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N O E M I
BY S. BARING-GOULD
AUTHOR OF EVE, RED SPIDER, LITTLE TU'PENNY, GABRIELLE ANDRE, ETC.
NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1895
COPYRIGHT, 1894, BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I.--THE STAIR PERILOUS 1
II.--WHO IS THE FOOL NOW? 11
III.--THE WOLVES OUT 22
IV.--IN NOMINE BEELZEBUB 32
V.--RAISING THE RANSOM 43
VI.--THE JEW 53
VII.--THE NEW COMPANION 62
VIII.--IN THE DEVIL'S CUPS 73
IX.--A SINGED GLOVE 84
X.--BY FIRE 95
XI.--THE TEN CROSSES 106
XII.--THREE CROSSES 116
XIII.--THE END OF L'EGLISE GUILLEM 125
XIV.--THE BATTLE OF THE BEUNE 132
XV.--A THREATENED HORROR 143
XVI.--VADE IN PACE 153
XVII.--IN THE RAVEN'S NEST 165
XVIII.--IN THE DEPTHS 174
XIX.--A NIGHT RIDE 185
XX.--THE RING 194
XXI.--A DISAPPEARANCE 207
XXII.--THE CASTELLAN 216
XXIII.--IN THE HAIL 227
XXIV.--THE FOURTH TIME 238
XXV.--A HELEBORE WREATH 249
XXVI.--THE ELEVENTH CROSS 260
NOEMI.
CHAPTER I.
THE STAIR PERILOUS.
JEAN del' Peyra was standing scraping a staff to form a lance-shaft. Thesun shone hot upon him, and at his feet lay his shadow as a blot.
He was too much engrossed in his work to look about him, till he heard avoice call from somewhere above his head--
"Out of the way, clown!"
Then there crashed down by him a log of wood that rolled to his feet andwas followed by another piece.
Now only did Jean look up, and what he saw made him drop hishalf-finished shaft and forget it. What Jean saw was this: a girl atsome distance above him on the face of the rock, swaying a long-handledhammer, with which she was striking at, and dislodging, the steps bywhich she had ascended, and by means of which alone could she return.
The cliff was of white limestone, or rather chalk, not such as Doverheadlands are composed of, and which have given their name to Albion,but infinitely more compact and hard, though scarcely less white. Theappearance of the stone was that of fine-grained white limestone. Amodern geologist peering among its fossils would say it was chalk. Butthe period of this tale far antedates the hatching out of the firstgeologist.
The cliff was that of La Roque Gageac, that shoots up from the Dordogneto the height of four hundred and sixty feet above the river. The lowerportion is, however, not perpendicular; it consists of a series ofledges and rapid inclines, on which stands clustered, clinging to therock, the town of Gageac. But two thirds of the height is not merely asheer precipice, it overhangs. Half-way up this sheer precipice theweather has gnawed into the rock, where was a bed of softer stone,forming a horizontal cavern, open to the wind and rain, with a roofextending some forty feet, unsupported, above the hard bed that servedas floor.
At some time unknown a stair had been contrived in the face of the rock,to reach this terrace a hundred feet above the roofs of the housesbelow; and then a castle had been built in the cave, consisting oftowers and guard-rooms, halls and kitchens; a well had been sunk in theheart of the mountain, and this impregnable fastness had been made intoa habitation for man.
It could be reached in but one way, by the stair from below. It couldnot be reached from above, for the rock overhung the castle walls.
But the stair itself was a perilous path, and its construction a work ofingenuity. To make the position--the eagle nest in the rock--absolutelyinaccessible to an enemy, the stair had been contrived so that it couldbe wrecked by those flying up it, with facility, and that thereby theymight cut off possibility of pursuit.
The method adopted was this.
Holes had been bored into the rock-face in gradual ascent from theplatform at the foot of the rock to the gate-tower of the castle,nestled on the platform in the precipice. In each such hole a balk orbillet of wood was planted, sliced away below where it entered, and thisend was then made fast by a wedge driven in under it. From each step,when once secured, that above it could next be made firm. To release thesteps a tap from underneath sufficed to loosen the wedge and send it andthe balk it supported clattering down.
And now the girl was striking away these steps. What was her purpose?Had she considered what she was doing? To destroy the means of ascentwas easy enough; to replace it a labour exacting time and patience. Wasshe a fool? was she mad?
There was some method in her madness, for she had not knocked away asuccession of steps, but two only, with one left in position between.
"'Ware, fool!"
And down the face of the rock and clattering to his feet fell a third.
This was too much.
Jean ran to the foot of the stair and hastened up it till he reached thegap. Further he could not proceed--a step had been dislodged; the nextremained intact. Then came another break, a second step in place, andthen the third break. Above that stood the girl, swinging thelong-handled mallet with which she had loosened the wedges and struckdown the steps they held up. She was a handsome girl with dusky skin,but warm with blood under it, dark loose hair, and large deep browneyes. She stood, athletic, graceful, poised on her stage, swaying thehammer, looking defiantly, insolently, at the youth, with lips half openand pouting.
"Do you know what you are about, madcap?" said he.
"Perfectly. Making you keep your distance, fool."
"Keep distance!" said the youth. "I had no thought of you. I was notpursuing you--I did not know you were here!"
"And now I have woke you to see me."
"What of that? You had acted like a mad thing. I cannot help you, Icannot leap to you. Nothing would make me do so."
"Nothing? Not if I said, 'Come, assist me down'?"
"I could not leap the space. See you--if one step only were thrown downI might venture, but not when every alternate one between us is missing.To leap up were to ensure my fall at the next gap."
"I do not need your help. I can descend. I can spring from one step tothe next over the ga
ps."
