The Peasant and the Prince | Page 4

their linen washed by the next morning. Her mother was trying to borrow some wood-ashes, as they had scarcely any soap; and it was time now that they were at the wash-tub. She must be gone.
The boys were more eager than Marie to be home. They were in fear for their rabbits and doves. They were heaping up their faggots with all speed, when they heard noises from the lane which made them pause. There was the sound of wheels, and the tramp of many horses, and the voices of a large company.
"It is the Count and his family," said Marie, "coming to the chateau by the shortest road. No--do not go, boys," she entreated, as they left their faggots, and began forcing their way through the brushwood towards the pond, that they might see the sight in the lane. "Robin, dear Robin!--Marc,--come back! Do come back, now! You will see them much better to-morrow. They will make a much grander show to-morrow. Charles, do make them stay here!"
Charles did not attempt this. He was thinking of something else; for he had observed Marie's colour change when the cavalcade was first heard in the lane. He fixed his eyes upon her as he said--
"Had you seen the Count and his train when you found us here?"
"Yes," she replied, looking in his face; "I had crossed the corner of neighbour Thibaut's field, and was upon the stile when the party turned into the cross-road; and I had to wait till they were all past."
"How many were there?"
"Oh, more than I can tell. There was a coach full of ladies, and six horses to it. And some more ladies on horseback, and some gentlemen, and many servants."
"Did any of them speak to you?"
"They gave me good-day. But, Charles, I could hardly return it dutifully to them." She hid her face on her lover's shoulder as she whispered, "It made my heart sink to nothing, and does now, to think that I cannot be married without his consent,--that great Count's! When I saw his grandeur, I thought it never could be."
"Never fear," said Charles, relieved from some feeling of dread which he hardly understood, but still with a heavy heart. "If his grandeur be all you are afraid of, never fear. He will be too busy to attend to such an affair, and will send us word through the bailiff, or the cure, if we can get him to speak for us. Or we can wait a few days, till they are fairly gone with the Dauphiness, and then marry; and the thing done, he will not take it amiss that we did not trouble him for his consent, at such a busy time."
"See, what are the boys doing?" exclaimed Marie, who saw through the trees that her brothers were making the humblest of their rustic bows repeatedly, and with extraordinary earnestness. "Come further back into the wood," she whispered. "Here, behind this thicket;--here no one can see us from the lane. Hark! Can you hear what those voices are saying."
No words could be distinguished; but the boys soon came running back, and, to Marie's great relief, followed by no one.
Her brothers were full of what they had seen. The cavalcade was very grand. The great coach looked quite full of ladies with their large white hats, covered with feathers, and flowers, and ribbons. Some more ladies in light blue riding-habits rode the most beautiful sleek horses; and so did the gentlemen. One of the young gentlemen stopped, or tried to stop; but his horse would not stand, but kept wheeling round and round the whole time he was speaking to them. He asked them whether they did not live in this wood; and when they said, "No," he asked whether somebody did not live in it. Upon their saying that they knew of no inhabitant, he further inquired whether, if he came bird-nesting, or with his fishing-rod, they did not think he should find some sort of habitation among the trees. And then he asked whether they were not the Count's peasantry; and what their names were, and how many there were in the family; and whether the bailiff was kind to them. By that time, the gentleman's horse began to bolt across the lane, and all the party but one groom were almost out of sight; so the gentleman took off his hat, and bowed down to his saddle, looking very funny,--not mocking, but in play, and galloped off; and the groom laughed and nodded, and galloped after his master.
Charles now turned away, and with desperate tugs pulled up the stakes he had driven with so much satisfaction, and threw them into the thicket. He filled the holes, scratched up with brambles the ground he and the boys had trodden, and