CHAPTER IV
A DANCE ON THE BEACH
The great vernal equinox of April 178-, was the cause of certainunusual movements of the tide, which made old mariners andcoast-fishermen shake their heads and gaze seaward, out of allreckoning. At times, after a tempest, on this strange coast, thewaters would rise in a manner and at an hour out of the ordinary, andthen among the dwellers on the shore, there were those whoprognosticated dire unhappiness, telling how the sea had once devouredtwo villages overnight, and how, beneath the sands, were homes intact,with the people yet in their beds.
Concerned with a disordered social system and men in and out ofdungeons, the Governor had little time and less inclination to note thecaprices of the tide or the vagaries of the strand. The people! Themenacing and mercurial ebb and flow of their moods! The maintenance ofautocratic power on the land, and, a more difficult task, on thesea--these were matters of greater import than the phenomena of naturewhose purposes man is powerless to shape or curb. My lady, hisdaughter, however, who had just returned from seven years' schooling ata convent and one year at court where the Queen, Marie Antoinette, setthe fashion of gaiety, found in the conduct of their great neighbor,the ocean, a source of both entertainment and instruction for herguests, a merry company transported from Versailles.
"Is it not a sight well worth seeing after your tranquil Seine, myLords?" she would say with a wave of her white hand toward the restlesssea. "Here, perched in mid air like eagles, you have watched the'grand tide,' as we call it, come in--like no other tide--faster than ahorse can gallop! Where else could you witness the like?"
"Nowhere. And when it goes out--"
"It goes out so far, you can no longer see it; only a vast beach thatreaches to the horizon, and--"
"Must be very dangerous?"
"For a few days, perhaps; later, not at all, when the petites tides arethe rule, and can be depended on. Then are the sands, except for oneor two places very well-known, as safe as your gardens at Versailles.But remain, and--you shall see."
Which they did--finding the place to their liking--or their hostess;for the Governor, who cared not for guests, but must needs entertainthem for reasons of state, left them as much as might be to hisdaughter. She, brimming with the ardor and effervescence of eighteenyears, accepted these responsibilities gladly; pending that period shehad referred to, turned the monks' great refectory into a ball-room,and then, when the gales had swept away, proposed the sands themselvesas a scene for diversion both for her guests and the people. This,despite the demur of his Excellency, her father.
"Is it wise," he had asked, "to court the attention of the people?"
"Oh, I am not afraid!" she had answered. "And they are going to dance,too!"
"They!" He frowned.
"Why not? It is the Queen's own idea. 'Let the people dance,' she hassaid, 'and they will keep out of mischief.' Besides," with a prouderpoise of the bright head, "why shouldn't they see, and--like me?"
"They like nothing except themselves, and," dryly, "to attempt to evadetheir just obligations."
"Can you blame them?" She made a light gesture. "Obligations, _monpere_, are so tiresome!"
"Well, well," hastily, "have your own way!" Although he spoke rathershortly, on the whole he was not displeased with his daughter; herbetrothal with the Marquis de Beauvillers, a nobleman of largeestates,--arranged while she was yet a child!--promised a brilliantmarriage and in a measure offered to his Excellency some compensationfor that old and long-cherished disappointment--the birth of a girlwhen his ambition had looked so strongly for an heir to his name aswell as to his estate.
And so my lady and her guests danced and made merry on the sands below,and the people came out from the mainland, or down from the houses inthe town at the base of the rock, to watch. A varied assemblage ofgaunt-looking men and bent, low-browed women, for the most part theystood sullen and silent; though exchanging meaning glances now and thenas if to say: "Do you note all this ostentation--all this glitter anddisplay? Yes; and some day--" Upon brooding brows, in deep-set eyes,on furrowed faces a question and an answer seemed to gleam and pass.Endowed with natural optimism and a vivacity somewhat heedless, my ladyappeared unconscious of all this latent enmity until an unlooked-forincident, justifying in a measure the Governor's demur, broke in uponthe evening's festivities and claimed her attention.
On the beach, lighted by torches, a dainty minuet was proceeding gaily,when through the throng of onlookers, a young man with dark head set ona frame tall and powerful, worked his way carefully to a point where hewas afforded at least a restricted view of the animated spectacle.Absorbed each in his or her way in the scene before them, no onenoticed him, and, with hat drawn over his brow, and standing in theshadow of the towering head-dresses of several peasant women, he seemedcontent to attract as little attention to himself as possible. Hislook, at first quick and alert, that of a man taking stock of hissurroundings, suddenly became intent and piercing, as, passing insurvey over the lowly spectators to the glittering company, it centereditself on the young mistress of festivities.
