass, labouring under a passion 
 for dancing hornpipes, drinking grog, and saying God 
 dam; — Instead, we say, of this, when they saw 
 Merrick cheerful, frank and gentlemanlike, un- 
 assuming, and kind hearted, ready to mix with and 
 live like themselves, their surprise aud enthusiasm 
 knew no bounds. He became the lion of Plassy, 
 and Picotot as his keeper, was in the seventh heaven 
 of success. That worthy tried, it is true, the effect of
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 37 
 
 one or two insinuations as to the influence which his 
 humanising society might have had in producing so 
 pleasant a model of unaffected good humour as our 
 friend, the Captain ; but having hazarded some such 
 hint within earshot of his little w^ife, he endured 
 singular discomfiture then and there, being in the 
 face of men and gods told that he was an old goose 
 for talking any nonsense of the kind. Thus was 
 Picotot put down, and the popularity of the English 
 captain established for ever on his own merits. 
 
 This eiFusion of kindliness our friend took care to 
 turn to good account, by conciliating all of his new 
 acquaintance, with especial care all who had land to 
 be shot over, for it was now about the middle of 
 August, when the oats in that part of France are cut, 
 and quail shooting begins. Much did he long to 
 exhibit the powers of the ineflable detonator, and 
 deeply did he desire to astonish a French sportsman 
 by beating a stubble according to Hawker. Great, 
 then, were the pains he took to obtain permission to 
 shoot in all directions, and not less was his success. 
 He had the peculiar faculty of making friends, which 
 I really believe to be instinctive with many people, 
 and " to the manner born, " as the reverse is with 
 others. He asked for " le faveur" of being allowed 
 the liberty of shooting over Monsieur's land in such
 
 38 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 originality of blunder, — and then Picotot looked so 
 absurdly reproachful, — and then he laughed at his 
 own absurdity so good humouredly, — and declared 
 with such thorough conviction that the corn lands 
 round Plassy were the finest he had seen anywhere, 
 and the vin du pays admirable, — and then Monsieur 
 would complacently dip his fingers into the profiered 
 snufF-box, as if the corn and wune compliment were a 
 personal tribute to himself, w^hile Merrick, the villain, 
 would tell Madame in an undertone that no body 
 knew how to di'css but a French woman, and that 
 her sweet little girl w^ould grow up the most charming 
 creature in the world, for, with an expressive glance 
 at the lady, " how could she help doing so ? " It is 
 astonishing how far these very simple civilities went, 
 coming from a foreigner, and accordingly the Captain 
 found himself master of miles of beats round and 
 about Plassy in every direction but one, and there 
 (of course) he was told lay the best shooting. The 
 common voice joined in acknowledging this ; there 
 was nothing like La Chalautre. There was always 
 excellent quail shooting at Youton, and Berlejac, and 
 Quincy, at the beginning of the season ; and after- 
 wards, when the corn was all down, brown partridge 
 abounded all over the country : Monsieur le Capitaine, 
 said every one, would have excellent shooting, if he
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 39 
 
 could but get leave to try La Chalautre, where there 
 was shooting of all sorts, red partridge (and how the 
 Captain longed to kill one !) as well as brown ; and 
 capital sport in the vines in October when the grapes 
 are all plucked, and one may enter the vineyards : low 
 lands which in the winter swarmed with snipe and 
 teal, and woods which were said to abound with roe- 
 deer and even boars. But then, Madame de Mal- 
 guet 
 
 " Oh, ay ; I recollect the owner of the estate you 
 talk of. Well, what of her?" 
 
 "So extraordinary — so odd — so unsocial — such 
 a cynic — so ungracious — such a quiz of a person 
 — so unapproachable — so unmanageable — said, in 
 his or her turn, every one the sailor consulted. There 
 was but one common cry on the subject ; and yet it 
 was all hearsay ; no one knew her, no one professed 
 to have seen her, she never came to Plassy; but 
 Monsieur the Sous Prefet, who was her cousin, was 
 believed to pay her visits at stated periods, which he 
 made as much of as possible to increase his personal 
 consequence. 
 
 The Captain was mystified, and determined to clear 
 the matter up by asking the Sous Prefet himself to 
 use his good offices to procure him admittance to that 
 sporting Goshen of the land, this all-famous La
 
 40 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 Chalautre. To this'Picotot opposed grave and mys- 
 terious objection, which his little wife supported for 
 the sole fun of making the gros garqon angry ; in 
 which attempt, let us observe, she signally failed. 
 
 " This lady," said Picotot, " which is owneress of 
 La Chalautre, is also your proprietary : — she is 
 known to be — how say you ? — farouche^ ferocious ; 
 or — how shall I say ? — misanthropical : — she gives 
 no soul, and never has given them, permission to shoot 
 over La Chalautre : what now, if I or you, her 
 locataries or lodgers, ask with certainty to be refused, 
 — what then ? it is an affront to us, it is an oifence 
 to her only to be asked — and all our arrangements 
 are turned turvy-topsides." 
 
 " Come, gros garqon^'' said Madame Picotot, " you 
 are getting a vast deal too covetous and greedy : 
 won't you let a single bird, or a single hare, have a 
 chance of its life, you horrid marine Nimrod, you?" 
 
 The Captain laughed, and professed that all he was 
 anxious about was the sort of mystery every one 
 seemed to make of the mistress of La Chalautre. 
 
 " There's old De Grogniche, and Monsieur Ma- 
 latru, and the old Dowager — what's her name? — 
 that lives in the upper town, they, you know, all 
 refused me leave to shoot, and I have pocketed the 
 refusal very quietly ; but then La Chalautre "
 
 MADAME DE MALGTJET; 41 
 
 ** Gros garqon, if you don't leave oiF talking about 
 that odious place, I'll put you in the corner ; but 
 come, here's my dear spouse fully equipped for a 
 walk, and waiting for us — so call those dogs with 
 the unpronounceable names, and let us be off. " 
 
 So saying, forth sallied joyous little Madame Pico- 
 tot, proudly leaning on the arm of the gros garqon 
 as they strolled down the shady walk, where the 
 ramparts of the low town once had been, and made 
 their way thence along a cross road leading from the 
 town through the vineyards and gardens in the di- 
 rection of that " propriety " of which such frequent 
 mention has been made, even Beaupre. 
 
 The shooting season was to commence in a day or 
 two, and Merrick had already had Liver and Lights 
 out to see how far they could maintain in a French 
 stubble the high character they brought with them 
 from Leland. This afternoon, when it was agreed 
 the party should^walk out to dine at Beaupre, the 
 setters were not forgotten, and soon, at a wish from 
 Madame Picotot, at a sign from the sailor, the brace 
 of splendid dogs were quartering the strip of stubble 
 w^hich lay between the road side and an adjoining 
 vineyard, working up the wind, not overrunning an 
 inch of their ground, with such a mixture of art and 
 of instinct, that the sailor blessed his friend at Bally,
 
 42 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 &c., and was ready to have canonised Rafferty as a 
 worthy patron (they call it pattern in Ireland) to all 
 future gamekeepers. He turned to call on Picotot 
 to admire, and found the worthy Charles Auguste 
 looking on with an expression on his endless upper lip, 
 wherein was much derision and some contempt. 
 One corner of his very snuffy pocket handkerchief 
 he held in his hand ; at the other extremity was at- 
 tached an individual, of whose presence the sailor had 
 not been before aware. He was a singularly ugly 
 white French pointer, with one eye. 
 
 "Why, what on earth are you doing with that 
 animal tied in your handkerchief, mon ami ? What is 
 it?" 
 
 ^- It's a dog," answered Picotot proudly. 
 
 '• I see it's a dog, and a very ugly one ; but what is 
 he?" 
 
 " Diamant, that is diamond, a dog of a sporting 
 character, on which I long have had my eye, and 
 which I have come from purchasing, — a splendid 
 chieii de chasse, not yet quite attached to me " 
 
 " I shouldn't say that," said the sailor, "judging 
 by the taut haul he keeps on the handkerchief; but 
 see there I Liver has them, — look, watch how the 
 young dog backs him! steady dogs, — the covey is 
 running I see how steady they are ! look, the birds
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 48 
 
 lie — there's a stand for you ! how many Diamonds is 
 that worth, Monsieur Picotot ? " 
 
 And so saying he walked up to his noble setters, 
 flushed the covey, and saw the well broke dogs sink 
 to the ground, and lie as if made of stone. 
 
 " Four brace and a half!" we must mark this stub- 
 ble, Picotot, to begin with. 
 
 But Charles Auguste replied not ; his dignity had 
 been hurt in the depreciation of Diamant. To the 
 French sportsman of that day, used only to a single 
 dog that never went thirty yards from the gun, was 
 always in a direct line before it, and was broke to 
 run in and " retrieve " directly the bird rose, the 
 system of game-finding of which our friends Liver 
 and Lights were such able professors, was wholly 
 abhorrent. Thus fell it out that the Captain and 
 Madame Picotot had the talk all to themselves, till 
 they neared the outskirts of the hamlet where lay 
 the paternal acres of the lady's husband. 
 
 Here they found, waiting near an apple-tree by 
 the wayside, a lout of a peasant lad with a double 
 barrelled gun over his shoulder, a powder flask in his 
 hand, and lying at his feet a capacious well-worn 
 game bag, covered with what had once been a green 
 silk netting, according to use and wont with French 
 sportsmen.
 
 44 MADAME DE MALGL'ET. 
 
 " Why, Blaireau," said Madame P., " what are you 
 doing here ? " 
 
 But Blaireau's reply is lost to posterity, for at the 
 same moment advanced Charles Auguste ; he did not 
 deign a word — the wrongs of Diamant were at his 
 heart. Silently and with dignity slung he on the 
 greasy game bag ; he grasped the ponderous double- 
 barrel with the air of a Choctaw chief going out to 
 kill buffalo ; he loaded it w^ith determination, and 
 rammed dowm his charge w^ith bits of old newspaper ; 
 he paced into the stubble, looking sublime with his 
 sporting equipment over his ordinary blue habiliments. 
 
 "Blaireau," said he with dignity, " untie Diamant." 
 
 Blaireau untied the handkerchief, when the dog of 
 sporting character, finding himself free, looked at his 
 master with much canine humour in his one eye, 
 and set off back to Plassy as fast as his legs could 
 convey him. 
 
 Madame Picotot and the sailor sat deliberately 
 down by the wayside and laughed till they cried. 
 
 " Sacre Diamant!" said Monsieur Picotot. 
 
 " That is, sacred diamond^^ whispered Merrick to 
 his companion, and off they went into a second un- 
 controllable fit. 
 
 This was past bearing. Here stood Picotot upon
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 45 
 
 the verge of his paternal hundred acres, whereon he 
 was used to shoot the first shot in every August, a 
 day or two before the proper date perhaps ; but that 
 mattered nothing : here he stood after having seen 
 a laboured effect miss fire entirely, and conscious of 
 having indiscreetly ventured on a too contemptuous 
 expression of his feelings in the case of his pupil's 
 dogs, in anticipation of a triumphant success in the 
 matter of his own ! Picotot walked on ; he had yet a 
 consolation in store. 
 
 " Blaireau," said he, " have you marked the hare ? " 
 " There she is in the old form below the orchard 
 hedge," replied the peasant. 
 
 In an instant Picotot was himself again. He 
 walked down by the garden wall of Beaupre, gained 
 the orchard, crept through a w^ell-known gap in the 
 fence, and accompanied by Blaireau, whose great 
 round stupid eyes glistened with excitement, reached 
 a spot about half way down the little enclosure. 
 " Is this where you marked her, Blaireau ?" 
 "Right opposite — twelve paces from the hedge 
 — close to a little thorn bush, with her head towards 
 us." 
 
 Picotot adjusted his spectacles, cocked both barrels 
 of his clumsy old flint gun, poked them through 
 the hedge, and by the time Merrick who had
 
 46 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 followed came up to him, he had shot — a hare on 
 her form. 
 
 I cannot describe the rage of the sailor. He would 
 not trust himself to go near Plcotot, but turned 
 abruptly round, and made through orchard and garden 
 to the house. Madame Picotot met him, having 
 passed through the little mansion from the front 
 door. 
 
 " Gros garqon, what's the matter I " 
 
 " Go out shooting with that fellow ! never, never, 
 so long as my name's Merrick ; go out with a man 
 that will murder a hare in cold blood from behind a 
 hedge, — and before the day too !" 
 
 It was with difficulty that the enraged Captain 
 could make Madame Picotot comprehend the extent 
 of her husband's iniquity. Why the high crime and 
 misdemeanour of potting a hare should so discompose 
 the ^r OS g argon she could not make out; but infinite 
 was her difficulty in bringing him out of the only fit 
 of any thing like ill-humour she had ever seen him 
 exhibit. She had but barely succeeded in doing so, 
 when the voice of Picotot was heard singing from 
 afar one of his own "songs of the chase," as he 
 called them, as complacently as if he had been out 
 on the banks of Lake Ontario, and bas^ged an elk.
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 47 
 
 When the dewy morn is rising 
 Sportsman, your sleep must not be long, 
 
 Ton-ton, ton-ton, ton-taine, ton-ton ! — 
 For our ardour is surprising, — 
 And let us vent it in a song, 
 
 Ton-ton, ton-taine, ton-ton, 
 For our ardoui', &c. &c. 
 
 " Aha ! Monsieur le Capitaine I I have killed the 
 first piece of the season I here on my patrimonial propri- 
 ety — a ten pound hare I such a shot ! five and thirty 
 yards distance. Aha ! you are jealous, Captain ! " 
 
 It was fortunate that Picotot took the sailor's 
 disgust for jealousy. He was in high delight, and 
 passed the evening, no uncommon thing with him, in 
 adding to and rewriting an interminable ditty, having 
 twenty-seven stanzas, for the convenience of choice, 
 as Picotot had it, each one of which was rather worse 
 than the other. 
 
 When the moon rose, they walked home, the 
 sailor swearing deeply to Madame Picotot that he 
 never would submit to be shown about the country 
 by a fellow who potted hares behind a hedge — nor 
 would he. What came of this determination, the 
 next chapter will inform us.
 
 48 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 It is a rare thing for a kind heart to be vexed with 
 trifles. Yet was John Merrick unable for a day or 
 two to overcome his repugnance to submit, after the 
 memorable martyrdom of the hare under the orchard 
 hedge at Beaupre, to the boredom of Picotot's com- 
 panionship. That most unsportsmanlike of pedants 
 tried in vain to bring about the ordinary morning's 
 lesson in French — the Captain was out. Dinner 
 came, but no Merrick — the Captain was engaged. 
 The evening passed away, Madame Picotot, yawning 
 over what she called "her work," and Charles Au- 
 guste repolishing his old songs, till he had rubbed all 
 the point off them ; but the Captain was at the cafe 
 or, in short, he was not forthcoming. The fact was, 
 that the ^' gros gargon^^ meditated an act of direct 
 rebellion. 
 
 I have said that it wanted but a day or two to 
 the opening of the shooting season when our friends 
 took that stroll in the direction of the " propriety " 
 celebrated at the close of our introduction. It was
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 49 
 
 on the eve of the August that Merrick, after a 
 
 virtual disappearance for the two previous clays, 
 tapped at the door of the sitting-room where was 
 ensconced Madame Picotot, and, well assured of the 
 absence of Charles Auguste, submitted with the best 
 grace he could to the half-tearful reproaches of the 
 little half-angered bourgeoise. 
 
 '• ^Vell, sir, this is the way you treat your friends ! 
 — this is the way you show your temper ! If Picotot 
 will shoot hares over a hedge, is it my fault ? If he 
 will " 
 
 " Come, come, la hourgeoise^^ for so the sailor 
 called her, "you know well enough that I only 
 wanted not to quarrel with your own kind, good- 
 humoured self, but simply to work out my right to 
 being my own master, which, on my word, I have 
 perhaps been too ready," he added laughingly, " to 
 resign. I felt it needful to shake off the Picototian 
 influence ; and in order to start under my own gui- 
 dance on the first day of quail-shooting, it became 
 necessary to establish a little previous spice of free 
 agency." 
 
 "But are you really determined to go out across 
 country alone ? " 
 
 " On my word, I'll not go with your husband." 
 
 " But think, you don't understand the language ! " 
 VOL. I. D
 
 50 MADA^VIE DE MALGUET. 
 
 " I'll put a pocket dictionary in my shooting- 
 jacket." 
 
 " But thinks you don't know the country." 
 " Little Michel, my dog-keeper, shall show it me." 
 " But remember how our peasants hate the En- 
 glish, — how possible it is you may go where you 
 ou2:ht not, — how certain you are then to be involved 
 
 in a dispute, — how " 
 
 We will not follow the train of Madame Picotot's 
 just and reasonable objections, nor detail the argu- 
 ments wherewith the Captain combatted them ; 
 suffice it to say that an arrangement was concluded, 
 the principal points whereof were, 
 
 1. That Picotot should know nothing about it. 
 
 2. That Merrick should have breakfast by himself 
 (of course) in his own room, at seven o'clock the fol- 
 low ino; mornino'. 
 
 3. That he should bear the entire blame of his own 
 evasion. 
 
 This important negotiation had been barely con- 
 cluded when a sort of melancholy humming, like the 
 wind in a gun barrel, but which was really Monsieur 
 Picotot's mode of singing one of his own sentimental 
 songs, — forewarned the high contracting parties of 
 the return of that estimable euphuist, whereon the 
 little female Picotot resumed her knitting, netting,
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 51 
 
 or knottiDg, while the sailor went out to warn Michel, 
 who slept over the stable, to be punctual in the 
 morning, — to take an approving look at Liver and 
 Lights, — and lastly, to put together with his own 
 hands the ineffable detonator, destined first in those 
 regions to disclose to French quail the death-dealing 
 excellences of an English patent. After which he 
 retired to rest, and slept the sleep of the just. 
 
 The first twitter of the earhest swallow that 
 nestled under the cozy eaves of the old mansion, 
 roused Merrick from his slumbers, and, full of the 
 idea of stealing a march upon Picotot, he prepared 
 himself quickly and silently for his day's sport. 
 Michel, roused and cautioned to be quiet, seemed to 
 catch the spirit of the thing, and to feel all the zest, 
 as he noiselessly did the couples on the setters, of 
 being about something pleasant but wrong. Leonore 
 even, the pretty cook- maid, confidentially entrusted 
 with the preparation of the sailor's breakfast, left her 
 sabots at the door of the kitchen, and tripped like a 
 culinary fairy without sound of footfall across the 
 court with store of good things to the Captain's room. 
 These he disposed of with equal appetite and satis- 
 faction, while little Michel, sitting on his own door- 
 step under the carriage entry, discussed his breakfast 
 after the approved mode of French peasants ; that is, 
 
 D 2
 
 52 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 he tucked half a loaf of bread under his left arm, 
 in his left hand he held a formidable lump of very 
 fat bacon, and in his right the knife, with which he 
 cut alternate lumps and .slices from the dainties 
 nearest his heart. 
 
 Breakfast over, Merrick finished his equipment, 
 snatched up the ineffable detonator, and sallied into 
 the carriage entry, about to make his way out through 
 the wicket of the main gate, when the opposite door 
 opened, and little Madame Picotot thrust out her 
 head to ask if his breakfast had been good, if his 
 brandy flask were filled, if his luncheon were in the 
 game bag, and, above all, if he were sure to take all 
 the blame with Picotot of this imprudent and unex- 
 pected sortie. Satisfied on these points, the little 
 woman shook hands a VAnglaise with the sailor, and 
 left him to pursue his way. 
 
 Great was the sensation which his appearance 
 produced in the streets of Plassy ! It was the day of 
 the pe^^Y marclie, when the town is full of country 
 folks, who throng thither twice a week for their petty 
 trade ; and many were the bright black eyes bent on 
 the Captain as he strode down the market-place, and 
 frequent was the loud masculine laugh that greeted 
 his foreign dress and foreign air. But Merrick was 
 no fellow to blush when a woman looked at him, nor
 
 HADAME DE MALGUET. 53 
 
 fret for a good-humoured gibe. His sHooting-coat 
 was certainly not in the French cut, nor his waistcoat 
 (thank heaven ! ) in the French taste ; his breeches, 
 leo^o-iniTs, and ankle-boots seemed, althougih of light 
 material, suiting the season, cut on the plan of an 
 English gamekeeper's (that best of all shooting 
 dresses by the way) ; — but what of that, he wore 
 them with that air of ease and gentlemanly confi- 
 dence, which proclaims a man a cosmopolite ; — he 
 made his way along with a cheerful brightness in his 
 gait, and gaily swung his limbs as if he were kicking 
 the world, that huge football of sorrow, disdainfully 
 before him : moreover, let us mention, that than those 
 limbs so neatly clothed in leggings of unexception- 
 able fit, none stouter nor better turned ever traversed 
 his majesty's quarter-deck. These physical advan- 
 tages were not lost upon the pretty paysannes, more 
 especially the elder ones ; and Merrick's progress 
 through the crowded street, which had threatened to 
 begin in something like a row, bid fair, such is the 
 power of female influence, to end in an ovation. So 
 much, thought he, " for that old ass Picotot's talk 
 about the rudeness and incivility of the peasantry," 
 — and so thinking he gained the ramparts of the 
 lower town, and was quickly across them, and among 
 the patches of stubble which, intermixed with more 
 
 D 3
 
 54 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 extensive vineyards, occupied the somewhat precipi- 
 tous sides of a ravine that had of old protected this 
 quarter of the little city. 
 
 Delighted with his sport and with his splendid 
 dogs, Merrick rambled on through the wide cham- 
 paigne, without caring particularly where he went. 
 The country stretched for miles before him in undu- 
 lating swells of corn land, dotted here and there with 
 villages nestling in their trees. The ruined churches, 
 which even so late as in those days gave evidence 
 that there had been a time in France when men 
 raised their hand against the house of God, because 
 a priesthood had desecrated it by oppression and by 
 luxury, gave alone any tone of melancholy to the 
 scene. That apart, it was indeed la belle France 
 smiling under a teeming harvest, and giving in the 
 unbroken hedgeless expanse of cultivated country a 
 sort of corresponding idea of the vastness of her 
 plenty. Merrick found it advisable to keep away 
 from the villages, for the only one he had approached 
 poured forth half its population to stare at him, his 
 dogs, his baggings, and his gun. It was not that the 
 people were uncivil, but they spoke a dialect he 
 could not comprehend, and Michel told them that 
 this was an English officer, and that these were 
 actual English dogs, and the sailor had to stop and
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 55 
 
 be lionised. He got through it well enough, how- 
 ever, offered snuff to the men, praised the crops, 
 distributed sly glances among the prettiest of the 
 smiling paysannes, and petted one or two of the 
 children daring enough to face the English dogs. 
 Even the sulkiest country lout could not resist the 
 infection of his good humour, and one or two went 
 with him some distance to show him where birds lay, 
 or point out the open stubbles. 
 
 The Captain, however, did not a second time go 
 near enough any hamlet to court attention, and thus 
 pursued a sort of devious course, now bearing away 
 from a village, now stretching past the standing corn 
 to reach a stubble, so that he was very soon beyond 
 the country he knew ; and even Michel confessed 
 that his geogr.iphical researches having been confined 
 to within two miles of Plassy, he had not the re- 
 motest idea of where they were. This our friend 
 the sailor, however, cared very little for, and not 
 knowing the strictness of the French law against 
 trespass, he thought that if he did make a mistake 
 as to the ground he was shooting over, much would 
 not come of it ; besides, the sport was excellent, and 
 it was the first day of the season, so perhaps he 
 troubled himself very little about any thing save 
 finding his game and killing it. 
 
 D 4
 
 56 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 It was now about half past one, and Merrick sat' 
 down under the lee of a small cover to count his 
 birds and eat his luncheon, to the infinite satisfaction 
 of Michel, who began to find the bag heavy and the 
 pace severe. Eight or nine brace of quail and half 
 as many of partridge was no bad morning's work, but 
 among the latter there was not a single red one, and 
 to kill red-legged partridge was one of the Captain's 
 fixed determinations on coming to France. Merrick 
 accordingly leapt up, and summoned Michel to march. 
 His follower, still discussing an apple and a mon- 
 strous piece of bread, the relics of his luncheon, 
 stuffed the bitten pippin ruefully into the pocket of 
 his blue smock frock, and got stiffly up from the 
 ditch-side he was sitting on. 
 
 "Well, Michel, my boy, — e?i ?'oufe." 
 
 Michel shuffled slowly up to tlic game-bag, laid 
 hold of the strap, and looked at his master. If ever 
 a look spoke, that one said plainly — How should 
 you like to carry this ? 
 
 " Why, surely, it is not heavy, man, yet ? " 
 
 " Yet ! " said Michel. 
 
 " So you're knocked up already ? " 
 
 " Monsieur shoots so well, and monsieur walks so 
 fast!" 
 
 Master Michel was a shrewd fellow thousch he was
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 57 
 
 but fifteen ; the compliment to skill, and the appeal 
 to good nature I It was a double-barrelled answer, 
 and both shots told. 
 
 " Come, it's the first day, and I must say the bag 
 is heavy. Go, ask your way back to Plassy at the 
 next village; Til stow my afternoon shooting in 
 my game pockets. Tell madame I am getting on 
 capitally." 
 
 So saying the sailor called on Liver and Lights, 
 who, after a look or two at the retreating figure of 
 their keeper, dashed gaily into the nearest stubble, and 
 resumed their work. 
 
 Game became more plentiful as Merrick advanced ; 
 the face of the country altered : small scrubby oak 
 copses were not infrequent ; the undulations of the 
 ground might almost be termed low hills, along the 
 crest of which, broken here and there by rock 
 cropping through the soil, vineyards were planted, 
 richly covered with grapes as yet unripe. Our friend 
 had just begun to speculate upon these changes in 
 the scene around him, when he missed one of his 
 dogs. He was beating a stubble close to one of the 
 copses of which mention has been made. The dog 
 must have roaded a running covey into it ; he beat 
 up the skirt, but neither bird nor dog was there. 
 He called, whistled, — all in vain. He was in serious 
 
 D 5
 
 58 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 apprehensions that his setter was lost, when a man 
 moved round the cover corner, a gamekeeper evi- 
 dently, as they translate one in France, holding un- 
 happy Liver in durance. The fellow seemed divided 
 between admiration for his prisoner and mischievous 
 amusement at the Captain's perplexity. He was 
 dressed in an old velvet jockey cap of marvellous 
 greasiness, coarse blue stuff trousers patched at the 
 knees, a blouse of the same stuff tucked up and 
 belted round his body, and he carried a gun and a 
 game-bag. 
 
 " What are you shooting here for ? " 
 
 " Because I choose," said the sailor. 
 
 " Don't you know it's a preserve? " 
 
 '• I know nothing about the matter, for the fact 
 is, I don't know my way, nor where I am." 
 
 •' Well, then, you're on the lands of Monsieur de 
 Grogniche." 
 
 " How far from Plassy ? " 
 
 " Three leagues at least." 
 
 " The deuce I am ! " thought Merrick ; " I must 
 have walked over half the country." 
 
 " What have you laid hold of my dog for ? " 
 
 " He's seized for poaching, that's all." 
 
 During the above conversation the fellow had been 
 gradually moving av\ay, so as to keep a respectable
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 59 
 
 distance bet\yeen himself and Merrick, who was en- 
 deavouring to come up with him. Had he really 
 done his duty, he should, IMerrick knew, have come 
 up and demanded to see his licence to carry a gun, 
 the first thing asked for in such cases in France. He 
 was certain, therefore, that this manoeuvre was in- 
 tended to mean either annoyance or extortion. He 
 handled the detonator menacingly, after loudly 
 calling on the man to stop and speak to him. The 
 fellow laughed on seeing the movement, and coolly 
 sat down with the dog before him. 
 
 " Shoot ! " said he. 
 
 Merrick laughed in spite of his vexation, and 
 tried a more effectual argument, — he held up a 
 five franc piece. The keeper rose, and without 
 stirring from where he was, poured forth a torrent 
 of refusals, while the sailor walked up to him. 
 
 " Impossible — out of the question — I never take 
 money — I could not think of it — quite unheard of 
 — money to me ! bah ! it's an affront ! a positive 
 indignity." 
 
 And all the while he stood, like Polonius studying 
 the clouds, staring sedulously up at the blue sky, 
 while, with the thumb of his left hand, he opened the 
 greasy mouth of a capacious pocket in the breast of 
 his blouse. Merrick, much amused, went straight 
 
 D 6
 
 60 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 up to him, and dropped the coin into the well-worn 
 receptacle. It went with a dead heavy thud down 
 to the bottom, and instantly the leash was slackened 
 from the setter's neck, and the fellow turning round 
 with an air of infinite surprise said — 
 
 " A stranger ! I had not the honour of observing 
 monsieur before ; in wdiat way can I oblige mon- 
 sieur ? What are his commands ? " 
 
 The natural reply was, that he wished to go 
 shooting, but on this point the facetious and greasy 
 gamekeeper was inexorable. 
 
 " Let me ask monsieur to forego his sport for my 
 sake ! " 
 
 " Certainly," said Merrick, laughing ; " the appeal 
 is irresistible ; but what must I do ? " 
 
 " Go home ; I am quite distressed to deprive a 
 gentlemen with such a gun and such dogs of the 
 pleasure of shooting, but it is inevitable ; this Is 
 the boundary almost of our estate, and the other hill 
 before you is " 
 
 " AYell ! I can try over that if it's in my way 
 home." 
 
 The man grinned from ear to ear. 
 
 " I should like to see you try that ; it's on La Cha- 
 lautre ; — no good-natured fellows with short me- 
 mories and a taste for pleasantry there ! no, no ;
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 61 
 
 Madame de Malguet would never hear of keeping a 
 civilised gamekeeper that understands what the 
 decencies of life are." 
 
 " Why is that ? Does she preserve so very strictly ? 
 Tell me a little about her." 
 
 The keeper put on a look that was intended to ex- 
 press the quintessence of knowingness. 
 
 *' Monsieur must pardon me, but I am not to be 
 had — not to be done — not to be mystified — I've 
 lived in Paris, and — ha ! ha ! ha ! ask me about 
 Madame de Malguet ! Comes from Plassy, and asks 
 — capital I ha ! ha ! ha ! I have the honour to wish 
 monsieur a good morning ; here is the boundary of 
 our estate, this cross-road ; it crosses the hill, mon- 
 sieur will observe, and strikes the high road from 
 Paris about a league and a half hence, running nearly 
 the whole way tlu'ough La Chalautre. — Monsieur 
 must not think of leaving the road, although he — 
 ha I ha I — does not — ha I ha ! — does not — ha ! 
 
 ha ! — know anytking about Madame de ; ha ! 
 
 ha ! " 
 
 Thus laughing, and thus chattering, did the game- 
 keeper, versed in the decencies of life, flourish his 
 greasy cap in a farewell salutation, and wend his way 
 back to his own dominions. * 
 
 Merrick stood on the cross-road, which ran along
 
 62 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 the bottom of a little valley, and sloping up the hill 
 on his right, crossed the crest of it about a mile 
 distant from where he was. It was barely four 
 o'clock, the first day of the season, a brace of splendid 
 dogs at his heel, in his hand the ineffable detonator, 
 and all around him the best preserves in the country- 
 side — it was provoking certainly to be obliged to 
 leave off! He took a consolatory pinch of snuff, 
 threw his gun over his shoulder, and commenced his 
 homeward trudo;e alons; the road, meditatino; on the 
 absurdity that seemed to destine him to remain in 
 ignorance of the peculiarities of the lady, through 
 part of whose broad lands he was making his way. 
 Was she young ? young and a widow ? — and the Cap- 
 tain smiled ; — or old ? old and pious ? like enough, 
 thought the sailor ; she must be a saint by her want 
 of Christian charity in keeping her lands preserved. 
 At this moment Lights, with his eye intently fixed 
 on something, crept a little in advance of his master. 
 The Captain looked up, and saw a covey of par- 
 tridges running across the road, about eighty yards 
 before him. He stopped and watched them. They 
 crossed from some standing wheat on the left, and 
 made for the only piece of stubble which, on the 
 right hand of the road, eut in among the vines, with
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 63 
 
 which the hill crest was covered ; it was not far from 
 the point at which the road crossed the hill. 
 
 " Going to feed," thought jMerrick ; " nine brace, 
 by Jove, and red-legged birds, I doubt not, as they 
 say there are none else at Chalautre. — Deuce take 
 the cantankerous woman — what harm could the 
 killing a few birds do her ? they're in the stubble, 
 all ; — well, if ever man had luck hke mine ! Heel, 
 dogs, heel." 
 
 As, however, they approached the spot where the 
 covey had crossed, Liver and Lights, whose ideas on 
 the game laws and the right of property in the 
 fera natures were by no means those of Madame de 
 Malguet, became so impatient as to need a hint of the 
 whip to keep them to heel. The Captain, glorying 
 in his stoicism, strode proudly past the stubble, and 
 Liver followed ; but Lights, the younger dog, yielded, 
 I grieve to say, to his cynicism, or doggish instinct, 
 and turned back to where the scent lay warm and 
 strong at the place the covey crossed the road. 
 Liver, I blush to add, seduced by his junior, went 
 but a few paces further with his master, then turned 
 back and joined in quartering the stubble, and to 
 such good purpose, that just as Merrick turned to 
 look for his dogs, they had found the covey. 
 
 " Call them off," said Prudence.
 
 64 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 " How they stand ! " quoth Sport. 
 
 " Any one coming ?" whispered Caution. 
 
 "Come, flush the covey, at any rate !" sneered that 
 peculiar imp whose duty it is to tempt mankind to 
 poach. 
 
 And Merrick did flush it, which was all very 
 innocent, only, unfortunately, he did something more, 
 which was the making a double shot on the birds, 
 and great was the glee of the sailor as he bagged his 
 game. He looked up and down the valley — no body 
 there ; he re-loaded, and made his way back to the road, 
 which, had he gained, this veracious history would 
 most certainly never have been written ; but, alas ! 
 as he had headed the dogs with the covey between 
 him and them, one of the young birds, bewildered, 
 had not gone away with the rest, and the Fates so 
 willed it, that on this unlucky bird should Merrick 
 walk. Whirr ! went the rapid wings almost from 
 beneath his feet, while the lag-last of the numerous 
 family that owned them circled round and made after 
 his relatives over the brow of the hill ; but he got no 
 further, save as a gone partridge, for just there 
 Merrick, who had turned and cocked his gun, caught 
 him. It was a splendid shot! The bird towered 
 slightly, and dropped just on the other side the ridge.
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 65 
 
 " It's a sin not to bag that fellow," thought Merrick ; 
 so he fairly put prudential considerations to flight, 
 and braved the worst. On crossing the hill crest, 
 however, he saw that which would perhaps, seen 
 in time, have induced him to think twice ere he 
 did so.
 
 66 MADAME DE MALGUET 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 He found himself standing among vines, overlook- 
 ing an extensive valley, deeper and more considerable 
 than any he had yet seen : on one hand, to his left, it 
 bended away with a graceful curve, widening as it 
 advanced ; on the other, it narrowed, until it was lost 
 among some bluff uplands, not unlike those Merrick 
 had that day already crossed. The whole side of the 
 valley on which he stood was covered with a sheet of 
 vines, the other side with forest, the low land between 
 was rich meadow, whose waving willows bespoke the 
 marshy soil, further evidence of it being given by the 
 mere which occupied part of the basin of the valley, 
 and served to hold the drainage of the higher ground. 
 Above this mere, on the verge of the forest, for the 
 wood seemed so considerable as really to deserve that 
 name, was what had once been a goodly chateau. 
 It was a house built in what we should call the 
 style of the reign of our Queen Anne, a three-storied 
 mansion with a high slated roof; a raised terrace 
 ran alono- its whole extent, the entrance beins: in the
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 67 
 
 centre up a handsome flight of stone steps. It was, 
 however, in a terrible state of dilapidation. One wmg 
 of the building had been burned, and the charred 
 rafters, the roofless walls, the gaping windows, were 
 all left unrepaired, to tell silently their tale of deso- 
 lation. The rest of the building seemed hardly in- 
 habited, although thin smoke issuing from some 
 chimneys of the other wing belled the impression. 
 Xearly all the windows, however, of the main building, 
 as well as the principal door, seemed fast closed — the 
 former having their shutters in, while the disrepair of 
 the terrace, almost the whole of the balustrade 
 belonging to which was thrown down, seemed to in- 
 dicate that years had elapsed since the hand of man 
 had interfered to remedy the ill which perhaps his 
 ravages had occasioned. Before the house there had 
 been an ornamented garden, surrounded by a clipped 
 yew hedge, and decked with statues and vases. Of 
 these none remained, save, left perhaps in mockery, 
 a miserable broken-nosed Pomona, presiding now 
 over nettles and burdocks. An avenue of trees had 
 led, by a graceful sweep circling round the mere, up 
 to the once lordly mansion ; but this could be only 
 traced by here and there the decaying stump of a noble 
 tree, most of whose companions had been cut down. 
 The mere itself looked cold and dreary, a sort of Dead
 
 GS MADAME BE MALGUET. 
 
 Sea in tliat valley of desolation. There was only 
 one sign of auglit new, or of any care bestowed on 
 the place, and even that was offensive to the eye ; 
 it consisted in the out-offices, which seemed to have 
 been lately restored. Traces of ruins with the action 
 of fire visible on them, rendered it likely these had 
 shared in the conflagration which had destroyed the 
 wing of the main building. The modern structure 
 that supplied their place was not in character with 
 the architecture of the mansion, and in its staring 
 rudeness seemed to insult the decay which reigned 
 throughout the chateau, like a saucy parvenu crowing 
 over a ruined p6er ; the dark forest as a back ground 
 completed the melancholy of the scene. This was 
 La Chalautre. 
 
 It is not to be supposed that Merrick mastered the 
 twentieth part of these details on the first view of 
 the place. On the contrary, his attention, far from 
 being given to general effects, was concentrated on 
 the staring-out offices aforesaid, whence, as w^ell as 
 he could distinguish, a knot of people, about six or 
 eight, were setting forth with hasty steps, while 
 others prepared to join them. He could hear their 
 shouts — they must have heard his shot, and of their 
 object there could be no doubt. He determined, in 
 diplomatic phrase, to take the initiative : so, having
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 69 
 
 loaded again, he stuck his hat tighter on his head, 
 called his dogs to heel, and strode down the hill to 
 meet the advancing party. 
 
 They came on with much clamour, bellowing and 
 calling to the laggards to come up, shouting threats 
 to Merrick, and evidently working themselves up to 
 mischief. The leader among them was apparently 
 the gamekeeper, and he certainly answered, as far as 
 a forbidding appearance could go, the character given 
 of Madame de Malguet's people by the greasy 
 facetious guardian of the adjoining estate. He was a 
 spare, dry, choleric looking fellow, one of whose eyes 
 had been destroyed by some accident out-shooting, 
 as appeared by the powder grains buried in the skin ; 
 an enormous nose attested, by its excessive redness, 
 what the predilections of the owner were; and he 
 even seemed then half drunk, as, conspicuous by his 
 green plush shooting coat, and long leather gaiters 
 reaching far above the knee, he gesticulated to his 
 followers, chiefly peasants and farm servants, and 
 pointed often to Merrick, as if marking him out for 
 some act of vengeance. 
 
