Chapter XV
The sound of revelry rose high in the great hall of Mereac. On the dais at the head of the table the young Sieur, with flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes, raised his goblet of wine and drank deeply as he looked into the hazel eyes of the beautiful woman beside him. The guests around the table whispered together that Yvon de Mereac’s taste had not been amiss when he chose the lovely Diane de Coray for his betrothed, and toasts were freely drunk to the future châtelaine of the castle, and admiring glances flung towards the youthful beauty who sat there laughing and smiling so gaily and happily.
Guillaume de Coray laughed too as he pledged the fair dame beside him and quaffed the choice hippocras which filled his cup. All indeed went well with those castles in the air which he was so intent on building. The first seeds were already sown, and his keen glance noted with a thrill of pleasurable excitement that the flushed cheek and sparkling eye of his young host wore anything but the bloom of health. His own eyes roamed slowly round the board as he followed the tenor of his thoughts, and fell at length on the face of Gwennola de Mereac.
The young girl was sitting silent and pale amongst her brother’s guests, her listless eyes and apathetic replies to the cavalier beside her telling how far away were thoughts and heart. In vain the Comte de Laferrière whispered tender words in her unwilling ears. She replied in accents so cold that they must necessarily have chilled the warmest admirer; and at length the Count, weary of repulses, turned his attentions and compliments to a more sprightly damsel on his left, who seemed only too willing to respond to his wit and gallantry. If he had thought to chagrin his destined bride, the effect was quite contrary to his expectations, for Gwennola seemed entirely indifferent, if not oblivious, to his neglect, but sat in her place, pale, listless, and indifferent as before, except when for a moment’s space she raised her blue eyes to encounter de Coray’s mocking smile, when a flush of anger swept over her pale cheeks, and for a moment her eyes flashed with their old scorn and defiance.
In spite of her passionate indignation and pleading, this man had been welcomed as an honoured guest by her infatuated brother, who listened with ready ears to the lame and feeble excuses with which de Coray strove to explain the past. All was forgiven and forgotten to the brother of the lovely Diane, and it needed but a brief space for de Coray to attain a firm command over his future brother-in-law’s weak and wavering will. That she should be forced into some hateful marriage or condemned to a convent cell was Gwennola’s daily expectation, but so far the blow had not fallen. It is true that Maurice de Laferrière still wooed, but no formal betrothal had taken place. Yet all hopes of a marriage with her lover were shattered for ever, not only by reason of France’s threatening attitude towards the persecuted duchy, but because of the bitter enmity of de Coray, who had successfully persuaded de Mereac that the Frenchman had been the ally of François Kerden.
No wonder, therefore, that Gwennola’s heart was heavy as she sat, perforce, alone and solitary, amidst the revelry around.
“A new minstrel!” cried Yvon with a gay laugh. “Nay, my friend, by the bones of St Yves, thou comest in a fortunate hour. Thy name, good fellow? and a cup of wine to clear thy throat before thy song.”
The stranger bowed as he accepted the cup and glanced towards the speaker.
“My name, monsieur,” he replied in the Breton tongue, “is Jean Marcille, and my birthplace near to Cape Raz.”
“Good,” replied the host. “A true Breton; and a Breton ballad of Breton prowess is ever welcome at the Château de Mereac. Eh, old Antoine? A new strain will be as welcome to us as a rest is to thee; therefore sing us a stirring lay, Sir Minstrel, and see that its theme be of love and war, for of such things all true knights make their dreams and fair ladies welcome.”
Again the minstrel bowed, and, taking his vielle in his hand, swept the chords ere he began his song, glancing as he did so round the long board, though his eye seemingly rested on none. He himself was a sufficiently striking figure to cause interest, especially at the lower end of the table, where the waiting-women eyed with appreciation the slight, well-formed figure in its corset of scarlet cloth and wide hanging sleeves, and the cap of velvet, nearly half a yard in height, set jauntily on the man’s dark hair, which well matched his bronzed complexion and black, merry eyes, which seemed to promise a boon companion of a gay wit and keen tongue.
The visit of such a vielleur was not uncommon to the châteaux of the great; for although nearly all possessed a minstrel of their own, a fresh repertoire was always welcomed, music and singing being an almost necessary accompaniment to the meal.
Jean Marcille was evidently the possessor of a voice of no mean merit, and thunderous applause greeted song after song. Wild ballads of ancient Brittany he sang, telling of the fate of the wizard Myrddyn, who, for all his wisdom, was beguiled to tell his secret to the treacherous Vyvyan, knowing all the while of her cruel intention, yet unable to withstand the siren wiles of her woman’s tongue, and so lies sleeping for ever in his tomb in the forest of Broceliande, under the fatal stone where his false love has enchanted him. Then, still pursuing the mournful themes with which Brittany seems to abound, and which her children hold so dear, he sang of the romantic loves of Abelard the sage and Helöise the beautiful—loves which, crushed and killed in sorrow and despair, bloomed immortally in poetry and song. But presently his voice rang with a more martial strain, as, sweeping the chords of his harp, he sang the inspiriting songs of valour—songs these, perchance, of his own weaving, for they told of the distresses of the fair young Duchess Anne, of her helpless condition amongst ravening enemies, of her gallant Bretons rallying around her, of the intrepidity of Breton heroes, of the siege of Gwengamp, where the brave Captains Chero and Gouicket defied the traitor Rohan’s call, and declared that whilst there was a Duchess in Brittany they would not give up her towns; and of Tomina Al-Léan, the wife of Gouicket, who took her husband’s place on the walls when he lay helpless and wounded below.
