 Chapter 2 Part 1 of THE BRONZ EGLE by Baroness Orksey This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Dion Giants, Salt Lake City, Utah. THE OLD REGIME On that same day and at about the same time when Victor de Marmont and his English friend first turned their horses up the bridal path and sighted Notre Dame de Vox, when, if you remember, the young Frenchman drew rain and fell to apostrophizing the Hamlet the day, the hour, and the glorious news which he was expecting to hear at about that self-same hour, I say, in the Chateau de Brestelot situate on the right bank of the Isserre at a couple of kilometers from Grenoble, the big folding doors of solid mahogany which lead from the suite of vast reception rooms to the small boudoir beyond were thrown open and Hector appeared to announce that Messor Lacombe de Cambrai would be ready to receive Madame La Duchess in the library in a quarter of an hour. Madame La Duchess du Oirier d'Augaine Théropon closed the guilt-edged, much-bethumbed missile which she was reading since this was Sunday and she had been unable to attend Mass owing to that severe twinge of rheumatism in her right knee and placed it upon the table close to her elbow. Then, with delicate, bemittent hand, she smoothed out one unruly crease in her puce silk gown and finally looked up through her round bone-rimmed spectacles at the sober-visaged, majestic personage who stood at attention in the doorway. Tell Messor Lacombe, my good Hector, she said with slow deliberation, that I will be with him at the time which he has so graciously appointed. Hector bowed himself out of the room with that perfect decorum which proclaims the well-trained domestic of an aristocratic house. As soon as the tall mahogany doors were closed behind him, Madame La Duchess took her spectacles off from her high-bred nose and gave a little sniff which caused Madame Iselle Crystal to look up from her book and mutely to question Madame with those wonderful blue eyes of hers. Ah, sa, my little Crystal, was Madame's tart response to that eloquent inquiry. Does Messor, my brother, imagine himself to be a second bourbon king, throning it in the tuleries and granting audiences to the ladies of his court? Or is it only for my edification that he plays this magnificent game of etiquette and ceremonial and other stupid paraphernalia which have set me wondering since last night, Messor Lacombe will receive Madame La Duchess in a quarter of an hour. For sooth, she added, mimicking Hector's pompous manner. Pardue, I should think indeed that he would receive his own sister when and where it suited her convenience, not his. Crystal was silent for a moment or two and in those same expressive eyes which she kept fixed on Madame's face the look of mute inquiry had become more insistent. It almost seemed as if she were trying to penetrate the underlying thoughts of the older woman as if she tried to read all that there was in that kindly glance of hidden sarcasm of humor or tolerance or of gentle contempt evidently what she read in the wrinkled face and the twinkling eyes pleased and reassured her for now the suspicion of a smile found its way round the corners of her sensitive mouth. There are some very old people living in Grenoble at the present day whose mothers or fathers have told them that they remembered Mademoiselle Crystal de Cambre quite well in the year that Messor Lacombe returned from England and once more took possession of his ancestral home on the bank of the Assère which those awful terrorists of ninety-two had taken away from him. Louis the eighteenth the benevolent king had promptly restored the old chateau to its rightful owner when he himself after years of exile mounted the throne of his fathers and the usurper Bonaparte was driven out of France by the armies of Europe allied against him and sent to cool his ambitions in the island fastnesses of Elba. Mademoiselle de Cambre was just nineteen in that year eighteen fourteen which was so full of grace for the Bourbon dynasty and all its faithful adherents and in February of the following year she attained her twentieth birthday of course you know that she was born in England and that her mother was English for had not Messor Lacombe been obliged to fly before the fury of the terrorists whose dreaded committee of public safety had already arrested him as a suspect and condemned him to the guillotine. He had contrived to escape death by what was nothing short of a miracle and he had lived for twenty years in England and there had married a beautiful English girl from whom Mademoiselle Crystal had inherited the deep blue eyes and brilliant skin which were the greatest charm of her effulgent beauty. I like to think of her just as she was on that memorable day early in March of the year eighteen fifteen just as she sat that morning on a low stool close to Madame Laduchess's high back chair and with her eyes fixed so inquiringly upon Madame's kind old face her fair hair was done up in the quaint loops and curls which characterized the mode of the moment she had on a white dress cut low at the neck and had wrapped a soft cashmere shawl around her shoulders for the weather was cold and there was no fire in this stately open hearth having presumably arrived at the happy conclusion that Madame's wrath was only on the surface crystal now said gently father loves all this etiquette matante it brings back memories of a very happy past it is the only thing he has left now she added with a little sigh the only bit out of the past which that awful revolution could not take away from him you will try to be indulgent to him and darling won't you indulgent retorted the old lady with a shrug of her shoulders of course i'll be indulgent it's no affair of mine and he does as he pleases but i should have thought that 20 years spent in england would have taught him common sense and 20 years experience in earning a precarious livelihood as a teacher of languages in hush and for pity's sake broke in crystal hurriedly and she put up her hands almost as if she wished to stop the words in the old lady's mouth all right all right i won't mention it again said madame la duchess good humoredly i have only been in this house for and 20 hours my dear child but i have already learned my lesson i know that the memory of the past 20 years must be blotted right out of our minds out of the minds of every one of us not of mine and all together murmured crystal softly no my dear not all together rejoined madame la duchess as she placed one of her fine white hands on the fair head of her niece your beautiful mother belongs to the unforgettable memories of those 20 years and not only my beautiful mother aunt dear there are men living in england today whose names must remain forever engraved upon my father's heart as well as on mine if we should ever forget those names and neglect for one single day our prayers of gratitude for their welfare and their reward we should be the meanest and blackest of ingrates ah said madame i am glad that mesor my brother remembers all that in the midst of his restored grandeur have you been runging him in your heart all this while matante asked crystal and there was a slight tone of reproach in her voice you used not to be so cynical once upon a time cynical exclaimed the duchess bless the child's heart of course i am cynical at my age what can you expect and what can i expect but there don't distress yourself i am not runging your father far from it only this grandeur the state dinner last night his gracious