The Peasant and the Prince | Page 4

would serve as an excuse
for having been so long in the wood, if the Count's people should have
their eyes upon them. She herself must make haste back, Marie said, as
the soldiers wanted 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,