 At the extremity of the avenue they met, and the 
 Captain was in a moment surrounded, his gun rudely 
 taken from him, his dogs seized, his person threatened, 
 — all of which was taken so quietly by the party prin-
 
 70 MADAME DE MALGUET, 
 
 cipally concerned, who well knew the absurdity of 
 arguing with a knot of angry men, that one of the 
 louts took heart of grace, and fairly laid his hand on 
 Merrick's collar. He simply and civilly asked him 
 to let go. The reply was a brutal taunt ; Merrick 
 knocked him down. 
 
 "Kill him — he boxes — he is an Englishman, 
 down with the Goddem !"&c. &c. 
 
 But profiting by the momentary confusion, the 
 sailor had wrested from Monsieur Pierrefeu, the 
 keeper, the ineffable detonator, of which that w^orthy 
 had possessed himself, and assuming that air of au- 
 thority which all men of nerve accustomed to com- 
 mand can render so imposing, he ordered the whole 
 party, on pain of a charge of small shot to any re- 
 cusant, to precede him to the chateau. This they 
 were perforce compelled to do, and it was not slightly 
 ridiculous to see this mob of bullies walk sheepishly 
 along before the man they went out to capture, and 
 in this order pass up the steps and along the terrace, 
 before the wondering eyes of the women and boys of 
 the house. A window in the further Aving which 
 opened to the ground seemed now used as the main 
 entrance, for thither was Merrick marshalled by his 
 ushers malgre eux, and there found he awaiting his
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 71 
 
 arriyal two persons, one of whom was of very re- 
 markable appearance. 
 
 He was a short, shght, elderly man of fifty, or 
 more, with pale, meaningl^s blue eyes, and a singu- 
 larly inert expression of countenance. His features 
 were ordinary and effeminate, save the mouth, the 
 only one that gave any indication of character, and 
 by it a physiognomist would have concluded that its 
 owner was possessed of resolution of purpose and de- 
 cision, qualities of which the general effect of the 
 face belied the existence. His complexion was a clear 
 brown, and the skin puckered into an infinity of the 
 minutest wrinkles, so as to look as if they had been 
 drawn with a needle on parchment. His hair was 
 completely concealed by a large black velvet cap, 
 which hung on one side almost to his shoulder, but 
 by the colour of his eyebrows one would have con- 
 cluded its hue must be dark. His dress was a loose 
 coat of dark brown cloth, with broad skirts and 
 lappels ; a white waistcoat in the fashion called la 
 Robespierre, with very full lappels ; full trousers of 
 the same stuff as the coat, cut so as to taper to the 
 ankle, and a voluminous neckcloth of white muslin. 
 The whole attire was loose, although not made ill, 
 nor wQfn with any of the air of a sloven ; the shoes 
 only fitted — they were exquisitely made, just cover-
 
 72 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 ing the Instep, and with large silver buckles, showing 
 the wearer's foot to be very small and elegantly 
 formed. The most remarkable part of his costume 
 were a shirt frill and rufflas of the finest lace, which, 
 like the rest of his equipment, were clean to scrupu- 
 losity. 
 
 His companion was an ordinary looking person of 
 about the same age, having the dress and air of the 
 steward or bailiif of the estate. 
 
 " What mummery is this ? " exclaimed the first of 
 these denizens of La Chalautre, in a harsh imperious 
 tone. " What buffoonery is this ? Pierrefeu, Goulot, 
 Nicolas, idiots and dolts, did not I send you to seize 
 that man ? " 
 
 Merrick saw that, be he who he might, this person 
 was not one whom it Avould be politic to ofiTend, and 
 he also felt that the ridiculous procession which had 
 sio-nalised his arrival w^as exactly the sort of thing 
 w^hich, to a sensitive person, would be most irritating. 
 Before, therefore, Pierrefeu and his crest-fallen 
 myrmidons could give their account of the matter, 
 the sailor advanced, and with an air he could make 
 courtly when he pleased, stated that, feeling himself 
 wrong in having gone about a country he did not 
 know, and having thereby encroached on lands he 
 had no right to be upon, he had, as a penance, re-
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 73 
 
 served to himself the duty of giving up his gun in 
 person to the owner of the estate, or her represen- 
 tative. 
 
 I have so often alluded to the frank manners of 
 the sailor, that I need not add they had on this oc- 
 casion, as on others, their effect. It was with a 
 lowered tone and less excitement of manner that the 
 eccentric old gentleman asked Merrick his name, 
 his nation, and his business in that part of the 
 country. 
 
 " ^ly name is John Merrick, an Englishman, and 
 my present business is amusement." 
 
 « English ! " 
 
 " Puisquil hoxe! " muttered parenthetically Pierre- 
 feu. 
 
 " English ! " (and the pale cheek flushed, and the 
 thin lip quivered) " What do you here ? Why do you 
 come intruding in a land that likes you not ? The 
 last of your countrymen came and went in an un- 
 welcome fashion, — do you think you are more wel- 
 come than they ? " 
 
 Merrick proceeded to talk of peace concluded, 
 and friendly feelings, and such other common-places. 
 
 * * * Nothing could be more coolly contemptuous 
 than the expression of countenance with which 
 Merrick's odd- looking auditor listened to the phrases 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 74 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 in which the sailor deprecated his insisting on the 
 national animosity between Gaul and Briton. 
 
 " Have you done," said he at last. 
 
 Merrick, whom the marked incivility of the man- 
 ner with which the words were uttered began to 
 provoke, remained silent. 
 
 " Have you done, I ask you ; or do you wish to in- 
 flict any more of such phrases of course upon us 
 before I tell you the truth ? National animosity, do 
 you talk of ? Bah ! I say, natural animosity, the 
 enmity of instinct, the hostility of races, the hatred 
 begot and nourished by the events of centuries ! I 
 am of the old school — I, that think the soil of France 
 polluted by the foot of a stranger, otherwise than by 
 suiFerance. We have had enough of usurpers in the 
 land, the throne of France desecrated by a Corslcan 
 mercenary, the army of France swelling its ranks 
 with the adventurers of all Europe — the very East 
 has given us a caftaned soldiery, that has dared to 
 number themselves as of us : — but that is over, thank 
 heaven ! We are returned, we the real French, we 
 the owners of the soil, which has descended from 
 father to son since the days of Clovls, and we Avlll 
 have no strangers insulting us in our rights, and 
 hustling us out of the use of our own, and least of 
 all Endlshmen ! "
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 75 
 
 This tirade, delivered with great animation and 
 much vehemence, seemed to produce no little effect 
 upon Pierrefeu and his myrmidons. They nudged 
 one another, as if in rude affirmation of the senti- 
 ments of the speaker, and there were even some 
 muttered words of approval, which respect only 
 seemed to keep from swelling into cries and shouts. 
 The sort of steward or intendant, of whom we spoke 
 as being with the apparent master of the place, 
 seemed alone to disapprove the speech, raising his 
 eyebrows slightly, and giving one of those eloquent 
 shrugs peculiar to Frenchmen and diplomatists. He 
 stood, however, in rear of the speaker, and could 
 express his opinion after his own fashion, unseen by 
 him. 
 
 " Passably absurd this," thought Merrick during 
 the short silence wdiich followed this burst of words, 
 " seeing that our army of occupation is but just out 
 of France ! " It seemed to him, too, rather odd that 
 this desperately Gallic elderly gentleman should 
 speak French, as he did, with a strong Italian 
 accent. 
 
 " Well, sir, now^, if we may learn it, how came 
 you to intrude upon the lands of La Chalautre ? " 
 
 "How came he to kill the game?" said Pierrefeu. 
 
 " How dared he to go into the vines ? " asked Gou- 
 
 E 2
 
 76 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 lot, a hea\y-browed peasant in immense wooden 
 shoes. 
 
 " How came he to knock down Nicolas ? " said 
 another voice ; and a Babel -like clamour of accusa- 
 tions and rude inquiries arose, during which the 
 number of the auditory was swelled by all the ser- 
 vants and idlers in and about the place. 
 
 Merrick raised his hand to obtain quiet and a 
 hearing, but without the intervention of the steward 
 would have failed. The master of the house did not 
 interfere, but seemed, on the contrary, to eye the tur- 
 bulent vehemence of the peasants with something 
 like pleasure. A sort of silence was at last obtained, 
 and the sailor was able to put in a few words of ex- 
 planation and remonstrance. 
 
 " I am, sir," said he, addressing the chief personage 
 in the scene, "a gentleman, and a commissioned 
 officer in the British Navy, and as such, whatever 
 the faults I have committed, I demand to be treated 
 with at any rate a show of civility. I lost my way, 
 I was tempted by my love of sport to quit the road 
 whereby I was making my way to Plassy, and I 
 certainly was indiscreet enough to kill this leash of 
 birds (and he produced them), for which, as also 
 for any damage I. may have done in the vineyards, I 
 am ready to make such reparation as you please."
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 77 
 
 The steward in a very respectful but earnest 
 manner wliispered some words to his principal, 
 which seemed to carry intercession with them, for 
 the person addressed replied with impatient gesture, 
 
 " Xo, Monsieur Josse, no ; what is the law ? tell 
 me that." 
 
 " The law," slowly answered the steward, " by 
 the last and latest decree, only last year, October 
 the 7 th, 1819, — the law provides a fine of not 
 less than thirty, nor more than sixty francs, for 
 eveiy case in which a person shall follow partridge, 
 without permission, on the lands of another." 
 
 " Well, no more ? But follow, you say, — what 
 if he kill?" 
 
 " ^Yhy, the fine is the same, but in either case the 
 gun of the trespasser is forfeited, unless he choose to 
 purchase it back by paying its full value." 
 
 « And the dogs ? " 
 
 " I really am not certain — let me see — the dogs 
 — the dogs." 
 
 " Bah ! " said the first speaker impatiently, you'll 
 keep us here all day, oMonsieur Josse ! It is enough, 
 sir," turning to Merrick, " that you know a part of 
 the punishment you have rendered yourself liable to, 
 and depend upon it the rights of the owner of this 
 estate shall be upheld to the letter of the law — ay, to 
 
 E 3
 
 78 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 the very letter ! We have recovered our rights, and 
 we will maintain them." 
 
 " But allow me to observe," said Merrick, " that 
 the practice I have always seen followed by pro- 
 prietors in such unlucky cases as this has been, is 
 to warn off a trespasser in the first instance. The 
 English law " 
 
 " We do not want the English here to lay down 
 laws for us," was the haughty reply ; " we make 
 our own laws, and they shall be executed, look to 
 that." 
 
 '^ None of your English law ! " cried Pierrefeu. 
 
 " English law I queer thing that must be ! " said 
 Goulot, with great contempt. 
 
 " Law ! the Goddems have no law, except the one 
 they sell their wives by," cried a voice in the crowd ; 
 — and then there was a general laugh, and all the 
 hubbub began again. 
 
 Merrick in the midst of it beckoned to the steward, 
 who seemed the only reasonable person among the 
 whole of them, his master included, and managed 
 to make him understand, that, in spite of the air 
 of authority of the singularly uncivil old gentleman, 
 he refused to acknowledge any person as having a 
 right so to speak to him, but tlie real owner of the 
 property, whom he understood to be a lady, Madame
 
 MADAME DE MALGL ET. 79 
 
 de !Malojuet, and before whom he desired he mio-ht 
 be taken. Monsieur Josse stared in a sort of 
 odd surprise at the sailor, and with a perplexed 
 look and a kind of half smile prepared to speak: 
 but seeming to think better of it, he left the Captain 
 where he was, and going to the odd-looking in- 
 dividual who represented the owner, appeared to be 
 explaining the request Merrick liad made — one 
 certainly natural enough under the circumstances. 
 
 Meanwhile the row before the door "grew fast 
 and furious." Every one talked at the pitch of his 
 lungs ; the w^omen crowded in to stare at the sailor 
 and giggle; the children plucked the tails of 
 his shooting-coat, and one or two young rogues, 
 stooping down unperceived, took shots at his goodly 
 leggings with bits of the broken terrace-pavement. 
 Things evidently looked like mischief. Here was 
 Goulot, he of the insulted vines, pointing to the 
 mere, and insinuating that water was the natural 
 element of fish and sailors. Nicolas, with a glorious 
 black eye, was officiously pointing out the deej^est 
 places ; while Pierrefeu quieted the women's fear, lest 
 the ducking should end in a drowning, by assuring 
 them that Englishmen were web-footed, and in short 
 were a sort of ducks, barring the feathers. During 
 all this. Monsieur Josse continued earnest in colloquy 
 
 E 4
 
 80 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 with the ancient ultra-Gaul. He seemed to have 
 been unsuccessful in getting some suggestion adopted, 
 for it was with an air of disappointment and annoy- 
 ance that he returned to Merrick, and said — 
 
 " I, sir, know that you are what you represent 
 yourself to be, for, being often in Plassy, I have 
 heard of you; but unfortunately others have prejudices 
 which you will be only able to remove by the pro- 
 duction of your papers to-morrow. It is not neces- 
 sary that you should see IMadame de Malguet. The 
 person who has found you in the act of trespass has 
 merely to report you to the authorities, and the in- 
 fraction of the law will be visited on you. I beseech 
 of you do not resent any thing you hear said by any 
 one here. I hope to manage every thing quietly, and 
 save, I trust, at least some of your property from 
 forfeiture." 
 
 Merrick was about to thank his well-intentioned 
 friend in need, when the elderly ultra-Gaul came 
 forward from the fireside, in which even at this 
 season some logs of wood were smouldering, and 
 addressed the sailor as follows in a manner now cool, 
 and not without a certain dignity. 
 
 " If, sir, you are what you say you are, you have the 
 means of proving it, and I shall reserve the course to be 
 taken for future consideration. Meanwhile, the game-
 
 MADA3IE DE MALGUET. 81 
 
 keeper who found you in the act of shooting in this 
 preserve will draw up a statement, as is usual on such 
 occasions, w^hich will be put into court, if on after 
 thought this seems proper. Your gun is detained, 
 but your dogs you may take with you." 
 
 From the moment he commenced speaking, the 
 noisy crowd was hushed, and every one listened in 
 respectful attention. Pierrefeu at a sign took up 
 the ineffable detonator from the ground on which, 
 in company with the leash of birds, which had tempted 
 the sailor into the scrape, it had lain during the above 
 scene, while the speaker continued, silencing Merrick 
 by a gesture just as he was about to speak. 
 
 " Let the dogs go, — and none of you, my children, 
 offer any \dolence to this Englishman ! " 
 
 There was a sort of grumbling undertone of dis- 
 satisfaction ran through the crowd, in which the 
 voice of Nicolas predominated. 
 
 " No, — I forbid any violence ; and now, sir, you 
 may go !" 
 
 Monsieur Josse said something in a low tone which 
 jNIerrick could not catch. 
 
 " Yery good," was the reply ; " if they are so much 
 incensed, you who say so shall keep them in order. 
 Here, Pierrefeu, and you, Goulot, go with this 
 
 E 5
 
 82 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 Englishman and Monsieur Josse to the boundary of 
 La Chalautre, and see him across it in safety." 
 
 The crowd fell back, and the parties named invited 
 Merrick to proceed; but, ere doing so, the sailor 
 approached his persecutor, and said, speaking low, 
 and commanding as well as he could his natural 
 indignation, — 
 
 " You have insulted me, sir, by doubting my 
 Avord, and by treating me with excessive and needless 
 incivility. My position is such that I cannot now 
 take proper notice of this, but you may rest assured 
 that you shall hear from me in the manner you must 
 expect to do." 
 
 The person he addressed, with a peculiar smile 
 slightly inclined his head to Merrick, and walked 
 back into the room without another word. The 
 sailor turned on his heel, and strode down the terrace 
 preceded by Pierrefeu, with the gun still over his 
 shoulder, while Monsieur Josse walked beside 
 him, and Goulot brought up the rear. As they 
 passed the out-offices. Liver and Lights, released 
 from vile durance in a ruined fowl-house, dashed out 
 with all the joy of freed prisoners to join their master ; 
 while Nicolas, with a large patch of wet brown paper 
 on his eye, presided over the performance of that spe- 
 cies of concert called charivari, which is intended to
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 83 
 
 be any thing but complimentary. The instruments 
 consisted of pots, pans, kettles, an empty salt-box, an 
 old French horn, and others equally harmonious ; while 
 the leader, judging the effect incomplete without the 
 addition of vocal music, proceeded to execute a series 
 of elaborate yells, in which he was supported by a 
 full chorus of the whole orchestra. It will seem by 
 this that Nicolas anticipated the idea of the inventor 
 of monster concerts, and that Jullien himself is a 
 mere plagiarist. 
 
 Merrick laughed and walked on, while Monsieur 
 Josse in vain endeavoured to quiet the blockheads, 
 who were stunning themselves for his amusement. 
 They continued their concert, until the little party 
 had reached the head of the ex-avenue, when the dis- 
 cordant echoes died away, and the sailor in a sort of 
 honourable captivity took the road for Plassy. It 
 was now drawing on to sunset, but the evening 
 darkened in earlier owing to the gathering of the 
 thick black clouds, which foretold an inevitable storm. 
 At the distance of a quarter of a mile from the chateau 
 Merrick stopped and turned round to look at the scene 
 behind him. The clowds lowering close above the 
 wooded hill behind the house, increased if possible the 
 dreary look of the place, and made the mere turn lead- 
 colour. There was not a living thing stirring about 
 
 E 6
 
 84 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 La Chalautre ; one might have thought it deserted. 
 Monsieur Josse followed the direction of Merrick's 
 eye, and said with a sigh as he accepted the proffered 
 pinch 
 
 " The remains, sir, of a noble chateau in the hands 
 of the last of a noble house ; it is a sad sight to 
 those who love and serve the name, and have done so 
 for years, father and " 
 
 " Father and son," said Pierrefeu, taking up the 
 phrase, " body and soul, through ill as through good, 
 to death as through life ! " 
 
 Goulot's stupid round face was turned in sympathy 
 from one speaker to the other, as he nodded his head 
 as if to enforce what they said. 
 
 " The last of a noble house ? Then the elderly 
 gentleman I have just parted witli is not a relative 
 of Madame de Malguet's ?" 
 
 " Here's the rain," said Monsieur Josse abruptly, 
 " and we have a mile to go yet — will Monsieur come 
 on?" 
 
 And they resumed their route in silence and in 
 the order they had set out. Meanwhile the heavy 
 thunder shoAver began to fall, at first in unfrequent 
 drops, but there was soon a flash from the dark cloud 
 over La Chalautre, the peal followed, and the storm 
 began. None of them had any protection against the
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 85 
 
 rain, save Merrick, who carried a small oil cloth cape 
 with him — a useful thing to keep the gun dry if no- 
 thing else; but jNIonsieur Josse in his threadbare 
 black coat was least prepared of all to bide, in 
 Mr. Swiveller's phrase, " the pelting of the pitiless ! " 
 Merrick, therefore, insisted on his taking the cape, and 
 in spite of the remonstrances of the steward, fairly 
 buttoned it on him with his own hands. The act of 
 kindness, though perfectly uncalculated, had its 
 effect. Pierrefeu and Goulot looked at each other, 
 and nodded as if in high approval. 
 
 " Fool that I am ! " cried the former, " here I've 
 brought Monsieur le Capitaines gun with me instead 
 of leaving it at the chateau ! " 
 
 And so saying he deprived himself of the protec- 
 tion of one entire tail of his green plush-jacket to 
 wrap about the detonator, while Goulot with the 
 skirt of his blouse turned up over his shoulders 
 stuck close to the sailor on the windward side to 
 break the driving rain and keep it from him. The 
 storm continued without abatement as they j^lodded 
 on, and the w^hole country on each side being open 
 corn land, they saw no shelter they could seek against 
 it. 
 
 " There is none," said Pierrefeu, " nearer than
 
 86 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 The Morning Star, that house there half a mile 
 before us on the road-side." 
 
 And the keeper, glancing at Monsieur Josse, gave 
 a significant dry cough. 
 
 " It's the dust in his throat," whispered Goulot, 
 with a broad grin, as he nudged Merrick in the true 
 French peasant's style of poking a man into the 
 point of his joke. 
 
 " Oho ! a public house, I perceive !:" said the sailor; 
 " well, gentlemen, if you will do me the honour to 
 accept any such refreshment as we can find there, 
 while you wait till the rain is over, I shall be highly 
 glad of the pleasure of your company." 
 
 They all three stopped, took their caps off in 
 the rain, and made him a low bow in token of 
 acceptance ; after which Pierrefeu turned up his 
 red nose at the elements, and strode on at a pace 
 which soon brought them to the promised shelter. 
 It was a mere cottage by the wayside, provided with 
 a sort of sign-board, on which the harbinger of 
 dawn was represented by a star- shaped hole cut 
 through the plank, and to which public attention 
 was more particularly directed by a hand painted 
 thereon, the fore-finger of which pointed with in- 
 defatigable stiffness at the emblematic aperture. 
 Below were depicted a bottle and tumbler, the former
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 87 
 
 of which was obllgmgly decanting itself in a sort of 
 Niagara of beer into its companion, only as they 
 were both standing close together, the painter had 
 been obliged to give his malt liquor a parabolic curve 
 from the bottle to the glass, producing an effect at 
 once arbitrary and originaL The words "good 
 March beer,'' written beneath, gave you an idea of 
 what the vivacious fluid represented in the picture 
 really pretended to be. The party lost small time, 
 however, in examining these details. They were 
 soon lodged in the kitchen of the little hedge inn, 
 where Pierrefeu, who evidently was quite at home, 
 kept calling for Pere Grosbois, the landlord, and 
 recommending him a preliminary glass of brandy to 
 prevent a chill. 
 
 An omelette dressed with bacon, salad, cheese, 
 excellent bread, tolerable brandy, and some bottles 
 of the wine of the country, a sort of rough heady 
 claret, were soon set before the party. Fresh 
 logs blazed on the kitchen fire to dry their drip- 
 ping garments, and while the rain pelted heavily 
 at the Httle window, Merrick felt not less glad of 
 the shelter than of the food, which, homely as it 
 was, hunger rendered acceptable. The omelette 
 despatched, the salad bowl emptied, the cheese cut 
 down to rind, Merrick drank Monsieur Josse's
 
 88 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 health in a very emphatic manner, and the party 
 began to find itself exceedingly social. Monsieur 
 Josse's heart warmed with the wine, while, to make 
 him more loquacious, Merrick plied him with 
 constant pinches of his strong snuiF. Gradually, 
 and by leading questions, he got upon the subject of 
 the fortunes of La Chalautre ; but being as accurate 
 as the old chroniclers, who, to introduce the history 
 of some petty burgh, always commenced by telling 
 you how the world began. Monsieur Josse, instead 
 of giving a sketch of the modern fortunes of the 
 family, took the Captain back to the time when some 
 remote ancestor first laid the foundations of the old 
 castle, the ruins of which might be seen still near 
 the hill-top above the chateau. Then, as he was a 
 merciless genealogist, and knew something of he- 
 raldy, I leave you to form an idea of the lively 
 character of his narrative. 
 
 Meanwhile Goulot and Pierrefeu, at the other side 
 the table, wrangled and argued over their liquor, the 
 subjects of their talk being whether Liver and Lights 
 (which respectable quadrupeds, well fed, and well 
 dried, lay sleeping on the hearth before them) could or 
 could not by law be saved from forfeiture for trespass. 
 As neither of them understood any thing of the sub- 
 ject, the conversation was very animated, the dispu-
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 89 
 
 tants consuming much drink to keep themselves cool 
 for dispassionate discussion. At last Pierrefeu, who, 
 it may be remembered, was some hours before in a 
 somewhat suspicious state of sobriety, got it into his 
 drunken noddle that he must draw up a report of 
 the Captain's arrest, — that he had been ordered 
 to do so, — and that do so he must incontinently. 
 
 " Duty, duty — a sacred call, Goulot I Pere Gros- 
 bois ! — always do your duty — get me some paper, 
 and ink, and a pen, do you hear? I'll write my 
 report, — PU draw up my statement, this very 
 night — Pierrefeu and Duty ! the words are syn — 
 syn — you know the rest of it. — What ? Pere 
 Grosbois, only one sheet in the house ? — Never 
 mind — I'll write it, and Goulot, you keep that 
 absurd ink-horn from slipping about on the table 
 — I can never put my pen in it." 
 
 About this time Monsieur Josse had just got to the 
 life and times of that estimable head of the house La 
 Chalautre, \;vho was contemporaneous with Charles the 
 Vllth. With every successive worthy of the family 
 born, married, or dead, Merrick proposed a glass to 
 his long life, wedded bliss, or happy memory, as the 
 case might be : and as the devotion of the narrator to 
 his chiefs was unbounded, and the brandy Merrick 
 secretly poured into his wine excessively strong, his
 
 90 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 genealogies became more intricate, his heraldic blazons 
 less correct, and his chronicle more obscure as he 
 went on. 
 
 " So when Talbot was defeated, my lord came 
 back to fulfil his marriage engagement with " 
 
 " The aforesaid Englishman, and the aforesaid 
 two red dogs," said Pierrefeu, reading his report. 
 
 " There's no such thing as a red dog, you fool," 
 cried Goulot ; " they're brown ! " 
 
 " They're red ! " 
 
 "They're brown!" 
 
 " They're " 
 
 '^ Sons and daughters, issue of that marriage. 
 Which being arranged, there was the difficulty of 
 kindred, for it was said they were within the degrees, 
 owing to the grand aunt of my lord, who was a De 
 Crecy, having married into the family two generations 
 before — no, I am wrong — it was a Ravillac she was 
 — they bore as a crest " 
 
 " Three red-legged partridges, then and there shot 
 by the aforesaid Englishman and by the aforesaid two 
 red dogs " 
 
 " Ha, ha, ha ! here's a fellow spells partridges with 
 three p's ! " 
 
 " Well, you nigaud, aren't there three partridg. ^ ?"
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 91 
 
 " So there are I I'd forgot ; when you give me a 
 reason, Pierrefeu, I'll " 
 
 " Treat the Countess Leontine de Ravillac ac- 
 cording as the case demands. But he demurred at 
 tliis, and " 
 
 "No — that is wrong, this time." 
 
 " Goulot, you're a fool." 
 
 " Monsieur Josse ! " 
 
 " Carried the whole case before " 
 
 " Monsieur Josse — here's a fellow spells " 
 
 "Go to the deuce I — before the king " 
 
 « Possible with a c I Only look ! " 
 
 In the struggle to get the report, Goulot upset a 
 bottle of wine over the table, and the effort of Pierre- 
 feu's genius was drowned, like his brains, in claret. 
 Monsieur Josse got up, and addressed a discourse to 
 Pierrefeu, holding tight by the table the whole time, on 
 the evils of intemperance, during the course of which 
 Merrick rose, repossessed himself unseen of his gun, 
 and the dogs having been disturbed by Goulot, who 
 drove them off the hearth that he might sit down and 
 dry the wet paper by a fire that had been out for an 
 hour, he whistled them to him, slipped out of the 
 room, roused the sleepy landlord, paid him to his 
 heart's content, and the next minute was making the 
 best of his way to Plassy.
 
 92 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 About a hundred yards from the cottage he turned 
 to see what became of his late companions. The 
 storm had cleared away, and the yellow harvest moon 
 shone brightly from a cloudless sky. He had not 
 long to wait. His captors came out of the house, 
 and were at first making the best of their way to 
 Plassy ; but dissuaded apparently by Pere Grosbois 
 they turned, after much noisy discussion, their faces 
 the other way, and locked arm in arm with Monsieur 
 Josse in the centre, yawed their way home by a 
 diagonal progress from one ditch to the other, thus 
 being certain not to lose the road at any rate. 
 
 " I wonder," thought Merrick as he walked towards 
 Plassy, how my uncivil old friend will like their 
 report ! "
 
 3IADA:\rE DE MALGUET. 93 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Our friend Monsieur Picotot, whom we left some 
 time ago comfortably asleep in his domicile at Plassy, 
 at the moment when Merrick sallied forth therefrom 
 in pursuance of his project of evasion, learned with 
 infinite dismay the adventurous proceeding of the 
 sailor. Like most Frenchmen bred in towns, he 
 entertained a special distrust of the prejudices 
 and evil passions of the ignorant peasantry when 
 excited by any object foreign or repugnant to them, 
 and he had an exaggerated dread of risks Avhich his 
 pupil was likely to incur by coming into collision, 
 alone and unaided, with the people of the country. 
 His habit of affecting to play INIentor to Merrick's 
 Telemachus, we have already sufficiently remarked 
 on; and indeed, what between the good-natured 
 submission of the sailor and his own intense self- 
 conceit, he had actually allowed himself to acquire 
 the belief that he w^as as necessary to his pupil as a 
 guide and dragoman would be to any untravelled 
 wight venturing on a tour among the Druses, or ex-
 
 94 MADAINIE DE MALGUET. 
 
 ploring the confines of the Shavgallo. Dire, therefore, 
 was the storm of wrath that fell upon poor little 
 Madame Picotot, accused of aiding and abetting in 
 the Captain's stolen departure, — the more dire that 
 Picotot, like all blockheads when they get angered, 
 possessed in a high degree the power of tormenting 
 — the wearisome faculty of recurring to a disagree- 
 able subject, wearing it to tatters, stitching it 
 together again, and recommencing on the rags re- 
 vivified, as on something new. Thus passed the 
 morning. Picotot shambling up and down the brick 
 floor in creaking shoes, consuming fabulous quan- 
 tities of snufF, beggaring the dictionary in terms 
 of objurgation ; — poor little Madame Picotot talked 
 down, all woman as she was, sitting crying, and 
 pretending to work. 
 
 Two o'clock — three —four — no Merrick ? At about 
 five a timid turn at the wicket lock was heard ; — ^it 
 was Michel with his pockets full of (pilfered) green 
 apples, and a conscious face of having loitered on 
 his way home. 
 
 *•' Where is the Captain ? " 
 
 " Coming." 
 
 " When will he be here ? " 
 
 " Directly." 
 
 " Where did you leave him ? "
 
 MADAME DE MALGLET. 95 
 
 i 
 
 « I— I— I don't know." 
 
 " What have you got there ? " 
 
 " I have brouo;ht home the o;ame." 
 
 The sight of the well-filled game-bag distracted 
 Plcotot's attention, who turned to examine the birds, 
 while his wife concluded Michel's cross-examination. 
 It was unsatisfactory in the extreme ; Michel was 
 sent in high disgrace, supperless, to his cockloft, and 
 the disconsolate couple set them to their hard task of 
 waitino;. 
 
 After dinner, postponed from four till past seven, 
 Picotot went out to consult the commandant of ^eii- 
 cFarmes, as to whether it might not be expedient to 
 patrol the country in search of the missing stranger. 
 What was the exact reply he received, our strictest 
 researches have not enabled us to ascertain ; but 
 certain it is, that he returned home about nine o'clock 
 in company with a stalwart, bulky, grave-looking 
 corporal of geiKTarmes, who came, jack-boots and 
 all, to " make inquiries," as he said. The process of 
 inquiry seemed mainly to consist in a steady, sober 
 consumption of the wine Picotot offered him, over 
 which the two sat prosily exchanging conjectures ; 
 while Madame Picotot, overcome by tears, sleep, and 
 anxiety, dozed in her easy chair ; when, considerably 
 past eleven, a well-known ringing voice was heard at
 
 96 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 the gate, the first tone of which made the little 
 woman start from her sleep, and run to open it. 
 
 " Oh ! gros gargon, how vile of you " — began 
 she. 
 
 " It is to abuse of the solicitudes of your friends," 
 commenced Picotot. 
 
 " My excellent kind souls ! " — interrupted the 
 Captain, "do not scold me — I've had an adventure ! " 
 
 The gend^arme pricked up his ears ; careless of his 
 presence, Merrick told them his whole story, of his 
 temptation, of the uncivil old gentleman, of the notice 
 he must take of his conduct, of the seizure of his gun 
 and of his recovery thereof during the orgie at the 
 hedge inn. Directly he had made an end, the cor- 
 poral, who during the recital had cleared the residue 
 of the wine on the table, made his military salute, 
 and said he believed the Captain was the gentleman 
 supposed to be missing. Assured that such was the 
 case, he declared further enquiry to be evidently 
 unnecessary (here Picotot glanced at the empty 
 bottles), and took his leave, grave and imperturbable, 
 as if he had a regulation face served out to him along 
 with buff, belt, and breeches. 
 
 Picotot looked exceedingly blank as the figure of 
 the policeman disappeared. 
 
 " My good Captain," said he, " in all the manners
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 97 
 
 you are In your wrong. You have first engaged 
 yourself in a process of law, and next raccounted 
 before that person an infraction you have committed 
 by rescuing your gun, your seized propriety — " 
 
 " But what will he do ? " 
 
 " Go off, having espied your words, and depose the 
 facts against you ! " — 
 
 '' But what the deuce, am I to be bullied and in- 
 sulted ^vithout redress? If it were the mistress of 
 the estate I should not care, but an old effeminate 
 rascal to presume upon my position, to — " 
 
 " Who presumed, gj^os garcon ? do you mean 
 Madame de ? " 
 
 " Xo, I tell you again and again — an insolent 
 elderly man with the air of a gentleman, an old 
 fellow in a brown frock coat." 
 
 Here little Madame Picotot was seized with one of 
 her violent fits of laughter, to the intense surprise of 
 Merrick, and the extreme annoyance of Picotot, wdio 
 evidently thought the case by no means a laughing 
 matter. The sailor's requests for explanation were 
 useless, for the little woman, excited and worn out 
 with the worry and the weeping of the day, became 
 hysterical, and was carried off between Leonore and 
 her husband to her own apartment. The sailor, 
 wearv and mvstlfied, looked but that his do2:s were 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 98 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 comfortably lodged, and gladly betook himself to 
 his bed. 
 
 After a day of fatigue, adventure, and excitement, 
 I know nothing more singular than that feeling of 
 mazedness which overcomes the power of clear per- 
 ception at the moment when consciousness returns 
 with the light of another day, and one tries to 
 rouse up from a deep sleep, ov/n daughter of lassitude. 
 Ideas of which one cannot test the truth, half-re- 
 membered visions of uncertain events, thoughts that 
 seem fancies, and fancies which cannot, think we, 
 belong to waking hours, people in our brain that 
 limbo which lies between the land of dreams and the 
 confines of reality. From such a state as this was 
 Merrick roused by the voice of Picotot, who, pitiless 
 bore that he was, had penetrated to the very bedside 
 of his victim to talk over the events of the previous 
 day, and exult in the sense of his own sagacity. 
 Robed in an old faded dressing-gown of grey duffle, 
 his head crowned with a cotton nightcap, in one 
 hand his cup of cafe an lait, in the other his 
 snuff-box, Charles- Auguste looked the incarnation of 
 domestic severity. Heaven forbid that I should in- 
 flict upon my readers that which Merrick had to go 
 through ! After two hours of unutterable prose, it 
 was decided that Merrick should ascertain in the
 
 MADA^klE DE MALGUET. 99 
 
 course of the day the steps taken by his adversaries, 
 that he should forswear shooting for three or four 
 days, if the gun were recovered, or recoverable ; and 
 that henceforth he should not essay on unknown 
 country without guide, or companion. The sailor, 
 however, though he let Picotot talk on, assenting to 
 every thing he said, took care to avoid any confidence 
 on the subject which most interested him — the 
 mode, namely, in which he should deal with the 
 person at Chalautre, who had, he felt, carried his 
 persecution to the verge of insult, and from whom it 
 was necessary he should demand some explanation. 
 The gencCarme had heard the story ; before sundown 
 it was certain to be all over the town, and he was 
 aware that his position would be affected in the eyes 
 of those around him, did he, an English officer, per- 
 mit the affair to remain as it was. What, however, 
 to do ? Picotot was a blockhead, and a person of too 
 little weight to represent him fitly ; moreover, de- 
 spite his occasional pretensions to noble ancestry, iie 
 was a bourgeois, to whom perhaps so decided an aris- 
 tocrat as his uncivil opponent of the day before 
 would not deign to give a full and proper expla- 
 nation. Merrick, of all the younger men in the 
 better classes at Plassey, knew but one whom he 
 could take the liberty of trusting with a message, 
 
 F 2
 
 100 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 and he even, young Finot, son of the Registrar 
 in the little town, was the last man whom, under 
 ordinary circumstances, he would have chosen for 
 such a purpose. He was the type of the dissipated 
 careless grisette-loving law student of Paris, and 
 although well connected on the mother's side, who 
 was a Ravillac, his own sole celebrity lay in a deep 
 experience of carnival balls, and a marker's skill at 
 billiards. 
 
 Perplexed and annoyed, Merrick sauntered into 
 the breakfast-room, and got through the meal un- 
 enlivened by his bottle of claret, and dead to all 
 the merry prattle of little Madame Picotot. 
 
 " Where are going to, gros garcon ? " said she, as 
 he rose to leave the room, 
 
 " To Grivet's, the gun-smith in the market-place ; 
 my gun got drenched in Monsieur Pierrefeu's hands 
 yesterday, deuce take him, and I want to have it 
 properly looked to ! " 
 
 " And the French lesson ? " 
 
 " I got one yesterday I shall remember for some 
 time, and Monsieur Picotot gave me a very long one 
 this morning ; so I think I may play truant for once." 
 
 " Oh ! you idle boy I but don't forget that you 
 must be back to take me to the fete at Berceaulis 
 this afternoon — don't you remember Monsieur le
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 101 
 
 Sous Prefet asking us to go to the assembly as they 
 call it, at that pretty hamlet of his ? " 
 
 " With many protestations that he would return 
 punctually by three to dine early, and go to Ber- 
 ceaulis, Merrick at last got away ; and followed by 
 Michel, carrying the detonator, made for the wicket, 
 by which he found Picotot, like Mephistopheles 
 waiting for Faust, expecting his exit. There was 
 no help for it, so down Curfew Street they went 
 on their way to the market-place (the forum of 
 Plassy) together. Just as they reached the corner 
 (as you turn down to the Sous Prefet's official 
 residence) they heard the lumbering noise of a 
 vehicle behind them, a sound so unusual in the 
 quiet street as to bring every head in every house 
 to casement and to lattice to stare at the phenome- 
 non. On it came, a very large, heavy, deep son of 
 cabriolet on low wheels, capable of holding three 
 people, with a sort of capacious boot behind for 
 luggage. It was drawn by two horses : one, a 
 powerful roan, in the shafts, while the other, a 
 lighter animal, harnessed to an outrigger, was 
 ridden by the postilion. Such a vehicle, called, 
 I believe, a carriole, was not unusual in some parts 
 of France in the days I speak of, and is indeed an 
 excellent carriage for cross-roads and miry cart- 
 
 F 3
 
 102 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 tracks. The carriage passed them at the turn so 
 quickly, that Merrick could merely distinguish, 
 deep-seated beneath the hood, the indistinct figure 
 of a female between two other persons, whom he 
 could not mistake : the one was Monsieur Josse, 
 looking exceedingly as if he would have liked a 
 glass of soda water, — the other, the insolent old 
 ultra-Gaul of La Chalautre. 
 
 " The coach of Madame de Malguet ! " muttered 
 the horror-struck Picotot ; " she is going to her 
 cousin, the Sous Prefet ! she will herself press the 
 process ; we are enfloundered effectively to the last- 
 est degree ! " 
 
 At this moment Pierrefeu appeared trotting up 
 the street after the carriole on a washy high actioned 
 Normandy carriage-horse, with a wall eye. His 
 nose, as he bumped past, might have emulated Bar- 
 dolph's at Gad's-hill, and he looked at Merrick with 
 a rueful drunken expression, as who should say — 
 You have been and done it ! 
 
 " And that's the keeper," said Merrick, " to make 
 all complete ! " 
 
 Picotot turned sharply round, as if some one had 
 pushed him, and with rapid strides gained the shop of 
 Grivet the gunsmith. 
 