manner all that upset me i am not used to it my dear you see 20 years in that diminutive house in wooster have altered my taste i see more than they did your father's and these last 10 months which he seems to have spent in reviving the old grandeur of his ancestral home i spent remember with the dear little sisters of mercy at bologna praying amiss very humble surroundings that the future may not become more unendurable than the past but you are glad to be back at breast alone again and you will remain here with us always queried crystal and with tender eagerness she clasped the older woman's hands closely in her own yes dear replied madame gently i am glad to be back in the old chateau my dear old home where i was very happy and very young once oh so very long ago and i will remain with your father and look after him all the time that his young bird is absent from the nest again she stroked her nieces soft wavy hair with a gesture which apparently was habitual with her and it seemed as if a note of sadness had crept into her brisk sharp voice over crystals cheeks a wave of crimson had quickly swept at her aunt's last words and the eyes which she now raised to madame's kindly face were full of tears it seems so terribly soon now my tante she said wistfully yes quote madame la duchess drily time has a knack now and then of flying faster than we wish well my dear so long as this day brings you happiness the old folk who stay at home have no right to grumble then as crystal made no reply and held her little head resolutely away madame said more insistently you are happy crystal are you not of course i am happy my tante replied crystal quickly why should you ask but still she would not look straight into madame's eyes and the tone of madame's voice sounded anything but satisfied well she said i ask i suppose because i want an answer a satisfactory answer you have had it my tante have you not yes my dear if you are happy i am satisfied but last night it seemed to me as if your ideas of your own happiness and those of your father on the same subject were somewhat at variance a oh no my tante rejoined crystal quietly father and i are quite of one mind on that subject but your heart is pulling a different way is that it then as crystal once more relapsed into silence and two hot tears dropped on the duchess's wrinkled hands the old woman added softly saint jenice who hasn't asu was out of the question i suppose crystal shook her head in silence and that young demarmant is very rich he is his uncle's heir murmured crystal and you child are marrying a kinsman of that abominable duke day regus in order to regild our family a scutchian my father wished it so very earnestly rejoined crystal who was bravely swallowing her tears and i could not bear to run counter to his desire the duke day regus has promised father that when i am a demarmant he will buy back all the forfeited cambray estates and restore them to us victor will be allowed to take up the name of cambray and and oh she exclaimed passionately father has had such a hard life so much sorrow so many disappointments and now this poverty is so horribly grinding i couldn't have the heart to disappoint him in this you are a good child crystal said madame gently and no doubt victor demarmant will prove a good husband to you but i wish he wasn't a marmont that's all but this remark delivered in the old lady's most uncompromising manner brought forth a hot protest from crystal why and she said the duke day regus is the most faithful servant the king could possibly wish to have it was he and no one else who delivered paris to the allies and thus brought about the downfall of bonaparte and the restoration of our dear king louis to the throne of france tush child i know that said madame with her habitual tartness of speech i know it just as well as history will know it presently and me thinks that history will pass on the duke day regus just about the same judgment as i passed on him in my heart last year god knows i hate that bonaparte as much as anyone and our bourbon kings are almost as much a part of my religion as is the hierarchy of saints but a trader like demarmant i cannot stomach what was he before bonaparte made him a marshal of france and created him duke day regus and out at elbows ragamuffin in the ranks of the republican army to bonaparte he owed everything title money consideration even the military talents which gave him the power to turn on the hand that had fed him delivered paris to the allies indeed continued the duchess with ever increasing indignation and volubility betrayed bonaparte then licked the boots of the czar of russia of the emperor of king louis of all the deadly enemies of the man to whom he owed his very existence pois i hate bonaparte but men like ney and berthier and demarmant sicken me thank god that even in his lifetime demarmant duke day regus has already an inkling of what posterity will say of him has not the french language been enriched since the capitulation of paris with a new word that henceforth and for all times will always spell disloyalty and today when we wish to describe a particularly loathsome type of treachery do we not already speak of a ragus aid crystal had listened in silence to her aunt's impassioned tirade now when madame paused presumably for want of breath she said gently that is all quite true matante but i am afraid that father would not altogether see eye to eye with you in this after all she added naively a pagan may become converted to christianity without being called a traitor to his false gods and the duke day ragus may have learned to hate the idol whom he once worshipped and for this profession of faith we should honor him i think yes grunted madame unconvinced but we need not marry into his family but in any case retorted crystal poor victor cannot help what his uncle did no he cannot assented the duchess decisively and he is very rich and he loves you and as your husband he will own all the old cambray estates which his uncle of ragus aid fame will buy up for him and presently your son my darling will be comped to cambray just as if that awful revolution and all that robbing and spoliation had never been and of course everything will be for the best in the best possible world if only concluded the old lady with a sigh if only i thought that you would be happy crystal took care not to meet madame's kindly glance just then for of a surety the tears would have rushed in a stream to her eyes but she would not give way to any access of self pity she had chosen her part in life and this she meant to play loyally without regret and without murmur but of course matante i shall be happy she said after a while as you say mesur de marmont is very kind and good and i know that father will be happy when breastalo and cambray and all the old lands are once more united in his name then he will be able to do something really great and good for the king and for france and i too perhaps you my poor darling exclaimed madame what can you do i should like to know a curious dreamy look came into the girl's eyes just as if a foreknowledge of the drama in which she was so soon destined to play the chief role had suddenly appeared to her through the cloudy and distant veils of futurity i don't know matante she said slowly but somehow i have always felt that one day i might be called upon to do something for france there are times when that feeling becomes so strong that all thoughts of myself and of my own happiness fade from my knowledge and it