In costume white and shining, the Lady Elise moved through the gracefulnumbers, her slender supple figure now poised, now swaying, from headto foot responsive to the rhythm of that "pastime of little steps."Her lips, too, were busy, but such was the witchery of her motion--allfire and life!--the silk-stockinged cavaliers whom she thus regaledwith wit, mockery, or jest, could, for the most part, respond only withadmiring glances or weakly protesting words.
"That pretty fellow, her partner," with a contemptuous accent on theadjective, "is the Marquis de Beauvillers, a kinsman of the King!" saidone of the women in the throng.
"_Ma foi_! They're well matched. A dancing doll for a popinjay!"
The young man behind the head-dresses, now nodding viciously, movednearer the front. Dressed in the rough though not unpicturesquefashion of the northern fisherman, a touch of color in his apparel lentto his bearing a note of romance the bold expression of his swarthyface did not belie. For a few moments he watched the girl; thechanging eyes and lips, shadowed by hair that shone and flashed likebright burnished gold; then catching her gaze, the black eyes gleamed.An instant their eyes lingered; hers startled, puzzled.
"Where have I seen him?" My lady, in turning, paused to swing over hershoulders a glance.
"Whom?" asked her companion in the dance--a fair, handsome nobleman ofslim figure and elegant bearing.
"That's just what I can't tell you," she answered, sweeping a courtesythat fitted the rhythm of the music. "Only a face I should remember!"
"Should?" The Marquis' look followed hers.
But the subject of their conversation, as if divining the trend oftheir talk, had drawn back.
"Oh, he is gone now," she answered.
"A malcontent, perhaps! One meets them nowadays."
"No, no! He did not look--"
"Some poor fellow, then, your beauty has entrapped?" he insinuated."Humble admirer!"
"Then I would remember him!" she laughed as the dance came to an end.
Now in a tented pavilion, servants, richly garbed in festal costume,passed among the guests, circulating trays, bright with golden dishesand goblets, stamped with the ancient insignia of the Mount, and oncethe property of the affluent monks, early rulers of the place. Otherattendants followed, bearing light delicacies, confections andmarvelous frosted towers and structures from the castle kitchen.
"The patron saint in sugar!" Merry exclamations greeted these examplesof skill and cunning. "Are we to devour the saint?"
"Ah, no; he is only to look at!"
"But the Mount in cake--?"
"You may cut into that--though beware!--not so deep as the dungeons!"
"A piece of the cloister!"
"A bit of the abbey!"
"And you, Elise?"
The girl reached gaily. "A little of the froth of the sea!"
Meanwhile, not far distant, a barrel had been broached and wine
wasbeing circulated among the people. There, master of ceremonies, Beppodispensed advice with the beverage, his grumbling talk heard above thelight laughter and chatter of the lords and ladies.
"Drink to his Excellency!" As he spoke, the Governor's man, from theelevated stand upon which he stood, gazed arrogantly around him."Clods! Sponges that sop without a word of thanks! Who only think ofyour stomachs! Drink to the Governor, I say!"
"To the Governor!" exclaimed a few, but it might have been noticed theywere men from the town, directly beneath the shadow of his Excellency'scastle, and now close within reach of the fat factotum's arm.
"Once more! Had I the ordering of wine, the barrels would all be emptyones, but her ladyship would be generous, and--"
Beppo broke abruptly off, his wandering glance, on a sudden, arrested.
"_Hein!_" he exclaimed, with eyes protruding.
A moment he stammered a few words of surprise and incredulity, thewhile he continued to search eagerly--but now in vain! The object ofhis startled attention, illumined, for an instant, on the outskirts ofthe throng, by the glare of a torch, was no more to be descried. Asquestioning the reality of a fleeting impression, his gaze fixed itselfagain near the edge of flickering lights; shifted uncertainly to thepavilion where servants from the Mount hurried to and fro; then back tothe people around him. His jaw which had dropped grew suddenly firm.
"Clear a space for the dance!" he called out in tones impatient,excited. "It is her ladyship's command--so see you step blithely! Andyou fellows there, with the _tambourin_ and _hautbois_, come forward!"
Two men, clad in sheepskin and carrying rude instruments, obedientlyadvanced, and at once, in marked contrast to the recent tinklingmeasures of the orchestra, a wild, half-barbaric concord rang out.
But the Governor's man, having thus far executed the orders he hadreceived, did not linger to see whether or not his own injunction, "tostep blithely," was observed; some concern, remote from _gaillarde_,_gavotte_ or _bourree_ of the people, caused him hastily to dismountfrom his stand and make his way from the throng. As he started at arapid pace across the sands, his eyes, now shining with anticipation,looked back.
"What could have brought him here? Him!" he repeated. "Ah, my finefellow, this should prove a lucky stroke for me!" And quickening hisstep, until he almost ran, Beppo hurried toward the tower gate of theMount.