 This, the favourite lounge of the sporting men of
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 103 
 
 Plassy, Merrick had not yet visited, although he 
 had often projected making acquaintance with it for 
 the sake of the owner, who was reported to be a cha- 
 racter. The shop, well-stocked with a goodly show 
 of the plainer description of articles of the trade, had 
 formed the lower room of an old house built of heavy 
 timber thwarts, fiUed in with lath and plaster : one 
 side opened out, and glass substituted in the intervals 
 between the timbers gave, with a glass door in the 
 centre, an excellent though homely frontage towards 
 the market-place, of which Grivet was not a little 
 proud. A counter occupied one side the w^de low 
 chamber, the master-smith's vice and work-table the 
 other, while from a back room there proceeded such a 
 sound of file and hammer as showed he did not work 
 unaided. 
 
 " Ha ! Monsieur Picotot, good day," said the 
 owner of the tenement, without stirring from his 
 work-table, but looking sharply over his spectacles at 
 his visitors as they entered, — " so you have not for- 
 got the old soldier — come to look after your gun, 
 eh? — or — Credie! is this your English captain 
 you have brought me, that all the town is talking of ? " 
 — and so saying, he advanced, drew himself up, and 
 made his uiilitary salute, which Merrick hastened to 
 acknowledge, not without a sort of apology for having 
 
 I 4
 
 104 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 SO long delayed visiting a shop and a person so 
 celebrated in Plassy. 
 
 " Ta ta ta, mon capitaine,'' interrupted the man of 
 guns, ' what am I ? ww vieux lapin * — " 
 
 '^ An old rahbiti' — interposed Picotot aside. 
 
 " An old soldier of the old days, when men were 
 soldiers — who wants us now ? the few of us left — 
 shot, sliced, mangled, cut to ribbons, fit for naught 
 but to stick in an armourer's shop the rest of our 
 days, like that double-barrel with the cracked stock 
 yonder — by the way it's yours, Monsieur Picotot, 
 beg your pardon — but, talking of double barrels, 
 mille tonnerres,'^ 
 
 " Thousand claps of thunder s,^^ whispered Picotot. 
 
 " What's this ? — and so saying he seized the in- 
 effable detonator from the hands of 2ulcbel, and pro- 
 ceeded to inspect it with the same degree of jealous 
 easier attention that an artist would bestow on some 
 ofem, the work of a Cellini. To account for the 
 singular admiration of the gunsmith, it is necessary 
 to bear in mind that at the time our tale treats of, 
 the art of working and temjiering steel with the ex- 
 quisite finish of our English smiths was unknown in 
 
 * This, and other terms quite as anomalous, was part of the 
 ordinary camp slang of the armies under the Republic and the 
 Empire.
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 105 
 
 France. Even the celebrated Boulet, whose rifle 
 barrels are to this day unrivalled, put locks to them 
 so rude and ill-tempered, that an English country 
 workman would have been ashamed of them. Great 
 then was the marvel of Grivet, an enthusiast in his 
 art, over the beauty and novelty of the ineffable 
 detonator. 
 
 " Sacrrrrr Mecanique I " swore the astonished 
 operative. 
 
 ^' Sacrrrrrrred Mechanism I ^^ interpreted the ever 
 literal Picotot. 
 
 " What a mainspring ! what a lock ! and this is 
 what you call a detonator ! The Colonel must see 
 this gun, and its owner too ; and as he spoke the old 
 smith glanced at the sailor, put the gun carefully 
 down, and made for the door. 
 
 " What colonel ? " asked Picotot. " Lambert, is 
 he returned ? " 
 
 " The same, — who else ? He came back the day 
 before yesterday, poor fellow : they kept him dancing 
 attendance long enough in their precious Paris, the 
 rogues, with their old woman's babble of conspiracy. 
 Bah I — but he is just two doors off at the cafe — 
 I'll go fetch him." 
 
 So saying the old man liirpled, to use an expressive 
 Scotticism, out at the shop-door, and disappeared. 
 
 F 5
 
 106 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 Merrick learned during his absence that the person 
 he had gone to fetch was one of those unfortunate, 
 but honourable men, whom a chivalrous feeling of 
 devotion to Napoleon prevented from acknowledging 
 the restored dynasty, or carrying arms in their cause. 
 Distinguished in many a hard-fought field, a member 
 of the Legion of Honour, the author of his own 
 success, for he Imd risen by his merits and his gal- 
 lantry from the ranks, this brave man, like many 
 more at the time throughout France, was suspended 
 from rank and promotion, and with no resource be- 
 yond his half pay and the pension of the legion, 
 obliged to live under the strictest surveillance of 
 the police at Plassy, beyond the walls of which, 
 except when under order, or authority, or special 
 permission, he was not allowed to sleep. His recent 
 absence at Paris had been occasioned by a vexatious 
 and frivolous piece of secret information laid against 
 him, to the effect that he was engaged in treasonable 
 correspondence with other old officers, for the purpose 
 of creating a mutinous spirit in the army. Three 
 months had he been kept, living on his slender 
 pittance in the capital, whence he had been sent 
 back at last with nothing proved against him, but 
 under stricter surveillance than ever. Picotot just 
 finished this sketch of his story, as the man himself
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 107 
 
 entered the shop, followed by its owner, still loudly- 
 expatiating on the miraculous mechanism of the 
 English fowling-piece. 
 
 " Bah ! let me be," said the soldier, in a deep 
 sonorous voice, "it's the man I would see, not the 
 gun/' 
 
 With that he walked up to Merrick, and saluting 
 him sHghtly but civilly, stood silent, as if taking a 
 deliberate survey of the seaman, and thereby grati- 
 fying some deep-seated feeling of curiosity. During 
 the half-minute this examination lasted, Merrick had 
 time to remark on his part the peculiarities of the 
 remarkable figure before him. The French Colonel 
 was tall, standing at least six feet, of an upright 
 burly figure : his face, but for the massive character 
 of its features, might have been deemed handsome, 
 but thick black eyebrows, and heavy mustachios 
 which curled inwards, gave a look of sternness that 
 destroyed any pleasing effect that symmetry of feature 
 might have otherwise given. His face, naturally 
 dark, had been bronzed by exposure, and the ex- 
 pression of it was full of deep dejection. It was one 
 of those countenances that one involuntarily sighs 
 after looking upon, that silently tell their tale of 
 blasted hopes, wasted energies, and the canker at the 
 heart that eats away all moral vitality. His hair, 
 
 F 6
 
 108 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 black, thick, and rather coarse, was pushed back from 
 his high forehead, and traces of grey among its 
 massive curls, showed that years, hardship, and 
 sorrow had not failed to leave their mark on the iron 
 frame of the soldier. He was dressed in a double- 
 breasted blue great coat, buttoned to the throat, and 
 blue trousers, such as were formerly worn by cavalry 
 in several of the continental armies, not only strapped 
 down the leg with leather, but covered with it all 
 round from a short way above the ankle. He wore 
 a black neckcloth over a white one, the edge of which 
 was shown, and he held in his left hand a thick cane, 
 and his foraging cajD. 
 
 " Your pardon. Monsieur le capitaine,^^ said he to 
 Merrick, " for this liberty, — but, bah ! I need not 
 ask it. We are men of one profession, you for the 
 sea, I for the shore, — you will rule your frigate, I 
 ride my noble horse, — and our business has been 
 alike, — fighting. Has been ! " he added, after a pause, 
 " and will never be again! " 
 
 " Who knows ? " replied the sailor, " the good old 
 days may come round again for all that's come and 
 gone ! " 
 
 " Say you so ? you say well, and I like you but 
 for that word. You answer me roundly, as I like to 
 hear a man speak. You take no offence at my rough
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 109 
 
 manners, though they are the* best the caiup and 
 bivouac taught us, — eh, old Grivet ? Captahi, I 
 have one regret that will go to my grave with me. 
 I have never fought against your countrymen, not even 
 in Egypt, where they were." 
 
 " You always were only half-lucky," said Grivet. 
 
 " No," continued the Colonel, " nor did I ever see 
 an English sailor before I set eyes on you, — hence 
 the look I took at you, and palsambleu ! if they are 
 all stout fellows like you," — he did not finish his 
 phrase, but turned abruptly to look at the detonator, 
 which old Grivet was anxiously waiting to display. 
 Merrick, not unaware of the odd abrupt manners 
 which distinguished a large class of the officers under 
 Xapoleon, was quite man of the world enough to 
 take this cavalier greeting as a matter of course, 
 feeling that, if there were any special intention in the 
 matter it was rather a compliment than aught else 
 that was meant. He accordingly followed the soldier 
 to the smith's work-table, and with the assistance of 
 Picotot, delighted at the notice which his pupil had 
 received from one of a race which France then looked 
 on as heroic, proceeded good-naturedly to explain the 
 construction and mechanical principles of the newly- 
 invented action of his gunlocks. Being something of 
 a mechanist, he was soon deep in discussion with
 
 110 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 Grivet on tuQiblers^ mainsprings, and Heaven knows 
 what beside. Lambert, seated on the table, had 
 fallen into a deep reverie, and stared at vacancy out 
 of the dull shop window. He had a peculiar trick, 
 the relic of some listless barrack invention, for cheat- 
 ing Time of his tediousness, of placing the cane he 
 always carried between his front teeth ; and holding 
 it in a particular manner, while he breathed down 
 the stick, it gave out, when rapped with the fingers, 
 the dull semblance of a musical sound. So sat he, 
 playing on this extempore clarionet some old forgotten 
 trumpet march, that in its day perhaps waked the 
 echoes on the banks of the Beresina. 
 
 " Captain," said he abruptly, " how many men had 
 your Abercrombie when he landed ? " 
 
 Merrick turned round, surprised in the midst of 
 his disquisition, but ere he could answer, Grivet 
 said — 
 
 " Thirty thousand of all arms." 
 
 " Say thirteen, and you'll say too many," said 
 Merrick, laughing. 
 
 " Credie! " said the old armourer, " were not we 
 there ! More, by token, here's the keepsake I got 
 on the occasion," and he pointed to a scar on his left 
 fore-arm. 
 
 " Keepsake here, keepsake there," said Lambert,
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. Ill 
 
 " they were but the third of thirty thousand : you get 
 old, moil vieux, your memory's going." 
 
 "Old yourself, mon Colonel!''' was the reply, 
 ^•AYhen you joined the 23d from the 19th, I had 
 been but three years in the ser\ ice, que diable ! I 
 was still all cock-a-hoop with the Marseillaise ringing 
 in my ears, though I had made acquaintance with 
 lead or steel in every action from the time when the 
 Einigres and Prussians reached Yerdun till Maes- 
 tricht, where 1 nearly got my gruel. Credie! what 
 quicksilver one had in one's veins then ! I was a 
 lout of a journeyman blacksmith in the gallery at the 
 Orleans playhouse when they announced, ' the enemy 
 across the frontier I ' — ay, and the actors, men and 
 women, stopped their play to sing the Marseillaise : 
 — when they came to 
 
 ' Aux armes, Citojens ! ' — 
 
 the audience rose like one great live thing moving 
 together ; there was but one aux armes — it went 
 through me as if it froze the blood in our veins : — 
 — the next moment it was like metal in a furnace 
 burning blazing, and I had but one desire, a passion 
 to fight, to be a soldier. Parbleu ! they took you at 
 your word in those days ! Was there not a table in 
 the entry to the playhouse set all ready to take down
 
 112 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 the volunteers ? I Avent into that playhouse a stupid 
 lout of nineteen, I came out a man and a soldier." 
 
 Lambert smiled at the animation of his old com- 
 rade, and said to Merrick — 
 
 " There, Captain, look at that old grumbler there, 
 
 listen to him ! That's the stuiF our old armies were 
 
 made of : is it a wonder that they beat all before 
 them — they were the right stuff: fellows that would 
 not flinch, des lapins qui ne houdoient pas.''^ 
 
 " Rabbits which were not sulky, ^' interpreted Picotot. 
 
 " And yet," continued Lambert, "for all that he left 
 us as early as 1805 ; and why ? not because he had 
 got hit more or less in every action in the north, in 
 Italy, in Egypt, as some pretended ; but because he 
 would not serve the Emperor, after having fought 
 under General Bonaparte! — eh, you old grumbler? 
 and yet he was armourer sergeant in the 23d Dra- 
 goons too when he left us — "! 
 
 " Thanks to you. Colonel, who taught me to read, 
 and got me promotion — " 
 
 At this moment dashed into the shop a young 
 fellow, or rather I should say, a young-old man, one 
 of those in whom dissipation has anticipated the 
 work of years, and given that sodden worn-out ex- 
 pression of face and person, which mark the low-lived 
 roue. It was young Finot, the man to whom Merrick
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 113 
 
 had meditated having recourse for his settleraent of 
 matters at La Chalautre. He was full evidently of 
 some amazing good story, so eager to speak seemed 
 he. 
 
 " Lambert, Colonel, such fun, — such a joke ! — ah ! 
 but the Captain has told you I" — said he with the 
 air of a man disappointed in making an impression. 
 Assured to the contrary, he brightened up, and 
 hurried with astonishing volubility through the 
 following detail: — how the Captain had gone shooting 
 at La Chalautre — how old De Malguet had 
 summoned a levee en masse of all her people — how 
 they had threatened to transfix him with an echalat 
 — how they had put him into a cart, and carried him 
 off the estate, old De Malguet leading the party — 
 how they had stopped at the morning star — how the 
 Captain had procured his release by dancing a horn- 
 pipe, singing the national song of ^ Heaj), heaj?, ourra^ 
 (the meaning of which he, Finot, did not take upon 
 himself to give) and eating a raw biftek^ — and how, 
 lastly, the Captain had made old De Malguet very 
 drunk, and extorted a promise of marriage from her ! 
 This witty and veracious recital is a specimen of what 
 was the fashion in those days, with certain of the 
 "fast men" of the time, — it was termed a mystifi- 
 cation^ and the joke consisted in getting the party
 
 114 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 concerned to take the thing seriously. Picotot did it 
 for him, and that answered the purpose equally well 
 with Finot, who was soon engaged in buUying the 
 unhappy pedant by insisting on the superior veracity 
 of his version of the story, while old Grivet looked on 
 over his spectacles in infiDite surprise at the discus- 
 sion. 
 
 Merrick meanwhile, recalled to the necessity of 
 action as regarded the aiFair on his hands, took 
 Lambert aside, and in a few words explained to him 
 the real state of the case, adding that he looked on 
 himself as insulted, and that short as their acquaint- 
 ance was, he must ask his aid as a soldier and a man 
 of honour in procuring an adjustment of the matter. 
 The Colonel listened with an air of infinite perplexity. 
 " An old gentleman, you say ?" 
 " A most insolent one, I can assure you." 
 " And you saw him, and not Madame de Malguet ?" 
 " I saw him yesterday, 1 saw him this morning in 
 a cabriolet with a woman, who must have been the 
 lady herself, coming into Plassy." 
 
 " Old De Malguet's in town ! " cried Finot, who 
 had got all the fun out of the pedant, and now 
 joined them, " I saw her just now at the Sous Prefet's : 
 such a to do ! She is furious, and there is good- 
 natured old De Crivalet trying to pacify her, and
 
 :madame de malguet. 115 
 
 she with all her RaviUac and Crecy blood boiling in 
 her veins, — hang the old aristocrat!" 
 
 Merrick was about to make some rejoinder, when 
 the Colonel, taking his arm suddenly, said rapidly, 
 while Finot's attention was directed elsewhere, — 
 
 " Not a word to that chattering mischievous block- 
 head ! I'll not suffer him to hitch you into a story 
 — I can't say more here, nor before people, for your 
 sake, — but I give you my word, moii hrave^ that you 
 shall be satisfied."' 
 
 The hearty wring of the hand that accompanied 
 this mysterious and hurried speech assured Merrick of 
 the soldier's sincerity, while it gratified him by the 
 kind and frank manner in which liis new friend took 
 up his quarrel. 
 
 " Be at the fete at Berceaulis this evening, and all," 
 added the Colonel, " shall be arranged." 
 
 " But the morning is near over as it is, " cried 
 Picotot, — " why should not the Colonel take his luck 
 at our dinner table? — it's near three I " 
 
 "Near three?" cried Finot, — "if the Governor 
 finds me late for dinner! Good bye, friends — au 
 revoir,^^ and off he ran. 
 
 ^Meanwhile, after a kind word or two to old Grivet, 
 he of the sea and he of the shore left the shop, followed 
 by Picotot, and took the way to Curfew Street, while
 
 116 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 the people ran to their doors to see the sight of an 
 actual live French Colonel, and a real breathing 
 English Captain walking arm in arm down the quiet 
 streets of Plassy. 
 
 " What strappers ! " said the shoe-black at the 
 corner. 
 
 " What shoulders ! " thought Ma'mselle Virginia, 
 the sempstress. 
 
 " Tiensy tiens^^ said all the little boys, " here's our 
 Colonel taken the Goddem prisoner ! " 
 
 All fuss, bustle, blushes, smiles, and fidget was 
 little Madame Picotot, when her unexpected guest 
 arrived. However, the dinner was very good, the 
 captain very talkative, the little female Picotot very 
 merry, and gradually the cloud got lighter on poor 
 Lambert's brow. Had it not been that, towards 
 the dessert, Picotot contrived to victimize him with 
 a disquisition on the way to pronounce the English 
 th, I really believe he might have been got to laugh ! 
 
 They soon left the table, Madame Picotot de- 
 clared herself ready, and the whole party set forth 
 for Berceaulis. Having to cross the town to reach 
 this hamlet on the other side of it, they preferred 
 going a little round in order to take the walk by the 
 ramparts, and there, beneath the shade of spreading 
 elms, they sauntered on. Groups of the townsfolk,
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 117 
 
 bent on the same errand with themselves, dotted the 
 long walk before them, and soon they fell in with 
 acquaintance. Their party was swelled by the 
 wdiole Finot family, including the old father, his 
 wife, and a daughter, what we should call just out in 
 England. Then there was Monsieur La Fosse, the 
 doctor; and a crowed, in short, of all the better 
 bourgeoisie, talking as they w^alked as people talk in 
 France. jNIerrick, a little bewildered in this Babel 
 of vocables, left the crowd and walked on before, 
 resiscnino^ the care of Madame Picotot to the soldier. 
 He was not, though, alone, for a lovely little girl of 
 seven years old had fixed on the kind-hearted sea- 
 man ; her little heart warmed at once into confidence 
 by that sort of instinctive skill, which all children 
 have, in finding those that love them. Perfectly 
 certain of a friend, she thrust her little dimpled dump 
 of a hand into his, and walked aw^ay as if they had 
 been playmates all their lives. 
 
 True to her feminine instinct, the embryo coquette 
 soon felt her power, and used it, as all women will 
 from seven to seventy. Xow, the Captain was to 
 hook her a water-lily out of the moat by the walk 
 side : now he was to jump (oh so very very high !) to 
 reach her that tem2:)ting branch of hazel nuts : now 
 he was to run (oh so fast !) and catch that pretty
 
 118 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 pretty butterfly: and now — they had left the 
 ramparts, and were traversing a lane or two running 
 between the walls of the suburb gardens. Oh yes ! 
 now the Captain shall read those pretty red and 
 green letters, high up on the wall there. When, in 
 obedience to his little tyrant, the good-natured fellow 
 threw back his head, raised his eyes, and commenced, 
 he was not a little surprised to hear behind him, at 
 the door of a garden which just then opened, a short 
 harsh laugh, — he turned, but the door was quickly 
 closed. He had just resumed his occupation, when 
 round the corner came sweeping all his party, while 
 at the same moment the garden door opened, and 
 there he saw, in splits of well-bred laughter, the 
 Sous Prefet himself. Monsieur de Crivalet, his wife, 
 a lady famous for being particular about the pro- 
 prieties of life, — several friends, male and female, 
 Madame de Malguet, doubtless, among them, — and 
 the old gentleman of La Chalautre ! 
 
 It is needless to particularise the cause of that 
 volley of exclamations and the shouts of laughter 
 that ensued on the discovery of Merrick's occupation. 
 When explained to him, — nay, when he had himself 
 deciphered more than the first six words of the 
 elaborate and gaily painted inscription, Merrick 
 laughed louder than all of them put together. Vainly
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 119 
 
 did Finot and his set, the dandies and " fast men " 
 of Plassy, endeavour to put him out of humour : 
 vain were the jests of Lambert, which were hardly 
 of a nature to be repeated in the draAving-room ; vain 
 the ridicule of the Anti-English party ; vain even 
 the prose of Picotot. When the Sous Prefet even 
 remarked on the peculiar compliment he paid to 
 Plassy in seeking to find wisdom (or learning at 
 least) in her very streets, Merrick replied with im- 
 perturbable good humour, — 
 
 " Yes, but only at the gate of Monsieur." 
 A Frenchman, I have said it before, and Sterne 
 has said it before me, cannot resist a phrase or a 
 compliment. Monsieur de Crivalet immediately 
 took jMerrick's arm, and entered into conversation 
 Avith him, which was a sign for all to cease jeer or 
 jibe, and in this way they walked amicably to 
 Berceaulis. Merrick, however, did not at first ob- 
 serve that the old gentleman of La Chalautre had 
 placed himself on his other side, and walked noise- 
 lessly on, listening with interest to what passed 
 between him and his companion. 
 
 The way to Berceaulis lies all along through vines 
 and garden ground, a pretty walk enough, and the 
 little hamlet is barely one half mile from Plassy. 
 The fete was most numerously attended from the
 
 120 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 town; booths were erected, eveD, and there were 
 showmen and jugglers displaying their feats, while 
 plenty of good cheer was to be had, of such light and 
 homely nature as might suit a village ball. The 
 prettiest sight was the bevy of village girls, neatly 
 and quietly dressed, (for the French peasant never 
 flaunts in fine clothes like ours,) that waited to pre- 
 sent their nosegays to Monsieur De Crivalet and his 
 friends. An old f\irmer then attempted to address 
 the Sous Prefet, but on a suggestion of young 
 Finot, his " fast men " went to the rear of the 
 Plassy party, and pushing on them with gentle 
 violence, obliged even the Sous Prefet to advance, so 
 that the old man and speech were swept away by a 
 sort of human avalanche. 
 
 Then began the ball; the Sous Prefet himself 
 dancing with a huge farmer's wife, his lady with as 
 huge a farmer, every one finding partners as they 
 could, and Merrick pouncing on the prettiest paysanne 
 in the place, to the manifest amusement of his friend 
 Madame Picotot. I shall not describe the scene, for 
 hundreds have done it ; a happy cro^vd of the gayest- 
 hearted people in existence, a balmy evening at that 
 delightful season when summer merges into autumn, 
 music and merriment, laughter and joy, and the fair 
 full moon looking down on the scene, as if, in her
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 121 
 
 placid way, she enjoyed it too. Merrick, delighted 
 to make acquaintance with the peasantry, and learn 
 their patois, danced like a second St. Vitus ; and 
 many a glass of rough claret was drunk to his 
 health that night, when he offered his partner re- 
 freshment, and begged all present would stand on no 
 ceremony, but follow her example. 
 
 During the whole evening, however, the sailor 
 was singularly embarrassed by the conduct of the old 
 man of La Chalautre, who followed him from place 
 to place with a most remarkable pertinacity. Did 
 he dance? — he was behind him. Did he sit — he 
 was beside him: insomuch that Merrick at one 
 time actually thought of acting for himself, in spite 
 of the pledge Lambert had given him. This, how- 
 ever, he was relieved from by the Colonel whispering 
 in his ear — 
 
 " It's arranged. I'll tell you to-morrow — see 
 who's near you. I can't speak now." 
 
 " But, Colonel," said the sailor seizing his arm, " I 
 must have some answer or other, or some sort of ex- 
 planation, for this old fellow is haunting my life out : 
 don't let me wait till to morrow — ^' 
 
 * Chi va piano, va sano,' said a low voice behind 
 him, quoting part of a common Italian proverb. 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 122 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 ^'E chi va sano, va hmtano,^' said Merrick completing 
 it, as he turned to find the speaker. It was the old 
 srentleman of La Chalautre. 
 
 " What, do you speak Italian ? " said he, with an 
 expression of joyful surprise. 
 
 " I have been told I speak it well," said the sailor. 
 
 " Then you've been to Italy ? " 
 
 " All through it ; and for the coast, I know it as 
 well as any pilot from Genoa to Reggio." 
 
 " Do you know Leghorn ?"' 
 
 « Of course." 
 
 «And " 
 
 " JVIadame de Malguet," said the Sous Prefet, " I 
 am at your orders." 
 
 The lady bowed, and, as she turned away, said 
 still in Italian to the sailor — 
 
 " I shall do myself the honour to write to Captain 
 Merrick to-morrow. I believe I owe him some 
 reparation for a degree of impetuosity on my part, 
 which if he ever should know me better, he will be 
 then best able to excuse. If the ' Tuscan tongue, 
 that sweetest is on earth ' — can prove a means of 
 bringing about that better acquaintance. Captain 
 Merrick is at liberty to employ it, for, a French- 
 woman in heart, I am by habit and long custom an 
 Italian!"
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 123 
 
 So saying, the old gentlewoman, strange and 
 eccentric epicene, bowed her head with dignity to 
 the astounded sailor, and passed on with Monsieur 
 de Cri valet to join her party, leaving Merrick too 
 much surprised to he able to reply a word. 
 
 At this moment Picotot and his wife came up to 
 him. 
 
 " 'Tis a woman," said the Captain, 
 
 6 2
 
 124 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 It is strange to reflect how easily a mystery, or as 
 Finot, the younger, would have more properly termed 
 it, a mystification, gains empire over us. A succession 
 of trifles chanced to interfere wuth Merrick's learning 
 in detail the eccentric character of the proprietress of 
 La Chalautre, and, mistaken to the last, the position 
 in which he found himself placed as respects her, 
 was of a nature to induce actual ridicule upon him 
 had he not been fortunately assisted by the friendly 
 intervention of Lambert. Little as the soldier was 
 inclined to have to do with the representatives of a 
 government which he despised, and by w^hich in turn 
 he was distrusted, a generous and manly feeling 
 prompted him to take the unusual course for him, of 
 addressing the Sous Prefet at the fete of Berceaulis, 
 but for the purpose of letting him know the extent 
 of Merrick's delusion. Madame de Malguet w^as 
 of course instantly apprised of it, and at the same 
 time received the wholesome sus^o^estion that she 
 should take as early an opportunity as possible of
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 125 
 
 avoiding the chance of any collision with the sailor, 
 wliile he was still labouring under a very mistaken, 
 though very natural impression. Let those who think 
 they can interpret the hidden motives which actuate 
 a wilful woman, explain why, under that suggestion, 
 she sought, as we have seen, every occasion of coming 
 into contact with the person she was advised to keep 
 away from. As for Merrick, he was mystified, as he 
 might have said himself, to the mast-head. 
 
 " A woman !" said he, interjectionally, as he offered 
 his arm to Madame Picotot, — but the little bour- 
 geoise was huffed and would not take it. 
 
 " A woman I — and going to call her out !" 
 
 " You may call her a woman, if you please," replied 
 the lady, "the horrid old pantalooned indelicate 
 wretch I — but she's like the bat in the fable, disowned 
 by both sides, and worthy of neither ! " 
 
 " Amandine ! " exclaimed in English, Picotot, 
 whom two or three glasses of eau de vie had worked 
 into a high state of prose, — " Amandine, pardon to 
 the infortunes of others ! Be a Christian, and suspend 
 epigrams: — she is a woman according to the noises 
 which run upon her, — she has undoubtedly right to 
 the privileges of the sex." 
 
 " And wears pantaloons," interposed Amandine. 
 
 " And divested of prejudices, wears pantaloons — 
 G 3
 
 126 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 but what then ? Is she not of a high family ? Have 
 not the aristocrats rights hereditary." 
 
 " To make fools of themselves," — said Amandine. 
 
 " To assume a mode to themselves," continued 
 Picotot, — '"' has she not near for these four years lived 
 retired at her recovered propriety, and will you now 
 ungenerously throw her costume at her nose, and — " 
 
 " But tell me," said Merrick, interrupting what he 
 saw might be an interminable harangue, — " what is 
 her story, and what this singular eccentricity which 
 seems to make every one abuse her?" 
 
 " Why her story," answered the female Picotot, 
 — "her story is briefly this, that she is an old, proud, 
 insolent, absurd emigre, who, after flying no one 
 knows where, and living no one knows how, out of 
 France, came back with the Bourbons, and has re- 
 covered her estate, for she was the last of her proud 
 race, and one too many then too : — she sees no one, 
 goes no where, gives nothing, lives no how, and affects 
 as you see to be ashamed of her sex : — for the rest 
 you have had a specimen of her civility, her tact, and 
 her notions of propriety ! and so make the most of so 
 precious an acquaintance." 
 
 So saying, and in infinite dudgeon, did the little 
 woman flounce into the house, which they had now 
 reached, and make her way off* to her own apartments,
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 127 
 
 leaving her husband and her guest to betake them- 
 selves in their turn to their several resting places. 
 
 Early the next morning, little Michel bustled to 
 our friend Merrick's door to announce a visitor on 
 business. The sailor of course received him, and 
 found with some surprise that the person was no 
 other than the respectable Monsieur Josse, whom he 
 had last left describing figures, of the eccentricity of 
 which no Euclid ever dreamed, on the road from 
 The Morning Star to La Chalautre. That worthy 
 and important personage seemed to feel that his 
 dignity must have suffered in the Captain's eyes by 
 reason of the irreverent orgie into which he had 
 allowed himself to be enticed, and he therefore endea- 
 voured to invest himself with a double portion on 
 this occasion, as if he would add what he had lost 
 to what he had, and let the sailor take his chang^e out 
 of the sum total. 
 
 " A letter from Madame la Marquise de Malguet," 
 said Monsieur Josse, with the precision of a pour- 
 suivant, and the rigidity of a rusty automaton. 
 
 *^ A letter I Thank you. Monsieur Josse — a chair 
 — nay I beg, — I insist — be seated, pray. I hope 
 you got safe home. Monsieur Josse, that night ? " 
 
 The steward deigned no reply. 
 
 " Does Madame de INIalguet expect an answer ? " 
 G 4
 
 128 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 "Read, sir, and you will see," observed the sen- 
 tentious Josse, and Merrick read as follows : — 
 
 " Plassy, August, 1820. 
 
 " Madame de Malguet, feeling that the force of 
 circumstances has placed her under mistaken relations 
 with Captain Merrick, and understanding that the 
 Captain had intended to take measures (still under 
 the influence of error) for the purpose of claiming re- 
 paration for certain alleged wrongs,, does not hesitate 
 to express her regret that she and Captain Merrick 
 should have been at any time liable to the inconve- 
 nience of a false position as respects one another." 
 
 Here Merrick, who read aloud by way of a sort of 
 French exercise, looked at Monsieur Josse to see if 
 the above lucid paragraph could be annotated by any 
 look of comprehension from him, — but the steward 
 was imperturbable. Merrick continued ; — 
 
 " Madame de Malguet owes it to herself as well as 
 to Captain Merrick to state, that her life of seclusion 
 had prevented her from knowing that a gentleman of 
 his nation had taken up his residence in the neigh- 
 bourhood of La Chalautre, and this ignorance as well 
 as other reasons, which it is now impossible to dilate 
 upon, caused his being received on her estate in a 
 manner she must much regret.
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 129 
 
 " Should Captain Merrick not be deterred by his 
 reception from venturing a second time in the direc- 
 tion of her domain, Madame de Malguet begs to state 
 that the bearer of this letter will take his orders as to 
 the spot in which he would wish her gamekeeper to 
 await his arrival." 
 
 " What ! " said Merrick, " leave to shoot on La 
 Chalautre!" 
 
 Monsieur Josse bowed, and the sailor hastily con- 
 cluded : — 
 
 " ^yhile, should he feel inclined to take refresh- 
 ment after his day's shooting, he will find it at the 
 chateau." 
 
 The surprise of the captain at the gracious tenor 
 of this epistle was excessive, quite as great certainly 
 as had been his astonishment at the eccentric conduct 
 of the writer the evening before, and the discovery 
 made so unexpectedly of her identity with the old 
 gentleman of La Chalautre. 
 
 "Why, really. Monsieur Josse, this is the most 
 complete and agreeable amende I ever received in my 
 life I I shall certainly lose no time in taking advantage 
 of your lady's kindness." 
 
 Monsieur Josse bowed again, and informed the sailor 
 that he was in waiting to receive his reply ; that 
 Madame de Malguet had left Plassy a little after 
 
 G 5
 
 130 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 sunrise for La Chalautre, being a person of early 
 habits, and that he was about to follow her on horse- 
 back. And sure enough in the street stood, under 
 the custody of Michel, the same wall-eyed Normandy 
 gelding which Pierrefeu had bestridden the day before, 
 while the worthy steward, booted and cloaked, with 
 a goodly whip in his hand, showed that he was 
 equipped to take the road. 
 
 " Would Monsieur le Capitaine find it convenient 
 to come out to-day?" enquired he; "my lady is 
 not in the habit of seeing any one at the chateau, and 
 it is a proceeding so much out of her way to do so, 
 that perhaps she might feel a little piqued did Mon- 
 sieur not take early notice of her invitation." 
 
 IVIerrick thought that the hint was valuable, being 
 evidently a delicate allusion by the old servitor to the 
 expediency of humouring a character doubtless of 
 considerable eccentricity ; and bethinking him that, 
 as usual, his day was his own to do as good seemed 
 to him, he made up his mind at once. 
 
 " It is seven o'clock now, Monsieur Josse, and let 
 
 me see, — you will be at La Chalautre about " 
 
 " Pardon me, a quarter to seven," observed the 
 precise Frenchman, — " and as it is not three leagues 
 at farthest, I have but to give old Rollo the rein to 
 be there in an hour*"
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 131 
 
 " Good — then sit down while I write my reply, 
 telling Madame la Marquise that I will be on the 
 borders of La Chalautre about half-past twelve ; — 
 and where shall Monsieur Pierrefeu meet me, pray ? " 
 continued Merrick, as he wrote a few lines full of due 
 and proper acknowledgments for the apology and 
 the invitation. 
 
 " Hum" — said the steward reflectively — " there 
 is Yervins, — but no, the vines are too thick there 
 — or Courtauble — but then you don't know your 
 way!" 
 
 " Or what say you to The Morning Star ? We 
 all know our way to and from it — eh. Monsieur 
 Josse?" 
 
 The steward looked askance at Merrick, with a sly 
 twinkle in his eye, and a sort of deprecatory expres- 
 sion : if he had read Shakspeare he would have said, 
 " No more of that, Hal, an thou lov'st me," to a 
 certainty. As it was, he contented himself with a 
 reproach after his own fashion. 
 
 " Ah, Monsieur le Capitaine, how you made me 
 jumble my blazonry that night, and what a mess I 
 must have given you of the family history ! " 
 
 " Not a bit, Monsieur Josse, not a bit ! you stood 
 your ground for the honour of the house, and gave 
 no quarter to the arms of its enemies, that's all, — 
 
 G 6
 
 132 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 eh ? — and then your very departure was strictly 
 heraldic, wavy upon a field sable ! But, talking of 
 family history, there is one little bit of its modern 
 domestic detail upon which, without being indiscreet, 
 I must request information — who was the person in 
 the carriole with you and your lady, whom, from 
 her female garb, I in my wisdom took for Madame 
 la Marquise ? " 
 
 " That ? " said the steward ; " no one but old 
 Brigitta, the Calabrese, my lady's woman. Ah ! sir, 
 how these Plassy people have let you mystify 
 yourself! But I know them, they are a bad set, 
 and would have fain let you make her and yourself 
 ridiculous. They wash her ill, sir, and run her 
 down because she feels her station, and honours the 
 blood she came of. No, sir, no, don't say the mis- 
 take was yours, though to be sure we did keep the 
 truth from you after the scene at La Chalautre, but 
 who could have told it then I " 
 
 So saying, and with a reflection uj)on the malice 
 indigenous to Plassy, and the impossibility of Mer- 
 rick's being the author of his own error, the steward 
 charged himself with the sailor's letter, and bowed 
 out of the room. Merrick went to the window to 
 see the start of the modern representative of the 
 swift couriers, who rode of old for the Counts of
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 133 
 
 La Chalautre, and while watching him, amused by 
 the preliminary tugs at the jack-boots, adjustments 
 of the cloak, gathering of the reins, and turning of 
 the stirrup, which preceded with old Josse the mighty 
 feat of mounting to the saddle, his eye was caught 
 by the stalwart figure of Lambert making on the 
 other side of the street towards the mansion, Vhotel 
 Picotot, as Merrick called it. The dragoon stood to 
 observe with Merrick the operation of " climbing 
 to the saddle," as practised by old Josse, and his 
 heavy features curled into an involuntary smile as 
 he watched the painful exertions of the steward with 
 one foot stuck into the stirrup that hung high on the 
 raw-boned side of wall-eyed Kollo, while with a hand 
 on pummel, and a hand on cantle, he hopped tip-toe 
 on the other foot to gain a sort of impetus to hoist 
 him up. At the third effort the soldier came to his 
 assistance, holding the stirrup for him, which Michel 
 at the horse's head could not, and with a low bow of 
 thanks. Monsieur Josse took at a solemn trot the 
 road to La Chalautre. 
 
 " Hardly smart enough that. Captain, for an alerte 
 on piquet duty," said the dragoon, still smiling as he 
 entered the room, " but what is he ? — an orderly 
 detached with proposals from the enemy's head- 
 quarters, I suppose ? "
 
 134 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 " Even so, Colonel, you have, I imagine, come 
 thus early to see the fulfilment of your kind inter- 
 vention ; a thousand thanks for preventing my being 
 exposed to ridicule by the consequences of my absurd 
 error ! Most men would have acted very diiferently, 
 more especially when there was a foreigner in the 
 case." And so saying, the sailor held out a hand, 
 which was cordially grasped by the broad palm of 
 the veteran. 
 
 "Let this make an end of thanks between us, 
 Captain, and by way of explanation, but one word, 
 for I am no man of phrases : I look on you as a 
 brother in arms, — from the other side the channel 
 to be sure, but still no fit subject for these pekins *, 
 of Plassy to gibe at, and palsamhleu ! I have taken 
 to you, and there it is." 
 
 " Well, I suppose I must not say ' thanks ' for 
 that; so tell me, how did you manage to apprise 
 the old lady, for I suppose you did so, of my absurd 
 mistake ? " 
 
 " I apprise ! The old aristocrat would neither 
 speak to me nor I to her for that matter, — I stand 
 ill enough with all these cattle of the restoration : 
 no, I spoke to the Sous Prefet, old De Crivalet, 
 
 * Name of contempt given to civilians by French soldiers.
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 135 
 
 though it was an eiFort to do thut, as she is some 
 distant cousin of his, and he would be loth to see 
 her more ridiculous than she is already ; he thanked 
 me, warned her, and got her away, I suppose. I left 
 the place after speaking to you." 
 
 " Oh I we had a sort of scene after that, for she 
 somehow found out by a phrase of mine that 1 spoke 
 Italian, and had most eagerly commenced a talk with 
 me, when the Sous Prefet addressed her, and — but 
 here's the result," — and the sailor handed to him the 
 letter he had received that morning. 
 
 " Italian ! aha I you speak that macaroni jargon, 
 do you ? I might have known it by your accent in 
 French. Old what's her name — Chalautre — what 
 do you call her ? — has come back, they tell me, with 
 accent enough for the whole college of cardinals." 
 