seems as if my duty to france and to the king were more insistent than my duty to god poor france side madame yes that is just what i feel matante poor france she has suffered so much more than we have and she has regained so much less enemies still lurk around her the prowling wolf is still at her gate even the throne of her king is still insecure poor poor france our country matante she should be our pride our glory and she is weak and torn and beset by treachery oh if only i could do something for france and for the king i would count myself the happiest woman on god's earth now she was a woman transformed she seemed taller and stronger her girlishness too had vanished her cheeks burned her eyes glowed her breath came and went rapidly through her quivering nostrils madame la duchess de agen looked down on her knees with naive admiration hey my little jone of arc she said merrily pardon your eloquence ma mignon has warmed up my old heart too but please god our dear old country will not have need of heroism again i am not so sure of that matante you are thinking of that ugly rumor which was current in granobal yesterday yes if that corsican brigand dares to set his foot again upon this land began the old lady vehemently let him come matante broken crystal exultantly we are ready for him let him come and this time when god has punished him again it won't be to elba that he will be sent to expiate his villainy's amen to that my child concluded madame fervently and now my dear don't let me forget the hour of my audience hector will be back in a moment or two and i must not lose any more time gossiping but before i go little one will you tell me one thing of course i will matante quite frankly absolutely well then i want to know about that english friend of yours mr clifford you mean asked crystal what about him i want to know my dear what i ought to make of this mr clifford crystal laughed lightly and looked up with astonished inquiring wide open eyes to her aunt what should you want to make of him matante she asked wholly unperturbed under the scrutinizing gaze of madame nothing said the duchess abruptly i have had my answer thank you dear evidently she had no intention of satisfying the girl's obvious curiosity for she suddenly rose from her chair gathered her lace shawl around her shoulders and said with abrupt transition the hour for my audience is at hand not one minute must i keep my august brother waiting i can hear hector's footsteps in the corridor and i will not have him see me in a fluster crystal looked as if she would have liked to question madame a little more closely about her former cryptic utterance but there was something in the sarcastic twinkle of those sharp eyes which caused the young girl to refrain from too many questions and very wisely she decided to hold her peace madame la duchess threw a quick glance into the gilt framed mirror close by she smoothed a stray wisp of hair which had escaped from under her lace cap she gave a tug to her fit you and a pat to her skirts then as the folding doors were once more thrown open and hector stiff solemn and pompous appeared under the lintel madame threw back her head in the grand manner pertaining to the old days at versi precede me hector she said with consummate dignity to mesur la comp's audience chamber and with hands folded before her her aristocratic had very erect her mouth and eyes composed to repose full majesty she sailed out through the mahogany doors in a style which no one who had never curtsied to the bn a may monarch could possibly hope to imitate for some little while after her aunt had sailed out of the room crystal remained where she was sitting on the low stool beside the high backed chair just vacated by the duchess her eyes were still glowing with the enthusiasm which had excited the admiration of the older woman a while ago and the high color in her cheeks the tremor of her nostrils showed that that same enthusiasm still kept her nerves on the quiver and caused the young hot blood to course swiftly through her veins but something of the lightness of her mood had vanished something of the exultant joy of the heroine had given place to the calmer resignation of the potential martyr gradually the color faded from her cheeks the light died slowly out of her eyes and the young fair head so lately tossed triumphantly in the ardor of patriotism sunk gradually upon the still heaving breast crystal was alone and she was not ashamed to let the tears well up to her eyes despite her proud profession of faith the insistent longing for happiness which is the inalienable share of youth knocked at the portals of her heart not even to the devoted aunt who had brought her up who had known her every childish sorrow and gleaned her every childish tear not even to her would she show what it cost her to sink her individuality her longings her hopes of happiness into that overwhelming sense of duty to her father's wishes and to the demands of her name her country and her caste she had repeated it to herself often and often that her father had suffered so much for the sake of his convictions had endured poverty and exile where opportunism would have dictated submission to the usurper bonaparte and the acceptance of riches and honors at his hands he had remained loyal in his beliefs steadfast to his king through 20 years of misery akin to squalor the remembrance of which would forever darken the rest of his life but he had endured all that without bitterness scarcely without a murmur and now that 20 years of self-abnegation were at last finding their reward now that the king had come into his own and the king's faithful friends were being compensated in accordance with the length of the king's purse would it not be errant cowardice and disloyalty for her and only child to oppose her father's will in the ordering of her own future to refuse the rich marriage which would help to restore dignity and grandeur to the ancient name and to the old home crystal the cambray was born in england she had lived the whole of her life in a small provincial town in this country but she had been brought up by her aunt the duchess duerriere de gen and through that upbringing she had been made to imbibe from her earliest childhood all the principles of the old regime these principles consisted chiefly of implicit obedience by the children to the parents decrees annant marriage of blind worship of the dignity of station and of duty to name and cast to king and country the thought would never have entered crystals head that she could have the right to order her own future or to demand from life her own special brand of happiness now her fate had been finally decided on by her father and she was on the point of taking at his wish the irrevocable step which would bind her forever to a man whom she could never love but she did not think of rebellion she had no thought of grumbling at fate or at her father crystal de cambray had English blood in her veins the blood that makes men and women accept the inevitable with set teeth and a determination to do the right thing even if it hurts crystal therefore had no thought of rebellion she only felt an infinity of regret for something sweet and intangible which she had hardly realized hardly expected which had been too elusive to be called hope to remote to be termed happiness she gave herself the luxury of this short outburst of tears since nobody was near and nobody could see there was a fearful pain in her heart while she rested her head against the cushion