Orrain

Orrain, by S. Levett-Yeats

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Title: Orrain A Romance
Author: S. Levett-Yeats

Release Date: December 26, 2006 [eBook #20192]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ORRAIN***
E-text prepared by Al Haines

ORRAIN
A Romance
by

S. LEVETT-YEATS
Author of "The Lord Protector," "The Chevalier d'Auriac," etc.

Longmans, Green, and Co. 91 and 93 Fifth Avenue, New York London
and Bombay 1904
Copyright, 1904, by S. Levett-Yeats All Rights Reserved

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I
THE CRY IN THE RUE DES LAVANDIERES II I BECOME THE
OWNER OF A RING III MY PYRAMID OF CARDS COMES
DOWN IV THE QUEEN'S MIRACLE V THE PORTE ST. MICHEL
VI SIMON AND I MEET AGAIN VII DIANE VIII THE ACTS OF
PIERREBON IX THE WHITE MASK X THE BITER BITTEN XI
THE ROAD TO POITIERS XII A WRITER OF COMMENTARIES
XIII THE TOUR DE L'OISEAU XIV MADEMOISELLE DE
PARADIS XV MY PRISONER XVI THE TWELVE ROSE PETALS
XVII MADEMOISELLE DECIDES XVIII DR. JOHANNES
CABALLUS XIX THE WOMAN IN BLACK AND WHITE XX THE
CROWN JEWELS XXI THE HOUSE IN THE PASSAGE OF PITY
XXII THE TABLETS OF DOM ANTOINE DE MOUCHY XXIII
THE MASQUERADE XXIV THE KING AND THE FAVOURITE
XXV THE PACKET OF LETTERS XXVI THE CHURCH UNDER
THE GROUND XXVII THE RING XXVIII THE ARM OF GOD
XXIX LA VALENTINOIS AND I XXX FONTAINEBLEAU XXXI
THE PEARS OF ORRAIN

ORRAIN

CHAPTER I
THE CRY IN THE RUE DES LAVANDIERES
My father, René, Vidame d'Orrain, was twice married. By his first wife
he had one son, Simon, who subsequently succeeded to his title and
estates, and was through his life my bitter enemy. By his second wife,
whom he married somewhat late in life, he had two sons--the elder,
Anne, known as the Chevalier de St. Martin from his mother's lands,
which he inherited; and the younger, Bertrand--myself.
Simon betook himself early to the Court, and we heard but little of him,
and that not to his credit; St. Martin went to Italy under the banner of
Brissac; and as for me, my parents yielding to the persuasion of my
mother's uncle, the Bishop of Seez, decided that I should become a
Churchman, and I was forthwith packed off to Paris, and entered at the
College of Cambrai, being then about seventeen years of age. Being
remarkably tall and strongly built, with a natural taste for all manly
exercises, it might have been expected that my books saw little of me;
but, on the contrary, I found in them a pleasure and a companionship
that has lasted through my life. Thus it happened that I made
considerable progress. So much so that the good Bishop, my
great-uncle, often flattered me with the ambitious hopes of some day
filling his Episcopal chair--a hope that, I need not say, was never
realised.
About this time, I being nineteen years of age, things happened that
entirely altered my life. My mother sickened and died. Shortly after
news came of the death of my brother St. Martin, who was killed in an
affair of honour at Milan. The Vidame, my father, then in his
eighty-first year, and much enfeebled by old wounds, especially one he
had received at Fornovo, felt that his last hours were come, and
summoned my brother Simon and myself home to receive his last
blessing before he died.
I hurried back as fast as possible, but when I reached Orrain I found to
my astonishment the gates of the Chateau closed against me, and

Simon, leaning over the battlements, bade me begone.
Overcome with this reception, I was for a space struck speechless; but
at length finding voice I begged, even with tears, to be allowed to see
my father. But Simon sneered back:
"You will have to take a long journey, then; either below or above--I
know not which," he mocked. "Your father is dead. He has left you his
curse, and the lands of St. Martin are yours. I am master here at last,
thank God! And I tell you to be off! Take that pink and white face of
yours back to your College of Cambrai!"
He lied, for, as I afterwards heard, my father was not dead then, but lay
dying in his chamber, to which no one but Simon had access, and over
which he had placed a guard of his men-at-arms, a cut-throat set of
Italians whom he ever had with him.
Simon's cruel words stung me to