Эжен Сю
The Casque's Lark; or, Victoria, the Mother of the Camps
"I doubt whether my friend Eustace will greatly rejoice over my elevation," replied Marion. "Eustace is not ambitious after glory. Far from it. He loves me, his old companion at the anvil, and not the captain. But, Victoria, always keep this in mind: The same as to-day you say to me: 'Marion, you are needed,' never be backward in saying: 'Marion, be gone; you are of no further use; someone else will fill the place better than you.' I shall understand the slightest hint, and shall gladly return arm in arm with my friend Eustace to our pot of beer and our armor. So long, however, as you will say to me: 'Marion, you are needed,' I shall remain Chief of Gaul" – and smothering a last sigh, "seeing that you insist that I fill the place."
"And chief you will long remain to the glory of Gaul," put in Tetrik. "Believe me, captain, you do not know yourself; your modesty blinds you. But a few hours hence, when Victoria will propose you to the soldiers as their general, the acclamation of the whole army will inform you of the high opinion that is entertained for your merits."
"The one who will be most astonished at my merits will be myself," replied the good captain naïvely. "Well, I have made the promise; it is promised; count with me, Victoria, you have my word. I shall withdraw – I shall go to my lodging and wait for my good friend Eustace. It is now dawn; he is due from the advanced posts, where he has been on guard since yesterday. He will be uneasy if he does not find me in."
"Forget not, captain," I said to him, "to ask your friend for the name of the soldier whom he chose to escort me."
"I shall remember."
"And now, adieu," said the Governor of Gascony with a smothered voice to Victoria. "Adieu; the sun will soon be up. Every minute that I spend here is torture to me – "
"Would you not stay in Mayence at least until the ashes of my two children are returned to the earth?" Victoria asked the governor. "Will you not accord that religious homage to the memory of those who have just preceded us to those unknown worlds, where we shall one day meet them again? Oh! May it please Hesus that that day be soon!"
"Oh! Our druid faith will always be the consolation of strong souls and the support of the weak!" answered Tetrik. "Alas! But for the certainty of meeting again the beings whom we have loved in this world, how much more dreadful would not their departure in death be to us! Believe me, Victoria, I shall see long before you, these dear beings whom to-day we weep. Agreeable to your wishes, I shall render to them to-day, before my departure, the last homage that is due to them."
Tetrik and Captain Marion withdrew, leaving Victoria, Sampso and myself alone.
CHAPTER IV
FUNERAL PYRES
Left all alone to ourselves, we no longer repressed our tears. In silent and pious meditation we clad Ellen in her wedding gown, while you, my child, still slept peacefully.
In order to attend to the supreme interests of Gaul, Victoria had heroically curbed her grief. After the departure of Tetrik and Marion she gave way to the overpowering sorrow that heaved her bosom. She wished to wash the wounds of her son and grandson with her own hands; with her maternal hands she wrapped them in the same winding cloth. Two funeral pyres were raised on the border of the Rhine, one destined for Victorin and his son, the other for my wife Ellen.
Towards noon, two war chariots covered with green and accompanied by several of our venerated female druids proceeded to my house. The body of my wife Ellen was deposited on one of the two chariots, on the other the remains of Victorin and his son.
"Schanvoch," said Victoria to me, "I shall follow on foot the chariot on which your beloved wife lies. Be merciful, brother, follow on foot the chariot on which lie the remains of my son and grandson. Before the eyes of all, you, the outraged husband, will thus be giving a token of pardon to the memory of Victorin. And I also, will, before the eyes of all, give token, as a mother, of pardon for the death that, alas! my son but too fully merited!"
I understood the touching appeal that lay in that thought of mutual mercy and pardon. It was so done. A deputation of the cohorts and legions preceded the funeral procession. I followed the hearses accompanied by Victoria, Sampso, Tetrik and Marion. The chief officers of the camp joined us. We marched amidst lugubrious silence. The first outburst of rage against Victorin having spent itself, the army now only remembered his bravery, his kindness, his openheartedness. The crowds saw me, the victim of an outrage that cost Ellen's life, give public token of pardon to Victorin by my following the hearse that carried his remains; they also saw his mother following the hearse on which Ellen reposed, and none had any but words of forgiveness and pity for the memory of the young general.
