Stray Pearls | Page 7

papers, parchment, a standish, and pens. I believe if it had been a
block, and I had had to lay my head on it, like poor Lady Jane Grey, I
could not have been much more frightened.
There was a sound of wheels, and presently the gentleman usher came
forward, announcing the Most Noble the Marquis de Nidemerle, and
the Lord Viscount of Bellaise. My father and brothers went half-way
down the stairs to meet them, my mother advanced across the room,
holding me in one hand and Annora in the other. We all curtsied low,
and as the gentlemen advanced, bowing low, and almost sweeping the
ground with the plumes in their hats, we each had to offer them a cheek
to salute after the English fashion. The old marquis was talking French
so fast that I could not understand him in the least, but somehow a mist
suddenly seemed to clear away from before me, and I found that I was
standing before that alarming table, not with him, but with something
much younger--not much older, indeed, than Eustace.
I began to hear what the notary was reading out, and behold it was--
'Contract of marriage on the part of Philippe Marie Francois de Bellaise,
Marquis de Nidermerle, and Eustace de Ribaumont, Baron Walwyn of
Walwyn, in Dorset, and Baron de Ribaumont in Picardy, on behoof of
Gaspard Henri Philippe, Viscount de Bellaise, nephew of the Marquis
de Nidemerle, and Margaret Henrietta Maria de Ribaumont, daughter
of the Baron de Ribaumont.'
Then I knew that I had been taken in by the Prince's wicked trick, and
that my husband was to be the young viscount, not the old uncle! I do
not think that this was much comfort to me at the moment, for, all the
same, I was going into a strange country, away from every one I had
ever known.
But I did take courage to look up under my eye-lashes at the form I was
to see with very different eyes. M. de Ballaise was only nineteen, but
although not so tall as my father or brother, he had already that grand
military bearing which is only acquired in the French service, and no
wonder, or he had been three years in the Regiment de Conde, and had
already seen two battles and three sieges in Savoy, and now had only
leave of absence for the winter before rejoining his regiment in the Low
Countries.

Yet he looked as bashful as a maiden. It was true that, as my father said,
his bashfulness was as great as an Englishman's. Indeed, he had been
bred up at his great uncle's chateau in Anjou, under a strict abbe who
had gone with him to the war, and from whom he was only now to be
set free upon his marriage. He had scarcely ever spoken to any lady but
his old aunt--his parents had long been dead-- and he had only two or
three times seen his little sister through the grating of her convent. So,
as he afterwards confessed, nothing but his military drill and training
bore him through the affair. He stood upright as a dart, bowed at the
right place, and in due time signed his name to the contract, and I had
to do the same. Then there ensued a great state dinner, where he and I
sat together, but neither of us spoke to the other; and when, as I was
trying to see the viscount under my eyelashes, I caught his eyes trying
to do the same by me, I remember my cheeks flaming all over, and I
think his must have done the same, for my father burst suddenly out
into a laugh without apparent cause, though he tried to check himself
when he saw my mother's vexation.
When all was over, she highly lauded the young gentleman, declaring
that he was an example of the decorum with which such matters were
conducted in France; and when my father observed that he should
prefer a little more fire and animation, she said: 'Truly, my lord, one
would think you were of mere English extraction, that you should
prefer the rude habits of a farmer or milkmaid to the reserve of a true
noble and lady of quality.'
'Well, dame, I promised that you should have it your own way with the
poor lass,' said my father; 'and I see no harm in the lad, but I own I
should like to know more of him, and Meg would not object either. It
was not the way I took thee, Margaret.'
'I shall never make you understand that a widow is altogether a
different thing,' said my mother.
I suppose they never recollected that I could hear every word they said,
but