A Woodland Queen | Page 6

we can proceed
regularly without delay."
While thus conversing, they had traversed the forest, and emerged on
the hill overlooking Vivey. From the border line where they stood, they
could discover, between the half-denuded branches of the line of aspens,
the sinuous, deepset gorge, in which the Aubette wound its tortuous
way, at the extremity of which the village lay embanked against an
almost upright wall of thicket and pointed rocks. On the west this
narrow defile was closed by a mill, standing like a sentinel on guard, in
its uniform of solid gray; on each side of the river a verdant line of
meadow led the eye gradually toward the clump of ancient and lofty
ash-trees, behind which rose the. Buxieres domicile. This magnificent
grove of trees, and a monumental fence of cast-iron, were the only
excuse for giving the title of chateau to a very commonplace structure,
of which the main body presented bare, whitewashed walls, flanked by
two small towers on turrets shaped like extinguishers, and otherwise
resembling very ordinary pigeon-houses.

This chateau, or rather country squire's residence, had belonged to the
Odouart de Buxieres for more than two centuries. Before the
Revolution, Christophe de Buxieres, grandfather of the last proprietor,
had owned a large portion of Vivey, besides several forges in operation
on the Aube and Aubette rivers. He had had three children: one
daughter, who had embraced religion as a vocation; Claude Antoine,
the elder son, to whom he left his entire fortune, and Julien Abdon, the
younger, officer in the regiment of Rohan Soubise, with whom he was
not on good terms. After emigrating and serving in Conde's army, the
younger Buxieres had returned to France during the Restoration, had
married, and been appointed special receiver in a small town in
southern France. But since his return, he had not resumed relations with
his elder brother, whom he accused of having defrauded him of his
rights. The older one had married also, one of the Rochetaillee family;
he had had but one son, Claude Odouart de Buxieres, whose recent
decease had brought about the visit of the Justice of Auberive and his
clerk.
Claude de Buxieres had lived all his life at Vivey. Inheriting from his
father and grandfather flourishing health and a robust constitution, he
had also from them strong love for his native territory, a passion for the
chase, and a horror of the constraint and decorum exacted by worldly
obligations. He was a spoiled child, brought up by a weak-minded
mother and a preceptor without authority, who had succeeded in
imparting to him only the most elementary amount of instruction, and
he had, from a very early age, taken his own pleasure as his sole rule of
life. He lived side by side with peasants and poachers, and had himself
become a regular country yeoman, wearing a blouse, dining at the
wine-shop, and taking more pleasure in speaking the mountain patois
than his own native French. The untimely death of his father, killed by
an awkward huntsman while following the hounds, had emancipated
him at the age of twenty years. From this period he lived his life freely,
as he understood it; always in the open air, without hindrance of any
sort, and entirely unrestrained.
Nothing was exaggerated in the stories told concerning him. He was a
handsome fellow, jovial and dashing in his ways, and lavish with his

money, so he met with few rebuffs. Married women, maids, widows,
any peasant girl of attractive form or feature, all had had to resist his
advances, and with more than one the resistance had been very slight. It
was no false report which affirmed that he had peopled the district with
his illegitimate progeny. He was not hard to please, either;
strawberry-pickers, shepherd-girls, wood-pilers, day-workers, all were
equally charming in his sight; he sought only youth, health, and a
kindly disposition.
Marriage would have been the only safeguard for him; but aside from
the fact that his reputation of reckless huntsman and general scapegrace
naturally kept aloof the daughters of the nobles, and even the Langarian
middle classes, he dreaded more than anything else in the world the
monotonous regularity of conjugal life. He did not care to be restricted
always to the same dishes--preferring, as he said, his meat sometimes
roast, sometimes boiled, or even fried, according to his humor and his
appetite.
Nevertheless, about the time that Claude de Buxieres attained his
thirty- sixth year, it was noticed that he had a more settled air, and that
his habits were becoming more sedentary. The chase was still his
favorite pastime, but he frequented less places of questionable repute,
seldom slept away from home, and seemed to take greater pleasure in
remaining under his own roof. The cause of this change was ascribed