 '- What, she has been in Italy ? " 
 
 " Emigrated there, — lived there for years ; but 
 let me read her letter, while you go dress — I'll 
 breakfast here. Captain; you, and your Picotot, 
 and his female, little Picototte, amuse me. Say, 
 shall I ? " 
 
 The sailor gladly accepted the offered guesthood, 
 and hurried into his bedroom to complete his equip- 
 ment, while Lambert, with many a pish! and psha ! 
 deciphered the cramped and formal characters of
 
 136 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 Madame de Malguet's missive. On Merrick's return 
 to the sitting room, he found the soldier plunged in 
 the same sort of deep vague reverie which he had 
 observed came over him in the gun-smith's shop. 
 The letter lay on the floor at his feet, his eyes stared 
 through the window on vacancy, the end of his cane 
 was between his teeth, and he was again as if un- 
 consciously playing the notes of the old trumpet 
 march on it with his fingers. He was so totally 
 abstracted as not to notice Merrick's entrance, who 
 busied himself about his room, purposely leaving the 
 Colonel to himself. 
 
 " Italy ! " at last said the soldier, " Italy ! Lodi, 
 Lanato, Castiglione, Solferino, — I fought in all of 
 them." 
 
 Merrick saw that the mind of the veteran was far 
 away fighting through the desperate battles of the first 
 campaign of Italy. Trying to draw him out, he 
 asked 
 
 " In what grade. Colonel ?" 
 
 The soldier answered abstractedly as if half com- 
 muning with himself, as if replying to his own 
 thoughts, — 
 
 " I had not long joined the 23d, — I was serjeant 
 — it was in 1796 — old Grivet minds it well — after 
 Campo Formio — the peace you know — they made
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 137 
 
 me serjeant-major — mille tonnerres ! peace! and I 
 had my general's epaulettes to win, as I thought, — 
 and why not ? Hoche had been but what I was only 
 seven years before — what days ! — we used to say 
 afterwards every conscript thought he carried a mar- 
 shal's baton in his knapsack — des hetises, quoiT'' 
 
 " And after war broke out again ?" 
 
 — " In '97 ? named sub-lieutenant at the passage 
 of the Mincio — I won it hard, — ay, if I had not 
 had a charmed life, I must have gone — but they 
 always said I was charmed against blade or bullet — 
 how I j^layed with my life ! — but the Little Cor- 
 poral heard of it — he confirmed ray commission, 
 — I was a dare-devil after his own heart in those 
 days." 
 
 « And then what followed ? " 
 
 " — Detachment duty — convoys — outposts — I 
 was thought a smart oflScer at that work, — so when 
 the army formed for Egypt, I was dismounted, and 
 embarked with a body of picked men — how many 
 are left of those fellows, I wonder ! — I know of none 
 alive, but Grivet and myself — yet from the 23d 
 there were ninety sabres taken for the duty — " 
 
 " And what happened ? " 
 
 "I got the plague, plague take it ! the life that
 
 138 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 sword and shot refused, I nearly lost with my head 
 on an hospital pillow, — but I struggled hard and 
 would live, and did live — there's all in the will — I 
 kept old Grivet, who lay by me, alive too, by literally 
 not letting him give in — if a man desponded, he 
 sank. " 
 
 " Was it dreadful ? " 
 
 "Fancy the worst fever that ever tormented man, 
 added to the torture of ulceration ! — fancy the 
 centering of all the raging heat of the blood in a sin- 
 gle spot ! — fancy the sensation of fire in the brain, 
 of blood floating red in the eyes till all seemed one 
 horrible red, of feeling that water could not quench 
 the thirst, nor sleep close the eyelid, nor repose give 
 rest! — I endured it all, and kept my senses, — I 
 would keep them — did I never blench ? Yes, once 
 I was about giving in ; once I remember despairing, 
 and letting go the influence on my brain, and begin- 
 ning to feel my senses leave me, — I was saved by 
 him, V autre* you know, the day he visited the 
 plague 'spitals, to prove there was no infection in the 
 plague ! The sight of him roused, and saved me — 
 
 * Vautre^ a name by whicli the suspected Imperialists spoke 
 of Napoleon.
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 139 
 
 "What a man was that ! He touched the ulcerous 
 plague spots on the dying men, to prove that the very 
 truth was untrue — and he did it ! He could do all, 
 and any thing. ■' 
 
 " Well, you recovered ? " 
 
 •' A mere wreck, just able to crawl : but I turned 
 out in our days of trouble after the Corporal had left 
 us, wreck as I was, and wreck I was for years, and 
 led a charge that Kleber, left in command, should 
 have given me my promotion for. The Arabs called 
 him ' the just Sultan ' — he was not just to me, 
 I know ; we cut the Turks to pieces, mere handful 
 that we were : svhen it was over, I fell from my horse 
 with thirst and weakness, and never served again 
 there. Then came the truce, and we returned " 
 
 At this moment, to Merrick's great regret, curious 
 to watch at once this sinsfular sort of wakinor gon- 
 nambulism (if one might say so), and interested in 
 drawing Lambert's story from him, the voice of 
 Madame Picotot was heard at the door, scolding the 
 (/?'os garqon for not coming to breakfast, after insist- 
 ing, as he had done, on an early one in English fashion. 
 The sound seemed to awaken the soldier as from a 
 trance, though it was quite quietly he turned his 
 head, and asked Merrick how long he had been 
 dressed ?
 
 140 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 *^ Well, on my honour, if I do not think he is in 
 bed and asleep ! Gros garqon ! " and the tiny fist of 
 the little hostess thumped the door with an emphasis 
 that could have roused any seventy sleepers, let alone 
 seven. 
 
 "Coming, coming, but stay — come in yourself, 
 and see the civil letter I have received from the lady 
 you were so angry with last night ! " 
 
 The little woman took the letter with a little 
 grimace of dissatisfaction, and led the way down to 
 the breakfast room, after exchanging due greeting 
 with the Colonel, whom, according to the custom of 
 all Frenchwomen of her rank in those days, she pro- 
 fessed admiration of as a hero, and a martyr in the 
 good cause. Picotot was waiting for them, boiling 
 the eggs, and chaunting appropriately the burthen of 
 one of his best songs — 
 
 " The egg of life may soon be broke — 
 Then drain your glasses, for there's the yolk ! " 
 
 " Good morning. Captain — aha I Colonel, delighted 
 to see you — come, gentlemen, breakfast, — a sound 
 breakfast, a French breakfast a lafourchette, according 
 to the fork. I hate your English warm water break- 
 fast ; here are eggs a la bonne femme, according to the
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 141 
 
 good woman, cotelettes santees, au jus, cutlets jumped 
 with gravy, some " 
 
 This detail of the bill of fare, original and transla- 
 ted, was interrupted by Madame Picotot, who, having 
 read the letter of Madame de Malguet, proceeded to 
 call her, forward, impertinent, unfeminine, and a 
 dozen other names to boot. Whereon the discussion 
 round the breakfast table became animated, Merrick 
 and Picotot defending her, while Lambert took 
 pleasure in urging the little Picotot to the attack. 
 He was however fully of opinion that the sailor 
 should avail himself, as he had intended, that very 
 day, of a civility which was meant to be marked and 
 peculiar, and Madame Picotot was left on this im- 
 portant point in a glorious minority of one. 
 
 " Well, do as you please," said she, — " go off 
 to that horrid old dungeon in the woods, that they 
 say she lives in ! — it is not the sleeping beauty you'll 
 find there at any rate; — but, gracious me ! if it is 
 only after all a trick to get the Captain into her 
 power, and make her people murder him I Picotot, 
 you must go with him I " 
 
 " But, Amandine, I'm not asked, — besides it's 
 absurd to suppose " 
 
 " I don't care, you must go." 
 
 " Come, I'll go," said Lambert, and see him at
 
 142 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 any rate safe into the hands of this terrible castel- 
 laine's vassals ; and then, if after all they do make an 
 example of the Captain, it will be a great satisfaction 
 to him in the other world, to know that my evidence 
 is avenging him in this one — eh, Madame Picotot ? " 
 
 Thus with merry talk they made an end of a meal, 
 not less cheerful than substantial, and Merrick, clad 
 in his shooting dress, and followed by Michel and 
 his dogs, soon summoned the Colonel from Madame 
 Picotot's sitting-room, to set out on their expedition. 
 Many were the promises made that he would be 
 back as early as possible, and many the assurances of 
 the little lady that she would be sure to keep no 
 dinner for him if he did not, and thus they went 
 their way. 
 
 " But, Colonel, will you not shoot ?" said the sailor, 
 as drawing near the suburbs of the little town, he 
 saw his companion make no allusion to the subject — 
 " it is dull work for you looking on." 
 
 "Dull!" replied the soldier, "what is not dull to 
 me? But if you will, Pll take my gun — we shall 
 pass the hovel I live in directly, and if you'll wait for 
 me an instant Pll rejoin you." 
 
 A moment afterwards he turned down an alley, or 
 at least a very narrow street formed on one side by a 
 large grain warehouse, and on the other by the high
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET/ 143 
 
 garden wall of an adjoining nunnery. At the bottom 
 of it was a small wharf opening on the little river 
 that ran by Plassy, and partly through it ; on one 
 side was a water-mill, on the other a plain built house, 
 or cottaoce it mio;ht be called, of two stories. Into 
 this Lambert turned, leaving the sailor at the end 
 of the lane : in four or five minutes he re-appeared, 
 having had time to make some change in his dress, 
 and ojet his o-un, which he carried across his shoulder. 
 
 "Your pardon. Captain — I cannot ask you into 
 yonder poor shed — I am not alone." 
 
 Merrick bowed, and they walked on : the matter 
 seemed to the sailor one of that numerous class, of 
 which the less that is said the better— and he accor- 
 dingly held his peace. They had reached the out- 
 skirts of the town in silence, and Merrick had even 
 given orders to uncouple the setters, when the soldier 
 came to a dead halt, let the butt of his gun fall heavily 
 to the ground, and said with some bitterness of tone, — 
 
 " I am not alone, and Captain Merrick thinks I 
 have a fair companion : — as we most likely shall see 
 much of one another, let me undeceive you at once. 
 I do not care for women : in my younger days, if 
 they threw themselves at my head (and my reputation 
 as a sabreur turned the empty numskulls of some 
 silly fools), why I was not ungallant enough to
 
 144 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 interfere with their going to the devil their own way : 
 but nothing further than this, believe me : I never 
 had what's called a passion, nor care to have one. 
 Note I am so eaten up with very weariness, and 
 distaste of life, that women rank with me among its 
 follies, — or its curses. I have a companion, but you 
 must never name her to me, nor speak of her to 
 others, — it is my mother." 
 
 Uttering these words in his usual abrupt manner, 
 for as he spoke he seemed to break his sentences, 
 and give you only the pieces of them, the dragoon 
 threw his gun again across his shoulder, and moved 
 on. Merrick walked by his side, so much occupied 
 by the peculiarities of his companion, as to walk up 
 more than one quail unnoted, and provoke the special 
 ire of Liver and Lights by this neglect of their 
 exertions. Lambert did not fail to observe this, 
 and in his ordinary straightforward way, taxed him 
 with it. Merrick as easily admitted the imputation, 
 and at the same time uttered some expression of 
 kindly sympathy and fellow feeling. 
 
 "J«? lit eiinide^'' said the soldier, — "there is the 
 whole secret of my misery. I have passed my life 
 in action, — I have lived in hope of honour and reward 
 — I was greedy of them then — others got them in 
 tumbril-loads, while mine would not have filled my
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 145 
 
 holster-pipes ; disappointed in this, the first longing 
 of my life, but still devoting the best years of it to 
 the service of a man who made France what she was 
 in Charlemagne's day, I see, in the autumn of my 
 career, a dominant set forced back upon the country, 
 whoj it was well said, ' have forgotten nothing, and 
 have learned nothing ' since they left it ! These 
 Bourbons, whom you English have helped to inflict 
 again upon us, have so little respect for the spirit of 
 honour and fidelity, that they punish its very existence ! 
 Because I tell them plainly, I cannot serve them 
 cheerfully, and would not serve them ill, I am 
 marked out as the victim of petty oppression, tied 
 down to the dull circle of a country town, my move- 
 ments watched, my letters opened, every action liable 
 to be made the subject of enquiry by a blundering, 
 pompous, insolent pekin of an aristocrat magistrate ! 
 Je iTi ennuie 1 am w^eary of every thing ! " 
 
 *' Yet, surely," said Merrick gently, " no one man 
 exists, who can say that life has no sweet for him, 
 no consolation amid even so great a mass of evil." 
 
 " You are right — I have, or rather had one ; — but 
 that is gone now." 
 
 " What is it ? and how gone ? " 
 
 " High play was my only pleasure, and when last 
 in Paris, I lost my last Napoleon at roulettej'^ 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 146 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 " But I was told your pay was your only resource ? " 
 " They thought so, but I had some money left, — 
 little enough, God knows, — curse them for dragging 
 me to Paris ! I was tempted, and it's gone I When 
 my last stake was on the table, an Englishman sitting 
 next me, who had been losing tens to my fifties, 
 turned violently upon me, enraged at the coolness 
 I bore my losses with, heavily as I had lost — you 
 know the caprice and petulance doubtless of some 
 losing gamesters — I took my hand from my bosom, 
 and showed it him — the man was shocked into silence 
 — I had torn ray flesh till the blood lay in clots 
 about my fingers I * Yes," added he after a pause, 
 " play was my only solace." 
 
 In talk like this, according with the moody cha- 
 racter of the soldier's mind, they crossed the country, 
 not far from the road side, however, leading to La 
 Chalautre. MeiTick encouraged his companion to 
 speak, and excited him to let out the story of his 
 grievances and his sorrows. The little he had 
 learned of his life showed him that, even at an early 
 age, Lambert had been peculiarly sensitive to any 
 real or supposed injustice. He conceived the soldier 
 to be brooding in latter years over perhaps ideal as 
 
 * Fact : the real hero of this story was an English officer.
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 147 
 
 well as real injuries, and working his mind by this 
 process alone into a state of disease. He therefore 
 wisely decided on getting him, in the first instance, 
 to make a clean breast of his thoughts and impres- 
 sions, for already had the kindly -hearted sailor medi- 
 tated in a vague way an attempt to recover the 
 Colonel from this state of almost unmanly despon- 
 dency. With what ultimate object he was to do so, 
 Merrick had not thought of; but he felt it a duty 
 almost to undertake the task. 
 
 When they arrived, rather later than the appointed 
 hour, at The Morning Star, Merrick found he had 
 hardly three brace of birds bagged, while Lambert 
 had not once discharged his gun. Monsieur Pierre- 
 feu, who, with Goulot and various of his myrmidons, 
 was in attendance, looked rather sneeringly at the 
 empty game-bag. 
 
 " Never mind," said Merrick, " we'll fill it well on 
 La Chalautre!" 
 
 '•' You will," said Lambert, " for here I stop." 
 
 " Nay, if you don't shoot, at any rate come on." 
 
 " Not a foot on this ground." 
 
 " What ! deliver me over unprotected to these 
 merciless vassals Madame Picotot dreads so much ?" 
 
 " You must protect yourself. Captain," answered 
 H 2
 
 148 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 the soldier smiling, " for really I have more reasons 
 than one for halting here." 
 
 " And the first, I suppose, an unwillingness to 
 march further." 
 
 So with kind greeting parted they : he of the shore 
 wending back to Plassy, while the seaman took his 
 first licensed cast over the well-preserved stubbles of 
 La Chalautre.
 
 JIADAME DE MALGUET. 149 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 " And now, which way, Monsieur Pierrefeu?" asked 
 Merrick. 
 
 The gamekeeper took off his casquette, a sort of 
 stuff forage cap with a preposterous straight green 
 peak to it, and inclined himself respectfully before 
 the sailor as he proceeded to suggest their beat for 
 the afternoon's shootins^. The Eno;lishman invited 
 to La Chalautre was a very different person in the 
 eyes of the keeper and his party from the same 
 individual walked off it ; and , consequently Goulot 
 and one or two louts, who had come to the rendezvous 
 at The Morning Star, in their quality of the keeper's 
 satellites, did forthwith adapt their bearing to that 
 of their leader, and civility was the order of the 
 day. 
 
 " Monsieur Josse," said Pierrefeu, " Monsieur 
 Josse hinted that Madame la Marquise might 
 perhaps have come to the conclusion that you, sir, 
 would be in need of refreshments about four o'clock : 
 so " 
 
 H 3
 
 150 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 " Monsieur Josse and his hints are authorities not 
 to be impugned ; and the real meaning of them 
 is, that my beat is likely to be a short one ? eh ! 
 Monsieur Pierrefeu ? " 
 
 " Hem — ahem — mind I don't say that, as long as 
 Monsieur likes ; only when Madame La Marquise 
 has foreseen the probability of a thing " 
 
 " She likes to insist upon the justification of 
 her powers of foresight, I suppose : weU, there 
 are little more than two hours for us — quick now^ 
 which way?" 
 
 " We'll begin behind the wine-house here, so 
 please you ; beat down the stubbles on the skirt 
 of the estate till we've come on the cross-road from 
 Fourrebois (the one you came by that day, you 
 know) : then we'll take to the Uplands, take a cast 
 or two there, and then over the hill brow into the 
 vale of La Chalautre, and so home ; it's all vineyard 
 there you know ! and we shan't do much." 
 
 " Excellent," said Merrick, " and now en route. ''^ 
 
 I will not here dilate on the marvel of them of 
 La Chalautre over the feats and performances of the 
 Irish setters; nor of the additional respect with 
 which the sailor's good shooting inspired Pierrefeu ; 
 nor of the immense dignity assumed over his brother 
 bumpkins by little Michel, by reason of his intimacy
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 151 
 
 With, and command over those strange quadrupeds 
 whom he called Levair and Laeetz, and which his 
 hearers understood to designate some new and 
 hitherto unheard-of species of dog. Suffice it to 
 say, that after an hour and a quarter of sharp 
 walking and capital sport, Merrick perceived, as they 
 made their first cast on the Uplands, the sober 
 figure of Monsieur Josse, mounted on the wall- 
 eyed gelding, coming up the gentle acclivity towards 
 them from La Chalautre. He greeted Merrick 
 with much stiff courtesy, welcoming him to the 
 estate, and after a few questions about the game 
 and the sport, ventured to assert some remarkable 
 truism about the sun's not being so high then as 
 it had been an hour before. Finding Merrick 
 callous to his astronomical innuendo, he had recourse 
 to horology, or in other words he pulled out his 
 watch, and plainly asked the sailor his opinion of the 
 time of day. 
 
 Merrick looked wistfully across the rich expanse 
 of untried stubble, and then at the steward, \^lho 
 had evidently decided that untried it should remain 
 for that day at least. 
 
 " ]\Iadame la ]\Iarquise," he began, — 
 " Enough, enough. Monsieur Josse," said the 
 sailor with a laugh, " there is no chance of my re- 
 H 4
 
 152 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 lapsing into my former error ; Madame la Marquise 
 is a woman, I perceive;" and so saying, with the 
 steward riding by his side, did Merrick turn once 
 again towards the chateau of La Chalautre. 
 
 They crossed into the vale near its head, where 
 the land, broken into a succession of inequalities by 
 the winter torrents, was much of it waste, or covered 
 only by a shrubby growth of low copse that 
 gradually thickened as it reached the skirt of the 
 dark woods that here also clothed the opposite side 
 of the little valley. Their path lay along the dry 
 bed of a gulley, down which Merrick, under the 
 influence of a fresh hint from the steward, that they 
 might be late, preceded the party at so round a 
 pace as to leave old Rollo floundering and stumbling 
 among the stones, as a dull-mouthed jade ever will, 
 under the tightened curb of a timid horseman, some 
 sixty yards behind him. The rest of the party 
 followed Josse, while Merrick, occupied in studying 
 the view down the vale with its dull lakelet, ruinous 
 chateau, and gloomy forest, forgot their presence, 
 lost perhaps in some vague speculation connected 
 with the scene he saw before him. He was pur- 
 suing his way straight to La Chalautre, when 
 warned by a shout from the party in the rear, he 
 turned and saw they must have taken a path which
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 153 
 
 he had passed unheeded, nearly at right angles to 
 the direct line he had followed ; this had brought 
 them out high on the hill-side on his left, just 
 where the vines began to dispute possession of the 
 soil with waste and thicket. The only considerable 
 ravine of the vale-head lay between them. To 
 reach his party by trying back on the path would 
 have lost time he could not spare ; to scramble over 
 the ravine and up the hill to them would be evidently 
 a taking of great pains to go out of his way. He 
 therefore shouted, and pointed onwards. 
 
 So far as he could judge by action and by gesture, 
 the steward and Pierrefeu seemed to hold close and 
 anxious discussion, which appeared to end in a 
 manner such as to provoke the total dissent of 
 the peasants. Shaking their heads, and with a 
 negative hunch of the sulky round shoulder, one 
 or two already had moved on, when the steward 
 signing to Merrick to sro forward, dismounted from 
 his gelding, which he entrusted to Goulot. The 
 sailor, walking on by the track of a nearly obliterated 
 footpath, had just entered a young oak copse of some 
 extent and thickness, when he perceived Pierrefeu 
 and the steward making for a point doubtless known 
 to them, at which the ravine could lower down be 
 crossed. After a minute's rapid walking, he heard
 
 154 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 their voices, and in an instant after rising from the 
 hollow at his left, they stood beside him. 
 
 " Why leave the direct path, and this pleasant 
 wood-land walk. Monsieur Josse," asked Merrick, 
 " for the dry hillside, and a long way round ? and 
 you in such a hurry too I See what my pilotage 
 has done ! we are surely close to La Chalautre 
 already ! " 
 
 " You have saved a round of twenty minutes, but 
 you have made me tread a path I have not trod for 
 more than twenty years, and never thought to tread 
 again," replied the steward — " Get on, Pierrefeu, 
 since fate wills it must be yet once more, — get on, 
 you know the path." 
 
 " Know it ! I should think I did ! I would have 
 taken Monsieur le Capitaine home this way had we 
 been alone, of myself: it was for those frightened 
 fools, and for your sake. Monsieur Josse, I took the 
 upper track : as to feelings, a keeper leaves them at 
 the cover side ; and as to fear, Pierrefeu knows it not." 
 
 In spite of the braggart style of the red-nosed 
 keeper, Merrick could not help being struck by the 
 tone of his voice, which played traitor to the valiant 
 words it uttered, while the air of the old steward 
 became so singularly grave and solemn as to lead the 
 sailor to conclude they were about to traverse some
 
 MAPAME DE MALGUET. 155 
 
 spot rife with gloomy reminiscences. They had now 
 reached, still passing through the thicket, the place 
 where a rapid descent of some thirty feet in the path 
 they were following brought them into an open space 
 surrounded by precipitous banks overgrown with 
 thick copse wood. It was not more than about an 
 acre at most in extent, and formed the bottom of 
 what evidently had been, in some remote age, a mere 
 or lakelet similar to that in the valley below, but 
 from which the waters had gradually w^orked their 
 way by some point of issue. It av as a quiet secluded 
 spot, the very site for some anchorite, sick of the 
 world, to fix upon as the place of his last abode ; and 
 pious hands had evidently been in their day at work 
 in it, since in the centre of the open ground stood 
 still the ruins of w^hat had been a rustic chapel. 
 The spot was singularly still and lonely ; shut out 
 completely by its belt of thickets from any thing of 
 the higher land above it, the little hollow might have 
 for a length of time escaped the notice of even a 
 resident in its immediate neighbourhood. The only 
 living tenants of the place were a pair of magpies, 
 which, irritated or alarmed by the approach of the 
 intruders, flew from stone to tree, and from tree to 
 stone, uttering their harsh ill-omened cry. 
 
 Merrick and the keeper advanced by the narrow 
 
 H 6
 
 156 ISIADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 half-obliterated footway, the trace of which was still 
 visible across the sward ; the steward stopped at the 
 foot of the bank down which they had first passed, 
 and cast around him a cowering glance of awe and 
 o'rief commingled. 
 
 " Come on. Monsieur Josse ! " said Pierrefeu, — 
 "as you are here, — this is holy ground still they tell 
 me, and should not be passed by unvisited by good 
 Christians like you — what ? you forget this place ? I'll 
 refresh your memory, for boy and man I've year by year 
 watched the ruin moulder, till there's not enough wall 
 left to pen cattle in, unless it be the corner of the old 
 belfry yonder : — here was the entrance, and here 
 you can trace where the aisles w^ere — you'll see the 
 pavement peeping through the sward here and there 
 — it w^as all of the little prayer-.house they did not, 
 because they could not, knock to ruin." 
 
 "And where did he fall?" asked Josse, in a low 
 anxious, significant tone — " here ? " 
 
 " No — yonder by the altar," replied Pierrefeu 
 making a few steps forward, and placing the butt of 
 his gun on a spot of ground, which, rising above the 
 level of the ruined chancel, seemed to hint that 
 beneath that turf lay hid the humble altar-step of 
 the woodland church : — " here he fell in cope and 
 stole with the host in his hand, — God help us ! and
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 157 
 
 the blessing of peace on his lips ! I'm no devotee, every 
 one knows, but I can never think of it, when I 
 come to this quiet place alone, without shuddering 
 — I have not the heart to shoot ^those very magpies 
 that always build about this place, and that they say 
 have been here ever since that day, but were never 
 seen before — Bah ! it's all nonsense ! " 
 
 The last words of the incredulous gamekeeper 
 were wasted on ears that heard them not. The 
 steward had knelt on the turf w^here the altar once 
 stood, and, absorbed in prayer, seemed to forget that 
 there were others present than himself. 
 
 Merrick meanwhile had been examining this little 
 peaceful nook of the earth, wdiich in all its obscurity 
 had not evidently at one time been able to escape 
 the scourge of man's bad passions. The highest point 
 of the ruin standing was a corner of the belfry, with 
 its supporting buttress ; but even these w^ere wrenched 
 out of the perpendicular, in a vray to prove to the 
 sailor's practised eye that the little tower had been 
 mined, and blown up v/ith gunpowder. This single 
 fragment, topped with tufts of w^all-flower, and the 
 graceful fox-gloves waving in the gentle gusts of a 
 warm September evening, stood high above the low 
 remnants of broken walls about it, showing as con- 
 spicuously as did they over still humbler ruins in a
 
 158 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 more retired spot, which marked what had been the 
 lowly mansion of the parish priest. Its last tenant 
 had not left his glebe uncultured, for the space — 
 
 " Where many a garden-flower yet grew wild" — 
 
 gave touching evidence of what had been the 
 simple taste of the occupant. Merrick, interested 
 quite as much by the mystery of his companions as 
 by the melancholy quiet of the scene before him, 
 but unwilling to disturb the steward, who doubtless 
 of the two w^as best able to inform him, called 
 Pierrefeu to him, and leaving Josse where he was, 
 took once more the path to the chateau. Contrary 
 to his wont, the garrulous keeper walked on in 
 silence. 
 
 " There is a story connected with that place, I- 
 suppose ? " asked the sailor. 
 
 "Hum, that there is, and more than one, if all 
 tales be true." 
 
 " Indeed ! the buildings seem to have been levelled 
 by violence. Whose work was that ? " 
 
 " Whose ? those that ruined all the churches here- 
 about : — the hande noire — the black troop of fiends 
 incarnate." 
 
 " What ! during the " Here was the captain's 
 
 question arrested by Monsieur Josse, who suddenly
 
 MADAME DE MALGLET. 159 
 
 rejoined them just as, after having climbed the op- 
 posite bank, they emerged from the hollow, upon a 
 copse less than a quarter of a mile from La Chalautre. 
 ^Vith much respect of manner, but gravely and de- 
 terminedly, did the steward point out to Merrick, 
 that neither he nor his companion was at liberty 
 to speak without permission of matters having re- 
 ference to the present state of La Chalautre. 
 
 " We are still the vassals of our lady : — you 
 look surprised, sir ; but believe me, there is such a 
 thing as vassalage even in our day, where service is 
 voluntary, and men obey their own heart's dictates, 
 willingly serving the name and the house that their 
 fathers' fathers have lived and died under : the scene 
 of desolation you have passed tells a portion of the 
 same sad tale that even by conjecture you may read, 
 and not wrongly, in yonder ruined walls down at 
 the chateau : we like not to speak or think of these 
 thino-s — the wound with us is too recent still to be 
 touched without pain — not a few have been actors 
 in scenes that have passed in this quiet vale, when 
 blood and rapine were the law of the powerful ; and 
 so horrible are the recollections of those days, that I 
 who saw and suffered have for years shunned the 
 spot, though almost at our threshold here, that might 
 recall the thought of those times and deeds of terror. 
 
 L
 
 160 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 Pierrefeu, as if tacitly rebuked for having entered 
 upon any thing like allusion to the past, shook his 
 head sadly, and the three pursued their route in 
 silence to the chateau through vines, and nearer the 
 house among the garden patches cultivated for 
 themselves by the homestead labourers and farm 
 servants. They had almost reached the terrace, 
 when the ever-thoughtful Monsieur Josse offered the 
 sailor the means of what novelists call in these days 
 of refinement, " making his toilet," which being 
 gladly accepted, the steward led the way by a j)aved 
 walk that went round the ruined wing of the chateau 
 to a sort of pavilion containing two or three rooms, 
 about a hundred yards in rear of the main building. 
 It was dilapidated and out of repair, and the forest 
 seemed to have encroached upon it, for it was almost 
 buried in an undergrowth of copse and bramble, 
 through which the path led them. 
 
 "This," said the steward sadly, *^and all the ex- 
 tent of brushwood you see before you up to the edge 
 of the wood yonder, was clear turf in former days. 
 It was a noble chase, reaching far up the hill into 
 the forest, and here, below the windows of this 
 pavilion, would the last lord have the deer fed in 
 winter. I have seen a hundred head of them here 
 of an evening ; things are changed, sir, now : the
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 16l 
 
 very pleasure-house of the lords of the soil must 
 serve as a dwelling for their followers. Enter, sir, 
 'tis a desolate place, I fear; but I am used to it." 
 
 Merrick went up a flight of six or eight steps, for 
 the building, though of but one story, was so far 
 raised from the ground, and crossed an antechamber 
 totally destitute of furniture, to reach the inner 
 apartment. It was a large room, the walls of which 
 had been painted in panels, with fresco representa- 
 tions of hunting scenes. The style was spirited 
 and natural, but the colours had faded, and the 
 paintings had been much injured by wanton violence. 
 The chamber was much encumbered with old and 
 damaged furniture, and with pictures placed on the 
 ground, and leaning frameless one upon the other. 
 An old ebony escritoire, a small table, a plain low 
 bed, and some simple toilette apparatus, was all the 
 steward allowed himself. Merrick was struck by 
 the singular discomfort of this most melancholy re- 
 sidence. 
 
 " I have got together here,'' observed the steward, 
 '- the wreck and relics of part of the furniture of the 
 chateau ; some of it was saved, some I have got back 
 by purchase here and there, and the best of what 
 remained has served for the apartments Madame la
 
 162 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 Marquise lives in. But the pictures — alas ! alas ! 
 see here ! " 
 
 So saying, the old man turned round the upper- 
 most of a pile, placed with their faces to the wall. It 
 had been the portrait of a young and lovely woman, 
 which the hand of wanton mischief had graced with 
 a large pair of black mustachios. The grotesque 
 effect made Merrick smile in spite of his disgust at 
 the outrage. The steward shrugged his shoulders, 
 and showed another. It was the likeness of a grave 
 stiff personage in a suit of the time of the Fronde, 
 into whose mouth a pipe had been put, as shown by 
 the cut in the canvass, and the spot left by the trace 
 of where the heated bowl had destroyed the painting. 
 So was it with the rest, none having escaped injury, 
 and some being totally destroyed by having been 
 made marks for ball-practice. Two pictures in par- 
 ticular were riddled with bullet-holes, so much so, 
 more especially as they were set aside by themselves, 
 as to attract Merrick's notice. The steward sighed 
 as the sailor pointed them out. 
 
 " You can hardly trace form or feature in them," 
 said the old man, "but they are those of the last lord, 
 and of my lady — I have not the heart to throw them 
 away, nor indeed could I part with any one of these. 
 I have passed days and hours trying to clean, or
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 163 
 
 endeavoui'iiig to devise some scheme to restore 
 them." 
 
 Merrick was attempting to trace some resemblance 
 between the disfigured portrait before him, — in 
 which Madame de Malguet appeared as she had been 
 at the age of sixteen, in hoop, powder, and watered 
 silk, — and the features of the eccentric owner of the 
 place, when he was startled by a female voice from 
 the ante-chamber, calling on Monsieur Josse with a 
 strong Italian accent, and in tones that were any thing 
 but those of good temper. 
 
 " 'Tis Brigitta I " said the steward hastily, " my 
 lady has waited I quick, sir — quick! Coming, Brigitta, 
 comino' — ^lonsieur is but washins^ his hands." 
 
 Through that necessary ceremony the sailor hurried, 
 and in the ante -room joined the waiting woman, — a 
 dark, thick-set, heavy-browed Calabrese, who attended 
 to guide him to her mistress. This duty Monsieur 
 Josse explained was not his, he attending his lady 
 only when sent for. Madame, he further stated, had, 
 for reasons best known to herself, not seen fit as yet 
 to provide a suitable retinue of lackeys and of pages ; 
 and with this apology for the fallen state of the last 
 representative of the ancient house, he left Merrick to 
 make his way to her presence. 
 
 Passing by the same path round the ruined wing.
 
 164 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 and thence down the terrace before the chateau, the 
 sailor found himself at the door before which had 
 passed his first colloquy with the owner of La 
 Chalautre. Brigitta ushered him into the long and 
 lofty apartment, and left the room by an opposite 
 door to apprise, she said, her lady. Left thus alone, 
 Merrick had an opportunity of studying the room, 
 furnished, as Monsieur Josse had told him, with the 
 debris of the movables saved from the chateau. 
 Round the room at intervals, were placed settees of 
 that stiff, angular pattern in which our ancestors 
 rejoiced in days long before Cowper sung the " Sofa," 
 and its luxuries. Alternating with these, were 
 semi-oval tables (several with their legs visibly 
 mended) set against the wall. The chairs, high- 
 backed and low-seated, were stuck in formal order 
 wherever a vacant spot occurred along the saloon. 
 
 A table, an oval one, occupied the centre of one 
 extremity of the room, while another smaller one, 
 placed near the fire, was laid for dinner. Near it 
 was the only arm-chair — a large deep-seated easy chair 
 called a hergere — which the room afforded. The floor 
 was very handsome, being of polished oak, kept in 
 beautiful condition. The mantel-piece was of black 
 marble, high, and its side- slabs elaborately ornamented, 
 but meagre, stiff, and in bad taste. The settees and chairs
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 165 
 
 were all covered with that peculiar tapestry work for 
 which the French loom has been for many years so cele- 
 brated — the subject represented being scenes taken 
 from Florian's novel of Estelle. Time, damp, and neg- 
 lect had dealt hardly with the colours, and there was 
 something indeed to throw an additional air of melan- 
 choly over the forlorn-looking furniture, when the 
 youthful Estelle and her lover appeared in the shape of 
 such faded phantoms of their former selves ; and the 
 glare from four windows opening to the ground, through 
 one of which Merrick had entered, left no doubt of 
 the changed state of the once rosy shepherdess and 
 her companion. There were but three objects in the 
 room to gladden the heart, or feast the eye — for the 
 walls, hung with faded yellow silk, were bare of pic- 
 tures, — and these were the wood fire, the companion 
 and comforter in silence and solitude, which, despite 
 the season, blazed and crackled on the andirons, for 
 grate of course there was none ; and two large ill- 
 made bookcases, the only modern furniture in the 
 room, crammed and piled with books. One or two 
 old-fashioned filagree nick-nacks on the oval table, 
 with a silver standish and writing apparatus, and a 
 miniature placed above the mantelpiece, were the only 
 ornaments in the chamber. Five minutes observa- 
 tion had made Merrick master of these details, when
 
 166 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 the door by which Brigitta had disappeared was 
 opened, and Madame de Malguet, clad exactly as he 
 had seen her on each previous occasion, entered the 
 room, followed by her waiting-woman. 
 
 " Let dinner be served, Brigitta," said she as she 
 came in ; " Monsieur has come too far to receive my 
 apology," she added with a sort of smile and a slight 
 bow to Merrick, "not to be ready to do justice to 
 our poor fare." 
 
 The sailor hastened to make, in very good taste 
 and with proper feeling, but we must confess in 
 infamous French, a disclaimer of any right to further 
 apology from Madame la Marquise, or any wish to 
 allow that fault existed save on his side, when she 
 stopped him, saying, with more graciousness in 
 her manner than he could have supposed her capable 
 of,- 
 
 "Excellently meant; but, pardon me, the words 
 do not do justice to the intention, — what if you 
 tried Italian ? " 
 
 Merrick, delighted to be able to express his 
 thoughts in a language familiar to him, gladly availed 
 himself of the alternative, and said his say in fluent 
 language, and in well-turned phrase. The Marquise 
 listened eagerly, as if her ear drank in the sound of 
 the words with actual delight.
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 167 
 
 "What pleasure to me to bear that tongue well 
 spoken ! " said she ; " I have been as it were alone with 
 my own mind for years since I have been here, for I 
 cannot talk to poor Brigitta ; I cannot think, save in 
 Italian, and there is not a soul in the country to 
 understand me if I tried to speak my thoughts. In 
 Italy, even by myself, — and I have always been a 
 lonely liver, — I did not feel alone, for I knew that 
 there were thousands round me communing in my 
 adopted language, and ready, if I pleased, to speak 
 
 with me, but here ." She stopped, paused a 
 
 moment, and then said abruptly — " You think me 
 a strange person. Captain Merrick 'i " 
 
 " If you will permit a very plain English answer 
 to so very direct a question, I certainly do think you 
 an uncommon person," replied the sailor, — "but surely, 
 to be original is neither shame nor sin, — nay, it's the 
 privilege of ability to leave the routine of the world, 
 and take its own path." 
 
 " Hush, Captain Merrick I " interrupted his eccen- 
 tric auditor, " do not devise apologies for my being 
 what I am ; some day you must learn what has made 
 me what I am : I owe much explanation to you and 
 to myself. But, stay, I must first find out my guest's 
 story before I tell my own ; and lo I instead of sitting 
 you comfortably down to talk, here have I kept you,
 
 168 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 inhospitable castellaine that I am I standing in the 
 middle of the floor/ — after your day's shooting too ! I 
 do not offer you my hergere^ but if you can bear a fire as 
 well as such a chilly wretch as I am, draw in a chair 
 just opposite me, and let me catechise you ! " 
 
 Merrick was singularly surprised and interested 
 by the new light in which his hostess showed herself. 
 The pride, the haughty irritability had passed away; 
 and although her manner was still marked by a degree 
 of rigidity that seemed natural to it, there was any 
 thing but an unpleasing effect in its present tone. 
 There was however a sort of deliberateness about her, 
 forming her most striking peculiarity, as seemed to 
 him ; and this did not leave her even when speaking, 
 as above, in something approaching to a tone of 
 gaiety. " She must be a difficult person," thought 
 the captain, " to know or to understand, but she is 
 evidently worth knowing, and worth studying ; " and, 
 with the full intention of trying if possible to fathom 
 the mystery by which her existence was surrounded, 
 he drew a chair to the appointed place, and braved 
 the heat of the fire In a way which evidently gained 
 him grace in the sympathies of Madame la Marquise. 
 Their further conversation was however interrupted 
 by the entrance of dinner, brought, by no less a 
 person than Nicolas, the leader of the charivari on
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 160 
 
 the memorable day of Merrick's first visit, who, 
 dressed in an ill-made livery coat, but in all other 
 respects scrupulously neat and clean, served as the 
 only lackey on the establishment. Brigitta followed 
 him, and removing the dishes from the tray on which 
 they had been brought and placed upon the oval table, 
 she set them in proper order on that on which the 
 cloth was laid. As Nicolas entered w^ith a second 
 tray, Madame de Malguet, rising to take her place 
 at the dinner-table, asked Merrick, not without a 
 little malice, whether he recognised his handy-work ? 
 A more magnificent black-eye than that exhibited 
 by the author of the charivari had certainly never 
 before been witnessed at La Chalautre. 
 