of the stiff high backed chair and cried till it seemed that she never could cry again whatever sorrow life might still have in store for her but when that outburst of grief had subsided she dried her eyes resolutely rose to her feet arranged her hair in front of the mirror and feeling that her eyes were hot and her head heavy she turned to the tall french window opened it and stepped out into the garden it had suffered from years of neglect the shrubs grew rank and stalky the paths were covered with weeds but there was a slight feeling of spring in the air the bare branches of the trees seemed swollen with the rising sap and upon the edge of the terrace balustrade a red breasted robin cocked its mischievous little eye upon her at the bottom of the garden there was a fine row of ilux with here and there a stone seat and in the center an old stone fountain moss covered and overshadowed by the hanging boughs of the huge melancholy trees crystal was very fond of this avenue she liked to sit and watch the play of sunshine upon the stone of the fountain the melancholy quietude of the place suited her present mood it was so strange to look on these big evergreen trees and on the havoc caused by weeds and weather on the fine carving of the fountain and to think of their going on here year after year for the past 20 years while that hideous revolution had devastated the whole country while men had murdered each other slaughtered women and children and committed every crime and every infamy which lust of hate and revenge can engender in the hearts of men the old trees and the stone fountain had remained peaceful and still the while unscathed and undefiled grand dignified and majestic while the owner of the fine chateau of the gardens and the fountain and of half the province around earned a precarious livelihood in a foreign land have starved in wretchedness and exile she crystal had never seen them until some 10 months ago when her father came back into his own and leading his daughter by the hand had taken her on a tour of inspection to show her the magnificence of her ancestral home she had loved at once the fine old chateau with its lichen covered walls its fine portcullis and crenellated towers she had wept over the torn tapestries the broken furniture the family portraits which a rough and impious rabble had willfully damaged she had loved the wide sweep of the terrace walls the views over the asere and across the mountain range to the peaks of the grand chartreuse but above all she had loved this somber row of ilux trees the broken fountain the hush and peace which always lay over this secluded portion of the neglected garden the earth was moist and soft under her feet the cheeky robin curious after the manner of his kind had followed her and was flying from seat to seat ahead of her watching her every movement crystal at first she thought that it was the wind sighing through the trees so softly had her name been spoken so like a sigh did it seem as it reached her ears crystal this time she could not be mistaken someone had called her name someone was walking up the avenue rapidly behind her she would not turn round for she knew who it was that had called and she would not allow surprise to resuscitate the outward signs of regret but she stood quite still while those hasty footsteps drew nearer and she made a great and successful effort to keep back the tears which once more threatened to fill her eyes a minute later she felt herself gently drawn to the nearest stone seat and she sank down upon it still trying very hard to remain calm and above all not to cry oh why why did you come marise she said at last when she felt that she could look with some semblance of composure on the half sitting half kneeling figure of the young man beside her despite her obstinate resistance he had taken her hand in his and was covering it with kisses why did you come she reiterated pleadingly you must know that it is no use i can't believe it i won't believe it he protested passionately crystal if you really cared you would not send me away from you if i really cared she said dully marise sometimes i think that if you really cared you would not make it so difficult for me can't you see she added more vehemently that every time you come you make me more wretched and my duties seem more hard till sometimes i feel as if i could not bear it any longer as if in the struggle my poor heart would suddenly break and because your father is so heartless he began vehemently my father is not heartless marise she broke infirmly but you must try and see for yourself how impossible it was for him to give his consent to our marriage even if he knew that my happiness was bounded by your love just think it over quietly if you had a sister who was all the world to you would you consent to such a marriage with a penniless out at elbows good for nothing you mean he said with a kind of resentful bitterness no i dare say i should not money he cried impetuously as he jumped to his feet and burying his hands in the pockets of his breaches he began pacing the path up and down in front of her money always money always talk of duty and of obedience always your father and his sorrows and his desires do i count for nothing then have i not suffered as he has suffered did i not live in exile as he did have i not made sacrifices for my king and for my ideals why should i suffer in the future as well as in the past why because my king is powerless or supine in giving me back what was filched from my father should that be taken from me which alone gives me incentive to live you crystal he added as once again he nailed beside her he encircled her shoulders with his arms then he seized her two hands and covered them with kisses you are all that i want in this world after all we can live in poverty we have been brought up in poverty you and i and even then it is only a question of a few years months perhaps the king must give us back what that abominable revolution took from us from us who remained loyal to him and because we were loyal my father owned rich lands in burgundy the king must give those back to me he must he shall he will if only you will be patient crystal if only you will wait the fiery blood of his race had rushed into marise day st genesis had he was talking voluble and at random but he believed for the moment everything that he said tears of passion and of fervor came to his eyes and he buried his head in the folds of crystals white gown and heavy sobs shook his bent shoulders she moved by that motherly tenderness which is seldom absent from a good woman's love stroked with soothing fingers the matted hair from his hot forehead for a while she remained silent while the paroxysm of his passionate revolt spent itself in tears then she said quite softly i think marise that in your heart you do us all and injustice to me to father to yourself even to the king the king cannot give you that which is not his your property like ours was confiscated by that awful revolutionary government because your father and mine followed their king into exile the rich lands were sold for the benefit of the nation the nation presumably has spent the money but the people who bought the lands in good faith cannot be dispossessed by our king without creating bitter ill feeling against himself as you well know and once more endangering his throne those are the facts marise against which no hot-blooded argument no passionate outbursts can prevail the king gave my father back this dear old castle because it