The funeral convoy was approaching the river bank where the two pyres were raised, when Douarnek, who marched at the head of one of the deputations of cohorts, profited by a halt in the procession to approach me. He said with pronounced sadness:
"Schanvoch, you have my sympathy. Assure Victoria, your sister, that we, the soldiers, remember only the valor of her glorious son. He has so long been our beloved son as well. Why did he disregard the frank and wise words that I carried to him in the name of our whole army, on the evening after our great battle of the Rhine! Had Victorin taken our advice and mended his ways, had he reformed, none of these misfortunes would have happened – "
"Your words, comrade, will be a consolation to Victoria in her grief," I answered Douarnek. "But do you know whatever became of the hooded soldier who committed the barbarity of killing Victorin's child?"
"Neither I, nor any of those near me at the time when the abominable crime was committed, was able to catch the felon. He slipped from us in the tumult and darkness. He fled towards the outposts of the camp, but there, thanks to the gods, he met with condign punishment."
"He is dead?"
"Perhaps you know Eustace, the old blacksmith and friend of our brave Captain Marion? He was mounting guard last night at the outposts. It seems that Eustace has a sweetheart in town. Excuse me, Schanvoch, if I mention to you such matters on so sad an occasion, but you asked me, and I am answering – "
"Proceed, friend Douarnek."
"Well, instead of remaining at his post, and despite the watchword, Eustace spent a part of the night in Mayence. He was returning at about an hour before dawn, hoping, as he said to me, that his absence would have passed unnoticed, when he saw a hooded man running breathlessly near the posts on the river bank. 'Whither are you running so fast?' he cried out. 'Those brutes are pursuing me!' was the answer, 'because I broke the head of Victoria's grandson by dashing it against the cobble-stones; they want to kill me.' 'And they are right! You deserve death!' replied Eustace indignantly. Saying this he overtook the infamous murderer and ran his sword through him. The corpse was found this morning on the beach with his cloak and hood."
The soldier's death destroyed my last hope of unraveling the mystery that hung over that fatal night.
The remains of Ellen, Victorin and his son were placed upon the pyres, amidst the chants of the bards and druids. A sheet of flame rose skyward. When the chants ceased only two heaps of ashes remained.
The ashes of the pyre of Victorin and his son were piously gathered by Victoria into a bronze urn, that she placed under a mural tablet bearing the simple and touching inscription:
HERE REST THE TWO VICTORINS
That same evening the two Bohemian girls left Mayence. Tetrik also took his departure after having exchanged the most touching adieus with Victoria. Captain Marion was presented to the troops by the Mother of the Camps and was acclaimed Chief of Gaul and general of the army. The choice evoked no surprise; moreover, being presented by Victoria, whose influence had in a manner increased with the death of her son and grandson, there was no question of his being accepted. The bravery, the good judgment, the wisdom of Captain Marion were long known and appreciated by the soldiers. After his acclamation, the new general pronounced the following words, which I later found reproduced by a contemporary historian:
"Comrades, I know that the trade of my youth may be objected to in me. Let him blame me who wills. Yes, people may twit me all they please with having been a blacksmith, provided the enemy admits that I have forged their ruin. But, as to you, my good comrades, never forget that the chief whom you have just chosen never knew and never will know how to hold anything but the sword."
CHAPTER V
ASSASSINATION OF MARION
Endowed with rare sagacity, a straightforward and firm nature, and ever solicitous of the advice of Victoria, Marion's government was marked with wisdom. The army grew ever more attached to him, and gave him signal proof of its loyalty and admiration up to the day, exactly two months after his acclamation, when he, in turn, fell the victim of another horrible crime. I must narrate to you, my son, the circumstances of this second crime. It is intimately connected, as you will discover, with the bloody plot that drew in its vortex all whom I loved and venerated, leaving you motherless, me a widower, and Victoria desolate.
Two months had elapsed since the fatal night when my wife Ellen, Victorin and his son lost their lives. The sight of my house became insupportable to me; too many were the cruel recollections that clustered around it. Victoria induced me to move to her house with Sampso, who took your mother's place with you.