 "I am ashamed of myself really," answered the 
 sailor, " but the lad laid hands upon me, and with 
 us you know the fist is a sort of national weapon ; 
 at least, that is what some satirical Gaul has said, 
 hinting that we are too uncivilised to know even 
 how to kill one another with any degree of refine- 
 ment." 
 
 " I believe really," said the Marquise laughing, 
 " that you are a very rough set, you English ; those at 
 least who do not talk Italian — eh. Captain ? I never 
 knew, however, but two of the nation, yourself and 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 170 MADAME BE MALGUET. 
 
 another, who was also a sailor ; he spoke the language 
 too, but not so well as you do." 
 
 "Where, might I ask, did you meet him?" 
 
 "At Leghorn many years ago: he lived in my 
 house for Aveeks." 
 
 " Indeed, and a sailor you say ? " 
 
 " He was an officer, a lieutenant I think ; perhaps 
 you might have known him : his name was — was, 
 it's odd enough, I do not know it in English, I had 
 it written down, but lost the memorandum : it was 
 one of those strange unsayable names of yours, in 
 French it sounded like Stretan, but I used to 
 Italianise it, and call him Signor Stretano.^^ 
 
 " Stretton, was it?" and the sailor spelt the word. 
 
 " No." 
 
 "THtton?" 
 
 " No, I am sure of the letter 5." 
 
 "Starton?" 
 
 " No ; but what matters it ? here is this excellent 
 soup getting cold while you arc puzzling yourself 
 ■with those terrible nine-cornered vocables, which you 
 English agree to call proper names." 
 
 Thus appealed to, the Captain did seriously incline 
 to the soup so recommended, which, barring garlic, 
 Avas excellent ; but, thought he, as he swallowed it, 
 " Some lono; shore lubber has been comini^ the sham
 
 MADAME DE MALGLET. 171 
 
 sailor over the Frenchwoman evidently, for there is 
 not a Stretton in the Navy List, nor has been for 
 years." 
 
 Peculiar in all her habits, Madame de IMalguet 
 did not seem capable of even conducting her domestic 
 economy like other people. Nicolas, after bringing 
 in dinner, retired without touching a single dish, 
 and the service of the table was performed by 
 Brigitta, who, to the sailor's amusement and surprise, 
 coolly occupied one of the settees in a distant corner 
 of the room, when not required to change a plate, 
 or hand a dish from the side-table. It seemed to be 
 an understood arrangement between mistress and 
 servant, and certainly a more dexterous, quiet waiter 
 than the thick-set Calabrese, Merrick had rarely 
 seen. The repast was excellent, but as the wine, 
 Madame de Malguet informed him, was the produce 
 of the identical vineyards he saw on the opposite 
 side of the valley, Merrick took good care not to say of 
 it what truth and his own opinion would have comj^el- 
 led him to do, had he been appealed to as to quality. 
 
 " You should be a proprietor of land. Captain 
 Merrick," said the Marquise, " to know how sweet 
 its produce tastes ; there is no such exquisite en- 
 joyment as the enjoyment of ones oxen ; but perhaps 
 you know this by exjoerience."
 
 172 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 The sailor hastened to assure her that he Avas 
 guiltless of the possession of as much ground as 
 would grow a potato. 
 
 " That is to say, that you are so completely a man 
 of the sea, as to despise dry land even in the shape of 
 dirty acres ? But, really, I hope some day you may 
 know the pleasure of possessing. I think you must 
 feel then as I do, when I look out, and say, ' this 
 is mine : ' I set my foot on the soil and feel I tread 
 on something of my own ; all is mine, — ay, — even 
 to the people ! They have served our house from 
 sire to son from the days of the Merovingian 
 monarchs, and not one but looks on himself as the 
 vassal of him that owns the land he lives on, and 
 which he holds in the right of his name. Heavens ! 
 how my blood boiled when I saw you, — stranger 
 to our very country as you are, — striding over the 
 lands of La Chalautre, as if they were your own, 
 and bearding me in my rights; you smile at my 
 vehemence, and I believe the world would laugh out- 
 right over the olden -time trash I talk and think of, 
 but it is my life ; " again she paused and broke out in 
 her abrupt way, " think of how long it was lost to 
 me!" 
 
 There was something in her peculiar manner that 
 insensibly put Merrick in mind of Lambert. He
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 173 
 
 did not miss the occasion of trying to get some in- 
 sight into the history of his hostess from herself, and 
 throwing out a leading question asked, — 
 
 " Then it is but lately your rights have been ac- 
 knowledged ? " 
 
 " But with the Restoration, that you must knoAV 
 of course. You are coming, however, to a subject I 
 would rather avoid : I feel that for any one to know 
 me, they must know my story, and more than that the 
 story of my mind. Now I am old enough to be able 
 to be frank, and tell you I should wish you to know^ 
 me : the tie of language is a great bond of union be- 
 tween us, with one wdio has lived as I have ; and 
 should you not find the chateau very stupid, or 
 should you perchance tire a little of Picotot and 
 Company in that stupid town yonder, come here 
 from time to time, and talk Italian to me ! " 
 
 The invitation was made with a degree of friend- 
 liness that, coming from one he had, so to say, known 
 but a few hours, touched and at once won the heart 
 of the frank and kindly sailor, and his acknowledg- 
 ments were warmly made. 
 
 " Aha ! I see we shall become friends," said the 
 lady of the castle, " in spite of the hostile character 
 of our first meeting : but come, here is Brigltta with 
 
 I 3
 
 174 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 our coffee — let us enjoy the last twlllglit on the 
 terrace, ere the moon rises." 
 
 They walked out, and found chairs were placed 
 so as to command a view of the whole extent of the 
 little vale. Old Josse was in waiting near them ; 
 he had come for his last orders for the day, a practice 
 to which the steward adhered as rigidly as if the 
 fate of La Chalautre depended on his exactitude. 
 As they eat down, he at a sign from his lady, occu- 
 pied a chair also, at some distance and a little retired. 
 
 " This is to me the loveliest prospect in the world. 
 Captain Merrick," said the Marquise ; "you smile 
 again, but truly I have seen uglier scenes admired." 
 
 " There is one strange wild bit of scenery at the 
 head of the valley that I must say I was positively 
 struck with," replied the sailor : " I came on it so 
 suddenly, too, as to add to the effect the place produced 
 upon me." 
 
 " Ay ! Whereabouts was it ? " 
 
 " Close to the chateau, yonder, just about a 
 hundred yards or so beyond the last vineyard, 
 towards the broken upland." 
 
 " Was it a little hollow strewed with ruins ? " 
 
 " Just so ; a sort of dell, with the remains of what 
 had been a church." 
 
 They had been speaking in Italian, so that Josse
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 175 
 
 could not understand the subject of their conversation. 
 The Marquise turned abruptly to the steward, and 
 said in a low voice — 
 
 " Was it you took Monsieur to ? " and she 
 
 pointed up the valley. 
 
 ** God forbid ! " replied the old man. 
 
 '' Was it Pierrefeu ? " 
 
 '' He was not in f^iult" 
 
 '^ Have you told Monsieur anything ? " 
 
 *^ On my honour, not a word." 
 
 " Then I must do it, and at once." She turned 
 to Merrick again, and continued in Italian, — *' Among 
 sensible people there is nothing so stupid, and among 
 gentlefolks nothing so vulgar, as the affectation of 
 mystery ; I trust you will consider me to be above 
 it. I feel you cannot be at La Chalautre much (as 
 I hope you will be), without having things before 
 your eyes at every turn full of the story of the past. 
 "What you have seen, and what you may have partly 
 heard, has doubtless excited your curiosity. I told 
 you," added she, smiling sadly, " that I would have 
 your story first ; it was a vain boast, for I find, happen 
 what may, you must soon have mine : and I should 
 rather you had it in its truth from myself than 
 garbled by others." 
 
 Monsieur Josse, dismissed for the evening, retired 
 I 4
 
 176 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 to his own precincts ; while, seeking shelter from the 
 heavy dew, the Marquise and Merrick returned to 
 their seats in the saloon. It was not on this occasion 
 that the whole of the following history, as here given, 
 was recited to the sailor. The account is either 
 gathered from the course of many subsequent con- 
 versations (more especially as respects the personal 
 and private story of the narrator) which she and 
 Merrick had together. There is much in it, the 
 reader will see, which the Marquise at this early 
 period of their intimacy could not have said to him. 
 I have preferred, however, giving her story in this 
 form to risking its detail in the many detached con- 
 versations, which were really necessary to its develop- 
 ment, and which I have embodied in the next 
 chapter.
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 .Whex they re-entered the saloon, Merrick found 
 the smaller table set before the fire, candles placed 
 upon it in massive silver branches, and a few books 
 ranged thereon as if selected for the evening studies 
 of the Marquise. The Calabrese was sitting at one 
 end of the oval table occupied, by the light of a small 
 lamp, about some simple knitting work, as if established 
 in her place according to invariable use and wont ; 
 and strange as was the circumstance, the sailor had 
 by this time ceased to marvel at aught he saw sin- 
 gular in the habits of the eccentric beino; with whom 
 he found himself thus oddly domesticated. 
 
 The Marquise occupied her bergcre without a word, 
 and motioned Merrick to the opposite chair. There 
 was a dead silence of some minutes, during which her 
 companion had ample time to remark on the doubly 
 forlorn appearance of the large half-lighted room, 
 the angles in total shade, the black marble chimney- 
 piece looking twice as sombre as before, and the 
 faded yellow of the walls turning to sickly white
 
 178 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 whenever the doubtful gleam of the wax tapers, or 
 now and then some brighter blaze from the crackling 
 wood fire, struck prominently on their bare unbroken 
 surface. I should not omit to mention that, whether 
 abroad or in the house, the Marquise never removed 
 the ample cap of black velvet, which, the only grace- 
 ful part of her habiliments, hung as has been de- 
 scribed so low as nearly to touch one shoulder. 
 
 " Do you know they speak well of you down at 
 Plassy ? " at last she said in her sudden way — " I 
 asked much and long about you." 
 
 Merrick bowed, and there was another silence. 
 
 " Strange destiny that I should tell the story to a 
 stranger that I have never told at length to living 
 soul, — the story of my early life, of which I love 
 little to think, much less speak. But I know not 
 why it is, I would have you know me." 
 
 " Your confidence flatters me," answered the 
 sailor, "as much as I am well assured I shall be 
 interested by the recital, of what must have been 
 no uneventful life." 
 
 " Cast a pebble into water," replied the Marquise, 
 "' after the first troubling of the surface, you see the 
 circling ripples die away, and the stillness that was 
 there return ; thus has it been with me : existence a mere
 
 IMADAME DE MALGUET. 179 
 
 blank before and after a succession of violent convul- 
 sions. How well I remember my first impressions of this 
 place as an infant merely, and the perfect quiescence 
 of my childish life, — no companions, no toys, no plea- 
 sures, such as children understand them : my rooms 
 were those on the third story in the centre, looking 
 out on the dark hill side, and there I used to be 
 gazing out on the waving trees, and watching the 
 deer moving across the chase, or inventing little plays 
 of my own, at which I would sit quiet on the floor 
 for hours, or listening, my greatest pleasure, to my 
 old nurse's stories of the old glories of the family, or 
 learning her old quaint songs in the long winter 
 evenings. My mother I saw but for an instant twice 
 a day ; she never loved me with a mother's love, and 
 to tell truth, seemed to look on me with a sort of 
 repugnance so marked that, though little as I had 
 to love, her I could not love." 
 
 " But your other parent? " 
 
 ^' I never saw my father : he was a favourite at 
 the Court, admitted, indeed, they said, to intimacy 
 with Louis XV. : my brother I was told was like 
 him, and he was of that handsome mould that marks 
 high blood ; unlike me in figure and in feature as you 
 may well suppose. You know the manners of those 
 days? The Court was then dissolute enough, and 
 
 I 6
 
 180 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 domestic ties were disregarded : my brother ^yas sent 
 a child, from Paris to La Chalautre to be brought 
 up, and here he remained in the hands of a tutor or 
 two, the Cure of the place and the father of Josse, 
 who then was steward. The boy went from time to 
 time to Paris to my father, but for short space; I 
 was born when my brother was fourteen. My 
 mother, as they told me, left Paris suddenly a few 
 months before my birth, shut herself up here, and 
 never revisited the Court nor the capital. This was 
 about 1767, you see I am not even woman enough 
 to dread a date. Two years afterwards my father 
 offended the reigning sultana of the day, Madame 
 Dubarry : a young mousqiietaire, who perhaps knew 
 how to buy court favour, challenged him, and the 
 result was fatal. AU I recollect of it was the hanging 
 of the house with black, and my nurse telling me I 
 must be very sorry, and my answering her, I did not 
 know how!^'' 
 
 " Then at sixteen your brother succeeded to the 
 estate and title ? " 
 
 " He did so under my mother's guardianship, who 
 however continued the same sort of secluded life. 
 She had been, and still was, a very pretty woman, 
 quite one of the elite of thd immediate intimates of 
 Louis le hien-aime, the Well-beloved, as was his title.
 
 MADAME DE 3IALGUET. 181 
 
 There was some epigram of the time, I remember, 
 that called him 
 
 " 'The well-beloved — in the Almanac!' 
 
 'What was the story of her court disgrace, or expulsion 
 or dismissal, I never knew : she lived in the vring of 
 the chateau now ruined, in rooms specially furnished 
 for herself, and most luxuriously so: she scrupulously 
 attended to every variation in the fashion of the day, 
 although she never went out nor hardly saw more 
 than a few casual visitors until after the King's death 
 in '74. How well I recollect going twice a day to 
 stare at her at her toilette, and express my childish 
 admiration of her splendid dresses I The homage 
 even of an infant like me seemed to please her, and 
 those were the only times she was ever kind to me. 
 After Louis XY.'s death, when the old court was 
 broken up, and new times brought new manners and 
 new people, the number of my mother's friends and 
 visitors greatly increased. They were the courtiers of 
 a former day, who could now enjoy the society of their 
 former friend, finding themselves like her on the 
 shady side of fortune. My mother hardly presented 
 me to them, and of themselves few ever noticed me. 
 I was a plain, taciturn ungainly little creature, very 
 ignorant, for I was taught nothing save to read and
 
 182 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 write by tlie Cure. No one seemed to care for me, 
 until, when I was about nine years old, my brother 
 seemed, after his fashion, to incline to make a pet 
 of me." 
 
 The Marquise stopped her narrative, as if looking 
 back through the vista of years to the cheerless days 
 of her infancy. Merrick meanwhile occupied himself 
 in filling in with no great difficulty the blanks in her 
 mother's career, the heartless frivolous woman, who 
 driven from court perhaps for an act of indiscretion, 
 visited her disgrace upon her innocent infant in 
 neo;lect and indiiference. 
 
 " About that time my only friend and companion, 
 my poor nurse, died," continued Madame de Malguet, 
 " and I then knew all the bitterness of a first sorrow. 
 I was so wretched that my brother took pity on me 
 and began to find pleasure in making me go out with 
 him on his shootino; and huntino" excursions. I soon 
 learned to ride well and fearlessly, — I never indeed 
 in my life knew what fear was ; — the air and exer- 
 cise gave me health and strength, and destitute as I 
 was of any occupation, or any source of excitement, 
 I very shortly took as deep an interest in beating a 
 cover for roe -deer, and rode as hard to see the stag 
 pulled down, as even my brother himself, who day 
 by day became more and more passionately attached
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 183 
 
 to field-sports of all sorts. Then my old associations 
 and my childish visions arose again, and I thought of 
 the old Lords of La Chalautre, and of their greatness 
 in ancient days, with power of life and death on their 
 own land, — and I conjured up fancies that connected 
 my brother with them. Those were the happiest 
 days of my youth. A sort of plaything of my 
 brother's, he amused himself with having hunting 
 suits made for me like his own in miniature, and I 
 learned to ape the style and manners of a man. 
 
 " Years thus rolled on, my mother treating me 
 with studied neglect ; my brother, who passed the 
 greater part of the twelvemonth at the chateau, making 
 me his more constant companion, and I myself ac- 
 quiring daily a greater hardihood of character. You 
 will naturally ask who were our friends and com- 
 panions. We had little intercourse With those around 
 us, until, when I was about thirteen, the Marquis 
 began to cultivate the acquaintance of some of the 
 neio'hbourino; lords of the soil who had like tastes 
 with himself. There was one gentleman in parti- 
 cular, the Chevalier Deslisieres, whose estate lay 
 beyond Plassy, some eight or ten leagues hence, 
 who became more and more a constant guest at La 
 Chalautre. He was a man of dissolute habits, of 
 rude and overbearincj manners, and the associates
 
 184 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 whom he brought around my brother were of a worse 
 and lower stamp than hhnself. From the moment 
 these men became frequenters of the chateau, with 
 my proud shy feelings of dislike to anything that 
 seemed to derogate from our proper rank and station, 
 I avoided joining the Marquis as formerly in his pur- 
 suits. He resented this, and we quarrelled. From 
 that time my life became so solitary a one and so 
 irksome, that I prayed my mother to let me be with 
 her, w^ere it but for pity's sake, rather than leave me 
 always in my own lone rooms, within hearing of the 
 orgies that now began to be held at La Chalautre. 
 A womanly feeling, perhaps, more than parental 
 affection, induced her to admit me to reside in her 
 apartments, and I was happy that she consented but 
 to endure my presence. The Marquis rarely saw us : 
 my mother he treated with deference ; but me, since 
 our quarrel, he hardly noticed. He was one of those 
 selfish beings who never pardon the thwarting of a 
 phantasy by any creature that they think should be 
 subservient to them. 
 
 " Let me pass lightly over those days. My bro- 
 ther drank deep, played high, and entirely governed 
 by Deslisieres, gave himself up to the company of 
 associates wholly his inferiors in rank, men of broken
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 185 
 
 fortune, gamesters, adyentnrers, who, not content 
 with living on him here, followed him in Paris, and 
 by their companionage brought discredit on the an- 
 cient name of our once proud house. When I was 
 fifteen, Deslisieres, nearly double my age, and in all 
 respects the least eligible of suitors, proposed for my 
 hand, and his demand w^as of course w^armly upheld 
 by the Marquis, who now, thoroughly debased, had 
 fallen to be the dupe and tool of this designing and 
 dissolute man. Even my mother interfered to 
 oppose this, and scenes ensued which I dare not re- 
 call, and could not describe. My brother's reputation 
 in the country was at this time completely tarnished 
 by reports, which reached us but obscurely, of circum- 
 stances attending the seduction of a young village 
 girl of, it was said, surpassing beauty. The Cure of 
 the neighbouring chapel, St. Ursule des Fonds it w^as 
 called, the building that now lies in ruin in the 
 hollow whence it took its name, was supposed to have 
 lent himself to some infamous deception of a pre- 
 tended marriage devised by Deslisieres; — he was a 
 poor timid creature, born on the estate, the vassal of 
 La Chalautre, and what was said might have been in 
 part true. At any rate, the peasant's family — w^ha 
 lived near a winehouse on the road to Plassy — 
 
 I
 
 186 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 raised a ciy in the country-side against my brother, 
 and it was listened to and re-echoed, for the revolu- 
 tionary spirit was already abroad. The Marquis, 
 even then on bad terms with us, thought it prudent 
 to leave the neighbourhood till the affair blew over : 
 he did so, but he was destined never to return. 
 While cover-shooting near Solssons, he was charged 
 by a wounded boar, and cut so dangerously as to 
 survive the injury but a few days. Thus I became 
 heiress of La Chalautre !" 
 
 " And did this bring about no change in your 
 mode of life?" 
 
 " But little, save that my mother began to make 
 some account of me, to send for masters, and for 
 governesses, to regulate my toilette, and to treat me 
 with kindness and attention: but it was too late. 
 I was wilful and imperious, and would not learn ; 
 I who had never pleased, would not seek to please, and 
 I despised the fri23pery of woman's dress, while my 
 mother's assumed tenderness seemed somethins: un- 
 natural. My pleasure was in the consciousness of 
 power and of ownership, and feeling myself the last 
 representative of a line of ancient lords, in riding 
 over my land, in ordering my serfs and my vassals to 
 <lo my behest, for already I had assumed all the 
 authority of a castellalne, and the weaker nature of
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 187 
 
 my mother bent before the energy of a character so 
 strongly fashioned as had been mine by the hand of 
 accidents and circumstance. After a year's mourning, 
 La Chalautre, purified now of the orgies of Deslisieres 
 and his crew, became once more the resort of a select 
 few of my mother's former friends, the once brilliant 
 tenants of the by-gone Court of Louis the "Well- 
 beloved. They were full of ominous boding, I re- 
 member, presaging the coming storm of revolution, 
 and loud in condemnation of Monsieur Xecker and 
 the system of the day, blindly arguing the expediency 
 of force to quell discontent. Young as I was, I had 
 sense enough to feel that they were fools speaking 
 according to their folly, for I knew the peasantry 
 better than did they. Aided by the counsel of the 
 worthy father of my good steward, I contrived in 
 those terrible days of misery and want to make the 
 peasantry of La Chalautre feel least of all around 
 me the evil of that bitter time. It was a good deed 
 that did not pass without return : I won my vassals' 
 love, and it has stood me in good stead since. 
 
 " The only one of my mother's friends who was 
 still in any way attached to the Court of the day was 
 the Marquis de Malguet, a soldier who had served 
 with distinction, and who now was Colonel of the 
 Regiment Salis-Samade. He was a very handsome 
 
 L
 
 188 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 man, but of saturnine appearance, silent, determlnecl, 
 but speaking well and to the purpose when he pleased. 
 Even among the empty frivolous few- who formed 
 from time to time our limited society, Monsieur de 
 Malguet was listened to with attention. We saw 
 him very seldom, but he came with regularity at 
 periodical intervals, especially from the time when he 
 thought he observed a failing in my mother's health. 
 He had been an attached brother in arms of my father 
 in early days. See, here is the portrait of him who 
 was in name my husband." 
 
 So saying, the Marquise rose, and taking the minia- 
 ture from above the mantel-piece, she handed it to 
 Merrick. It represented the nobly-shaped head and 
 features of a man of fifty or upwards ; there was a 
 stern look in them that bespoke a character to be 
 feared rather than loved. 
 
 "Monsieur de Malguet foresaw, as early as '87, the 
 necessity of some decided measure to check the ten- 
 dency to total disruption which then threatened the 
 tottering monarchy of France, and his scheme was 
 intimidation from without by means of foreign al- 
 liances. He urged my mother, whose rapidly 
 breaking constitution alarmed him, as to the desolate 
 position in which I was likely to find myself on her 
 death, to induce me to accept him as my husband
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 189 
 
 and protector during the troublous times which he 
 saw were likely to ensue, and he proposed that after 
 our marriage we should leave tlie country with him in 
 prosecution of some political design, connected with 
 the plans of the party of royalists to which he be- 
 longed. He was so totally indifferent to me, that it 
 was but upon calculation, as coolly made on my part 
 as on his, that I decided at last to accept of his offered 
 protection, but not until my mother's increasing 
 illness, and the progress of the revolutionary events 
 showed me the necessity of securing some stand-by. 
 In May, 1789, we were betrothed, and the day of our 
 wedding was fixed for the 14th July : he reached 
 La Chalautre the day before, and the ceremony was 
 performed in quiet and privacy, on the morning of 
 the day appointed ; those were no days for festivity. 
 His plan was to return to Paris, and with his party 
 organise measures for what was called afterwards, 
 ' The First Emigration,' when we were to accom- 
 pany him. At about ten in the evening, as my mother 
 was about to conduct me to my room, my husband, 
 as I must call him, placed in my hand a small sealed 
 packet, and was about to address me when we heard 
 the gallop of a horseman coming at mad speed through 
 the dark night up the valley. All felt that the an- 
 nouncement of some great events impended, and it
 
 190 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 was SO : the messenger had ridden express to announce 
 the taking of the Bastile that morning, and the im- 
 mediate recall of the Marquis to Paris by the members 
 of his party, who deemed it right to make a preci- 
 pitate retreat. Being in attendance on the Prince 
 de Conde, he was obliged to return instantly to his 
 duty. On the night of the 16th, the Prince with 
 my husband, the Polignacs, the Due de Broglie, left 
 France by different routes. Monsieur de Malguet 
 did not recross the frontier till the year '91 with the 
 army of the Emigrants under the Duke of Brunswick. 
 He was killed with the young Prince de Ligne in 
 the pass of Grandpre in the Argonnes, when Du- 
 mouriez beat back with his half-starved sans-culottes 
 the descendants of the first chivalry in Europe." 
 
 " And the packet?" 
 
 " It was the key of my bed room," said the Mar- 
 quise, rising impassively to restore the miniature to its 
 accustomed place. — " He was a brave and honour- 
 able man, my husband, fortunate in dying as he did 
 instead of by the guillotine." 
 
 Merrick listened in some surprise to this epitaph by 
 the eccentric widow, and waiting till she resettled 
 herself in her chair, besraied to hear how it fared with 
 her mother and herself, during the absence of the ill- 
 fated ]Marquis.
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 191 
 
 " Why, better than with most that had to remain 
 as we had. Our vassals were our safeguard, and pro- 
 tected us, instead of rising as they did in the Dijonnois, 
 and twenty places else. Had we been able to have 
 got away, we could not do it : for my mother's ail- 
 ment, an atrophy, reduced her month by month to a 
 more deplorable state of weakness, and she could not 
 bear removal. It w^as horrible to pass day after day, 
 and hear of new horrors, new proscriptions, new 
 disorders, and remain chained to the spot, as unable 
 to resist as impotent to fly. At last the horrors of 
 '93 commenced, the law^ of the Suspect w^as published, 
 and the guillotine was drunk with blood. In these 
 dreadful days our only guide and support was Josse 
 the elder, a man devoted to us, and of much courage 
 and determination. He had contrived to establish an 
 amicable understanding with a notary of Plassy, by 
 name Finot, w^io taking ostensibly a prominent share 
 in the movements of the revolution, was enabled, as 
 President of the Local Committee of Public Safety, 
 to protect and assist many unfortunate royalists. He 
 saved, for instance, by marrying her, my cousin 
 Sophie de Ravillac, the last of her family ; the Baron 
 de Matoupon, another relative, and several more 
 persons. He it was that gave us Intimation of the 
 advance of what was called the Revolutionary Army,
 
 192 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 or rather a detacliment of it, from Paris towards 
 this part of the country, and counselled us to fly : but 
 alas ! my mother was incapable of moving, and leave 
 her of course I would not. You have heard of this 
 so-called army, the commandant of which was 
 Ronsin, the ex-player ? They were the refuse of the 
 worst classes, men who thirsted for blood, and went 
 forth through France with portable guillotines, ' to 
 sweep the land of the Suspect.' On the night of 
 their arrival at Plassy, a secret messenger from 
 Finot beseeched us to leave the chateau, as we were 
 certain to be sufferers by the visit of these men, whom 
 he described as being without heart or feeling for an 
 aristocrat. That night my mother was sinking ra- 
 pidly, and on the next she died. A coffin hastily pre- 
 pared of rough boards, was made ready for her corpse, 
 and we waited but to lay her in the earth ere we fled ; 
 the two Josses and myself, disguised in the revolu- 
 tionary dress of the day, and provided with passports 
 from Finot under feigned names, to Switzerland, if 
 indeed through so many dangers it were possible to 
 get there. I was sitting in the room with my 
 mother's corpse, looking out towards the little Chapel 
 of St. Ursule, the belfry of which then rose high 
 above the copse, expecting each minute to see the 
 Cure make his appearance to tell me all was ready
 
 MADA^IE DE MALGUET. 193 
 
 for the interment, when my attention was attracted 
 by a dense column of smoke rising behind the hill 
 from the direction of Fourebois. Pierrefeu, then a 
 lad, and two other servants, were instantly sent in 
 the disguise of peasants to act as scauts, while the 
 Josses occupied the rest of the people in moving the 
 money, valuables, and whatever furniture they could, 
 to the ruined castle in the wood. Xews was soon 
 brought that the smoke arose from the chateau at 
 Fourebois, burned by the 'Black Troop,' as the 
 peasants called Ronsin and his followers. I sat 
 there waiting till they had finished my mother's 
 grave, expecting every instant some token of the 
 approach of these marauders. I well remember going 
 to my brother's room for the glass he used to carry 
 when he stalked deer, and seating myself with it 
 pointed at the brow of the hilJ. The only anxiety I 
 felt was to lay my mother's head in consecrated 
 ground ere they could come. My own escape I was 
 assured of, such confidence had I in myself, and my 
 powers to do and to suffer. 
 
 " About mid-day, stragglers, strangely dressed, be- 
 gan to make their appearance over the hill and among 
 the vines, and I immediately sent to the elder Josse, 
 begging him to go himself to the chapel and hurry 
 the workmen, or to come at once and bear my mother's 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 194 
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 body to the burial ground. He preferred the former. 
 Shortly afterwards, I perceived the head of a column 
 of pikemen clustering on the brow of the hill : it was 
 the advance of the Revolutionary Army. Heavens ! 
 >vhat a sight! These miscreants wore what was 
 called the carmagnole, — a spencer and trousers of 
 black rough woollen, a waistcoat or a sash of tricolor 
 stuff, their head covered with a red nightcap, on their 
 shoulder a pike, or by their side a sabre. This 
 select body escorted a guillotine placed on a raised 
 stage on wheels : then came three pieces of cannon ; 
 then a battalion of the Garde Nationale armed with 
 musket and bayonet in uniform coat, but in other 
 respects equipped in every variety of motley, gene- 
 rally with striped woollen trousers, very loose, and 
 rolled above the knee, for the roads and fields were 
 deep and miry : these were followed by a Goddess of 
 Reason, a handsome, impudent, half-dressed woman, 
 in a sort of tunic with a red woollen cap ; in default 
 of a proper car, she sat in a common cart on a bench 
 covered with the tricolor; around her, and behind, 
 was a crowd of pikemen, of women, and of vaga- 
 bonds ; more pikemen closed the march of the army, 
 their rear guard being encumbered with waggons 
 laden with plunder of every description. The whole 
 of the cumbrous column deployed on the brow of the
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 195 
 
 hill to the right of Fourebois road, and a cry arose of 
 ' Vive la Republique ! Death to Aristocrats ! '" 
 
 " And you sat unmoved looking on this ! " 
 
 "Why not? I had ray duty to do, if it were 
 possible ; as for escape, there was the forest be- 
 hind me, a disguise ready, a passport, friends iu 
 attendance, money at command : my only fear was 
 for the fate of the poor senseless clay, the wasted 
 shadow of the fair form of her who bore me, but 
 loved me not, — but she was my mother for all 
 that ! " 
 
 " 'Twas an awful moment I " 
 
 At this instant a knock was heard at the door, or 
 rather window, of entrance, which, on inquiry, Bri- 
 gitta reported to be Pierrefeu, anxious to know^ 
 if little Michel and the dogs were to remain at the 
 kennel with him all night. 
 
 " Pierrefeu ! " said the Marquise, " he comes op- 
 portunely — let him in ! " 
 
 " E imhriaco,^''* said the Calabrese, in an under 
 tone. 
 
 " Then let him in, he'll speak the freer for it." 
 
 The keeper came in, and again began his question 
 touching jNIichel and the dogs. 
 
 " Peace, Pierrefeu," said Madame de Malguet ; 
 
 __* He's drunk. 
 K 2
 
 196 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 " it is of other things you must speak now — collect 
 yourself." 
 
 '^ If," said the drunkard, " my lady would let me 
 send for a glass of " 
 
 Merrick smiled to himself. 
 
 " Brigitta, go fetch him what he wants, — and do 
 you, Captain Merrick, listen to the detail of an eye- 
 witness." 
 
 Somewhat sobered by the presence he stood be- 
 fore, the keeper leaned on the back of a chair, and 
 respectfully asked his lady's orders." 
 
 " Pierrefeu," said she, in a low voice, "tell Monsieur 
 where you were on the 16th October, '93." 
 
 The keeper started and shuddered. 
 
 "At what time?" 
 
 "When the Bande Noire halted on the hill-brow.'* 
 
 "Must I? — well — I was behind the cart on 
 which was Margot, the notary clerk's wife, of 
 Fourebois, playing the goddess ; complaining of the 
 cold all the while, I remember, for she was half- 
 stripped, and asking for brandy : you see, he added 
 apologetically to Merrick, I had stretched away re- 
 connoitring so far that I got entangled among their 
 stragglers, and to save myself had to cry * Vive la 
 Kepublique ! ' So they put a pike into my hand, and 
 then I was a sans-culotte, or as good."
 
 MADAME DE jNIALGUET, 197 
 
 '•' What then ? " 
 
 " Citizen Ronsin, the actor, called out for some 
 one who knew the country ; at least they told me it 
 was him." 
 
 " And they brought you forward ? " asked the 
 sailor. 
 
 " Xo, I was saved that, — a woman whom I had 
 known well in former years, Toinette Grosbois, I 
 knew her in spite of her red nightcap and her 
 striped tricolor petticoat, came forward, and said, 
 ' Citizen Commandant, down yonder is one of the 
 black animals called Ciire, and as you may see, be- 
 fore you one of the buildings sacred to superstition ; 
 will you not erase these for the honour of the re- 
 public before the den of the aristocrats is attacked ? ' 
 There was a dark hard-featured Garde National stood 
 by her as she spoke ; I remembered him, too, for 
 'twas him she'd left the country with (he was a 
 recruiting sergeant of the Royal Allemand then): 
 *Citoyenne Toinette is right,' says he; 'let us make 
 the bell toll one for the knell of the Cure ; so they 
 laughed and trained one of the guns on the little belfry 
 — bang ! — and down came the belfry and the bell to- 
 gether. Then they set up their song of Ca ira, 
 ^a ira, and dashed down the hill with Toinette Gros- 
 bois leading them ; about 200 went, and among them 
 
 K 3
 
 1 ^8 BIADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 I, for I tlionglit someliow I might warn the Cure. On 
 they went with yells and shouts, and their horrible 
 song, pell-mell down into the little quiet chapel 
 ground. I shall never forget the sight : there stood 
 the Cure^ poor Pere Bernard, and old Monsieur 
 Josse on either side a grave that was nearly finished ; 
 two diggers Avere just completing the work. The 
 mob stopped their shouting, and I could hear in the 
 momentary silence Toinette say to her soldier, * The 
 papers, Pierre, — mind 'tis the papers in the plunder 
 I want ; ' the next moment they crowded round the 
 -grave, and I could hear old Monsieur Josse in his 
 clear firm voice telling them how the grave was for my 
 old lady, and how all he wanted was to lay lier head 
 in the ground, begging them for ten minutes to lay 
 his mistress's bones in their last place of rest. ^ Kest,' 
 cried they, ^ the bones of an aristocrat shall know no 
 rest, — the bones of an aristocrat shall w^hiten the 
 fields, and their blood fatten the furrows ! ' ' But 
 gentlemen, good gentlemen, there's the chateau, 
 pillage, take all, only let me bury — ' *Bury is it?' said 
 they — and — and — " 
 
 "^ Well," asked Merrick, eagerly. 
 
 " Tlteij buried him ! " 
 
 No one spoke for some time. Madame de Mal- 
 cjuet sat with her hands between her knees mo-
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 199 
 
 tionless, gazing at the fire ; jMerrick leaned back in 
 his chair, horror-struck at the tale ; Pierrefeu grasped 
 on the chair-back waiting the order to proceed with his 
 story ; Brigitta alone continued her work without 
 any show of emotion. At last the lady said, — 
 
 " Go on," and Pierrefeu continued his narra- 
 tive : — 
 
 " When that was done they called for the Cure to 
 say a mass for Ms soul ; they made him say high 
 mass while they pillaged his house, took an ass they 
 found in the stable, dressed him in priest's vest- 
 ments, and drove him into the church with the 
 mass-book tied to his tail ; they drank brandy and 
 wine in the chalices, and ate the salt mackerel they 
 found in the poor Cwre's house off the patinas ; they 
 danced the carmagnole in the aisle, men and women 
 together. Stupified in the tumult I found myself 
 again near Toinette and her soldier. ' The fools, 
 she said, ' we shall never get through them to the 
 
 sacristy ; they'll burn the 's barrack, papers and all 
 
 — stop 'em in their foolery.' ' How can I ? ' said he. 
 ' Look, the priest,' said Toinette. Pere Bernard 
 had the Host in both hands, raised, trembling like 
 an aspen, but his arms both up, and his bosom 
 well exposed ; a shot from behind me struck him full 
 in the heart, — he leaped aloft, and fell dead ; a yell 
 
 K 4
 
 2C0 MxiDA3JE DE MALGUET. 
 
 arose in the little cliurch, and those behind me tried 
 to force their way forward to the sacristy door, when 
 it was hastily thrown open, and some sans-culottes 
 rushed in crying, ' Burning ! burning ! Yive la na- 
 tion ! Bibles burning, and the room full of hand- 
 grenades !' Toiiiette at that moment rushed forward, 
 and they had to hold her by force to keep her from 
 dashing in to save the papers, she said ; she was 
 like a mad woman, she raved I knew not what about 
 the papers; but 'twas too late to get them. There 
 were those present too anxious to destroy the register 
 of the lord's riglvts, that in country places often were 
 kept in the church, to do their work negligently ; 'twas 
 a common practice first to burn the registers. Well, 
 the grenades exploded, and splinters flew into the 
 church, so we carried her screaming out through the 
 \vindow, just in time,, for they had mined the tower 
 meanwhile, fired the train, and St. Ursule des Fonds 
 was a ruin ! " 
 
 "Well, Pierrefeu?" 
 
 " What more ? they marched on the house, and set 
 fire to the west wing after they had pillaged it." 
 
 " Ah ! " said Merrick, " was it indeed so ? " 
 
 " Even so," answ^ered Madame de Malguet, sigh- 
 ing ; " her dwelling was her funeral pile, and in the 
 wasted ruin stands her tomb ; you may observe the
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 201 
 
 lower windows are bricked up all save one ; in the 
 place above, which was the room she last occupied, I 
 have raised a monument, and there is my chapel, at 
 least I make it so, for there I pray." 
 
