A Woodland Queen | Page 7

by some to the advance of years creeping over him; others, more
perspicacious, verified a curious coincidence between the entrance of a
new servant in the chateau and the sudden good behavior of Claude.
This girl, a native of Aprey, named Manette Sejournant, was not,
strictly speaking, a beauty, but she had magnificent blonde hair, gray,
caressing eyes, and a silvery, musical voice. Well built, supple as an
adder, modest and prudish in mien, she knew how to wait upon and
cosset her master, accustoming him by imperceptible degrees to prefer
the cuisine of the chateau to that of the wine-shops. After a while, by
dint of making her merits appreciated, and her presence continually
desired, she became the mistress of Odouart de Buxieres, whom she
managed to retain by proving herself immeasurably superior, both in

culinary skill and in sentiment, to the class of females from whom he
had hitherto been seeking his creature comforts.
Matters went on in this fashion for a year or so, until Manette went on a
three months' vacation. When she reappeared at the chateau, she
brought with her an infant, six weeks old, which she declared was the
child of a sister, lately deceased, but which bore a strange likeness to
Claude. However, nobody made remarks, especially as M. de Buxieres,
after he had been drinking a little, took no pains to hide his paternity.
He himself held the little fellow at the baptismal font, and later,
consigned him to the care of the Abbe Pernot, the curate of Vivey, who
prepared the little Claudet for his first communion, at the same time
that he instructed him in reading, writing, and the first four rules of
arithmetic. As soon as the lad reached his fifteenth year, Claude put a
gun into his hands, and took him hunting with him. Under the teaching
of M. de Buxieres, Claudet did honor to his master, and soon became
such an expert that he could give points to all the huntsmen of the
canton. None could equal him in tracing a dog; he knew all the passes,
by-paths, and enclosures of the forest; swooped down upon the game
with the keen scent and the velocity of a bird of prey, and never was
known to miss his mark. Thus it was that the country people surnamed
him the 'grand chasserot', the term which we here apply to the
sparrow-hawk. Besides all these advantages, he was handsome, alert,
straight, and well made, dark-haired and olive- skinned, like all the
Buxieres; he had his mother's caressing glance, but also the
overhanging eyelids and somewhat stern expression of his father, from
whom he inherited also a passionate temperament, and a spirit averse to
all kinds of restraint. They were fond of him throughout the country,
and M. de Buxieres, who felt his youth renewed in him, was very proud
of his adroitness and his good looks. He would invite him to his
pleasure parties, and make him sit at his own table, and confided
unhesitatingly all his secrets to him. In short, Claudet, finding himself
quite at home at the chateau, naturally considered himself as one of the
family. There was but one formality wanting to that end: recognizance
according to law. At certain favorable times, Manette Sejournant would
gently urge M. de Buxieres to have the situation legally authorized, to
which he would invariably reply, from a natural dislike to taking legal

advisers into his confidence:
"Don't worry about anything; I have no direct heir, and Claudet will
have all my fortune; my will and testament will be worth more to him
than a legal acknowledgment."
He would refer so often and so decidedly to his settled intention of
making Claudet his sole heir, that Manette, who knew very little about
what was required in such cases, considered the matter already secure.
She continued in unsuspecting serenity until Claude de Buxieres, in his
sixty-second year, died suddenly from a stroke of apoplexy.
The will, which was to insure Claudet's future prospects, and to which
the deceased had so often alluded, did it really exist? Neither Manette
nor the grand chasserot had been able to obtain any certain knowledge
in the matter, the hasty search for it after the decease having been
suddenly interrupted by the arrival of the mayor of Vivey; and by the
proceedings of the justice of the peace. The seals being once imposed,
there was no means, in the absence of a verified will, of ascertaining on
whom the inheritance devolved, until the opening of the inventory; and
thus the Sejournants awaited with feverish anxiety the return of the
justice of the peace and his bailiff.
M. Destourbet and Stephen Seurrot pushed open a small door to the
right of the main gateway, passed rapidly under the arched