"Here I am, all alone in the world, separated from my son and grandson to the end of my days," said my foster-sister to me. "You know, Schanvoch, all the affection of my life was centered upon those two beings, so dear to my heart. Do not leave me alone. Come, you, your son and Sampso, come and stay with me. You will aid me thereby to bear the burden of my grief."
At first I hesitated to accept Victoria's offer. Due to a shocking fatality, I was the slayer of her son. True enough, she knew that, despite the enormity of Victorin's outrage, I would have spared his life, had I recognized him. She was aware of and saw the grief that the involuntary and yet legitimate homicide caused me. Nevertheless, and horrid was the recollection thereof to her, I had killed her son. I feared – despite all her protestations, and despite her warmly expressed desire that I move to her house – that my presence, however much wished for during the first loneliness of her bereavement, might become cruel and burdensome to her. Finally I yielded. Often did Sampso, in later years, say to me:
"Alas, Schanvoch, it was only after I saw how tenderly you always spoke of Victorin to his mother, who, in turn, spoke to you of my poor sister Ellen in the touching terms that she did, that I, together with all those who knew us, understood and admired what at first seemed impossible – the intimacy of you and Victoria, the two survivors of those victims of a cruel fatality!"
Whenever Victoria sufficiently surmounted her grief to consider the interests of the country, she applauded herself on having succeeded in deciding Captain Marion to accept the eminent post of which he daily proved himself more worthy. She wrote several times to Tetrik in that sense. He had left the government of Gascony in order to retire with his son, then about twenty years of age, to a house that he owned near Bordeaux, and where, as he said, he sought in poetry whatever solace he could find for the death of Victorin and his son. He composed several odes on those cruel events. Nothing, indeed, could be more touching than an ode written by Tetrik on the subject of "The Two Victorins," and sent by him to Victoria. Accordingly, the letters that he addressed to her during the two months of Marion's administration were marked with profound sadness. They expressed in a manner at once so simple, so delicate and so tender the affection he entertained for her family, and the sorrow that her bereavement caused him, that my foster-sister's attachment for her relative increased by the day. Even I shared the blind confidence that she reposed in him, and forgot the suspicions that were twice awakened in my mind against the man. Moreover, my suspicions vanished before the answer made to me by Eustace, when I questioned him regarding the soldier, my mysterious traveling companion and perpetrator of the assassination of Victoria's grandson.
"Commissioned by Captain Marion to provide him with a reliable man for your escort," Eustace answered me, "I picked out a horseman named Bertal. He was ordered to wait for you at the city gate. After nightfall I left the advanced post of the camp contrary to orders and went secretly into the city. I was on my way thither when I met the soldier on horseback. He was riding along the bank of the river, and was on the way to meet you. I told him to say nothing of having met me, should he run across any of our comrades on the road. He promised secrecy, and I went my way. Early the next morning, as I was returning along the river bank from Mayence, where I spent part of the night, I saw Bertal running towards me. He was on foot; he was fleeing distractedly before the just rage of our comrades. When I learned from his own mouth the horrible crime that he even dared to glory in, I killed him on the spot. That is all I know of the wretch."
So far from the information clearing up, it obscured still more the mystery that brooded over that fatal night. The Bohemian girls had disappeared; and all inquiries set on foot regarding Bertal, my traveling companion and subsequent perpetrator of such a horrible deed as the murder of a child, agreed in representing the man as a brave and honest soldier, incapable of the monstrous deed imputed to him, and explainable only on the theory of drunkenness or insane fury.
Accordingly, my son, Marion governed Gaul for two months to the satisfaction of all. One evening, shortly before sunset, seeking some diversion from the grief that oppressed me, I took a walk into the woods near Mayence. I had been walking ahead mechanically a long time, seeking only silence and seclusion and thus penetrating deeper and deeper into the wood, when my feet struck an object that I had not noticed. I tripped and was thus drawn from my sad revery. At my feet lay a casque the visor and gorget of which were turned up. I recognized on the spot Marion's casque by those features peculiar to the casque that he wore. I examined the ground more attentively by the last rays of the sun which penetrated the foliage with difficulty. I detected traces of blood on the grass; I followed them; they led to a thicket; I entered it.