 " And how did you escape ? " 
 
 " Simply enough ; I stayed by her corpse until I 
 saw smoke begin to rise from the little hollow, and 
 the reserve of the marauders advance down the hill. 
 Young Josse, ignorant of the fate of his unhappy 
 father, had with his usual caution and intelligence 
 removed our disguises to the ruin in the forest ; 
 thither Ave hurried unperceived, through parts none 
 knew better than I, and soon effected a thorough 
 and complete disguise. With a thousand louis in 
 gold sewed in belts around us, and some diamonds of 
 value broken out of their settings, we made our way 
 as two of Ronsin's people going to join Tallien's 
 troop at Bordeaux, unharmed across the country ; 
 indeed I devised a mode of silencing eg^ually sus- 
 picion and search, by boasting we had buried the 
 aristocrat Ursule Malguet with the corpse of her 
 mother, a holocaust to the honour of the Republic, 
 One, and Indivisible ! Suffice it to say, that I reached 
 Geneva in safety, and there for my protection as- 
 sumed the garb I ever since have worn. Josse, after 
 seeing me in a place of secure refuge, returned to 
 
 K 5 
 
 k
 
 202 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 France, and was placed by Finot, who had purchased 
 for a nominal payment our confiscated estate, in 
 its charge as steward. The house you occuj^y in 
 Plassy was also, with another of ours, at the same time 
 purchased by him, and in the former was stored the 
 furniture saved in the forest ; this you see before 
 you, and some which still remains unremoved. I 
 left to Finot all the rents, refusing to accept a 
 farthing of my own as alms." 
 
 " And how did you live ? " 
 
 '' Have you not heard enough for to-night ? See 
 Brigitta nods over her work, and wine and emotion 
 have lost their eifect on Pierrefeu; he sleeps there 
 as he stands ! " 
 
 It was in very deed late when Merrick, glad to 
 accept the offer of the lady's carriole to Plassy, bade 
 his eccentric hostess good night, and mounted, as she 
 insisted, with both Michel and the dogs, into the rude 
 but commodious and not uneasy vehicle. Pondering 
 deeply on the singular destiny of Madame de Mal- 
 guet, and promising himself interest and amusement 
 in prosecuting his acquaintance with her to inti- 
 macy, the sailor reached the Hotel Picotot at an 
 hour that he was sure would obtain for him the 
 blackest of black looks the next morning from the 
 little lady who called it her's.
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 203 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The night that Merrick passed was a perturbed 
 one. In his dreams he re-enacted the eventful 
 scenes of which he had that day heard the relation. 
 At one time he fancied himself a member of the 
 rude revolutionary army invading the peaceful vale 
 of La Chalautre ; he carried a pike in the escort 
 of the Goddess of Reason ; he laid a gun ao-ainst the 
 
 ' DO 
 
 belfry of the little church ; he was one of the 
 maddened troop that rushed to the immolation of 
 the unhappy Cure ; then again he found himself by 
 the side of Madame De Malguet, watching the 
 advent of the murderous band ; or, still wilder fancy, 
 he was the unhappy steward, struggling with strong 
 men, full of evil passions, dashed into the new-made 
 grave, covered, still living, with the damp, moist, 
 fresh-stirred earth, rising with ineffectual heave 
 against the increasing mass that weighed him down ; 
 and then, sinking into unconsciousness as one suffo- 
 cated. All thought passed away ; sleep undisturbed 
 fell on him, and he awoke to be himself again, by 
 
 k
 
 204 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 the bright beams of a warm September sun, that 
 glanced cheerily into his room through the envious 
 vine leaves that disputed across his casement the 
 passage of that glad daylight which it v/as meant to 
 give entry to. 
 
 His hour or two of morning study over, the 
 duties of his scrupulous toilette performed, the sailor 
 made his way to the breakfast room. There was 
 nothing there beyond Picotot and the table cloth. 
 
 " I am suspectful," said the accurate Charles- 
 Augaste, after the usual morning greetings, " I am 
 suspectful lest Madame Picotot shall have sleep- 
 overed herself, which puts in retard the omelette, 
 and menaces to suspend the production of the 
 cutlets!" 
 
 " I was out late myself last night," replied 
 Merrick, "and can quarrel with no one for being 
 late this morning ; but you are wrong to doubt the 
 exactitude of our good hostess, for here she is, as 
 ever, good herself, and the forerunner of good things 
 to come." 
 
 So saying the good-humoured sailor moved forward 
 to meet the little bourgeoise, who at that moment 
 attempted with something between a trip and a 
 swim, to swing herself into the room in a manner of 
 most unwonted dignity.
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 205 
 
 " Ah ! really ! Captain Merrick at home ! " said 
 she, " quite surprising, is it not, mon ami 9 I 
 thought, after losing the pleasure of his society by 
 one unceremonious detention at La Chalautre, we 
 should not have had so soon the dissatisfaction of 
 another unexpected absence in the same quarter ; 
 but, doubtless, old women in trousers have some 
 peculiar influence over gentlemen with a -penchant 
 for pantaloons." 
 
 I will not say that our friend Merrick was not 
 seriously annoyed at this ill-bred and ill-judged 
 ebullition of impertinence ; but he took the best way 
 of putting it down for once and for ever. He went 
 up to the little lady, took both her hands in his and 
 said : — 
 
 " My kind and good little hostess, I came here 
 tired of the world, and vexed with some cares, to 
 seek relief and gain instruction: do not you dis- 
 appoint me in my plans : if my mornings are for 
 others and myself, my evenings shall be for you, if 
 you will, and the study of the language I came to 
 acquire. Beyond this, I seek only pleasant quarters 
 and a quiet home ; who can assure me them better 
 than you? but if you will not " 
 
 Before the sailor had got thus far, the little 
 female Picotot was deep in sobs and tears, absorbing
 
 206 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 the remainder of his oration by a threat of hysterics 
 more or less real: the male had meanwhile judi- 
 ciously turned his back upon the actors in this 
 domestic drama, drumming with much pertinacity 
 upon the window-frame (through which he stared on 
 the residuary cabbage- stalks of the petit mar die) the 
 burthen of the fifty -ninth Bacchanalian song of which 
 his fertile muse had been productive. The result 
 was Merrick's enfranchisement from the species of 
 Picototian thraldom in which he was on either side 
 threatened to be held ; enfranchisement thenceforth 
 and for evermore, achieved actually over the lady and 
 tacitly over Monsieur Picotot (de Cocove) himself. 
 
 Then they sat down harmoniously to breakfast. 
 During the course of the meal, Merrick learned that 
 old Grivet the gunsmith had been at the Hotel 
 Picotot the day before, anxious to see him on a 
 subject near to the mechanic's heart. From the day 
 on which the old man had first beheld the ineffable 
 detonator, he had been hourly occupied with the 
 idea of imitating the action of the lock, or ac- 
 complishing at any rate something on that model 
 whereby the name of Grivet of Plassy might be- 
 come renowned among the fraternity of armourers. 
 Having at last summoned up resolution to address 
 Merrick about the matter, he had limped up to Kue
 
 mada:.le de malguet. 207 
 
 Coudrefeu to meet with a disappointment in the in- 
 timation that the Captain was away to La Chalautre. 
 Picotot, however, whose love of gossip, as well the 
 constant necessity he stood in of having his double- 
 barrel with the cracked stock under repau', caused 
 him to be on excellent terms with the veteran 
 worker in iron, soon shared in his confidence 
 touching the chef-cTcEuvre of English art, and promised 
 to mention the subject to its owner, which he did 
 after his own happy fashion in French-English of 
 the most elaborate unintelllgibility. jMerrick, one 
 of those men of action who take interest in the 
 energy and enthusiasm of others, immediately de- 
 termined to gratify the old man's fancy, and taking 
 one of the locks of his gun with him, he walked 
 down to the smith-shop to talk over his jDroject, well 
 content to sacrifice a day's shooting in order to 
 gratify the professional fancies of its owner. 
 
 He found old Grivet as usual bending over his 
 vice, file in hand, dressed as humbly and as coarsely 
 as one of his own journeymen, the only distinction 
 which showed the master, being the dignity of a 
 brown silk night-cap, which failed to conceal the old 
 man's high forehead, and long but scanty locks of 
 grizzled hair. The cause of Merrick's visit explained, 
 the old armourer was in ecstasies. The shop rang 
 
 I
 
 208 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 again with his emphatic " Sacre mecaniqiie ! " so 
 admirably rendered into English by that distinguished 
 professor of the art of translation. Monsieur Picotot. 
 and both he and the sailor were soon deep in discus- 
 sion as to the mode whereby the projected imitation 
 of the English patent was to be effected with sufficient 
 variation from the actual mechanism to allow the 
 gunsmith of Plassy to claim something of originality 
 for his intended work. ^Yliile thus engaged, Merrick 
 being placed with his back to the shop door, it was 
 suddenly opened, and the sailor, turning round, found 
 himself face to face with Lambert. 
 
 " How, Captain ! " said the dragoon, " I little thought 
 to meet you here ! have you neglected La Chalautre 
 already ? — old Grivet is bent on making a smith of 
 you, I see." 
 
 " AVhy, the shooting at La Chalautre is excellent 
 no doubt, but bethink you a little of the distance, 
 and remember I can't be sure to get your company 
 every day on the road thither — besides, I wanted to 
 help out our old friend here in a scheme of his — 
 there's free masonry in mechanics, I can tell you." 
 
 Although Lambert had addressed him with his 
 usual open boldness of manner, the sailor was struck 
 with the impression that it was in some sort assumed, 
 and that the meeting was one which the dragoon
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 209 
 
 would have avoided. He moved uneasily into the 
 dark portion of the shop, seemed embarrassed under 
 Merrick's eye, and by the cursory glance Merrick 
 had of his countenance there appeared some evidence 
 of a contusion which had broken the skin below his 
 lower lip, which he seemed anxious to conceah Of 
 course Merrick took his cue from what seemed to be 
 the wishes of his companion, and without any attempt 
 at conversation, continued to busy himself in the 
 examination of the rough attempt which the old 
 armourer had already made at sketching the execu- 
 tion of his projected gun-lock. Grivet, after some 
 words exchanged in a low tone w4th the Colonel, left 
 the shop and went up stairs. He was absent some 
 three or four minutes, during which, Lambert sat on 
 the counter silent and abstracted, with the end of his 
 cane between his lips according to his wont, while 
 Merrick, knowing that the only way to manage a 
 wayward man is to leave him to himself, continued 
 quietly occupied on the other side the shop, as un- 
 concernedly as if he had been its only tenant. At 
 last Grivet re-entered. 
 
 " Here they are," Merrick heard him say, " I had 
 some trouble to find the packet in the case of my 
 things they were sent with : the hooks, all sorted
 
 210 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 and numbered as you directed, and the best lines 
 to be 2:ot In Paris." 
 
 The dragoon returned no answer. The old man 
 placed a small parcel by him on the counter and 
 rejoined the Captain over the work-table. He glanced 
 towards the other side the shop over his horn specta- 
 cles in the manner peculiar to him, drew down the 
 corners of his mouth, shrugged his shoulders, shook 
 his head, and sighed. Merrick, unable to gather any 
 thing from this pantomime, save that there was some- 
 thing the matter with their silent companion, answered 
 by a slight elevation of the brows, and went on 
 talking in a low voice about the work they were 
 interested in. Ten minutes nearly had elapsed, and 
 the sailor, but for a desire to follow out his observation 
 of the character of Lambert, would have thought of 
 leaving the shop, his mechanical discussion being over, 
 and one lock of the cherished gun entrusted for the 
 day to old Grivet to study as the model for his work, 
 when abruptly, as usual, the dragoon said — 
 
 "Merrick, what's the merit of blood?" 
 
 "Blood," replied the party addressed, in some 
 surprise, "blood shed on a field, or lost in a fever? 
 You speak enigmas, worthy Colonel." 
 
 "The blood of races, — where lies its merit? Has 
 the lord of high descent more courage than the
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 211 
 
 cliurl? is your Montmorenci a better soldier, or 
 a braver man, than the son of a miller yonder, old 
 Grivet?" 
 
 " Sacrehleu^'' said the armourer, " don't talk of me 
 — I fought, as I told you before, with quicksilver in 
 my veins. I honestly own to you, I, that if it had 
 not been la patrie I was fighting for, and if it had 
 not been that the head of me was turned, and that I 
 never thought of blade nor bullet, I verily believe I 
 should have looked oftener over my shoulder than 
 before me, — and there's the miller's son for you I" 
 
 *^ And I," said Lambert, " I who am not so good 
 as an honest miller's son — no, not by an hundred 
 degrees, as well you know, old comrade — I tell you, 
 I have never been under fire that my blood has not 
 fired in me, my spirits have risen, — I have been 
 never happier, never so excited, and the thrill that 
 has gone through me in the headlong charge, has 
 been the most exquisite pleasure I have known ! — 
 Kow with that before you. Captain, tell me the merit, 
 the worth of descent to a soldier ! " 
 
 "Why, it's a personal question. Colonel, for I 
 myself am of no nobler blood than that which runs 
 in the veins of a Kentish yeoman of the better order, 
 a gentleman farmer as we call the class." 
 
 "Well?"
 
 212 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 " Why, without ever having had any inclination 
 to look over my shoulder but for excitement, as 
 with our friend the armourer, nor being able to 
 understand by more than a sort of sympathy the 
 intense delight you describe as feeling in action, I 
 who have seen some hot days, believe that there is a 
 better feeling for the soldier or sailor than either, be 
 the case with churl's blood or noble's." 
 
 " Ay — and what's that ?" 
 
 " Self-confidence, coolness, and the sense of duty ; 
 add to that determination, and you may train a man 
 to the possession of them all, and make him a fellow 
 that will die hard. I have never gone into action 
 without repeating to myself the motto of my county, 
 ' Invicta^ and have done my duty in the belief of 
 success, and the resolution to succeed." 
 
 " Then you throw over blood altogether?" 
 
 " Nay, pardon me — we English know better 
 than that ; but we also have confidence in what brings 
 out the merit of blood, and makes much of even 
 mediocrity, and that's training." 
 
 "Bah!" said Lambert, "you do not answer 
 me — I ask you in my own case, who am liter- 
 ally " 
 
 Here their conversation was interrupted by the 
 entrance of that eleo-ant leader of the "fast men"
 
 MADAME DE BIALGUET. 213 
 
 of Plassy, Monsieur Adolphe Finot. He looked, 
 if possible, more disreputable than usual : bis clothes, 
 originally well-made, were so ill worn as to have 
 taken the positive semblance of misfitting him; his 
 head was covered with a tawdry Greek cap, he was 
 in slippers fresh from the cafe close by, with a cue 
 in his hand, and he came like the moon " in his own 
 atmosphere " surrounded by a rich aroma of execrably 
 bad tobacco. 
 
 " Yery good, very good indeed I this is the way 
 ex-colonels of dragoons keep their engagements ! 
 Half an hour have I been waiting for you, beating 
 old Solon GriiFard till you'll most likely pick him up 
 in pieces on the floor of his own billiard room, when 
 you go in ! Come, Lambert, get up, man I don't sit 
 dawdling the day away on a counter ! " 
 
 Grivet glared at the gamester with a double 
 barrelled glance of the intensest dislike. Lambert 
 took no notice of the address whatever, but seemed 
 annoyed at the interruption. 
 
 " Ah I Captain Merrick I" continued Finot, " you 
 here too ? Ever play billiards ? Like to join Lambert 
 and me ? He promised to meet me to-day, and have 
 a long day of it." 
 
 '' He got his pay yesterday," said Grivet drily. 
 
 " Well, old grumbler, what then ? He got it 

 
 214 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 yesterday, and he'll lose it to-day, and have no 
 trouble with it till next time — come Colonel." 
 
 The gunsmith looked expressively over the horn 
 spectacles at Merrick, who, remembering Lambert's 
 fatal passion for excitement, had no doubt but that 
 the gambler had made a regular half-year's revenue 
 out of the pittance w^hich the soldier drew. He 
 thought the occasion a good one for trying to break 
 the spell. 
 
 " I do play billiards. Monsieur Adolphe," said he 
 to Finot, "but never in the morning; as to our friend 
 the Colonel, we were in the midst of a discussion of 
 
 some interest, and I almost grudge him to you " 
 
 "An engagement, positive and actual, and come 
 he must ! " exclaimed the billiard hero, and so saying 
 he took the soldier's arm, pulled him gently off the 
 counter, and threatened to carry him away captive 
 to the passion play, when Grivet nodded to the sailor 
 to persevere in his opposition. 
 
 " Come, Monsieur Adolphe," said Merrick, " let 
 the Colonel off now, and I will play you for the best 
 of seven games any day next week in the evening, 
 and the stake shall be named by whom you like." 
 
 " On honour you will !" was the joyful exclama- 
 tion of Finot, delighted at the hopes of a fatter 
 pigeon to pluck than the dragoon, whose means to
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 215 
 
 lose he knew to the last sou in his pocket; "you 
 declare to the conditions you name ? " 
 
 "I do." 
 
 " Then I give you Lambert for to-day, at least, 
 and so good by — oh! what a sacrifice I here's the 
 dragoon in one of his black moods, and might have 
 been cleaned out in half an hour ! Great economy of 
 time thrown away ! — but next week, next week 
 enfoncee lafregate Anglaise!''' 
 
 " Enfounced the English fregate^'^ said Picotot, 
 who came that moment to the shop door ; but thank 
 Heaven, there is such a thing as retributive justice! 
 Finot, pretending to doubt the accuracy of this 
 translation, carried him off to the cafe, and did then 
 and there win of him seven glasses of liqueur, a 
 bowl of brandy-punch, and five francs sterling 
 money at billiards. Insulted English was for once 
 avenged, and the fumes of the liquor ascended as a 
 grateful peace offering to the vexed manes of Lindley 
 Murray ! 
 
 " Merrick," said the Colonel, " you've sacrificed 
 yourself to save my few hundred francs, but it is a 
 needless act of kindness. The destination of the 
 money will be the same." 
 
 " Xot of necessity," answered the sailor, smiling 
 over his success, " why lose it at all ? "
 
 216 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 "./e niennuie,'' said Lambert pettislily, — "Je 
 rriennuie; tell your Picotot there to translate that, 
 and he cannot ; there is none can know what it is, 
 but those that have felt it. But come, as you've 
 spoiled my day's engagement, come and stroll with 
 me, and let me talk w^ith you." 
 
 Gratified at the sort of influence he had obtained 
 over the soldier, Merrick gladly assented, and bidding 
 Grivet good morning, the two left his shop, and 
 strolled to a portion of the environs of Plassy which 
 Merrick had as yet hardly visited. The gunsmith, 
 as they left the shop, exchanged a nod of intelligence 
 with the sailor, and in that Merrick felt expressed 
 the old man's gratitude for the interest taken in his 
 former comrade. 
 
 The two strolled slowly on, with but little talk 
 of interest, until emerging from a street in the worst 
 suburbs of the little town that he had yet seen, 
 composed of huts, not old, but ruinous, deserted, and 
 houses half finished, and threatening already to be- 
 come ruins, he found himself on the banks of a large 
 dock, or canal-head, the bottom almost dry, from 
 which was cut the bed of a dry canal which seemed 
 to stretch away for miles, between a double row of 
 young trees, apparently of some twelve years growth. 
 
 " Come on," said Lambert, " 'tis a pleasant quiet
 
 MADAIVIE DE MALGUET. 217 
 
 walk here along the turf by the canal bank; the 
 place is little frequented ; these fools of Plassy think 
 it unhealthy." 
 
 " But what a noble work ! " 
 
 " A work of the Empire, left unfinished at the 
 Restoration on some idle pretext or other. Your 
 friend Pig-Louis, le coclion, has not much fancy for 
 working out the other's plans." 
 
 " In which he seems to me to imitate the model 
 given him by some of ' the other's ' adherents." 
 
 "How? — who?" 
 
 "Yourself." 
 
 "la model of inactivity ! " 
 
 " Even so." 
 
 " But how can you call me the model-giver, who 
 am myself the subject ? They tie my hands and 
 feet, and then call me inactive. They crib me in a 
 comer under a keeper's eye, as it were, and then 
 you say, *how idle the old lion is!' Come, be just 
 Captain." 
 
 " I am just, if you will only understand the sense 
 in which I speak, to take your metaphor of the old 
 lion ; they cage and chain him because they dread 
 he may use teeth and claws." 
 
 " Well, but still they do cage him." 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 218 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 " True, but need he remain in his cage if he could 
 give bail he would not bite ? " 
 
 " That is, why should he not mount the white 
 cockade, and serve the Bourbons ? " 
 
 " I did not say so, although my own opinion is, 
 that when a man serves his country, the colour of 
 the cockade matters but little. You think, he that 
 is gone was the man for France, and you served him 
 for France ; but as he is gone, will you, like an un- 
 grateful son, refuse France your service, because her 
 chief menial is one whom you dislike ? " 
 
 " I am a better son than you imagine," replied the 
 soldier gloomily. 
 
 Merrick saw at once he had unintentionally given 
 ])ain, but with good natural tact affected not to notice 
 that the words he had used, had excited any peculiar 
 emotion. 
 
 " I do not doubt it abstractedly, but I should like 
 to see you show your attachment in a more practical 
 shape ; depend on it every soldier owes his allegiance 
 and his service to the soil he was born upon, and the 
 people among whom lie his birth and kindred : you 
 have suffered neglect and oppression because you 
 are suspected : you feel yourself guiltless of overt 
 acts or intentions against the present government ; 
 but suppose you were to disarm suspicion ? "
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 219 
 
 " Impossible, Merrick, impossible ! I cannot 
 leave the place even except by order, and I cannot 
 leave it under any circumstance." 
 
 They v^alked on in silence for a mile or two, 
 strolling at a foot's pace, along the pleasant turf. 
 At a little distance to the left of the canal the view 
 was confined by a range of highly cultivated upland 
 studded with farm houses ; to the right the champaign 
 country stretched away till the eye lost its power of 
 perception along the edge of the blue horizon. They 
 sat down on the grass, they lounged, they lay at 
 length, Merrick stimulating reflection by the snuff- 
 box, Lambert playing the eternal trumpet march on 
 his cane, and neither said a word. At a sign from 
 the dragoon, they rose again : something had fallen 
 from his pocket, Merrick picked it up ; it was the 
 little packet which he had seen Grivet give him. 
 The soldier took it from him, and said, as if to him- 
 self— 
 
 " I was wrong not to have taken them to her at 
 once ; " — he paused awhile, and then abruptly broke 
 out, " the companion one wants is one that one can 
 be silent with; it is the talent, they say, of your 
 countrymen, and they jeer you for it." 
 
 Merrick laughed at hearing the Englishman's re- 
 
 L 2 
 
 I
 
 220 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 proach in France made his merit, while the dragoon 
 proceeded : — 
 
 " How many men would not have asked what ailed 
 me this morning ! how many could not have given 
 back this little parcel without inquiring its contents ! 
 how many would have allowed that conversation, 
 which so excited me just now, to drop at the moment 
 when I was about to speak of myself ! Believe me 
 there is talent in knowing when, and how, to be 
 silent. I heard an Arab proverb in Egypt to that 
 effect ; he was no fool that first uttered that saw. 
 But still my question is unanswered ; for myself, I 
 believe the doctrine of hereditary courage and noble 
 daring, to be the merest trash that ever was talked 
 by the most crack-brained aristocrat. I was last 
 night, as, alas ! not unfrequently happens," continued 
 he gloomily, " I was last night twitted with my 
 bastardy, — for bastard am I, — by — by my own 
 mother ! She does this to annoy me, when she is 
 not herself : the lien that binds me to Plassy is she, 
 she cannot leave the place, and would kill herself if 
 I served a Bourbon ; but for that I would have 
 joined the ranks once more, for I have some interest, 
 and in the main think with you as to a soldier's 
 duty." 
 
 " Twitted with your bastardy by her who —
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 221 
 
 Heaven ! you make me almost ask can it be possible, 
 though 'tis you tell me ! " 
 
 " No truer syllables were ever uttered. I was 
 called from the time I can remember, the child of the 
 regiment that she was suttler to : the men, she even 
 used to call me Cartouche, for I had no name ; at 
 last a sergeant who lent my mother one of his names, 
 Lambert, generously made a present of both of them 
 to me, and I became Pierre Lambert: under this 
 name I was enlisted quite as a boy before the Revo- 
 lution, and found myself not long after things had a 
 little shaken into order in the 1 9th Chevaux Legers : 
 — my mother and I quarrelled violently: — why I 
 leave you to imagine — but the truth was I could not 
 remain as a grown man in the regiment with her, and 
 she herself did all she could to drive me from the corps 
 where my presence was a sort of restraint on her : 
 — I joined the 23d, went to Egypt, and heard for 
 years no mention of her: between 1800 and 1802, I 
 was myself not in a position to hear of her, having 
 thought myself aggrieved, and having left active 
 service, but necessity and the argument of friends 
 drove me back to the old trade of fighting. I got 
 my Lieutenant's commission at Austerlitz, my cross 
 of the legion at Eylau, and then feeling my credit 
 increased, did all I could to discover my mother, and 
 
 L 3
 
 222 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 place her, if alive, in a better and fitter position : all 
 my efforts were useless, and I began to conclude she 
 must have died, and was almost inclined to welcome 
 the idea such was the case, for fortune still favoured 
 me, and in 1809 at Wagram, I found myself a 
 captain ! 
 
 "It was not till toward the close of the disastrous 
 campaign in Russia that I heard aught of my mother. 
 She was still a suttler in the 32 nd of the Line, and 
 by the description I recognized her, still a very hand- 
 some woman, immensely large and powerful, still 
 known as Mere Lambert ; — in spite of the common 
 name there was no mistaking. Well, our army was 
 in retreat, and I, who was with one of the reserves on 
 the Polish frontier, was constantly out keeping open 
 our communications, and escorting forage and pro- 
 visions. A convoy of this kind had, I remember, 
 come up, just as we were moved on Grodno as a 
 support to the retreating army. I heard, as we 
 marched, that the escort was the 32nd ; our support 
 to the main body was of course ineffectual, but being 
 fresh, the 23d was posted under me to cover the re- 
 treat. One day when the enemy's light troops were 
 pressing us, there was a good deal of fighting about 
 the baggage of an infantry regiment, a party of which 
 unsupported, defended the stores and munitions with
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 223 
 
 desperate gallantry. I was ordered up with a squad- 
 ron to bring them off. We charged them well ; 
 but in a moment after were surrounded by a cloud of 
 light troops and driven back on the infantry. As I 
 rallied my men just upon these unhappy carts that 
 had cost so much blood, I observed on the flank of 
 the two companies, deployed to show a front to our 
 pursuers, a large powerful woman, serving the men 
 with liquor. She was encouraging them in the true 
 camp slang the soldiers love so much, and they in 
 their rude way showed much anxiety she should not 
 be too forward. She was dressed, I remember, in a 
 soldier's jacket, over her coarse striped petticoat. I 
 was just on the point of speaking to her, when the 
 Cossacks came on in force, several hundreds at once, 
 screeching and yelling like maniacs; the infantry, 
 most of them, broke, and ran to the carts ; and my 
 people, and a few of the 32nd, for that was the regi- 
 ment, stood, and those that did were ridden down 
 like rotten straw. I was myself upset bodily, and 
 fell under my horse, much stunned, but unwounded 
 — unable to move ; at some distance from the carts 
 just before me lay an old French soldier mortally 
 wounded, and insensible; his hair and moustachios 
 were snow white, and he must have been a man of at 
 least sixty. The woman I had seen now advanced 
 
 L 4
 
 224 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 from the cart, where she had taken shelter, and spoke 
 to me. 
 
 " * Art dead ? No, you'll do this time. Captain, but 
 here is one will eat no more ratatouille,'' " * 
 
 " A few tears rolled down her cheek ; she knelt, 
 and kissed the old man's forehead, moistened his lips 
 with brandy, took from his breast an old pocket-book 
 and the cross of the legion which he wore, and then 
 came to disengage me. At this moment a straggler 
 of the enemy, a Cossack, the main body of whom had 
 gone to plunder the baggage of other columns, rode up 
 suddenly and attempted to lance me. I caught the 
 weapon, at the expense of a cut hand, and had power 
 to hold it so that the fellow could not recover it from 
 me. As quick as lightning the woman signed me to 
 hold the lance fast, which I only could do safely 
 (while my opponent sought to jerk it from me or 
 inflict a stab) by burying the point of the weapon in 
 the ground. She took up the musket of the dead 
 soldier : — it was discharged, but with the utmost 
 coolness she clubbed the piece, came noiselessly 
 behind my antagonist, and by one blow brought him 
 from his horse, finishing him with another. The dead 
 soldier was Pierre Lambert, and the woman, my 
 mother." 
 
 ♦ French soldier's mess.
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 225 
 
 " Well — after that what could I do, but devote 
 myself to her ? She got the cross and its pension, 
 and a small pension beside, and was for a person of 
 her condition rich, and even very rich. She retired 
 to Plassy ; fortunately her size is so enormous that 
 she is rarely, if ever, seen in its streets. Rest, and high 
 living, after her constant life of action, had an imme- 
 diate effect upon her frame, already larger and more 
 powerful than that of any female I ever saw. She 
 can hardly stir out, but sits for hours in the open air, 
 fishing in the stream on the banks of which our soli- 
 tary cottage stands : these things you just picked up 
 are lines and hooks for her amusement : 1 would I 
 had taken them to her, but to tell the truth, she is 
 not sometimes a gentle, nor a pleasant companion." 
 
 " But why reside with her ? " 
 
 " For reasons I cannot, and could not give you. 
 When I took up my abode with her after the 
 Hundred Days, it was not with intention to remain, 
 but I then saw I could and ought not ever to leave 
 her. Now, Merrick, will you let me say Je m'ennuie / 
 Now, will you grudge me the wretched excitement 
 of gaming ? Except that, or to break an unruly colt 
 for Pere Ledru, the dealer, now and then, I have no
 
 226 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 single change in the monotony of a most distasteful 
 existence." 
 
 They had reached the extremity of the cut to 
 which the canal had been carried, and Merrick, to turn 
 the subject, asked if this were all that had been done. 
 
 " By no means : some seven miles off ends the 
 head of another cut, which should have communicated 
 with the Seine." 
 
 "But why leave off?" 
 
 " The Bourbonist engineer found out the imperial 
 line of levels to be faulty : you'll always find the line 
 of political objection the true fault-tester." 
 
 " And therefore it was given up ? " 
 
 " I fancy so." 
 
 " Wait a moment for me, Colonel ; I should like to 
 trace the canal line from that rising ground." 
 
 The soldier threw his listless length upon the earth, 
 while Merrick rapidly gained the top of the range of 
 hill on their left, and looked out upon the plain be- 
 fore him. A double row of trees of even growth 
 marked, even where it was uncut, the line of the in- 
 tended canal. " The eye is no judge," thought Mer- 
 rick, " but it seems to me Nap's engineers were as 
 little mistaken here, as they were on most other 
 occasions." A thought had struck him and he re-
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 227 
 
 turned full of it to his companion. The soldier rose, 
 and they turned their faces homewards 
 
 " Do you know, Colonel," said Merrick, " the real 
 panacea for a wounded spirit ? " 
 
 " There is none." 
 
 " There is, — occupation: now Avhat do you do?'' 
 
 " Take care of my mother." 
 
 ^^AYhatelse?" 
 
 The soldier shrusrsfed and was silent. 
 
 " Have you any business ? " 
 
 The soldier hummed a quick step. 
 
 " Have you any study ? " 
 
 The soldier answered him with the old Beresina 
 trumpet march. 
 
 " None, you see, and yet you have a profession, 
 though you do not practise it : if you will not serve, 
 why not study the theory of your art ? " 
 
 Xo answer. 
 
 " I," continued Merrick, " am in England, what 
 you are here — you smile, but so it is : if the aris- 
 tocrats have it hollow in France, believe me they 
 have it much more hollow in England. I say it to 
 you, I am known as not undistinguished, yet now 
 that work has not to be done, I am shelved, and out 
 in satin pantaloons comes the holiday seaman, while 
 tarry-jacket goes to the wall. Do I sulk like a friend 
 
 L 6
 
 228 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 of mine, and abuse the Guelphs as he does the 
 Bourbons ? Not a bit ; I bide my time, and work 
 meanwhile, studying my profession and gaining know- 
 ledge in other things ; — do you think that, in naval 
 tactics, we shall not, perhaps, in our day see war 
 converted all to tactics, as the best living sailor, 
 Cochrane, has prophesied, declaring that then skill 
 and seamanship would be properly appreciated ? Or 
 do you suppose that, on shore, with armies of 600,000 
 men and 1000 guns, as the scale of war is now, 
 the mind of the general in command to handle them, 
 must not be as vast in proportion as the charge con- 
 fided to him, and as full of resources too ? — Have 
 you any turn for mathematics ? " 
 
 " The only study I ever cared for ; a kind friend, 
 an officer of engineers, Petiou (he was killed at 
 Tudela), inoculated me with the taste in long and 
 tedious outpost quarters in Piedmont: had I fol- 
 lowed up as I began, I should have gone far, for I 
 liked the study — it suited me." 
 
 " It is, indeed, the study for a soldier or a sailor. 
 The knowledge of combinations, the assemblage of 
 forces by the shortest route on a given point, the 
 science of governing the course of an armed vessel, 
 so as to place her at advantage to her foe, — all these 
 are in mathematics ! Ah ! the day will come that
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 229 
 
 two blockheads of captains will cease to see the 
 whole art of war in lying alongside one another 
 blowing in the respective sides of their several 
 vessels, — and the time will be when a war minister 
 will shame to crown with lanrel the military head, 
 who sends his wife on to breakfast in an enemy's 
 battery, which, on discovery of his error, he proceeds 
 to take by marching into the muzzles of the guns, 
 instead of adopting the simple process of a flank 
 movement to turn it." 
 
 Thus talking, they strolled back to Plassy, 
 Lambert becoming more and more impressed by the 
 influence of his companion. This was the first day 
 on which the healthy tone of Merrick's well-regulated 
 mind began to exercise a real moral effect upon the 
 morbid temperament of the unhappy soldier. At 
 first he would hardly to himself own that he felt 
 the beneficial influence over him. If a question 
 went home to him, he answered not, if plain common 
 sense proved the extravagance of complaint without 
 effort at remedy, he moodily or testily resented the 
 soundness of the view as angry with truth for proving 
 him wrong. This did not last, however, and ere 
 they reached Plassy, he had almost come into a plan 
 of iSIerrick's for testing, if they could get instruments, 
 the supposed faulty levels of the canal, or taking a
 
 230 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 line of new ones, if these were really shown to be 
 incorrect. Instead of letting him go off to the cafe 
 Merrick took him home to dinner, and the soldier 
 was evidently pleased at the prospect of a quiet 
 evening. 
 
 Picotot, a little stupified with brandy punch and 
 his losses at billiards, had subdued into a very bear- 
 able condition. La Picototte, as Lambert called 
 her, prattled as livelily as a nest of parroquets. After 
 dinner, the sailor and his friend traced out upon the 
 map, and criticised a campaign or two of the great 
 captain — a task enlivened and illustrated by many 
 a stirring and pleasant anecdote : La Picototte worked 
 and listened to them. Picotot tried as usual, to 
 polish a lyric or two ; but finding, from the associa- 
 tions of the day, perhaps, that he could find no 
 rhyme for chant hwt franc, he went to bed. 
 
 It was late when they parted. The dragoon took 
 Merrick's hand in both of his. 
 
 " You've saved more to day," he said, " than my 
 few hundred francs."
 
 MADA51E DE MALGUET. 2^1 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 When I think sometimes of dreary things on earth, 
 there is one of all others which strikes me as the 
 dreariest — a purposeless existence. This is indeed 
 that dead void in life, the emptiness whereof nothing 
 can conceal. Wealth cannot gild it ; nor can the ac- 
 cessaries of luxury, nor the accident of birth, nor 
 the incidents of position, make it tolerable. The 
 man doomed by his moral constitution, or by its 
 defective development, to go through this mortal 
 career without an object for his energies to work 
 upon, must be miserable, though he be the master of 
 millions ; while, on the other hand, he that knows 
 how to create for himself mental occupation, may be 
 happier beyond the power of comparison in his 
 obscurity, his poverty, and his reverses, than the 
 envied owner of acres untellable, and of the cattle on 
 a thousand hills. 
 
 Our friend Merrick was one of these " happy low." 
 Quiet and unobtrusive, as we have seen him, he did 
 not seek excitement, nor provoke adventure, knowing
 
 232 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 full well that such things as excite and rouse may be 
 found unsought in every incident properly understood 
 and turned to account^ which the ordinary course of 
 every day existence supplies us with hourly. His 
 sudden intimacy with Lambert, his appreciation of 
 the simple but sterling character of this unhappy, 
 because mistaken, man, led him at once to aim at the 
 accomplishment of the most grateful task to one of 
 sound sense and right feeling, the healing, namely, of 
 a mind diseased. To succeed, however, in such an 
 undertaking, he was well aware that first impressions 
 must be followed up, and that, too, vigorously. For 
 this end, therefore, he had already resolved to forego 
 altogether for a few days his usual pursuits and 
 amusements, or to make them at any rate of 
 secondary consideration, until convinced that he had 
 saved the dragoon from the influence to which his 
 desponding inertness, and his habitual gloomy 
 reckless turn of mind, had for many a day rendered 
 him up evidently an unresisting victim. 
 
 Lambert, according to agreement made the pre- 
 vious evening, was to call early at the Hotel Picotot, 
 not, however, as the sailor had ingeniously contrived, 
 with the open intention of following up the scheme, 
 half acceded to the day before, touching the canal level, 
 but for the purpose of taking Merrick to the usual abode
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 233 
 
 of the horse-dealer, Pere Ledru, with whom, it may 
 be remembered, the dragoon seemed to be on terms 
 of good understanding. The sailor, already in funds 
 somewhat by his cheap French living, had felt that, 
 to enjoy his shooting, more especially on a seat so 
 distant as La Chalautre, he would require the means 
 of reaching and leaving his ground more speedily, 
 and with less fatigue than by humble pedestrianism. 
 He had for some days meditated the extravagance of 
 keeping a hack, when the chance acquisition of an 
 excellent English saddle and bridle (sold for next to 
 nothing at the Drapeau Blanc post-inn at Plassy, 
 part of the effects of a traveller who had died on his 
 way to Italy), determined him to make the purchase 
 — if, according to the old proverb, he could put ^'his 
 new property on the right horse." 
 
 Shortly after breakfast, Lambert entered the 
 sailor's room, with a brighter eye it seemed to the 
 latter, and a step more light than he had yet seen 
 him show sign of. He smiled, too, as he made, half 
 sportively, a stiff soldier's salute, and greeted his new 
 friend. 
 
 "You either are in better spirits. Colonel," said 
 Merrick, " or else the idea of a sailor on horseback 
 has struck your dragoon fancy amazingly." 
 
 " Palsambleu ! " replied the soldier, " you've hit it
 
 234 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 — I've been amusing myself since seven this morning 
 with the notion, — and such a beast as old Ledru is 
 likely to give you ! " 
 
 " Ay ? " answered Merrick, taking his hat, " am I 
 to be ill-suited, think you ? " 
 
 " Bah ! a horse worth mounting in a wretched 
 place like this ! Who rides in Plassy, except it be 
 a hired horse, or a cart nag promoted, on a journey ! 
 Why Pere Ledru, — though he sometimes has a 
 colt, he gets me, as I told you, to sit on its haunches, 
 — is a mere itinerant dealer in draft and plough cattle, 
 going about from fair to market, though being the 
 only one in the country side, I fancy he lies and 
 cheats a goodly subsistence out of his monopoly. I 
 doubt much if we shall find him at home ; but here's 
 the place — let's try our luck ! " 
 
 So saying, Lambert, who had taken his companion 
 but a hundred yards or so down Rue Couvrefeu, 
 turned through a dilapidated carriage gateway into 
 the dealer's yard, an ill-kept dirty enclosure, much 
 longer than it was broad, having on one side a long 
 row of sheds and stabling, and on the other a low 
 irregular dwelling-house, with its outhouses and 
 granaries: at the bottom of the yard was a rude 
 low paling, and beyond it a small straw yard. Pere 
 Ledru was, at the moment of their entry, intently
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 235 
 
 occupied in superintending the dressing of a raw- 
 boned iron grey stallion, at whom a sort of helper was 
 rubbing away with more zeal than skill. Ledru, 
 who had been before '89 a trooper in the Chasseurs 
 de Berry, presented now to English eyes a spectacle 
 as unequestrian as unsoldierly. He looked like a man 
 who had tried to be tall, but who had somehow got 
 jammed down in the growing. In this process his 
 knees seemed to have been driven inwards, till the 
 bones knuckled over, while so short was the paunchy 
 body compared with the limbs, that one made sure 
 he must have doubled up at least an inch or two of 
 vertebrae. His coat was of brown woollen, woven 
 from the undyed fleece ; his breeches, strapped inside 
 with leather, were of the same, faced at the knees 
 with cotton velvet ; he wore coarse blue stockings, 
 huge wooden shoes or sabots, and a large felt hat. 
 His sharp grey eye twinkled bright through the 
 dull red of a face that spoke of many a "wet bar- 
 gain." Such was the Tilbury of Plassy. 
 