happened to have proved unsalable and was still on the nation's hands our rich lands like yours can never be restored to us that hard fact has been driven into poor father's head for the past 10 months and now it has gone home at last these gray walls this neglected garden a few sticks of broken furniture a handful of money from an over generous king's treasury is all that fate has rescued for him from out the ashes of the past my father is every wit as penniless as you are yourself marise as penniless as ever he was in england when he gave french and drawing lessons to a lot of young ragamuffins in a middle-class school but victor de marmont is rich and his money once i am his wife will purchase back all the estates which have been in our family for hundreds of years for my father's sake for the sake of the name which i bear i must give my hand to victor de marmont and pray to god that some semblance of peace the sense of duty accomplished will compensate me for the happiness to which i shall bid goodbye today and you are willing to be sold to young de marmont for the price of a few acres of land retorted marise de saint jenis hotly oh it's monstrous crystal monstrous all the more monstrous as you seem quite unconscious of the iniquity of such a bargain women of our caste marise she said in her turn with a touch of bitterness have often before now been sacrificed for the honor of their name men have been accustomed to look to them for help when their own means of gilding their ascetians have failed and you are willing crystal to be sold like this he insisted my father wishes me to marry victor de marmont she replied with calm dignity and after all that he has suffered for the honor and dignity of our name i should deem myself craven and treacherous if i refused to obey him in this marise de saint jenis once more rose to his feet all his vehemence his riotous outbreak of rebellion seemed to have been smothered beneath a pall of dreary despair his young good-looking face appeared somber and sullen his restless dark eyes wandered obstinately from crystals fair bent head to her stooping shoulders to her hands to her feet it seemed as if he was trying to engrave an image of her upon his turbulent brain or that he wished to force her to look on him again before she spoke the last words of farewell but she wouldn't look at him she kept her head resolutely averted looking far out over the undulating lands of daffine and savoy to where in the far distant sky the stately alps reared their snow crowned heads at last unable to bear her silence any longer he said dully then it is your last word crystal you know that it must be marise she murmured in reply my marriage contract will be signed tonight and on tuesday i go to the altar with victor de marmont and you mean to tear your love for me out of your heart yes where its roots a little deeper a little stronger you could not do it crystal but they are not so deep as those of your love for your father she made no reply perhaps something in her heart told her that after all he might be right that unbeknown to herself even there were tendrils of affection in her that bound her ivy like and so closely to her father that even her girlish love for marise de saint jenice the first hint of passion that had stirred the smooth depths of her young heart could not tear her from that bulwark to which she clung this is the last time that i shall see you crystal said marise with a sigh seeing that obviously she meant to allow his taunt to pass unchallenged you are going away she asked how can i stay here under this roof where anon in a few hours victor de marmont will have claims upon you which if he exercised them before me would make me wish to kill him or myself i shall leave tomorrow early he added more quietly where will you go to paris or abroad or the devil i don't know which he replied mootily father will be sorry if you go she murmured under her breath for once again the tears were very insistent and she felt an awful pain in her heart because of the misery which she had to inflict upon him your father has been passing kind to me he gave me a home when i was homeless but it is not fitting that i should trespass any longer upon his hospitality have you made any plans not yet but the king will give me a commission there will be some fighting now there was a rumor in granobal last night that bonaparte had landed at an tibbe's and was marching on paris a false rumor as usual i suppose she said indifferently perhaps he replied there was silence between them for a while after that silence only broken by the twitter of birds waking to the call of spring the word goodbye remained unspoken neither of them dared to say it lest it broke the barrier of their resolve will you not go now marise said crystal at last impitiable pleading we only make each other hopelessly wretched by lingering near one another after this yes i will go crystal he replied and this time he really forced his voice to tones of gentleness although his inward resentment still bubbled out with every word he spoke i wish i could have left this house altogether now at once but your father would resent it and he has been so kind i wish i could go today he reiterated obstinately i dread seeing victor de marmont in this house where the laws of chivalry forbid my striking him in the face marise she exclaimed reproachfully nay i'll not say it again i have sufficient reason left in me i think to show these parvenues how we of the old regime bear every blow which fate chooses to deal to us they have taken everything from us these new men our lives our lands our very means of subsistence now they have taken to filtering our sweethearts curse them but at least let us keep our dignity but again she was silent what was there to say that had not been said save that unspoken word goodbye and he asked very softly may i kiss you for the last time crystal no marise she replied never again you are still free he urged you are not plighted to de marmont yet no not actually not till tonight then may and i know marise she said decisively your hand then if you like he knelt down close to her she yielded her hand to him and he with his usual impulsiveness covered it with kisses into which he tried to infuse the fervor of elast farewell then without another word he rose to his feet and walked away with a long and firm stride down the avenue crystal watched his retreating figure until the overhanging branches of the ilux hid him from her view she made no attempt now to restrain her tears they flowed uninterruptedly down her cheeks and dropped hot and searing upon her hands with marisa's figure disappearing down the dark avenue with the echo of his footsteps dying away in the distance the last chapter of her first book of romance seemed to be closing with relentless finality the afternoon sun was hidden behind a bank of gray clouds the northeast wind came whistling insistently through the trees even that feeling of spring in the air had vanished it was just a bleak gray winter's day now crystal felt herself shivering with cold she drew her shawl more closely round her shoulders then with eyes still wet with tears but small head held well erect she rose to her feet and walked rapidly back to the house end of chapter two part one chapter two part two of the bronze eagle by baroness orxy this libravox recording is in the public domain recording by dion giants salt lake city utah madame la duchess had in the meanwhile followed hector along the corridor and down the finely carved