There, stretched upon some tree branches that were bent and broken with his fall, I saw Marion, bareheaded and bathed in his own blood. I thought he was dead, or at least unconscious. I was mistaken. As I stooped to raise him and to give him some aid, my eyes caught his; they were fixed but still clear, despite approaching dissolution.
"Go away, Schanvoch!" Marion said in a voice that though fainting indicated anger. "I dragged myself to this spot in order to die in peace – I threw myself into this thicket to escape detection. Go away, Schanvoch! Leave me alone!"
"Leave you!" I cried, looking at him in stupor and observing that his blouse was red with blood just above the heart. "Leave you when your blood is flowing over your clothes, and when your wound is perhaps mortal!"
"Oh, perhaps!" replied Marion with a sarcastic smile. "It is certainly mortal, thanks to the gods!"
"I shall run to town!" I cried without stopping to consider the distance that I had just walked, absorbed as I was in my own sorrow. "I shall go for help!"
"Ha! Ha! Ha! – to run to the city – and we are two leagues away!" replied Marion with a lugubrious peal of laughter. "I am not afraid of any help that you may bring, Schanvoch. I shall be dead in less than a quarter of an hour. But, in the name of heaven, go away!"
"Are you resolved to die – did you smite yourself with your sword?"
"You have said it."
"No! You are trying to deceive me. Your sword is in its sheath."
"What is that to you? Go away – "
"You were struck by an assassin!" I exclaimed as I ran forward and picked up a sword still bloody, that my eyes just fell upon and that lay at a little distance. "This is the weapon that was used."
"I fought in loyal combat – leave me – Schanvoch – "
"You did not fight, and you did not wound yourself. Your sword lies beside you in its sheath. No, no! You fell under the blows of some cowardly assassin. Marion, let me examine your wound. Every soldier is something of a surgeon – if the flow of blood is staunched it may be enough to save your life – "
"Stop the flow of blood!" cried Marion casting at me an angry look. "Just you try to stop the flow of the blood from my wound, and you will see how I will receive you – "
"I shall endeavor to save you," I answered, "despite yourself."
As I spoke I approached Marion who lay flat upon his back. Just as I stooped over him he bent both his knees over his stomach and immediately struck out violently with his feet. The kick took me in the chest and threw me over upon the grass – so powerful was the expiring Hercules.
"Will you still bring me help despite myself?" asked Marion as I rose up, not angry but desolate over his brutality. If I should be overcome in this sad struggle, it was clear that I would be compelled to give up the hope of bringing help to the wounded man.
"Very well! Die!" I said to him, "since such is your wish. Die, since you forget that Gaul needs your services. But be sure of one thing – your death will be avenged – we shall discover the name of your assassin – "
"There has been no assassin – I gave myself the wound – "
"This sword belongs to someone," I said picking up the weapon. As I examined it I thought I could see through the blood that covered it that its blade bore an inscription. To ascertain the fact, I wiped it with some leaves. While I was engaged at this Marion cried in agony:
"Will you leave that sword alone! Quit rubbing upon the blade! Oh! My strength fails me, or I would rise and snatch the weapon from your hands. A curse upon you, who have come to disturb my last moments! Oh! It must be the devil who sent you!"
"It is the gods who sent me!" I cried struck almost dumb with horror. "It is Hesus who sent me for the punishment of the most horrible of crimes! A friend slay his friend!"
"You lie! You lie!"
"It is Eustace who dealt you the wound!"
"You lie! Oh! Why am I sinking so fast – I would smother those words in your cursed throat!"
"You were struck by this sword, the gift of your friendship to an infamous murderer – "
"It is false!"
"'Marion forged this sword for his dear friend Eustace' – that is the sentence engraved upon this blade," I replied to him pointing with my finger at the inscription graven in the steel. "This is the sword that you forged yourself."
"The inscription proves nothing," observed Marion in great anguish. "The man who struck me stole the sword from my friend Eustace – that's all."
"You still seek to screen that man! Oh! There will be no punishment too severe for the cowardly murderer!"
"Listen, Schanvoch," replied Marion in a sinking and suppliant voice: "I am about to die – nothing is denied to an expiring man – "
"Oh! Speak! Speak, good and brave soldier. Seeing that, to the misfortune of Gaul, fatality prevents me from saving you, speak! I shall execute your last will – "
"Schanvoch, the oath that soldiers give each other at the moment of death – is sacred, is it not?"