 " Ser^-ant, Colonel, — servant. Sir," said he, with 
 a flourish of his felt, " any thing in my way ? — a 
 saddle-horse, you say ! Sacristi ! not such a thing 
 to be had ! — horses are horses now-a-days — lucky 
 to get 'em with three legs, let alone four," &c. &c. 
 &c. &c. (in dealers' rhetoric.)
 
 236 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 " All that we know," said the soldier, coolly cutting 
 short the usual oration to every purchaser, "but 
 the fact is, my friend wants to deal ; come, if you 
 hav'nt got a horse yourself, can you name one for 
 sale?" 
 
 " Hum — there's the druggist of Morfontaine's." 
 
 "What, Boivin's? the brute's lame !" 
 
 " Eh, eh, — a little hitch, perhaps, but nothing to 
 speak of." 
 
 " Broken knee'd and bog spavined." 
 
 " Oh ! if the gentleman's particular, that's another 
 thing ! Let me see — there's a sweet horse Monsieur 
 Josse of La Chalautre has given me to dispose of — 
 true Normandy blood — gelding too — quiet as a 
 lamb ; — little out of condition, perhaps, and people 
 disposed to be critical might object to slight defect 
 in the eye, — but such a forehand ! — such action ! — 
 such " 
 
 Merrick could stand this description of Josse's 
 well-known Bosinante no longer, and fairly burst 
 out into one of his hearty fits of laughter. Lam- 
 bert, who never laughed, looked in high amusement 
 at the disconcerted dealer, and said quietly, — 
 
 ** It won't do, Pere Ledru ; bring your own horse 
 out ; it must come to that you know in the end." 
 
 " Ah! Colonel, see what it is to deal with an old
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 237 
 
 dragoon ! you've made me do that I wouldn't have 
 done, — no not for the King of France himself, if 
 he'd walked into this yard in his stocking- soles, and 
 said, * Ledru, my boy, give us a mount for a thousand 
 louis in gold ! ' I'd sworn never to part with this 
 horse, but keep him for the honour of France, though 
 he is half English too." 
 
 " English, Pere Ledru ! Take care, his country- 
 man's here." 
 
 " His countryman ! " said the dealer, who, from his 
 frequent absences, knew not Merrick by sight, " that 
 is, when I say English, I mean more or less English ; 
 not exactly half-bred, but a good dash of the blood ; 
 but bring him out, Jacques — take care of the 
 beauty — come along, old fellow," &c. &c. &c. (in 
 the usual style). 
 
 The much vaunted animal was a stout, over-fed, 
 strong-limbed bay cob, well up to Merrick's weight, 
 compact, and with plenty of bone, but with as 
 little sign of blood as well could be, except in the 
 head, which showed some vestige of the hardy Nor- 
 man breed. Merrick jumped on his back, and rode 
 him up the yard, while the dragoon commenced a 
 deal with Ledru, after ascertaining by inspection that 
 there was not really another horse on the premises 
 fit for the saddle. I will not trace the process of the
 
 238 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 demand, the rejection, the wrangle, the haggle, and 
 the deal, a longer one in France than in England. 
 Suffice it to say, that for a very moderate sum Mer- 
 rick found himself master of the animal, whom he 
 astonished quite as much as he did the dragoon and 
 Pere Ledru, by cramming him, sailor fashion, with- 
 out a saddle, at the paling into the straw yard and 
 back — a feat of which the French horse, in his 
 wildest saltatory dreams, had never before enter- 
 tained the remotest conception of performing; but 
 there is much in resolution and a stick. 
 
 This done, and the price of the beast paid, Lam- 
 bert seemed, as it appeared to the sailor, anxious to 
 escape further converse with Pere Ledru, and turned 
 with one of the abrupt movements common with him, 
 to quit the yard directly Merrick had deposited in his 
 pocket-book a receipt for the purchase money. The 
 horse-dealer, however, was not so to be thrown off. He 
 commenced volubly in that sort of confidential under- 
 tone, and with the knowing manner assumed on occa- 
 sions by those of his calling in all countries, a series of 
 what seemed to Merrick alternate earnest expostula- 
 tion and eager query, to all of which the dragoon 
 answered by broken phrases and impatient monosyl- 
 lables. The sailor, with every endeavour to avoid 
 listening, could not help hearing the repetition of 
 his own name with that of others ; the word " bil-
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 239 
 
 lard''' occurred frequently in the rapid mumbling 
 patois of the dealer, and as he strove to keep Lam- 
 bert back in his progress up the yard, there was a 
 strange tone of familiar reproach in the manner of 
 his speaking, which inspired the sailor with a sort 
 of instinctive disgust against the speaker. He was 
 surprised at the dragoon's not resenting it, until, as 
 they reached the gate, Lambert turned sharp upon 
 the horse-dealer and said, — 
 
 " How's the devil drawn in Germany, Papa Le- 
 dru ? you've been there — in Alsace, any how — with 
 a horse-hoof instead of a cloven foot, isn't it ? Pal- 
 sambleu ! you old centaur- Sathanas, do you think 
 I've colt's teeth left in my head, to be chiselled out 
 by you?" 
 
 So with a gesture of infinite contempt, but no 
 after word of exclamation to his friend, did the dra- 
 goon suffer the man of horses to retire silenced to 
 his precincts. 
 
 Leaving his purchase for the time with the dealer, 
 and carefully incurious as to the scene which had oc- 
 curred, Merrick, glad to have proved his powers as a 
 horseman, made his -way with the soldier to their 
 rendezvous at old Grivet's. The little incident of 
 the morning was one of those trifles in aj^pearance 
 which are, nevertheless, of powerful effect in creating
 
 240 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 the bond of congeniality between men, and it was 
 exactly of the nature, from accident and associ- 
 ation, to take peculiar hold of a temperament like the 
 dragoon's. When, passing from stories of horses 
 and the English hunting field, the marvels of which 
 his auditor drank in with greedy, half-incredulous 
 ear (so little idea had Frenchmen in those days of our 
 style of going across country), Merrick reverted 
 to the half-digested project of the day previous, 
 Lambert admitted that if he were to do anything, he 
 might as well try his hand at that ; at any rate, 
 fresh air and the sailor's society were wholesomer 
 things than Adolphe Finot and the steaming atmo- 
 sphere of old Griffard's billiard room. 
 
 " But after all," said he, " what are we going to 
 old Grivet's for at such a pace ? Your first thought 
 should be to get instruments, if the work is to be at- 
 tempted, and well am I sure you know not where to 
 lay hands on them." 
 
 " Why, I was off to the gunsmith's to get him to 
 have a set of levelling staves made up for us ; and for 
 instruments, we must make shift with my sextant, 
 unless your Board of Works, or whatever it is — your 
 engineer's department, care to lend us a theodolite." 
 
 " Truly ! nothing more than that ? and are you 
 simple enough, my good Captain, to imagine that an
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 241 
 
 English naval officer, and a Bonapartlst malignant, 
 as they term me, are likely to be aided in their scien- 
 tific researches by a Bourbonist officer of engineers ! 
 'Tis a hundred to one, that ere you've laid half a set of 
 levels, we shall have the authorities down upon us for 
 taking plans of the country, — ay, and accuse me of 
 aiding you in a conspiracy to bring an English frigate 
 right up the Seine into the heart of France, and so, 
 via our precious canal, lay the important town of 
 Plassy under a floating battery of long thirty-two's I 
 Bah ! they're idiots, and old women enough for any 
 thing." 
 
 As some such interference with their labours was 
 exactly what Merrick desired to provoke, fur reasons 
 which may be given hereafter, he made no reply to 
 the soldier's sally, but led the way into the shop of 
 the Manton of Plassy, whom he found as usual 
 deeply occupied with his handicraft. It took short 
 time to make the old smith master of Merrick's plan, 
 to procure his assurance that the staves requisite for 
 their purpose should be prepared under his personal 
 superintendence, with such care as no man else in 
 Plassy could give them. He expressed unmitigated 
 approbation of the scheme, but looked blank when 
 the sailor spoke of a Government theodolite. 
 
 " No, no, no— under your favour, sir, that won't 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 242 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 do : — you can get no such thing here of the autho- 
 rities if you ask for it. I think I can give you a 
 clue to something more likely — do you know the 
 doctor, Monsieur La Fosse ? he that lives just by 
 the gate of the Upper Town there, Rue des Cre- 
 nelles ? " 
 
 " Doubtless the Colonel does." 
 
 "What, I? not three words have I exchanged 
 with the old twaddling fool, — except when there has 
 been illness in my barrack down yonder, and he has 
 been called in for form's sake. Well, Grivet, what 
 has he to do with it ? " 
 
 " Why^ I am not sure, but I rather think he has 
 what you want : — some connection of his, an engi- 
 neer employed some years ago on the canal works, 
 sickened, and died at his house, and left the Doctor a 
 quantity of instruments. I remember being called 
 in once to rectify something that was out in one of 
 them, — but the work was beyond me : he may have 
 them still — there's nothing like trying." 
 
 « Well, Colonel, will you try ? " 
 
 " T\^iy," replied Lambert, " I will on two condi- 
 tions: first, that you go forewarned that the old 
 gherkin-headed herbalist will twaddle you out of all 
 patience : second, that you'll come on a visit with me 
 after we've got quit of the Doctor."
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 243 
 
 " Willingly — but what think you of our probable 
 success ? " 
 
 " Oh ! if you have endurance, and he has the in- 
 struments, you may barter the one against the other : 
 — give him but attention, and you'll get the theo- 
 doHte ; but it is a style of talk that drives me mad- - 
 scraps of Latin, driblets of medicine stale as the fag- 
 end of a forgotten phial, and long stories about 
 groundsel and chick weed." 
 
 There was something so much more cheerful than 
 usual in the tone of the soldier, that Merrick, careful 
 not to let his companion trace that he had noticed it, 
 could not help exchanging a look of conscious 
 triumph with the gunsmith, as, leaving his lov/ly 
 doorway, the two sauntered towards the Upper 
 Town to seek the w^ell-known residence of Docteur 
 La Fosse. 
 
 It was pleasantly situated close to the main gate 
 of communication between the old and new towns of 
 Plassy, at the top of a steep and narrow street which 
 led direct to the old portal, which no longer stern, 
 with barred gate and heavy portcullis, frowned 
 defiance, as of old, upon the serfs of the Lower Town. 
 The Doctor's house was built against the old city 
 wall, showing a front to the street of singular irre- 
 gularity, owing to the steep slope on which it was
 
 244 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 placed. It was an old quaint building, constructed 
 on the site of some ancient outwork, doubtless, of 
 stone, rough hewn and ill-plastered. There were few 
 windows towards the street, but the wide doorway- 
 stood invitingly open, and letting who w^ould enter a 
 sort of half passage, half waiting hall, flagged with 
 stone, that led into a small court-yard, round which 
 the house was built. The sailor and his companion 
 entered unchallenged, and failed to find a soul by 
 whom they could make their presence known. A 
 call, even somewhat of the loudest, was unattended 
 to, and Lambert had already proposed leaving the 
 place, w^ien the sailor, curious to see something of 
 the old house, pushed open a half- closed door at the 
 other extremity of the court, and found himself in a 
 long boarded passage ; in one of the rooms that opened 
 on it (for here again the careless habits of the inmate 
 were apparent) sat the object of their search. 
 
 They entered the large low apartment unseen by 
 its tenant, who, seated in a large bay window, case- 
 mented on its three fronts, beside a table covered 
 with books, old papers, and vegetable trash of all 
 descriptions, was poring alternately over the dry 
 leaves of a hortus siccus, which lay upon his knees, or 
 the still drier ones of an old quarto on botany open 
 on the table, or gazing at the pleasant fresh-gathered
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 245 
 
 green of some herblet which, held in his right hand, 
 seemed for the moment a subject of intense attention. 
 Some two or three minutes passed thus, till the soldier, 
 by a slight knock with his cane on the oaken floor, 
 recalled the Doctor from the maze of scientific re- 
 search to the actual presence of two most unexpected 
 visitors. 
 
 His surprise was that of all studious men disturbed 
 in the course of quiet reading, and showed itself by 
 the invariable symptoms of nervous awkwardness. 
 He upset the hortus siccus on the floor as he rose, 
 knocked a shower of books off* the table in an attempt 
 to bow, and grasping at a chair to present to Merrick, 
 missed the back of it and politely presented him 
 instead with a handful of dandelion. Lambert left 
 the sailor to say what was needful towards reassuring 
 the startled herbalist, establishing himself after a few 
 inaudible mutterings in a chair by side of the case- 
 ment, and seeming to enjoy the view of the town 
 below them, and the rich corn country stretching 
 many a mile beyond it. 
 
 " Pardon, sir, again and again," said the Doctor, re- 
 ceiving back his crushed dandelion ; " I had almost, 
 almost, I say, imagined I had detected a new variety, 
 but," — and here he sighed, — " great discoveries are 
 not for obscure men ; — however, I will look again, — 
 
 M 3 
 
 I
 
 246 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 I'll look again ; " — and so saying, he laid up his dan- 
 delion in lavender for future examination. 
 
 " Vf e owe you a thousand apologies for interrupting 
 your learned leisure," said Merrick, "making our 
 way unannounced into your study, and perhaps 
 arresting the progress of a discovery which may yet 
 show bright in the scientific world." 
 
 " Blagueur, va ! " muttered the dragoon, aside. 
 
 " But the truth is, our errand is somewhat of a 
 scientific nature." 
 
 "Gentlemen, you do me honour, and I grieve 
 indeed I am not better prepared to receive you ; but 
 I had just returned from a professional visit — my 
 servants had as usual taken the advantage to leave 
 the house to itself, and " 
 
 "Might I ask if the case was interesting?" in- 
 quired Merrick, whose object was to get "the 
 gherkin-headed herbalist" at his ease, and who was» 
 glad to see him regain his equanimity. 
 
 "Puerperal, sir, puerperal, merely puerperal," 
 answered the Doctor, taking the ofiered pinch of 
 snuff; "the greater part of my practice lies that 
 way : the women of this part of the country. 
 Captain Merrick, exhibit an obstinacy in the re- 
 production of their species, that borders on the 
 marvellous ! "
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 247 
 
 '^ What, is it so very remarkable ? " 
 
 " Bah ! the environs of Plassy are an officina 
 gentium, a human rabbit warren ! — and such bant- 
 lings, sir ! — the regular (you read Horace of course) 
 
 ' rusticorum mascula militum 
 
 Proles ; ' 
 
 strong as horses, like their mothers, who do not give 
 science a chance, — not a chance! Here we have no 
 interesting malformations, none of those delightful 
 ligatures which suspend circulation, arrest the vital 
 action, and lay the higher orders of the population of 
 towns — female of course — under liability to every 
 malady in which science can display its powers ! " 
 
 "It is really very melancholy," said Merrick, 
 shakins: his head. 
 
 " Drives one to despair quite, for the men are just 
 as bad as the women, and a physician in this 
 abominably healthy place is thrown away, positively 
 in inactivity ; and what says Horace ? 
 
 * Paulum sepultae distat inertiae 
 Celata virtus.' 
 
 So I am driven, in this dearth of chronic disorders, 
 to botany and horticulture, to keep my mind from 
 stagnation." 
 
 M 4
 
 248 MADAME DE MALGUET, 
 
 "Then I should hardly think the profession 
 lucrative here?" 
 
 " Eh, eh — the puerperal cases pay, sir, they pay, 
 and, as I said, give little trouble ; and then, sir, I 
 can repeat the ode ' Beatus z7/e'with a very satis- 
 factory emphasis on the paternal acres : 
 ' Paterna rura bobus exercet suis.' 
 
 You remember? In the field of science I am not 
 unknown, having been in communication with the 
 learned society of the department on an undescribed 
 species of field-mouse (^Mus Lafossiensis nobis), while, 
 in a more humble sphere of utility (and the Doctor 
 looked round with the air of a man who has conferred 
 a national benefit), Plassy owes to me the intro- 
 duction of Brussels' sprouts, and of Siamese broccoli, 
 together with a new method of tying up winter 
 endive, to which posterity will yet do justice. 
 ' Non omnis moriar !'" 
 
 Merrick had now got the Doctor into sufficient 
 good humour with himself to warrant, he thought, 
 an attempt at the main object of their visit. Lambert, 
 evidently tired to death, showed such signs of im- 
 patience, as to induce his companion to bring the 
 matter promptly to issue. 
 
 " Oh ! Monsieur La Fosse," said he, " if you would
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 249 
 
 but extend the benefits of your powerful influence to 
 another utilitarian branch of science, what should we 
 not owe you, — what would you not have done for 
 Plassy ! " 
 
 " How can I be of use, my dear sir?" asked the 
 delighted physician, " name what you want, and if in 
 my power, no effort shall be neglected to be of 
 service." 
 
 " My friend, Colonel Lambert," answered Merrick, 
 " has devised a scheme for testinor the levels of the 
 abandoned canal, — abandoned, as he maintains, on 
 false and needless grounds ; now we understand tliat 
 you have in your charge certain instruments, among 
 others a theodolite, which may be of the utmost im- 
 portance to him ; is this the case, and may we hope 
 for the loan of it, if it be so ? " 
 
 " Beyond a doubt I have what you want, locked 
 up and neglected for years, but still available ; tlie 
 things belonged to my poor cousin, Petiou, who died 
 in this house, while working at the canal, of a 
 broken heart, they said (of course I use the popular and 
 unmedical term), brought on by disappointment when 
 the labour of his life was abandoned and condemned ; 
 they are in yonder lumber closet ; I'll go fetch 
 the keys ; and also, if you'll allow me, a bottle or so of 
 
 M 5
 
 250 MADAME BE MALGUET. 
 
 the produce of my vines, — ^ Vile potabis Sabinum/ 
 Captain Merrick, as my favourite author has it : — 
 
 ' mea nee Falernae 
 
 Temperant vites, neque Formiani 
 Pocula colles ; ' " 
 
 with which apposite quotation the worthy Doctor 
 bustled out of the room on hospitable cares intent. 
 
 " Well, how the devil you can stand that, Merrick, 
 is beyond my comprehension ! There was but one 
 word he uttered of interest to me, and that was his 
 mention of his cousin, a namesake of my early friend's 
 it seems, poor Petiou." 
 
 " Come, Colonel, you are bound to compliment, and 
 not to chide me. What a strange old fellow ! la- 
 menting, with that round, simple, benevolent face of 
 his, a dearth of chronic disorders, and longing, with 
 the greatest bonhomie in the world, for a succession 
 of puerperal mishaps —but hush." 
 
 At that moment their host re-entered, the keys 
 jingling in his wadded silk dressing-gown pocket, 
 his spectacles poked high upon his bald forehead, a 
 placid smile on his fat, full, florid face, and his dull 
 black eye trying to give forth a corresponding ex- 
 pression of bland courtesy. He carried a tray with 
 tumblers in one hand, and a bottle of the " Vile Sa- 
 binum " in the other.
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 251 
 
 ^' My careless idle sluts of servants leave me to 
 work for myself, the baggages that they are ! 
 I've no one noiv to look after my little household, 
 and my son is studying his medical course in 
 Paris ; but come, gentlemen, help yourselves, while 
 I oi>en the store-room door here." 
 
 So saying, he addressed himself assiduously to the 
 stiff rusty lock, and missed altogether the dexterous 
 slight of hand by which the dragoon disposed of one 
 glass of " Sabinum" out of the window, or the sin- 
 gularly ingenious way that Merrick adopted of dis- 
 posing of another into a flower-pot on the table. 
 The door was at last opened ; the theodolite found, 
 examined, discovered to be perfect, and placed at the 
 disposal of the two friends. A few queries deter- 
 mined the fact that its ill-fated owner had been the 
 brother of Lambert's early friend, that the good 
 Doctor had known both intimately, but most of all 
 had loved him to whom the dragoon owed his whole 
 sum of instruction. Merrick was glad to see that 
 this little discovery made a material change in the 
 soldier's manner and bearing towards the worthy 
 physician, whose absurdities he could forget in re- 
 membrance of the sympathy that existed between 
 them for him that was no more. Promisino; to see 
 Monsieur La Fosse so soon as their plans were ma- 
 
 M 6
 
 252 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 tured, the sailor and his companion were bowed Out 
 by the good herbalist, with many warm expressions 
 of his gratification over their visit. 
 
 " And now, where to ?" asked Merrick. 
 
 The soldier made him no reply, according to his 
 frequent wont, but led the way in silence towards 
 the quarter of the town in which was situated his 
 own humble mansion. Merrick was at little loss to 
 guess, directly he perceived in what direction his 
 companion moved, that the visit was to be made 
 at the soldier's cottage. When they reached the 
 head of the little alley at the extremity of which it 
 it was situated, Lambert turned full upon the 
 sailor, placed a hand on each shoulder, and said in a 
 voice of suppressed emotion : 
 
 " Think, mon brave, of what this costs me — 
 think, you that have never had to blush for the 
 mother that bore you ! But she has peremptorily 
 desired to see you, and to me her will is law : you 
 have never seen any of her class, — remember they 
 are quick to take offence and rude of speech if 
 offended; — seem surprised at naught you see or 
 hear, but reply as roundly as you are spoken to ; — 
 above all, remember she is my mother, and if you can, 
 forgive what may annoy you for my sake : our stay 
 shall be short, I promise."
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 253 
 
 ^lerrlck wrung the Colonel's hand in silence, and 
 they were soon before the door of the little dwelling. 
 It stood, I have mentioned, on a sort of wharf of cut 
 stone on the bank of the tributary to the Seine that 
 ran by Plassy, and which here turned a large water- 
 mill, connected perhaps with the large granary that 
 bounded the alley on one side, facing the convent 
 garden on the other. The wharf, doubtless, was in 
 use for grain boats that came thither to unload. An 
 oblong slip of ground, extending lengthwise on the 
 bank of the stream, had been w^alled in to form the 
 little enclosure which Lambert inhabited; it w^as 
 completely planted out from the convent by a row 
 of magnificent horse-chesnut trees. The house, of 
 two stories, and but four rooms, occupied the ex- 
 tremity of the enclosure next the street ; one of the 
 lower compartments of the house was occupied by 
 the staircase to the rooms above and the entrance 
 passage into the court-yard; the other was Lam- 
 bert's room, the two upper chambers being his 
 mother's ; at the other end of the little yard was the 
 kitchenwork house, and a room for the old servant. 
 
 As they were about to enter the yard, the dra- 
 goon stopped Merrick, and pointed to the group 
 before him from the threshold where they stood. 
 It was a singular one. Sitting in a huge wicker
 
 254 MADAME BE MALGUET. 
 
 chair by a small low table, on which were a bottle, 
 the remains of a meal, a draft board, and some 
 other trifling articles, was a woman of immense 
 size, still, despite her three score and five years, her 
 flushed and swollen features strongly marked by 
 the trace of strong passions and strange adventure, 
 positively not destitute of the remains of beauty ! 
 She wore such a cap as the wealthy farmers' wives 
 of that part of France are used to wear, much 
 ornamented, however, with rich lace. The rest of 
 her attire was of the plainest description ; a huge red 
 kerchief, covered her shoulders and bosom, and her 
 gown was of coarse striped woollen stuff. She wore 
 the cross of the legion — her only ornament. In 
 her hand was a fishing-rod, and both she and her 
 companion, a smoke-dried, wizened, old serving- 
 woman, who sat crouched on the stone edge of the 
 jetty, were intently watching the float as it whirled 
 down the stream, and danced among the little eddies. 
 There was evidently something like a bite going 
 on : in a moment afterwards the portly angler jerked 
 her rod, and the line with a fish at the end of it, 
 flew back near the place where the sailor was stand- 
 ing. 
 
 " Perch ! " said the fisherwoman. 
 
 " Dace ! " said her withered companion.
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 255 
 
 *^ Perch, I say!" 
 
 " Dace, I swear ! " 
 
 " Perch, I tell you, Marthon, ye old dunder- 
 head ! " was the loud and angry reply. 
 
 How lono; the ladies might have continued the 
 argument, as ladies will sometimes do, whether they 
 fish or not, instead of going to look at the proof, 
 it is impossible to conclude, as Lambert disengaged 
 the scaly subject of the contest, and proceeded to 
 display it. 
 
 It was a roach. 
 
 " Any how it's not perch ! " sneered the servant. 
 
 " Any how, the devil a dace is it ! " rejoined the 
 mistress, " and as that makes fifteen of sorts this 
 morning, we'll have a matelotte to dinner. There," 
 said she, kicking the basket which contained the 
 morning's sport, — "go clear the fish, pretty maid, 
 and bring me the things to dress 'em with." 
 
 " Any how it wasn't a perch ! " mumbled the an- 
 cient and obstinate hand-maiden, as she slowly rose 
 to obey the order. 
 
 At any other moment, the retort would have 
 most likely provoked a volley of Billingsgate (as 
 fish is the matter in dispute, the term, I main- 
 tain, may be admitted), but just then the atten- 
 tion of the mistress was attracted by Merrick,
 
 256 MADAME BE MALGUET. 
 
 whom Lambert introduced in the following charac- 
 teristic manner : — 
 
 " Mother, this is the Englishman." 
 
 The old sutler answered Merrick's bow with a 
 careless military salute, and eyed him from head to 
 foot. The survey seemed to be satisfactory. 
 
 " (Jest un gaillard, quoiV^ said she, as if to her- 
 self; and then aloud — " So you're a sailor, are you? 
 What the devil, as the man in the play says, have 
 you come into this galley then for ? " 
 
 " I've been fighting the French most of my life ! " 
 coolly answered Merrick, "and before I lost the 
 number of my mess, wished to see what they were 
 like elsewhere, than at the breech of a long 
 eighteen." 
 
 " So you came here to make friends with them, 
 and pitched on my Pierre to begin with? You 
 did well, or rather you could not have done better — 
 you must drink a glass with the old vivandiere for 
 luck; — go fetch a fresh bottle, Pierre, my son." 
 
 The dragoon glanced at the nearly empty one on 
 the table, and walked into the house. The moment 
 he was gone, the sutler altered her hitherto insolent, 
 almost bullying tone, for one of earnest confidence. 
 
 " Comrade," said she, laying her hand on Mer- 
 rick's, " you've been kind to Pierre, poor fellow — •
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 257 
 
 my thanks are not worth much, but you have them. 
 Has he told you all?" 
 
 Merrick nodded. 
 
 " Ay, but not about the way I tried him, — not 
 about the way I treated him, — not about the shame 
 I brought on him, — not of the five scars be bears, 
 marks of the duels he fought because his mother dis- 
 graced him, and he would hear none say so ! I knew 
 he would not tell you that — he's a heart of gold ; — he 
 says the coup de crosse near Grodno has wiped out 
 all scores: but no — there's an account will never 
 be wiped out between us! Don't mind my way, — 
 but be kind to poor Pierre, mon hrave, will you?" 
 
 There was a touch of pathos in the close of the 
 rude address, that affected Merrick strangely. 
 
 " Here he is," she added, " touchez la, mon Capi- 
 taine, and remember your word is passed to the old 
 vivandiere to be a friend to her son ! " 
 
 As Lambert placed the bottle on the table, the 
 sutler raised her arm to take it, and Meri'ick was 
 surprised at the immense muscular development of 
 the limb, bared nearly to the shoulder, its whiteness, 
 and the evidence of what must have been its beauty. 
 All ^vomen are coquettes after their own fashion, 
 even to vivandiercs of sixty-five, but what the sutler 
 had wished to display was her proudest boast : the
 
 258 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 scar, namely, of a bayonet-wound, a long irregular 
 white line showing where the weapon had ripped 
 the right arm from above the elbow joint to the 
 shoulder. She smiled, poured out two glasses of 
 wine, then set the bottle down, and slapped the 
 burly limb. 
 
 " That I got at Fuentes d'Onoro from a Spa- 
 niard — one oi your people would not have stabbed 
 a woman, not even me; — you've heard of Fuentes ? — 
 Ah, there you lost many officers, and many Scotch ! 
 Gallant fellows those petticoat men ! Now you see 
 that if I could hold my own in such a fight, you 
 need not wonder at the cowp de crosse near Grodno : 
 — there, trinquons — avous, mon brave, — and now 
 be off — I've got my dinner to dress." 
 
 At this moment, old Marthon, grumbling some- 
 thing to herself, approached her mistress on the 
 other side with the pan of cleaned fish, and a 
 whole array of culinary preparatives. The vivan- 
 diere turned her back to the sailor, and coolly 
 commenced her cookery, while Merrick, true to 
 his promise to the dragoon, exchanged a silent 
 sign of leave-taking, and quitted the house without 
 a word. The day was early yet ; he hurried home, 
 and, taking his gun and setters, stretched away 
 into the stubbles. Lambert looked after the re-
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 259 
 
 treating figure of his friend, and turned back into 
 his comfortless home till nightfall. Then, instead of 
 going to the cafe, he passed a quiet cheerful evening 
 at the Hotel Picotot. 
 
 Two days had, it will be remembered, elapsed 
 since ]\Ierrick's last visit to La Chalautre, and two 
 or three more were yet to pass, ere he again felt 
 himself able to follow up his acquaintance with its 
 eccentric owner. He was one who never halted 
 between a duty and a pleasure. The redemption of 
 Lambert he classed among the^ former, while the 
 mere study of the character of Madame de Malguet 
 he looked on as a pastime, interesting to himself, 
 but productive of no possible benefit to a single 
 human being. Until, therefore, he could see the 
 dragoon fairly launched in the taste for active em- 
 ployment, he w^ould not leave him, more especially 
 as part of his scheme involved his being himself 
 personally remarked as participating in the labour. 
 
 Far other were the feelings w^hich this absence 
 produced in the mind of the solitary inmate of La 
 Chalautre. She had, for the first time in her life, 
 tasted of the charm of confidential intercourse with 
 one capable of understanding and appreciating her 
 thoughts and feelings. For the first time had she 
 conceived the idea of what a friend might be, and
 
 260 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 there was a feeling in her mind as of one who is in- 
 terrupted in some interesting experiment ; the half- 
 tried evidence of the possible existence of friendly 
 interest, the interest of moral sympathy, had, as it 
 were, escaped her with the presence of Merrick. She 
 was hardly, so to say, hurt at his apparent neglect, 
 nor was it, in fact, his absence she cared for : it was 
 the sympathy, as something abstract, that she longed 
 after. The attachment of the faithfullest follower 
 that ever followed w^oman, Brigitta, was hers; her 
 vassals adored her ; there were none about the place 
 but looked on her wdth a feeling of respectful kindli- 
 ness, not unakin to pity. Still this w^as not sym- 
 pathy, that sympathy of kindred spirits, and of 
 higher minds, of which she had so often heard, but 
 never yet had thought to seek as an existent thing. 
 
 She was disquieted and uncomfortable, complained 
 of migraine, braved it by exposure to the weather on 
 a farming expedition with Monsieur Josse, to decide 
 on the fall of fire wood, and of timber for the en- 
 suing year ; came home ill, and kept her room two 
 days. 
 
 " Why," thought she to herself, " why did I 
 speak of myself and my sorrows ? what urged me to 
 talk so freely to yon stranger ? " 
 
 'Twas simjDly as I take it, that the masculine 
 
 i
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 261 
 
 tone of her mind inclined her to trust implicitly one 
 whose frank, cheerly, open nature, seemed to pro- 
 voke confidence. The time had perhaps come when 
 the well-head of friendly feeling, choked and ob- 
 structed for so many years, was destined to gush 
 forth, and send its waters to mingle with others as 
 pure and as pellucid. There is no man, be he the 
 most callous-hearted, that has not, in the course of 
 life, at some time had a friend, — then why not 
 Madame de ^lalguet ?
 
 262 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The scientific operations of Merrick and bis friend 
 were soon placed on the footing that promised every 
 chance of ultimate success. On the day succeeding 
 that of their visit, the Doctor La Fosse called on the 
 sailor, already full of the scheme of their re-survey of 
 the canal, and prompt to suggest detail measures 
 whereby it might be carried out. It was fortunate that 
 one of the most puerperal of the Doctor's patients 
 occupied a goodly farm-stead close to their scene 
 of action. She was, said the herbalist, one of those 
 bustling active women who, whatever they are about, 
 carry their energies with them, and who was certain to 
 induce her somewhat more phlegmatic partner to allow 
 the experimentalists a place on his premises, to store 
 their apparatus and their implements. He proposed 
 instantly to set forth and apprise her of the intentions 
 of the surveying party, and he doubted not shortly 
 to return crowned with success in this necessary pre- 
 liminary. 
 
 " To-morrow, so please you, Captain Merrick,"
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 263 
 
 said he, " we will get out the theodolite, which I have 
 already had cleaned and set to rights, and once on 
 the ground, we can commence work as soon as your 
 minor apparatus is complete." 
 
 The sailor thanked him for the ready assistance he 
 had given, but trusted that he was not trenching 
 upon his valuable time, and the calls of his professional 
 duty in making so great a sacrifice of it. 
 
 '^ Bah I " replied the Doctor, " my time is unfor- 
 tunately my own. I have not — save an occasional 
 indigestion in Plassy, and the periodical summons 
 from some strapping farmer's wife — 
 
 ' Sabina quails, aut perusta solibus 
 Pernicis uxor Appuli,' 
 
 as friend Horace has it, — any thing to divert me 
 from my scientific studies. So long as I was not 
 alone," added the worthy Doctor, with a little tre- 
 mulous sigh, " I found my home, my Horace, and 
 my hortus siccus occupied my leisure happily ; but I 
 have been a widower these two years. Captain Mer- 
 rick, and since my boy Eugene left me to study in 
 Paris, I have found botany a lonely pursuit in a lone 
 house : — this will be a chansre for me." 
 
 o 
 
 At this moment they were joined by the dragoon, 
 w^ho having strolled round by way of Grivet's shop.
 
 2d4 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 came to report the progress which the zealous smith 
 had made in the work entrusted to him. 
 
 " The staves will be done by to-morrow," said he, 
 " and then, oh! most geometrical of English Cap- 
 tains " 
 
 " Maris et terrse numeroque carentis arenas 
 Mensorem, " 
 
 interposed the Doctor, with a little chuckle. 
 
 "You may measure away to your heart's content, 
 until the garde champetre puts a stop to our labours, 
 and reports us all to the Sous-Prefet as levellers!^' 
 
 " Ha, ha! not so bad, jo^r^z/" cried La Fosse, ''only 
 the worst in a good joke is, that it is sometimes too 
 true, — and then it's no ]6kQ, as I am afraid we shall 
 find in this case." 
 
 "Well, gentlemen," said Merrick, "it rests with 
 you ; if you will risk, I will ; — if Monsieur De Cri- 
 velet will hear no reason, why then all that comes of 
 it is, that we lose our occupation and I my slight 
 outlay." 
 
 " Halte let ! not a fraction do you expend, my 
 good friend, in this business, while my name is Lam- 
 bert. Remember your engagement to Adolphe Finot, 
 which, by the way, he will not be able to keep for 
 this week, for he must go to Paris I hear, on law
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 265 
 
 business, — do not forget it, however ; believe me, lie 
 will not : and further, rest assured that he will win a 
 heavy sum of you, which you will have sacrificed to 
 buy me off from play. Tell me, how do you play 
 billiards yourself?" 
 
 " A good, steady game, but quite third-rate as a 
 scientific one." 
 
 " Then look on yourself as minus your stakes, 
 unless you get extraordinary odds from him, for he 
 is, as some one said of him, ' the very Caius Marius 
 of cannons, and the Hannibal of the hopping hazard ' 
 — a thorough player, in short. Well, the upshot of 
 this long story is, that my few hundred francs are 
 still in existence, and tempt me, deuce take them ! — 
 so it's really doing me a favour to let me act as cashier 
 to the expedition, and have the military chest under 
 my special control. Come," said he, seeing Merrick's 
 reluctance, " none of your proud John Bull notions 
 about money, mon Capitaine! comrades have but one 
 purse ; besides, it will cost next to nutliing, old 
 Grivet has made me a present of the staves." 
 
 The sailor thought over the matter for an instant, 
 and reflecting, with something of the momentary cal- 
 culation of Englishmen, that this expenditure was 
 the surest earnest of the Colonel's interest in the 
 employment in which he wished him to engage, and 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 266 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 that it would, moreover, give him a stake in the 
 undertaking which might induce him to go through 
 with it, readily consented to his friend's proposal. 
 That question settled, the Doctor, who had, with 
 natural delicacy, withdrawn, during this conversation, 
 to the window, now came forward to make his adieu 
 before starting on his errand. 
 
 " Well, gentlemen, I am off to Papa Fallais, the 
 farmer, and his procreative helpmate. I think there's 
 nothing further to be thought of?" 
 
 " Off on foot. Monsieur le Docteur, all that way ? " 
 asked Merrick. 
 
 "Nay, sir, nay: I have my beast — it would not 
 do for a man of my substance, physically speaking, to 
 be making country rounds on foot ; you will smile, 
 however, at my humble set-out. Captain Merrick — 
 
 non ego circum 
 
 Me Saturejano vectari rura caballo,' 
 
 as Horace has it : I ride a mule — my mule, Cocotte, 
 a good beast, and a serviceable ; but, by the way, 
 gentlemen, we shall want assistants, and of some 
 intelligence too." 
 
 " Oh ! " said Merrick, " there's my boy, Michel, a 
 sharp lad enough." 
 
 " And Picotot, surely," added the dragoon. 
 
 i
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 267 
 
 " Aha ! Monsieur Picotot is to be of us, is he ? 
 Well, then, all I can say is," said the Doctor, with the 
 air of a man making himself up on the Pelhamite 
 precept to say a good thing and leave his company 
 with the glow of it about him, " that if that gentle- 
 man is to be of any use to us in getting a level, the 
 first requisite will be, to make him find his own." 
 
 So saying, the worthy medico bustled out of the 
 room, and was soon seen bestriding the well-padded 
 saddle which graced the back of Cocotte, a really 
 splendid mule, and going off at a comfortable amble 
 in the direction of what was too proudly called, the 
 Quai du Canal. 
 