"And risk a fall and a broken neck?"
"Then there is one madcap the less in this world."
"For what have you done this?"
"A prank."
"A prank! Yes; but to replace the steps takes time and pains."
"I shall expend neither on them."
"It will give trouble to others."
"If it amuses me, what care I?"
The young man looked at the strange girl with perplexity.
"If every peg of wood were away," said she, "I could yet descend."
"How? Are you a bird--can you fly? Not a cat, not a squirrel could runup or down this rock."
"Fool! I should slip down by the rope. Do you not know that there is awindlass? Do you suppose they take their kegs of wine, their meat, theirbread, their fuel up this spider stair? I tell you that there is a rope,and at the end of it a bar of wood. They let this down and bring up whatthey want affixed to the bar. At pleasure, any man may go up or downthat way. Do you not see? It must be so. If they were fast and all theladders were gone, how should they ever descend? Why, they could notmend the stairs from aloft. It must be done step by step from below. Doyou see that, fool?"
"I see that perfectly."
"Very well; I have but to run up, make love to the custodian, and hewould swing me down. There; it is easy done!"
"You had best cast down the hammer and let me replace the steps."
"I'll come down without them and without a rope. I can leap. If I cannotcreep up as a cat, I can spring down like one--aye! and like a squirrel,too, from one lodging place to another. Stand back and see me."
"Stay!" said Jean. "Why run the risk when not needed?"
"Because I like the risk--it is pepper and mustard to my meat of life.Stand back, clown, or I will spring and strike you over--and down you goand crack your foolish pate."
"If I go--you go also--do you not see that?"
"Look aloft!" said the girl. "Up in that nest--whenever the English areabout, up goes into it the Bishop of Sarlat, and he takes with him allhis treasure, his gold cups and patens, his shrines for holy bones allset with gems, and his bags of coin. There he sits like an old grey owl,Towhit! towhoo--towhit! towhoo! and he looks out this way, that--to seewhere houses are burning and smoke rises, and when at night the wholeworld is besprent with red fires--as the sky is with stars, where farmsand homesteads are burning. And he says 'Towhit! towhoo! I have my cupsand my patens and my coin-bags, and my dear little holy bones, all safehere. Towhit! towhoo! And best of all--I am safe--my unholy old bonesalso, whoo! whoo! whoo! Nobody can touch me--whoo! whoo! whoo!'"
"Is he there now?"
"No, he is not. There is no immediate danger. Only a few as guard, thatis all. If I were a man, I'd take the place and smoke the old owl out,and rob him of his plunder. I'd keep the shrines, and throw the holyrubbish away!"
"How would you do that?"
"I have been considering. I'd be let down over the edge of the cliff andthrow in fireballs, till I had set the castle blazing."
"And then?"
"Then I'd have grappling-irons and crook them to the walls, and swing inunder the ledge, and leap on the top of the battlements, and the placewould fall. I'd cast the old bishop out if he would not go, and carryoff all his cups and shrines and coin."
"It would be sacrilege!"
"Bah! What care I?" Then, after enjoying the astonishment of the lad,she said: "With two or three bold spirits it might be done. Will youjoin me? Be my mate, and we will divide the plunder." She burst into amerry laugh. "It would be sport to smoke out the old owl and send himflying down through the air, blinking and towhooing, to break his wings,or his neck, or his crown there--on those stones below."
"I'm not English--I'm no brigand!" answered the young man vehemently.
"I'm English!" said the girl.
"What? An English woman or devil?"
"I'm English--I'm Gascon. I'm anything where there is diversion tobe got and plunder to be obtained. Oh, but we live in good times!Deliver me from others where there is nothing doing, no sport, no_chevauchee_[1] no spoil, no fighting."
[1] A _chevauchee_ was an expedition to ravage a tract of country. Originally it signified a feudal service due from a vassal to his seigneur in private wars.
Then suddenly she threw away the hammer and spread her arms as might abird preparing to fly, bent her lithe form as might a cricket to leap.
"Stand aside! Go back! 'Ware, I am coming!"
The lad hastily beat a retreat down the steps. He could do no other.Each step was but two feet in length from the rock. There was nohandrail; no two persons could pass on it. Moreover, the impetus of thegirl, if she leaped from one foothold to the next, and the next, andthen again to the stair where undamaged, would be prodigious; she wouldrequire the way clear that she might descend bounding, swinging down thesteep flight, two stages at a leap, till she reached the bottom. Anobstruction would be fatal to her, and fatal to him who stood in herway.
No word of caution, no dissuasion was of avail. In her attitude, in theflash of her eyes, in the tone of her voice, in the thrill that wentthrough her agile frame, Jean saw that the leap was inevitable. Hetherefore hastened to descend, and when he reached the bottom, turned tosee her bound.
He held his breath. The blood in his arteries stood still. He set histeeth, and all the muscles of his body contracted as with the cramp.
He saw her leap.
Once started, nothing could arrest her.
On her left hand was the smooth face of the rock, without even a bladeof grass, a harebell, a tuft of juniper growing out of it. On her rightwas void. If she tripped, if she missed her perch, if she miscalculatedher weight, if she lost confidence for one instant, if her nerve gaveway in the slightest, if she was not true of eye, nimble of foot,certain in judging distance, then she would shoot down just as had thelogs she had cast below.
As certainly as he saw her fall would Jean spring forward in the vainhope of breaking her fall, as certainly to be struck down and perishwith her.
One--a whirl before his eyes. As well calculate her leaps as count thespokes in a wheel as it revolves on the road.
One--two--three--thirty--a thousand--nothing!
"There, clown!"
She was at the bottom, her hands extended, her face flushed withexcitement and pleasure.
"You see--what I can dare and do."