marble staircase at a monumental door on the ground floor the man paused his hand upon the massive ormolu handle waiting for madame la duchess to come up he felt a little uncomfortable at her approach for here in the big square hall the light was very clear and he could see madame's keen searching eyes looking him up and down and through and through she even put up her lorgnon and though she was not very tall she contrived to look hector through them straight between the eyes is mesur la compte in there madame la duchess deigned to ask as she pointed with her lorgnon to the door in the small library beyond madame la duchess replied hector stiffly and she queried with sharp sarcasm is the antechamber very full of courtiers and ladies just now a quick almost imperceptible blush spread over hector's impassive countenance and as quickly vanished again mesur la compte he said imperturbably is disengaged at the present moment he seldom receives visitors at this hour on madame's mobile lips the sarcastic curl became more marked and i suppose my good hector she said that since mesur la compte has only granted an audience to his sister today you thought it was a good opportunity for putting yourself at your ease and wearing your patched and mended clothes a once more that sudden wave of color swept over hector's solemn old face he was evidently at a loss how to take madame la duchess's remark whether as a rebuke or merely as one of those mild jokes of which everyone knew that madame was inordinately fond something of his dignity of attitude seemed to fall away from him as he vainly tried to solve this portentious problem his mouth felt dry and his head hot and he did not know on which foot he could stand with the least possible discomfort and how he could contrive to hide from madame la duchess's piercing eyes that very obvious patch in the right knee of his breeches madame la duchess will forgive me i hope he's stammered painfully but already madame's kind old face had shed its mask of railery nevermind hector she said gently you are a good fellow and there's no occasion to tell me lies about the rich liveries which are put away somewhere nor about the numerous retinue and countless numbers of flunkies all of whom are having unaccountably long holidays just now it's no use trying to throw dust in my eyes my poor friend or put on that pompous manner with me i know that the carpets are not all temporarily rolled up or the best of the furniture at a repairers in guinobal what's the use of pretending with me old hector those days at wooster are not so distant yet are they when all the family had to make a meal off a pound of sausages or your wife gene god bless her had to pawn her wedding ring to buy mesora lecompt de cambray a second hand overcoat madame la duchess i humbly pray your grace and treated hector whose wrinkled parchment like face had become the color of a peony and who torn between the respect which he had for the great lady and his horror at what she said was ready to sink through the floor in his confusion hey what man retorted the duchess lightly there is no one but these bare walls to hear me and my words you'll find will clear the atmosphere round you it was very stifling my good hector when i arrived there now she added announce me to mesor lecompt and then go down to gene and tell her that i for one have no intention of forgetting wooster or the pond ring or the sausages and that the array of granobal louts dressed up for the occasion in moth-eaten liveries dragged up out of some old chess do not please me half as much round a dinner table as did her dear old streaming face when she used to bring us the omelet straight out of the kitchen she dropped her long yawn and folding her aristocratic cans upon her bosom she once more assumed the grand manner pertaining to versailles and hector having swallowed an uncomfortable lump in his throat through open the huge folding doors and announced in a stentorian voice madame le duchess dorérye de gene mesor lecompt de cambray was at this time close on 60 years of age and the hardships which he had endured for close upon a quarter of a century had left their indelible impress upon his wrinkled careworn face but no one least of all a younger man could possibly rival him in dignity of bearing and gracious condescension of manner he wore his clothes after the old time fashion and clung to the powdered parochet which had been the mode at the tuleries and versailles before these vulgar young republicans took to wearing their own hair in its natural color now as he advanced from the inner room to meet madame le duchess he seemed a perfect representation or rather resuscitation of the courtly and vanished epoch of the roy soleil he held himself very erect and walked with measured step and a stereotyped smile upon his lips he paused just in front of madame le duchess then stopped and lightly touched with his lips the hand which she held out to him tell me mesor my brother said madame in her loudly pitched voice do you expect me to make before you my best for sigh curtsy for with my rheumatic knee i warn you that once i get down you might find it very difficult to get me up on my feet again hush sophie admonished mesor le compt impatiently you must try and subdue your voice a little we are no longer in wooster remember but madame only shrugged her thin shoulders ba she retorted there's only good old hector on the other side of the door and you don't imagine you are really throwing dust in his eyes do you good old hector with his threadbare livery and his ill fed belly sophie exclaimed mesor le compt who was really vexed this time i must insist all right all right my dear andre i won't say anything more take me to your audience chamber and i'll try to behave like a lady a smile that was distinctly mischievous still hovered round madame's lips but she forced her eyes to look grave she held out the tips of her fingers to her brother and allowed him to lead her in the correct manner into the next room here mesor le compt invited her to sit in an upright chair which was placed at a convenient angle close to his bureau while he himself sat upon a stately thrown like armchair one shapely knee bent the other slightly stretched forward displaying the fine silk stocking and the set of his well cut satin breeches madame laduchess kept her hands folded in front of her and waited in silence for her brother to speak but he seemed at a loss how to begin for her piercing gaze was making him feel very uncomfortable he could not help but detect in it the twinkle of good humored sarcasm madame of course would not help him out she enjoyed his obvious embarrassment which took him down somewhat from that high altitude of dignity wherein he delighted to soar my dear sophie he began at last speaking very deliberately and carefully choosing his words before the step which crystal is about to take today becomes absolutely irrevocable i desired to talk the matter over with you since it concerns the happiness of my only child isn't it a little late my good andre remarked madame driley to talk over a question which has been decided a month ago the contract is to be signed tonight our present conversation might have been held to some purpose soon after the new year it is distinctly useless today at madame's sharp and uncompromising words a quick blush had spread over the calmed sunken cheeks i could not consult you before sophie he added coldly you chose to emure yourself in a convent rather than come back straight away to your