"Yes, my brave Marion."
"Swear to me – that you will reveal to no one that you found here the sword of my friend Eustace."
"You, his victim – and you wish to save him!"
"Promise me, Schanvoch, that you will do as I ask you – "
"Save the monster from condign punishment! Never! No, a thousand times no!"
"Schanvoch, I implore you – "
"Your murder shall be avenged – "
"Be, then, yourself accursed! You who say 'No!' to the prayer of an expiring man – to the prayer of an old soldier – who weeps – you see it. Is it agony? – is it weakness? – I know not, but I weep – "
And large drops of tears rolled down his face that gradually grew more livid.
"Good Marion, your kindheartedness distresses me! You, imploring mercy for your murderer!"
"Who else would take an interest in the unhappy fellow – if I did not?" he answered with an expression of ineffable mercifulness.
"Oh! Marion, those words are worthy of the young man of Nazareth, whom my ancestress Genevieve saw put to death in Jerusalem!"
"Friend Schanvoch – mercy – you will say nothing – I rely upon your promise – "
"No! No! Your celestial mercifulness only renders the crime more atrocious. No pity for the monster who slew his friend!"
"Go away from me!" feebly murmured Marion, sobbing.
"It is you who harrow my last moments! Eustace only slew my body – but you, pitiless before my agony, you torture my very soul!"
"Your despair distresses me – and yet listen, Marion. It is not merely the friend, the old friend that the assassin struck at – "
"For twenty-three years we never left each other's side, Eustace and I," Marion mumbled moaning.
"No, it is not the friend only that the monster struck in striking you, it was also, and perhaps especially, the Chief of Gaul and general of the army that he aimed at. The mysterious cause of this crime may be of deep interest to the country's future. The mystery must be fathomed, uncovered – "
"Schanvoch, you do not know Eustace. He cared little, I know, whether or not I was Chief of Gaul or general of the army. Moreover, what does that concern me – now, when I am about to live in yonder new worlds? All I ask of you is that you grant me this last request – do not denounce my friend Eustace. I implore you with clasped hands – "
"Granted! I shall keep the secret, but under one condition, that you inform me how the crime was committed."
"How can you have the heart to drive such a bargain – the peace of mind – a dying man – "
"The welfare of Gaul may be at stake, I tell you! Everything points to an infernal plot in this dark affair, the first victims of which were Victorin and his son. That is why I insist upon learning from you the details of this atrocious murder."
"Schanvoch – a minute ago I could still distinguish your face – the color of your clothes – now I see before me only a vague shape. Make haste, make haste!"
"Answer – how was the crime committed? By Hesus, tell me, and I swear to you I shall keep the secret – not otherwise."
"Schanvoch – my good friend – "
"Was Eustace acquainted with Tetrik?"
"Eustace never as much as spoke to him – "
"Are you certain?"
"Eustace told me so – he ever felt – without knowing why – an aversion for the governor – I was not surprised at that. Eustace loved only me – "
"And he killed you! Speak, and I swear to you, by Hesus, that I shall keep the secret – otherwise, not!"
"I shall speak – but your silence on the matter will not suffice me. A score of times I proposed to my friend Eustace to share my purse – he met my tender with insults. Oh! his is not a venal soul – not his – he has no money – he must surely be without any resources whatever – how will he be able to flee?"
"I shall help him to flee – I shall furnish him the money that he may need – I shall be only too glad to rid the camp of such a monster with all possible speed!"
"A monster!" murmured Marion reproachfully. "You are very severe towards Eustace."
"How did he manage to inflict a mortal wound upon you, and what was his reason? Answer my question."
"Since I was acclaimed Chief of Gaul and general, my friend Eustace became more peevish than ever before, and more sullen – than he usually was – he feared, poor soul, that my elevation would make me proud – "
Marion choked in his speech. Throwing his arms about at random, he called out:
"Schanvoch, where are you?"
