A Gentleman of France | Page 7

day long the rattle of hoofs on the
pavement, and the laughter of riders bent on diversion, came up to me,
making the hard stool seem harder, the bare walls more bare, and

increasing a hundredfold the solitary gloom in which I sat. For as
sunshine deepens the shadows which fall athwart it, and no silence is
like that which follows the explosion of a mine, so sadness and poverty
are never more intolerable than when hope and wealth rub elbows with
them.
True, the great sermon which M. d'Amours preached in the market-
house on the morning of Christmas-day cheered me, as it cheered all
the more sober spirits. I was present myself, sitting in an obscure corner
of the building, and heard the famous prediction, which was so soon to
be fulfilled. 'Sire,' said the preacher, turning to the King of Navarre, and
referring, with the boldness that ever characterised that great man and
noble Christian, to the attempt, then being made to exclude the prince
from the succession--'Sire, what God at your birth gave you man cannot
take away. A little while, a little patience, and you shall cause us to
preach beyond the Loire! With you for our Joshua we shall cross the
Jordan, and in the Promised Land the Church shall be set up.'
Words so brave, and so well adapted to encourage the Huguenots in the
crisis through which their affairs were then passing, charmed all hearers;
save indeed, those--and they were few--who, being devoted to the
Vicomte de Turenne, disliked, though they could not controvert, this
public acknowledgment of the King of Navarre, as the Huguenot leader.
The pleasure of those present was evinced in a hundred ways, and to
such an extent that even I returned to my chamber soothed and exalted,
and found, in dreaming of the speedy triumph of the cause, some
compensation for my own ill-fortune.
As the day wore on, however, and the evening brought no change, but
presented to me the same dreary prospect with which morning had
made me familiar, I confess without shame that my heart sank once
more, particularly as I saw that I should be forced in a day or two to sell
either my remaining horse or some part of my equipment as essential; a
step which I could not contemplate without feelings of the utmost
despair. In this state of mind I was adding up by the light of a solitary
candle the few coins I had left, when I heard footsteps ascending the
stairs. I made them out to be the steps of two persons, and was still lost

in conjectures who they might be, when a hand knocked gently at my
door.
Fearing another trick, I did not at once open, the more so there was
something stealthy and insinuating in the knock. Thereupon my visitors
held a whispered consultation; then they knocked again. I asked loudly
who was there, but to this they did not choose to give any answer,
while I, on my part, determined not to open until they did. The door
was strong, and I smiled grimly at the thought that this time they would
have their trouble for their pains.
To my surprise, however, they did not desist, and go away, as I
expected, but continued to knock at intervals and whisper much
between times. More than once they called me softly by name and bade
me open, but as they steadily refrained from saying who they were, I
sat still. Occasionally I heard them laugh, but under their breath as it
were; and persuaded by this that they were bent on a frolic, I might
have persisted in my silence until midnight, which was not more than
two hours off, had not a slight sound, as of a rat gnawing behind the
wainscot, drawn my attention to the door. Raising my candle and
shading my eyes I espied something small and bright protruding
beneath it, and sprang up, thinking they were about to prise it in. To my
surprise, however, I could discover, on taking the candle to the
threshold, nothing more threatening than a couple of gold livres, which
had been thrust through the crevice between the door and the floor.
My astonishment may be conceived. I stood for full a minute staring at
the coins, the candle in my hand. Then, reflecting that the young sparks
at the Court would be very unlikely to spend such a sum on a jest, I
hesitated no longer, but putting down the candle, drew the bolt of the
door, purposing to confer with my visitors outside. In this, however, I
was disappointed, for the moment the door was open they pushed
forcibly past me and, entering the room pell-mell, bade me by signs to
close the