old home as we all did when our king was restored to his throne the post has been very disorganized and belone is a far cry from breastlow but i did write to you as soon as victor de marmont made his formal request for crystal's hand to this letter i had no reply and i could not keep him waiting in indefinite uncertainty your letter did not reach me until a month after it was written as i had the honor to tell you in my reply and that same reply only reached me a fortnight ago retorted the compt when crystal had been formally engaged to victor de marmont for over a month and the date for the signature of the contract and the wedding day had both been fixed i then sent a courier at great expense and in great haste immediately to you he added with a tone of dignified reproach i could do no more or less she assented tartly and here i am my dear brother and i am not blaming you for delays in the post i merely remarked that it was too late now to consult me upon a marriage which is to all intents and purposes and accomplished fact already that is so of course but it would be a great personal satisfaction to me my good sophie to hear your views upon the matter you have brought crystal up from babyhood in a measure you know her better than even i her father do and therefore you are better able than i am to judge whether crystal's marriage with de marmont will be conducive to her permanent happiness as to that my good andre quote madame you must remember that when our father and mother decided that a marriage between me and mesur ladouk the adjun was desirable my personal feelings and character were never consulted for a moment and i suppose that taking life as it is i was never particularly unhappy as his wife and what do you aduce from those reminiscences my dear sophie queried the comp de cambray suavely that victor de marmont is not a bad fellow replied madame that he is no worse than was mesur ladouk the adjun and that therefore there is no reason to suppose that crystal will be any more unhappy than i was in my time but there is no but about it my good andre crystal is a sweet girl and a devoted daughter she will make the best never you fear of the circumstances into which your blind worship of your own dignity and of your rank have placed her my good sophie broke in the count hotly you talk pardue as if i was forcing my only child into a distasteful marriage no i do not talk as if you were forcing crystal into a distasteful marriage but you know quite well that she only accepted victor de marmont because it was your wish and because his millions are going to buy back the old cambray estates and she is so imbued with the sense of her duty to you and to the family escuchian that she was willing to sacrifice every personal feeling in the fulfillment of that duty by personal feeling i suppose that you mean st jenice well yes i do said madame laconically crystal was very much in love with him at one time she still is but even you my dear sister must admit that a marriage with st jenice was out of the question retorted the count in his turn with some acerbity i am very fond of marise and his name is as old and great as ours but he hasn't as sue and you know as well as i do by now that the restoration of confiscated lands is out of the question parliament will never allow it and the king will never dare i know all that my poor andre side madame in a more conciliatory spirit i know moreover that you yourself haven't as sue either in spite of your grander and your prejudices money must be got somehow and our ancient family scuchin must be regilled at any cost i know that we must keep up this state pertaining to the old regime we must have our lackeys and our liveries sycophants around us and gaping yokels on our way when we sally out into the open we must blot out from our lives those 20 years spent in a democratic and enlightened country where no one is ashamed either of poverty or of honest work and above all things we must forget that there has ever been a revolution which sent mesor le compt de cambray commander of the order of the holy ghost grand cross of the order du less signure of mont flurry and saint inard hereditary grand chamberlain of france to teach french and drawing in an english grammar school you wrong me there sophie i wish to forget nothing of the past 20 years i thought that you had given your memory a holiday i forget nothing he reiterated with dignified emphasis neither the squalid poverty which i endured nor the bitter experiences which i gleaned in exile nor the devotion of those who saved your life and yours he interposed and mine at risk of their own perhaps you will believe me when i tell you that not a day goes by but crystal and i speak of ser persie blakney and of his gallant league of the scarlet pimpernel well we owe our lives to them said madame with deep drawn sigh i wonder if we shall ever see any of those fine fellows again god only knows side mesor le compt in response but he continued more lightly as you know the league itself has ceased to be we saw very little of ser persie and lady blakney laterally for we were too poor ever to travel up to london crystal and i saw them before we left england and i then had the opportunity of thanking ser persie blakney for the last time for the many valuable french lives which his plucky little league had saved he is indeed a gallant gentleman said madame laduchess gently even whilst her bright shrewd eyes gazed straight out before her as if on the great bare walls of her own ancestral home the ghostly hand of memory had conjured up pictures of long ago her own her husbands and her brothers arrest here in this very room the weeping servants the rough half-naked soldiery then the agony of a nine days imprisonment in a dark dank prison cell filled to overflowing with poor wretches in the same pitiable plight as herself the hasty trial the insults the mockery her husband's death in prison and her own thoughts of approaching then the gallant deed after all these years she could still see herself her brother and gene her faithful maid and poor devoted hector all huddled up in a rickety tumble being dragged through the streets of paris on the road to death on ahead she had seen the weird outline of the guillotine silhouetted against the evening sky whilst all around her a howling jeering mob saying that awful refrain saw a raw saw a raw less aristoes a la lantern then it was that she had felt unseen hands snatching her out of the tumble she had felt herself being dragged through that yelling crowd to a place where there was silence and darkness and where she knew that she was safe hence she was conveyed she hardly realized how to england where she and her brother and gene and hector their faithful servants had found refuge for over twenty years it was a gallant deed whispered madame la duchess once again and one which will always make me love every englishman i meet for the sake of one who was called the scarlet pimpernell then why should you attribute vulgar ingratitude to me retorted the comp to reproachfully my feelings i imagine are as sensitive as your own am i not trying my best to be kind to that mr clifford who is an honored guest in my house just because it was sir persie blakeney who recommended him to me it can't be very difficult to be kind to such an attractive young man was madame la duchess's dry comment recommendation or no recommendation i liked your mr clifford and if it were not so late in the day and there was still time to give my opinion i would suggest