The Chaplet of Pearls | Page 3

were scarcely held with the respect due to an
ornament so acquired. The manly garb for the first time assumed by his
sturdy legs, and the possession of the little sword, were evidently the
most interesting parts of the affair to the youthful husband, who seemed
to find in them his only solace for the weary length of the ceremony.
He was a fine, handsome little fellow, fair and rosy, with bright blue
eyes, and hair like shining flax, unusually tall and strong-limbed for his
age; and as he gave his hand to his little bride, and walked with her
under a canopy up to kneel at the High Altar, for the marriage blessing
and the mass, they looked like a full-grown couple seen through a
diminishing- glass.
The little bride was perhaps a less beautiful child, but she had a

splendid pair of black eyes, and a sweet little mouth, both set into the
uncomprehending solemnity of baby gravity and contentment in fine
clothes. In accordance with the vow indicated by her name of Marie,
her dress was white and blue, turquoise forget-me-nots bound the little
lace veil on her dark chestnut hair, the bosom of her white satin dress
was sprinkled with the same azure jewel, and turquoises bordered every
seam of the sweeping skirt with a train befitting a count's daughter, and
meandered in gorgeous constellations round the hem. The little thing
lisped her own vows forth without much notion of their sense, and
indeed was sometimes prompted by her bridesmaid cousin, a pretty
little girl a year older, who thrust in her assistance so glibly that the
King, as well as others of the spectators, laughed, and observed that she
would get herself married to the boy instead of her cousin.
There was, however, to be no doubt nor mistake about Beranger and
Eustacie de Ribaumont being man and wife. Every ceremony, religious
or domestic, that could render a marriage valid, was gone through with
real earnestness, although with infinite gaiety, on the part of the court.
Much depended on their union, and the reconcilement of the two
branches of the family had long been a favourite scheme of King Henri
II.
Both alike were descended from Anselme de Ribaumont, renowned in
the first Crusade, and from the brave Picard who had received the
pearls; but, in the miserable anarchy of Charles VI.'s reign, the elder
brother had been on the Burgundian side--like most of the other nobles
of Picardy--and had thus been brought into the English camp, where,
regarding Henry V. as lawfully appointed to the succession, and much
admiring him and his brother Nedford, he had become an ardent
supporter of the English claim. He had married an English lady, and
had received the grant if the castle of Leurre in Normandy by way of
compensation for his ancestral one of Ribaumont in Picardy, which had
been declared to be forfeited by his treason, and seized by his brother.
This brother had always been an Armagnac, and had risen and thriven
with his party,--before the final peace between France and England
obliged the elder line to submit to Charles VII. Since that time there

had been a perpetual contention as to the restitution of Chateau
Ribaumont, a strife which under Louis XI. had become an endless
lawsuit; and in the days of dueling had occasioned a good many insults
and private encounters. The younger branch, or Black Ribaumonts, had
received a grant from Louis XI. of the lands of Nid-de-Merle,
belonging to an unfortunate Angevin noble, who had fallen under the
royal displeasure, and they had enjoyed court favour up to the present
generation, when Henri II., either from opposition to his father, instinct
for honesty, or both, had become a warm friend to the gay and brilliant
young Baron de Ribaumont, head of the white or elder branch of the
family.
The family contention seemed likely to wear out of its own accord, for
the Count de Ribaumont was an elderly and childless man, and his
brother, the Chevalier de Ribaumont, was, according to the usual lot of
French juniors, a bachelor, so that it was expected that the whole
inheritance would centre upon the elder family. However, to the
general surprise, the Chevalier late in life married, and became the
father of a son and daughter; but soon after calculations were still more
thrown out by the birth of a little daughter in the old age of the Count.
Almost from the hour in which her sex was announced, the King had
promised the Baron de Ribaumont that she should be the wife of his
young son, and that all the possessions of the house should be settled
upon the little couple, engaging to provide for the Chevalier's
disappointed heir in some commandery of