 Left to themselves, the new friends talked of 
 technical matters connected with their project, and 
 thence diverged to more general questions having 
 reference to the service of their several professions. 
 Merrick was much surprised at the extent and 
 soundness of the dragoon's knowledge of mathematics ; 
 the fact was, that though his studies had been but 
 cursory, the stamp of the man's mind was exactly 
 that suited to the science ; and that though he had 
 comparatively read little, he had thought much, and 
 by means of a retentive memory, and an innate 
 aptitude for the study, he had, imperceptibly to him- 
 self, tutored his mind for the proper comprehension of 
 
 N 2
 
 268 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 its truths, while perhaps even in his own esteem, he 
 \vas but dreaming away in contemplation some of the 
 long and dreary hours of his latter life of inaction. 
 Subjects of interest succeeded one another in the con- 
 versation of the two : now some nice abstract point 
 in navigation — now an account, interesting to the 
 dragoon, of the composition and internal discipline of 
 that wondrous microcosm, a ship of war : thus the 
 hours flew by unheeded, each, in its successive pro- 
 gress, knitting more closely the bonds of confidence 
 and intimacy between them. 
 
 In the afternoon they visited Merrick's purchase, 
 now^ transferred to the stables of the Hotel Picotot, 
 and confided to the care of the delighted Michel, 
 who, under the sailor's tuition, was making rapid 
 progress in the mysteries of dressing and grooming 
 his new charge. He was the more proud, because 
 enabled to lord it over a younger brother, Andre, to 
 whom, at the cheap rate of mere board and lodging, 
 the renowned Liver and Lights had been confided. 
 The horse was undergoing the necessary physicking 
 subsequent to being taken out of the dealer's hands, 
 and would not be fit for work for another day ; but 
 the English saddle had been tried on him, and, con- 
 trary to expectation, fitted the animal as if made for 
 him. A walk, dinner, and a cheerful evening, en-
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 269 
 
 livened by the merry nonsense of the Picototte, and 
 the solemn absurdities of the Picotot, closed the tran- 
 quil happy day. I have nothing to record of moment, 
 save that the purist in translation, having classically 
 suggested Eous (one of the steeds of Phoebus, I beg 
 to observe), as a choice appellation for Merrick's cob, 
 and having been told by the sailor in reply, " that it 
 was a capital name for a horse that was not paid for," 
 went to bed in a maze of perplexity as to the possi- 
 ble meaninor of the ambioruous answer. 
 
 Another day succeeded, passed in similar pursuits, 
 or varied with the sailor, perhaps, by an afternoon's 
 shooting ; and still, in spite of Gi'ivet's zeal, the pre- 
 paratives for the great undertaking at the canal were 
 incomplete. Hearing this, and finding his cob fit 
 for service, Merrick determined to delay no longer 
 his visit at La Chalautre ; but sending on Michel 
 and Andre with the dogs early in the morning, to 
 ride out quietly after breakfast, and, as the case 
 might be, either shoot or spend the morning with 
 the Marquise. 
 
 It was now getting on towards the end of Sep- 
 tember, and the fall of the year began to be felt 
 changing the features of the country, but so gently 
 in that mild climate, as to steal on towards the wintry 
 aspect that was to be, by gradations almost imper- 
 
 N 3
 
 270 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 ceptible. Still the yellow of the vine leaf, and the 
 ripe purply black of the fruit it failed to cover, and 
 which hundreds of hands were now busy in removing, 
 spoke plainly that teeming autumn was present in all 
 her fulness ; small flocks of wild fowl were occasion- 
 ally noted by Merrick's sportsman's eye, winging 
 their way to the meres and marshy lands of La 
 Chal autre, while the migratory thrush, that favourite 
 shot with the minor class of French sportsmen, 
 perched already in not unfrequent numbers on the 
 low vine props on the warm hill sides. The aspect 
 of La Chalautre was a more cheerful one at this 
 season than Merrick had yet seen it show. The 
 dark and sombre mass of green of its woods was now 
 tinged and variegated by the chequered hue of the 
 dying foliage, and the general effect was lighter and 
 more gay ; but the old chateau itself was grey and 
 gloomy as ever. 
 
 Merrick found Michel and the boy in waiting be- 
 fore the terrace, in company with Pierrefeu, who 
 welcomed the sailor back with his best keeper's bow, 
 and many a half reproach at the neglect he had 
 shown in failing to visit the preserves, which were 
 only waiting to be shot over. 
 
 " Time enough, Pierrefeu, my friend," said the 
 Captain, as he dismounted, "time enough, depend
 
 MADAJIE DE MALGUET. 271 
 
 on it ; — as a true vassal, you should know my first 
 duty is to the castellaine. Tell me, is the Marquise 
 visible ? " 
 
 " She is at home, but I doubt if visible," replied 
 the keeper ; " but here is Brigitta, she can tell us 
 best." 
 
 "My lady is in her chapel," said the Calabrese, "but 
 she would be loth, I know, that this gentleman should 
 go without her seeing him. Will your Excellency," 
 added she, in the language and address of her country, 
 '* come into the saloon, or await the Marquise on the 
 terrace ? " 
 
 jMerrick preferred the latter, and it was not long 
 ere he perceived Madame de Malguet come round 
 the corner of the ruined winsc. She had a small 
 basket, empty, in her hand, and walked with a pen- 
 sive and abstracted air — her attire the same as ever. 
 A ray of vivid pleasure shone momentarily in her 
 pale sad blue eyes at sight of the sailor. She stopped, 
 and let him approach her ere she spoke. 
 
 " At last, at last Captain Merrick honours my 
 poor house again I I can assure you I began to set 
 him down as little better than a very Englishman, 
 wholly un-Italianised, — but a truce to reproaches, 
 they are the unwisest things on earth : — the truth is, 
 I have been ailing and unreasonable, and peevish, 
 
 M 4
 
 272 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 and thought you had taken my confidence and gone 
 off with it, sans afterthought of the idle and unhappy 
 being from whom it was won." 
 
 There was something so melancholy in the half- 
 smiie that accompanied these Avords, that Merrick's 
 kind heart smote him as hardly as if he had been 
 really guilty of some culpable omission. He had 
 not yet seen in Madame de Malguet any sign of 
 a despondhig spirit, and was unprepared for evi- 
 dence of it in her apparent hard and energetic 
 nature. 
 
 " What ails you ? " w^as his reply ; " let me first 
 ask that, ere I explain the rudeness of my absence. 
 I have known you so short a time, that I cannot 
 follow out the reason of the change I see in you. 
 You speak sadly, you are low and dejected ; yet all 
 the story of your life I yet have heard, has 'shown 
 you, as it were, incapable of depression ; trained up to 
 self-denial, energy, and masculine endurance, and 
 tried in scenes that have tested your possession of 
 these qualities. Why do I see you unlike what you 
 ought to be ? " 
 
 " Because, for the first time in my life, the other 
 day I talked about my trials, — because I laid be- 
 fore another's eyes much of the secret agency that 
 made me the thing I am, — because I sought sym-
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 273 
 
 pathy not knowing what I did, — because I found 
 how sweet it was, — because I have missed it since 
 you went, and yearned for it as men do for some 
 rich luxury, late known, and therefore more en- 
 joyed." 
 
 " And has this worked at once so great a change 
 on you ? " 
 
 " What would you have ? You know that moral 
 reactions are as sudden, as violent, as unforeseen as 
 are those in politics ; it appears to me that from the 
 moment I once gave my confidence, I went out of 
 myself, I violated the unity of my moral self-depend- 
 ence, and admitted a foreign influence over it. I 
 have since been dreaming over the necessity of sym- 
 pathy and the hope of friendship : — I, who hitherto 
 have never sought but to command the obedience or 
 to conquer the attachment of others, and then use 
 them for my purposes." 
 
 " And why should you think the necessity of sym- 
 pathy a dream, or why should you despair of finding 
 friendship ? " answered Merrick, with a kind and 
 speaking smile. 
 
 Madame de Malguet paused awhile, then re- 
 suming her usual dry and sudden manner, she said 
 abruptly, — 
 
 " Thank you for coming — your voice does me as
 
 274 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 much good as your words ; I am cursed or blessed 
 with an ear so sensitive, that there are some tones 
 of voice which sound to me like music, while others 
 grate on my hearing like the sharpening of a saw. 
 You have a rich full voice that pleases, and becomes 
 la hocca Romana well. But will you not go in ? 
 Here stand we deep in converse, objects of special 
 wonderment to Brigitta, Pierrefeu, and your squire 
 and page yonder, with your horse and those noble 
 dogs. Is the steed a recent purchase ? " 
 
 Merrick proceeded to display the animal, with 
 respect to which Madame de Malguet showed small 
 signs of satisfaction. 
 
 " I like a man to ride," said she, " and you, like 
 all Englishmen, do ride ; but a gentleman should be 
 better mounted than on that scrubby beast. Why did 
 you not speak to Josse about a horse ? The farmers 
 on my lands breed the only horses worth having 
 hereabouts, and the steward is no mean judge of 
 what the points should be of a saddle-horse." 
 
 The sailor explained, with thanks for the half-offer 
 of old Josse's services, that he had trusted to the 
 guidance of a friend, who took him to the only 
 dealer Plassy afforded. 
 
 " Ah ! a friend in Plassy already ! I am curious to 
 know who it can be : you do not call that Pichot, —
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 275 
 
 Picochore — what's his name again ? — a friend, do 
 you ? " said the lady, smiling. 
 
 " The friend was Colonel Lambert." 
 
 " What ! the ex-sabreur ? So he is to be the Pylades 
 to your Orestes ; I am sorry for it." 
 
 " Supposing you to be right, why so ? " 
 
 " Because I detest the whole race of Revolutionary 
 soldiers ; they should live in a barrack and die in a 
 bivouac, but never appear among civilised people : 
 they have neither mind nor manners ; the one you 
 could put into the compass of a cartouche box, and 
 the other improve by giving them a bear for a dancing 
 master." 
 
 The speaker had recovered the whole of her ec- 
 centric vehemence of manner, and Merrick smiled 
 over the oddity and injustice of her sweeping dia- 
 tribe, determined, however, not to let Lambert be 
 carried down in its aristocratic current. He was one 
 of those who never sacrifice an absent friend to con- 
 ciliate a present one. 
 
 " You speak of a class," said he, " without respect 
 to individuals ; stranger as I am, I know little or 
 nothing of the body you condemn; but for the 
 Colonel, I can answer that you do him wrong." 
 
 "How so?" 
 
 " You class him among a rude illiterate soldiery 
 
 N 6
 
 276 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 incapable of any of the finer feelings; yet if yotf 
 knew the reason of my absenting myself from La 
 Chalautre, you will find that it was but for the pur- 
 pose of working out of his better nature those higher 
 aspirations of which you choose to suppose he is not 
 sensible." 
 
 " What ! are you trying a moral experiment on 
 the Bonapartist Colonel ? Do you expect to model 
 any thing out of stuff like that ? " 
 
 " AYhy should I not ? There is nothing human 
 upon which impressions cannot be made by choice of 
 time, means, and opportunity. Let me cite your own 
 instance, if you will allow me to do so : — did I seek 
 your confidence ? you will grant I did not : did I 
 force myself upon your privacy ? you know 'twas 
 the contrary : — and yet, on your own confession, 
 the consequence of mere circumstances, the accident 
 of a few hours' conversation, seems to have opened to 
 you a new vista in life, its hopes and prospects : — 
 if such be the result of chance in one case, what may 
 not follow upon intention in another ? " 
 
 During the latter part of this conversation they 
 had gradually moved from the part of the terrace on 
 which the sailor had met Madame de Malguet, and 
 they paced up and down within a short space not far 
 removed from the corner of the ruined wing. She
 
 IMADAME DE MALGUET. 277 
 
 remained long silent as, to a certain degree affected 
 by the words of her companion. At length, starting 
 abruptly in her usual manner from the sort of reverie 
 into which she seemed to have fallen, — 
 
 " Before we go in," she said, " come and visit 
 what the people here term my chapel. I was bad 
 and ill at ease this morning, and have spent much of 
 it in that place — it is one that suits sad thoughts." 
 
 She led the way round the ruined wing, the lower 
 windows of which were everywhere carefully bricked 
 up, the only sign of aught that had been done to the 
 shattered building since the day of its conflagration. 
 On the further side, the door-way was left practi- 
 cable, closed only by a single boarding of rough 
 unpainted timbers. Madame de Malguet took a 
 key from the little basket she still carried, and 
 opened the rude lock. Merrick passed with her into 
 the lower door, or what had been such, of the west 
 wing of La Chalautre. The party walls still existed, 
 separating the divisions of the chambers, but the 
 whole of the flooring of each story had been con- 
 sumed, save where some few charred beams, and 
 those of the roof especially, still maintained their 
 melancholy place. Thus looking upward between 
 the lofty walls, discoloured by the action of fire, 
 and the long influence of exposure to the weather.
 
 278 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 there was the blue sky above, and beneath a mass of 
 rubbish, ashes and ruin, through which progress would 
 have been almost impossible, had not a narrow path 
 been cleared, leading to one of the most considerable 
 of the ancient chambers. In the centre of this space 
 was a sarcophagus of white marble. It was beauti- 
 fully modelled, but of the plainest workmanship as 
 respects ornament. On one side of the basement on 
 which it stood was cut, in small black letters, 
 
 MARIE DE LA CHALAUTRE. 
 PRIEZ POUR ELLE. 
 
 " This,'' said Madame de Malguet, " this is my 
 mother's cenotaph ; her poor remains lay in the room, 
 which used to be above where we now stand, when 
 the place was fired : on my return I had the thing 
 you see put here ; this is my chapel : here I kneel 
 and pray." 
 
 A more desolate scene could not be well conceived 
 than that which Merrick then gazed upon. About 
 the monument lay some autumnal flowers, the few 
 the falling year could yet afford, which Madame de 
 Mal2:uet had strewed there in her morning: visit. 
 They seemed to harmonise with the ruined aspect 
 of all about, as if themselves emblematic of decay 
 and death. After a moment's pause, they left the 
 dreary spot in silence, and in silence entered the long
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 279 
 
 saloon, which was, as I have already noted, Madame 
 de Malguet's ordinary sitting-room. Merrick was 
 too much occupied with his thoughts to be able, or 
 indeed inclined, to find vent for them in words. His 
 eccentric hostess established herself in her bergere, 
 signed to the sailor to take his chair, and seemed 
 for some time in no way desirous of recommencing 
 their desultory conversation. The large wood-fire 
 crackled and blazed as usual in the spacious chimney, 
 and all the arrangements of the apartment were, as 
 a cursory glance might assure him, exactly as stiff as 
 formerly, and as exact as when Merrick last beheld 
 them. 
 
 " Well, Captain Merrick," at last demanded 
 Madame de Malguet, "what think you of my 
 chapel?" 
 
 " I think," replied the sailor, " if you will allow me 
 to speak so freely, that the associations which a con- 
 stant resort to it must constantly excite, cannot be 
 healthy for the mind of any one so deeply interested 
 as you were in the melancholy story of her whose 
 name is there recorded." 
 
 " And there you err, because you do not know me. 
 My associations are, of course, of a sad and solemn 
 character, but there is nothing about them of despond- 
 ency, repining, or despair ; — I kneel by the tomb, 
 for so it may be called, of a mother who never loved
 
 280 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 me, but still of a mother, and the influence I derive 
 from my visits is softening and soothing to me. Do 
 not smile at my weakness, but I feel as if I were 
 performing a sort of duty in tending, with such simple 
 obsequies as our country customs dictate, the spot 
 where she lived, died, and where her wasted remains 
 were resolved into the elements; she never let me 
 try to be as a daughter to her, but now I hang about 
 that place, and think of how I might have loved her, 
 if she would have permitted me ; of how my nature 
 might have been softened and bettered by that which 
 has been called the most sacred love on earth, between 
 mother and daughter ; — I, who could never love any 
 thing, find something so novel in the being able to 
 dwell on the thought of its being possible I could 
 have loved, that I am grateful for the influence that 
 produces the effect," 
 
 " But may not this be owing to your making the 
 place your oratory ? " 
 
 " Do not mistake me — I am no pious devotee, and 
 I fear, in my secret heart, not over orthodox as a 
 Catholic; but what I believe I </o believe, — my faith 
 is firm, and my hope unbounded : circumstances have 
 made me proud and callous-hearted, and have 
 estranged me from my fellow-creatures, making me 
 live single and alone almost, or if with companions,
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 281 
 
 as the companion of my inferiors in rank, position, 
 and intelligence. Religious emotion, and that enthu- 
 siasm which carries men to the cloister, I cannot con- 
 ceive the exciting power of; my faith is calm, my 
 hope ample, and that suffices me." 
 
 " So that, in fact, the softening influence of which 
 you sj^eak, is traceable to a sort of ideal shadow of 
 human affections and sympathies that might have 
 been." 
 
 " The idlest, vainest speculations, I grant, that 
 ever fancy engendered, — but you are right — that 
 is the source of what I feeh" 
 
 " Strange," thought ISIerrick, " that there should 
 be such power of resource in the mind as to enable a 
 solitary unhappy being to find consolation in the 
 reflection that it might have enjoyed life, though it 
 has never done so." 
 
 "You left France so young, however, Madame la 
 Marquise^'' continued he, "that subsequent events 
 must have had great share in the formation of your 
 character and opinions." 
 
 " In the confirmation of the bent which early 
 circumstances had given to it, and to them rather." 
 
 " Tliat must have arisen from some peculiarity in 
 your mode of life for many years, of the nature of 
 which I can form no conception. You told me, the
 
 282 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 other day, that you drew no assistance from Josse, 
 or any friend in France, during your absence — how, 
 then, did you subsist ? " 
 
 Merrick's snuff-box was lying on the table between 
 them, where he had for an instant put it down. 
 Madame de Malguet reached her hand and took the 
 box, which she opened, and, with the air of a 
 connoisseur, passed it two or three times before her 
 face. 
 
 "'Tis a good mixture," she said, closing and 
 replacing the snuff-box, " but your canister is too 
 high-dried." 
 
 *^And how on earth," asked Merrick, as much 
 surprised as amused by the professional criticism, 
 " how can you detect that?" 
 
 " By more than twenty years' experience of the 
 trade simply." 
 
 " What ! you were " 
 
 " A snuff merchant ; if ever you go to Leghorn, 
 call at my old shop in the Strada Major, and ask 
 for Malghetti's Mixture, — I made what many would 
 call a handsome fortune by it, and some other lucky 
 hits." 
 
 " The tale is a simple one : — Jesse and I reached 
 Marseilles ultimately, and thence, after a short stay, 
 protected by my republican garb, I contrived to
 
 MADAME DE MALGLET. 283 
 
 make my escape in a small coasting vessel bound to 
 Leghorn. I furnished myself with a sufficiency of 
 clothes, much of the same fashion as you see me 
 wear, and with a few other necessaries, — my gold 
 and the jewels I carried about me, — reached the 
 port of Leghorn without let or hindrance : long habit 
 made male attire sit easier on me than any other, and 
 I found in it a protection which my unfriended state 
 could not have procured for a lone and solitary woman. 
 I was fearless, and confident in my own resolution ; 
 I had money in abundance, and the world before me 
 to choose my dwelling in, my own France excepted. 
 I took an humble lodging with a poor widow whom 
 I paid highly, and who sought not to make any idle 
 inquiry as to what I was, or whence I came. 
 During the day I studied Italian, at night only, 
 when the streets were quiet, did I venture out for 
 air and exercise. Three months had thus passed 
 away when a singular event occurred, which ended, 
 as you will hear, in fixing me in the town whither 
 chance had brought me. I was returning from one 
 of my nightly rambles along the quays of the harbour 
 — it was a cloudy threatening night, but there was 
 enough of fitful moonlight to distinguish objects at a 
 little distance ; suddenly I perceived a short space 
 before me, on the jetty edge, a woman, rambling
 
 284 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 backward and forward, at times stopping, clasping 
 her hands, and uttering low suppressed shrieks and 
 deep sobs, then resuming her irregular restless walk, 
 striking her bosom and forehead with all the evidence 
 of violent grief. I approached, and watched her unseen. 
 Suddenly the unhappy creature tore off some portion 
 of her dress, retired a few paces, uttering some 
 incoherent words, and then rushed as if to precipi- 
 tate herself over the jetty. I saved her just in time : 
 my frame, though slight, was nervous and strong, 
 the result of my manly training, and I held her 
 despite her struggles. This was Brigitta." 
 
 "Brigitta, the Calabrese!" 
 
 " Even she poor soul ! Shall I ever forget the 
 night I passed with her on that dreary quay ! it was 
 one of the most trying of my life : she was mad, 
 poor creature, mad with despair ; incapable of reason, 
 and heedless of exhortation, she yielded to kindness 
 and to confidence. I calmed her gradually ; I told 
 her I was a lone woman like herself, perhaj^s hardly 
 less unhappy : I won her to tears, poor thing, and 
 then, when 'twas almost daylight, I got her exhausted 
 with emotion, half dragging, half supporting her, to 
 my lodging. To procure her admittance, I had to 
 entrust my poor widow with my secret, which none 
 in Leghorn save these two ever knew."
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 285 
 
 ^^ And what ^Yas the cause of this violent despair?" 
 " What they say is woman's bane, — man's treach- 
 ery : and yet, after all, was the traitor in this case to 
 blame ? He did but fulfil his destiny, and hers. 
 She was never much other than you see her now, 
 yet with so little to attract, the unhappy creature 
 became madly attached to one of the handsomest 
 men of his day, as I have heard, in Italy ; he has 
 since achieved a European reputation, and you have 
 doubtless often seen and heard him : it was no other 
 
 than , the famous tenor sino^er, then besrinninoc 
 
 to be known as an artist of taste and talent. He 
 left Naples, where she had seen and slightly known 
 him (for some of her relatives are respectably settled 
 in that city, with whom she then lived), and came to 
 fulfil an engagement at Leghorn. The unhappy crea- 
 ture followed him — you may guess the rest. After 
 
 some months, Gr was offered an engagement 
 
 as first tenor of St. Petersburg, a fact which he kept 
 secret from Brio-ltta : he made every arrans^ement 
 for his departure, left a few hurried lines to say that 
 their separation must be eternal, and abandoned her." 
 " Poor creature ! so she owed her life to you ? " 
 " She did not thank me for it, for she longed to 
 die. I never saw despair like hers. The only idea 
 she clung to as her only consolation, was that G
 
 286 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 had loved her. It was an illusion of course : — his 
 masculine vanity might have been momentarily 
 flattered by the passion of this unfortunate, and for 
 a time he may have shown some signs of affection for 
 her, — doing homage to his own merit as embodied 
 in her love : 'tis the way with many men, few of 
 whom, so far as I can see, deserve the deep attach- 
 ment of a loving heart. Oh ! who would be a woman, 
 to love, and find her love not understood ! Poor, 
 poor Brigitta ! she would sit for hours, muttering, 
 as she swayed herself restlessly in her low chair 
 with a ceaseless rocking of the body, — ' but he loved 
 me ! — did he not tell me so ? Oh ! he loved me, he 
 loved me, he loved me once !' — 'twas a heart-break- 
 ing thing to see. Thank God, I am no woman ! " 
 
 Another long pause occurred, during which both 
 colloquists seemed lost in their reflections. Madame 
 de Malguet broke the silence in her dry abrupt 
 manner : 
 
 ^' We began by tobacco, did we not ? " 
 
 The question was so oddly asked, that Merrick 
 could not help smiling. 
 
 " And thence got to love and suicide. Let me 
 briefly conclude my story : — Brigitta lived with me 
 some three months more, and I had succeeded in 
 restoring her to some degree of calmness, when the
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 287 
 
 necessity of employing my funds in some species of 
 commerce forced itself on my attention, for things in 
 France looked worse for us than ever, and it became 
 of importance that I should consider by what means 
 to support myself, as permanently an exile from my 
 native land. A man named Crevelll, who was a 
 box-keeper, and under-accountant to the Opera- 
 house at Leghorn, and who alone had shown any 
 kindness or sympathy for poor Brigitta of all the 
 
 many who caressed and admired G , filled, as it 
 
 happened, in addition to his other callings, the place 
 of book-keeper in a large wholesale and retail tobacco 
 
 shop. Here G and Brigitta had lodged in the 
 
 short summer of her visionary happiness. Crevelli, 
 in one of his visits, informed Brigitta, that the stock 
 and good will of the concern were for sale on excel- 
 lent terms ; and to make a long tale short, I became, 
 chiefly through his instrumentality, purchaser of them 
 on most advantageous terms. To reward his past 
 and secure his future services, I gave him a small 
 interest in the business, the conduct of which he 
 perfectly understood, and besides, an ample salary, — 
 and thus it was that the owner of the broad lands of 
 La Chalautre, the daughter of a line of lordly sires, 
 lived for years unnoted and unknown as Malghetti, 
 the snuff-merchant.
 
 288 MADAME BE MALGUET. 
 
 " A strange destiny, indeed ! But was not your 
 position irksome, and did you not dread discovery ? " 
 
 " Irksome it was not — 'twas no new thing to me 
 to have my feelings forced in upon themselves, or to 
 be driven to suspend, indeed, the exercise of any of 
 the social affections - — I had never known what they 
 were. I lived retired to preserve my incognito, 
 which Brigitta, ostensibly but my forewoman in the 
 shop, but in reality my servant, confidant, and 
 humble friend, alone knew, of those immediately 
 about me. A small weekly jDittance silenced my 
 poor widow, and I feared no discovery. The only 
 place of amusement I frequented was the opera : my 
 total want of education had left my musical tastes 
 uncultivated ; but I have told you my ear is fine to 
 a degree, and I revelled in the luxury of sweet 
 sounds — my only enthusiasm but one ; — then must 
 I own it ? — the interest of traflSc excited me. 
 They say, ' noble blood spurns churl's profits,' but 
 I hope it is no attaint to my descent to say that I 
 belied the proverb; my commercial eagerness would 
 have done honour to any of even your nation of 
 shopkeepers, as the insolent Corsican called it. I 
 learned to love to watch the vicissitudes of trade, — 
 I became even sagacious in judging of them, — and 
 I turned my judgment to good profit : few emigrants
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 289 
 
 hardly have returned to France so wealthy in the 
 proceeds of their enforced industry as myself. I 
 made much by my business, something by my 
 general speculations, but more by the sale of the 
 concern, which my arrangements had rendered not 
 only valuable, but by judicious connections, of in- 
 creasing value. Crevelli, and a brother of Brigitta's, 
 were the joint purchasers." 
 
 " And did this long period elapse with no more of 
 incident, and no other source of excitement or recre- 
 ation than you have mentioned ? " 
 
 " As regards incident, the only one worth remark 
 was my acquaintance with your countryman, Stretan, 
 as his name would be pronounced in French, that, as 
 I told you, I used to Italianize into Stretano." 
 
 " What on earth could his name have been ! " ex- 
 claimed Merrick, — " an officer," he said, " of the 
 British Navy ? " 
 
 " I am beyond measure annoyed at having lost, 
 with my journal and memoranda, the note I took of 
 that unlucky name, — the whole went down in a 
 coasting vessel which was lost with part of my bag- 
 gage on board, after I quitted Leghorn. I have no 
 doubt of his being what he described : he wore an 
 English naval uniform when he was found outside 
 my shop-door, desperately wounded in a street-brp wJ. 
 
 VOL. I. o
 
 290 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 I took him in, and kept him for nearly four months 
 till he was cured. The frigate he belonged to was to 
 have left the port the very morning on which my 
 people found him half-dying in the street, and 
 doubtless, he was given up as lost, and left behind 
 without inquiry. Poor fellow ! he was destitute of 
 money, but contrived to get a passage, when nearly 
 well, on board an English vessel to his country. 
 He was most grateful for the care Brigitta and I took 
 of him, and before he went, told me he was the scion 
 of a very powerful family in his native land, and 
 begged me in after years to apply to him, if I 
 thought it were possible he could serve me in any 
 thing, or pleasure me by serving any one I cared 
 for." 
 
 " I fear, " said Merrick, " the story of his noble 
 birth was an invention, and that this incident must 
 be stripped of its romance by the conclusion that the 
 fellow rewarded your kindness with a falsehood ; but 
 apart this casual occurrence, what else of interest did 
 your way of life afford ? " 
 
 " Only such as I could create for myself; and for- 
 tunately, my chivalric impressions enabled me to take 
 up with extreme interest the study of that strange 
 imaginative literature which is embodied in the works 
 cf the Italian romantic poets."
 
 SIADAME DE MALGUET. 291 
 
 " You speak to one wholly ignorant of what that 
 literature is, for I honestly confess that my Italian 
 is little more than a mere oral acquisition; I know 
 nothing of the language from books, fluently as I can 
 speak it." 
 
 " And I," said Madame de Malguet, " have lived 
 one-half my life in the study of the language from 
 books alone, — and oh ! what books ! To me they 
 have formed the charm of my existence : my childish 
 ideal creations of knightly valour and of the surpass- 
 ing value of chivalric devotion in a noble cause I 
 found expressed in them : the prowess of my ancestors 
 was, to my fancy, shadowed forth in them ; even their 
 extravagancies pleased me, although taking far another 
 flio^ht of imasfinative effort from that connected with 
 the daring deeds of champions, or the true love of 
 ladies. What daring in their conceptions ! what 
 reckless freedom, and yet what truth, in their reflec- 
 tions ! I, who in my trader's parlour, dreamed still 
 of feudal power, and fixed the summit of my ambition 
 upon the hope of its repossession, descended from 
 such ideal grandeur to follow with my author the 
 freaks of strange burlesque, which the unsliackled fer- 
 vour of his genius suggested to him ! See here, " 
 continued Madame de Malguet, turning to the ample 
 over-filled shelves of her book-cases, " with these 
 
 o 2
 
 292 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 have I lived, in abstraction from the world, feeding 
 my imagination, and ever drawing new subjects for 
 admirement or reflection from the beauty of their 
 poetry, the boldness of their invention, the justice of 
 their thoughts ! You ask me what has been my oc- 
 cupation, and my mental excitement. — I answer, 
 these : — the interest, doubtless, rests much in things ' 
 unreal, but who would not bless their unsubstantial 
 power, if it could but momentarily rescue thought 
 from the bitterness of realities ! " 
 
 Merrick at once perceived that much of the eccen- 
 tricity of his hostess was traceable to that pre- 
 occupation with an inward thought, abstract and 
 independent of immediate objects, to which persons 
 possessed of imagination, independent of passion, are 
 so much subject. He tried to divert the conversation, 
 hoping to bring it back upon her own fortunes and 
 vicissitudes. 
 
 " You find in me," said he, " a most unworthy 
 auditor ; I am incapable of entering into the merits 
 of the imaginative poets you speak of, having myself 
 but once tjied to read Italian poetry, and having, I'll 
 own, found it too tame to admit of perusal. " 
 
 "What did you try to read, in heaven's name? 
 Italian poetry tame !" 
 
 " I tried to read Tasso. "
 
 MADxVME DE MALGUET. 293 
 
 The Gierusalemme ? " 
 
 " The same. 
 
 " And you could not?" 
 
 "Failed entirely." 
 
 " I am delighted to hear it — then I will make an 
 Ariostite of you, or rather, as every body says they 
 read him, I will enlist you among the admirers of my 
 own band of ehivalrists : — Pulci, with his wild Mor- 
 gante full of pious impiety ; the Mahriano, the Buovo 
 (T Antona, the Orlandino, the Angelica Innamorata, 
 
 — but, best of all, the Orlando Innamorato, written 
 by one, of whom a modern critic said, ^he wrote in 
 the style of a feudal baron !' See here. Captain Mer- 
 rick," said the enthusiastic chivalrist, taking down 
 a time-worn volume from the shelf — " here is his 
 original work — here is the work perfected by a more 
 modern and ingenious author, Berni ; — but read this 
 
 — there is pith and strength in it." 
 
 Merrick looked for the first time over the book- 
 shelves, and found them cumbered with the most 
 curious and extensive collection of the heroico- 
 romantic poets of Italian chivalry, mixed plentifully 
 with burlesques in the same style, such as Tassoni's 
 " Rape of the Bucket, " the extravagant poems of 
 Bracciolini, even down to the coarse, though clever, 
 Ricciardetto of more modern days, 
 o 3
 
 294 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 " I had imagined, " said he, " that much of these 
 poems was " 
 
 " Unreadable by women ! " said Madame de Mal- 
 guet, observing and interpreting his hesitation ; " it 
 depends on how they are read : I always distrust the 
 indelicacy of over-delicacy, and the latent prurience 
 of a too susceptible comprehension — but read this ; " 
 and she placed in his hands the opening canto of 
 Boiardo's noble poem, pointing to the passage which 
 a daring translator might render as follows : — 
 
 " For from the end of that fair hall there came 
 Four giants (each than other did appear 
 Larger and fiercer) ; in their midst a dame, 
 And in her train a single cavalier ; 
 Like the bright eastern star, or brighter flame 
 O' the sun, for, sooth to say, she shone as clear ; 
 
 Or what create may beauty best express. 
 
 No eye. before, e'er saw such loveliness. 
 
 " Clarice and Galerana, Adda too 
 Whom Roland, Ermeline whom loved the Dane, 
 (Pallas in this, in that you Dian view,) 
 With many from whose mention I refrain, 
 Fair past man's thoughts were there : but all we knew 
 Less fair, when she in hall did entrance gain. 
 
 Whose lustrous sun eclipsed their light as far 
 
 As does our sun surpass each lesser star.
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 295 
 
 " Turns sudden towards the spot his eager eyes 
 Each Christian lord and gentleman, the while' 
 From their low seats the Pagans all arise, 
 Mazed with such wonder as does sense beguile ; 
 Each gentle converse with the damsel tries, 
 TVTio with right gladsome presence, and a smile 
 flight win a tiger's heart, or move a stone. 
 Thus gan her speech in soft and lowly tone. 
 
 "* The feats of prowess, high and mighty Lord, 
 Of these thy Paladins, thine own great worth, 
 Wliich on the ears of all men now outpour'd. 
 Ay, e'en have pass'd the confines of the earth, 
 Hope to these foreign wayfarers afford, 
 That not in vain their way they 've toiled forth. 
 
 Who from the world's end* hitherward are bound. 
 
 For love of honour, ardent as profound. 
 
 * The celebrity of Charlemagne, and the extended renown of 
 his name are matters of history. The famous Haroon-al- 
 Rasheed valued the friendship of the Emperor above that of all 
 other potentates, and sent an embassy to him soon after his 
 coronation with a present of the first striking-clock ever seen in 
 Europe, ceding to him at the same time the holy place of Jeru- 
 salem. A potentate who, in those troublous times, could hold 
 under his single sway all France, the greater part of Germany, 
 a part of Spain, the Low Countries, and Italy, as far as Benevento, 
 might well be celebrated even in lands known then as the 
 " world's end." The romancers have, of course, carried matters 
 a little further than history allows, and bring him admirers from 
 Cathay. Charlemagne is at once the Agamemnon and Nestor 
 of Boiardo's epic.
 
 296 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 " ' And that our purpose I may all declare 
 (The cause in briefest manner to recite, 
 For which we to your solemn festal fare), 
 Know this man, Hubert of the Lion, hight, 
 Who does this dark and sable surcoat wear, 
 Thrust forth his own fair home against the right 
 His sister I, with him together driven, 
 To whom the name Angelica is given. 
 
 "'Two hundred journeys beyond Tanais tide. 
 Where erst our wonted home and our resort, 
 Rumour some tidings of thy name supplied, 
 And of th' appointing of this knightly sport ; 
 Hence through so many countries have we hied. 
 But to present ourselves in this your court, 
 And, if indeed we may, gain that reward, 
 A wreath of roses, if aright we 've heard. 
 
 "'More pleasing far withouten doubt is this, 
 Than gift whate'er it be of value higher ; 
 The noble heart sure amply gifted is, 
 If the mere name of honour it acquire ; 
 And in this mind my brother purposes 
 'Gainst all assailants who the fight desire. 
 Christian or Saracen, to hold his own, 
 And wait their onset at famed Merlin's stone. 
 
 ' Now be the agreement of the fight reveal'd. 
 Which let all know, who in it would engage, 
 The knight from 's saddle beaten to the field 
 Shall in defence no further battle wage,
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 297 
 
 But no more said, at once as prisoner yield ; 
 
 Whoso dismounts my brother, I the gage 
 And meed of conquest will myself repay, 
 'While with his giant? Hubert wends his way.' 
 
 " Before the monarch, when her speech was done, 
 Waiting his answer did she humbly kneel ; 
 With fix'd and wondering stare gazed every one, 
 Yet nearer than they all does Roland steal, 
 For that the hurt with him had deepest gone, 
 Though struggling fain his trouble to conceal ; 
 Still on the ground his eyes averted rest. 
 And for his folly no small shame confest. 
 
 "Of Charl'magne's downfall, of his kingdom's ill, 
 Of Roland's bane, was that sad day the first, 
 Love and desire do all his being fill, 
 Th' unwary soul that poison has o'er-coursed ; 
 Trembling he stands, and wants alike the skill 
 To know or heal his pain ; on's brow forth burst 
 Beads of cold sweat ; his face, now red, now pale. 
 Shows what strange passion does his soul assail. 
 
 " And since no solace can his pain efface. 
 Or cool the burning heat from which he shrinks, 
 Save when he views that pure and beauteous face, 
 Like some sick wretch who 'neath his torture sinks, 
 Shame he at last does from his thoughts displace, 
 And with raised eyes love's venom'd philter drinks, 
 Not yet so wholly lost but reason still. 
 In thoughts like these, reproves his wayward will.
 
 298 MADAME DE MALGUET. 
 
 "'Orlando! madman ! 'neath what phrensy's sway 
 (What and how great'!) dost let thyself be driven ? 
 See'st not the sin * that hurries thee away, 
 And makes thee nothing worth in sight of Heaven ? 
 Canst not the strength, the daring, now display. 
 For which, by all, fame once to thee was given ? 
 Thou 'gainst the world would'st erst defiance hurl, 
 And what ! art now made captive by a girl ? ' 
 
 " ' But how, if she, despite her sex or age, 
 
 Have greater strength and hardihood than I ; 
 
 Can I resist such odds, or seek t' engage. 
 
 In battle 'gainst an unseen enemy ? 
 
 Be what he may, or love, or phrensied rage, 
 
 Or whate'er else, he 's call'd a Deity ; 
 Then what avail me strength and reason too, 
 Constrain'd and fated in whate'er I do ? ' 
 
 " 'Gainst love he raised his plaint thus piteously. 
 While rankled in his side the venom' d dart ; 
 But N^amo, whose old locks all silver'd be. 
 Owns no less passion in his aged heart. 
 What may we say ? None got them thence scot-free, 
 Charl'magne the wise 'scaped not the selfsame smart 
 
 Glorious her triumph o'er so many there. 
 Victress in woman's robe and flowing hair." 
 
 The Marquise took the book from him, closed, 
 and replaced it on the shelf. 
 
 * In lovinjj an infidel.
 
 MADAME DE MALGUET. 299 
 
 "You shall read no more," said she, "till you 
 confess yourself inoculated with the chivalric spirit, 
 and own that the rough fervour of the author speaks 
 the true energies of the knight ! " 
 
 I will not follow the conversation further. This 
 was the first day of a series which gradually ripened 
 the acquaintance between Madame de Malguet and 
 the sailor into something not far from intimacy. 
 The new world of unknown poetry which she had 
 opened to him, and the interest he took in it, consti- 
 tuted one great element of common thought and 
 sympathy between them ; but there were others 
 still, which, much as I have anticipated events in 
 alluding to the ultimate friendship of the lady of 
 La Chalautre and of Merrick, I should overdo 
 anticipation in touching on at this moment. They 
 were latent, until elicited by circumstance. Let us 
 wait, then, till time be ripe, ere we speak of them. 
 
 END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
 
 London : 
 
 Spottiswoode and Shaw, 
 
 New-Street-Square. 
 
 'V