"Here I am, close to you – "
"I see you no longer," he said in a sinking voice. "Lean my back against a tree – I am – smothering – "
With no little difficulty I did what Marion desired; his Herculean body was heavy. Finally, however, I succeeded in drawing him up with his back against the nearest tree. Reclined against it, Marion continued in a voice that steadily grew feebler:
"In the measure that – the ill temper of my friend Eustace increased – I sought to show myself even more friendly than usual towards him. I could understand his apprehensions. Already, when I was only a captain, he could not bring himself to treat me as his former companion at the anvil. When I became general and Chief of Gaul he took me for a potentate. As to myself, certain that I esteemed him none the less – I always laughed in his face at his rudeness – I laughed – I did wrong – the poor fellow was suffering. To make it short – to-day he said to me: 'Marion, it is a long time since we took a walk together, shall we take a stroll in the woods, near the city?' I had a conference with Victoria. But fearing to displease my friend Eustace, I wrote to the Mother of the Camps, excusing myself – and he and I started on our walk arm in arm. I was reminded of the days of our apprenticeship in the forest of Chartres – where we used to go to trap magpies. I felt buoyant – and despite my grey beard – knowing that nobody saw us – I indulged in all manner of boyish tricks in order to amuse Eustace. I mimicked, as in the days of our boyhood, the cry of – the magpies – by blowing upon a leaf held close to my lips. I did other monkey tricks of the same nature – It was singular – I never felt in better spirits than to-day – Eustace, on the contrary did not move – a muscle of his face – not – a smile could be extracted from him. We were a few steps from here, he behind me – he called me – I turned around – and you will see, Schanvoch, that there could not have been any wicked purpose on his part – only insanity – pure insanity. The moment that I turned around he threw himself upon me sword in hand – and – as he plunged the weapon into my side he cried: 'Do you recognize this sword, you who forged it yourself?' I admit – I was not a little surprised – I fell under the blow – I called out to my friend Eustace: 'What ails you? Explain yourself at least. Have I offended you in aught without knowing?' But I was only speaking – to the trees – the poor crazy man had vanished – leaving his sword beside me – another evidence of insanity – the weapon – you will notice – Schanvoch – the weapon – bore on the blade the inscription: 'Marion forged this sword for his dear friend Eustace.'"
These were the last intelligible words of the good and brave soldier. He expired a few minutes later uttering incoherent words, among which these recurred with greatest frequency:
"Eustace," "flee," "save yourself."
After Marion had given up the ghost, I hastened back to Mayence in order to notify Victoria of the occurrence, nor did I conceal from her that my suspicions again pointed to Tetrik as having a hand in the plot. The man, I explained, left again vacant the government of Gaul by the removal of Marion, after Victorin and his son were gotten out of the way. Although desolate by the death of Marion, my foster-sister combated my suspicions with regard to Tetrik. She reminded me that I myself, more than two months before the murder of Marion, was so struck by the expression of hatred and envy betrayed by the face and words of the captain's old companion, that I said to her before Tetrik that Marion must be very much blinded by his affection to fail to perceive that his friend was devoured by implacable jealousy. Victoria shared the opinion of the good Marion, that the crime to which he had fallen a victim had no other cause than the envious hatred of Eustace, who was driven to the point of insanity by the more recent elevation of his friend. Besides, a singular coincidence, on that same day my foster-sister received from Tetrik, then on his way to Italy, a letter in which he informed her that seeing his health was daily declining, the physicians saw but one chance of safety for him – a trip to some southern country. For that reason he was on the way to Rome with his son.
These facts, Tetrik's conduct since the death of Victorin, the touching letters that he wrote, together with what seemed to be the irrefutable arguments advanced by Victoria, once more overthrew my mistrust toward the Governor of Gascony. I also arrived at the conclusion, which was certainly justified on the face of the events, that, in view of the previous behavior of Eustace, the atrocious murder committed by him had no other motive than a savage jealousy, that was driven to the point of insanity by the recent distinction that fell to the lot of his friend.
I kept the promise that I made to the good and brave Marion at the hour of his death. His assassination was attributed to some unknown murderer, but not to Eustace. I took the man's sword with me to Victoria; no suspicion was drawn to the actual felon, who was never more seen either at Mayence, or in the camp. Marion's remains, wept over by the whole army, received the pompous military honors due to a general and a Chief of Gaul.