that mr cliffords money could quite well regilled our family scotchin he is very rich too i understand my good sophie exclaimed the comp in horror what can you be thinking of crystal principally replied the duchess i thought clifford of far nicer fellow than de marmont my dear sister said the comp stiffly i really must ask you to think sometimes before you speak of a truth you make suggestions and comments at times which literally stagger one i don't see anything so very staggering in the idea of a penniless aristocrat marrying a wealthy english gentleman a gentleman my dear exclaimed the comp well mr clifford is a gentleman isn't he his family is irreproachable i believe well then but mr clifford you know my dear no i don't know said madame decisively what is the matter with mr clifford well i didn't like to tell you sophie immediately on your arrival yesterday said the comp who was making visible efforts to mitigate the horror of what he was about to say but as a matter of fact this mr clifford whom you met in my house last night who sat next to you at my table with whom you had that long and animated conversation afterwards is nothing better than a shopkeeper no doubt mesur le comp de cambray expected that at this awful announcement madame le duchess's indignation and anger would know no bounds he was quite ready even now with a string of apologies which he would formulate directly she allowed him to speak he certainly felt very guilty towards her for the undesirable acquaintance which she had made in her brother's own house great was his surprise therefore when madame's wrinkled face wreathed itself into a huge smile which presently broadened into a merry laugh as she threw back her head and said still laughing a shopkeeper my dear comp a shopkeeper at your aristocratic table and your meal did not choke you why god forgive you but i do believe you are actually becoming human i ought to have told you sooner of course began the comp stiffly why bless your heart i knew it soon enough you knew it of course i did mr clifford told me that interesting fact before he had finished eating his soup did he tell you that that he traded in in gloves well and why not gloves she retorted gloves are very nice things and better manufactured at granobal than anywhere else in the world the english cocats are very wise in getting their gloves from granobal through the good offices of mr clifford but my dear sophie mr clifford buys gloves here from dumoulin and sells them again to a shop in london he buys and sells other things too and does it for profit of course he does you don't suppose that anyone would do that sort of thing for pleasure do you mr clifford continued madame with sudden seriousness lost his father when he was six years old his mother and four sisters had next to nothing to live on after the bulk of what they had went for the education of the boy at eighteen he made up his mind that he would provide his mother and sisters with all the luxuries which they had lacked for so long and instead of going into the army which had been the burning ambition of his boyhood he went into business and in less than ten years has made a fortune you seem to have learned a great deal of the man's family history in so short a time i liked him and i made him talk to me about himself it was not easy for these english men are stupidly reticent but i dragged his story out of him bit by bit or at least as much of it as i could and i can tell you my good andre that never have i admired a man so much as i do this mr clifford for never have i met so unselfish a one i declare that if i were only a few years younger she continued whimsically and even so hey but i am not so old after all my dear sophie ejaculated the compt hey what she retorted tartly you would object to a tradesman as a brother-in-law would you what about a demarmonte for a son a victor demarmonte is a soldier in the army of our legitimate king his uncle the duke de raguse that's just it broken madame again i don't like demarmonte because he is a demarmonte is that the only reason for your not liking him the only one she replied but i must say that this mr clifford you must not harp on that string sophie said the compt sternly it is too ridiculous to begin with clifford never cared for crystal and secondly crystal was already engaged to demarmonte when clifford arrived here and thirdly let me tell you that my daughter has far too much pride in her ever to think of a shopkeeper in the light of a husband even if he had 10 times this mr clifford's fortune then everything is comfortably settled andre and now that we have returned to our sheep and have both arrived at the conclusion that nothing stands in the way of crystal's marriage with victor demarmonte i suppose that i may presume that my audience is at an end i only wished to hear your opinion my good sophie rejoined mesur la compt and he rose stiffly from his chair well and you have heard it andre concluded madame as she too rose and gathered her lace shawl around her shoulders you may thank god my dear brother that you have in crystal such an unselfish and obedient child and in me such a submissive sister frankly since you have chosen to ask my opinion at this 11th hour i don't like this demarmonte marriage though i have admitted that i see nothing against the young man himself if crystal is not unhappy with him i shall be content if she is i will make myself exceedingly disagreeable both to him and to you and that being my last word i have the honor to wish you a polite good day she swept her brother and imperceptibly ironical curtsy but he detained her once again as she turned to go one word more sophie he said solemnly you will be amiable with victor demarmonte this evening of course i will she replied tartly ah sa mesur my brother do you take me for a washerwoman i am entertaining the prophet for this super do contract continued the comp quietly ignoring the old lady's arrestability of temper and the general in command of the garrison they are both converted bonapartis remember home granted madame crossley whom else are you going to entertain madame furrier the prefet's wife and mademoiselle marchand the general's daughter and of course the de umbrans and the genovois is that all some half dozen or so notabilities of granobal we shall sit down twenty to supper and afterwards i hold a reception in honor of the coming marriage of mademoiselle the cambray de breastelot with mesur victor demarmonte one must do one's duty and pander to one's love of playing at being a little king in a limited way all right i won't say anything more i promise that i won't disgrace you and that i'll put on a grand manner that will fill those worthy notabilities and their wives with awe and reverence and now i'd best go she added whimsically air my good resolutions break down before your pomposity i suppose the louts from the village will be again braced up in those moth-eaten liveries and the bottles of thin maydock purchased surreptitiously at a local grocers will be duly smothered in the dust of ages all right all right i'm going for gracious sake don't conduct me to the door or i'll really disgrace you under hector's uplifted nose oh shades of cold beef and triuckle pies of looster and washing day do you remember all right all right mesur my brother i am dumb as a carp at last and with a final outburst of sarcastic laughter madame finally sailed across the room while mesur fell back into his throne-like chair with a deep sigh of relief end of chapter two part two