Such ballads, at such a time, when deeds of chivalry were brave men’s daily acts, and ladies had no smiles for recreant knight or coward lover, never failed to stir their listeners to a frenzy of enthusiasm, and knights drew their swords as they sprang to their feet, and, with goblets in their right hands, drank to their little Duchess, and flung the shivering glass to the ground.
Only, perhaps, the enthusiasm of Guillaume de Coray was a little forced, and his lips curved more than once into a mocking smile as he watched the ring of flushed faces, and reflected how small a concern it was of his did Duchess or King rule in Brittany, provided his own schemes went well.
The stranger minstrel needed little pressing to stay at the Château of Mereac, for truly it seemed that he fell almost naturally into his place in the household. A welcome addition, indeed, to enliven the shortening and gloomy days, for the voice of old Antoine was growing cracked and faltering, and his songs became wearisome by reason of oft repetition; nor had the elder man the facility in weaving new ones which his young rival seemed to possess—a fact which tended to jealousy, though Antoine was too wise to let such be apparent.
Meantime, Jean Marcille proved to have as soft and winning a tongue in speech as in song, and so Marie Alloadec found, as she sat busily employed in her needlework, whilst the minstrel sat on the wide ledge beside her with crossed legs and a face bent perhaps a little nearer to Marie’s swiftly flying needle than was judicious.
He was telling her of his home, near the wild and mournful Cape Raz, and from time to time Marie would allow her work to fall as she listened to the graphic descriptions of that dreary and romantic coast. The very name of Raz causes the trembling sailor to pray aloud to his patron saints as he thinks of the time when his boat must glide by the red rocks where the hell of Plogoff yearns for its prey. No wonder the Breton proverbs say, “None pass the Raz without hurt or fright,” and “Help me, great God, at Cape Raz;—my ship is so small, and the sea is so great.”
A terrible dwelling-place this, with a brooding fear in the air and a melancholy mingled with every legend and fancy which haunts the coast around. Far away there beyond Dead Man’s Bay lies the island of Sein, a desolate sandbank inhabited by a few compassionate families, who yearly strive to save the shipwrecked mariners. This3 island was the abode of the sacred virgins, who gave the Celts fine weather or shipwreck. There they celebrated their gloomy and murderous orgies; and the seamen heard with terror, far off at sea, the clash of the barbaric cymbals. Yonder, too, watchers may see two ravens flying heavily on the shore: they are the souls of the dread King Grallo and his daughter; whilst the shrill whistling, which one would take for the voice of the tempest, is the crierien, or ghosts of the shipwrecked, clamouring for burial.
“But see,” Marie exclaimed, with great eyes grown even greater with wonder and awe as she listened to the wild tales which Marcille poured into her ears, “they are gloomy, these tales, and very terrible; and yet, how is it that you laugh and are gay, and have altogether the air of joy and happiness?”
“A good conscience,” quoth Jean lightly, as with absent fingers he twanged the strings of his vielle. “Also, mademoiselle, perchance the good gift of my mother, who came from laughing Touraine, where all sing and are gay, and where the waters of the Loire dance with the happy sunshine, instead of being grey with melancholy, as here in Brittany.”
“Of Touraine?” questioned Marie, dropping her voice, whilst her bright eyes searched curiously the dark, smiling face of the minstrel. “And thy mother came from Touraine? But that perchance was long since, and thou hast never journeyed so far?”
“I?” laughed Jean Marcille. “Nay, mademoiselle, a minstrel wanders oft in many lands, and I have seen not only the orchards and meadows of Touraine, but the blue skies of Italy, and the white mountains of Switzerland in my day.”
“But of Touraine?” persisted Marie. “If thy mother is of that country, thou knowest perchance much—almost as much as of thy native Brittany?”
“Verily,” replied Marcille, with a shrug of his shoulders, “seeing that my father died long since, when I was but a little lad, and my mother, wearying of grey skies and the wails of lost spirits, was fain to return to the sunshine of her own land.”
“And so,” said Marie, her colour deepening as her eager eyes again sought his, “you have long dwelt in the land of our enemies, Sir Minstrel? Aha! but you told not that to our lord yesternight when he asked from whence you came.”
Marcille spread out his hands with a careless gesture of indifference.
“Monsieur asked me only of my name and birthplace,” he replied with a smile.
“But if perchance mademoiselle fears I am a spy——” He paused, watching her face as she turned it to him.
“Nay,” she murmured, glancing around to be sure that they were unheard; “I asked,—I asked—because,—because I would have inquired of a noble monsieur from Touraine who journeyed hitherward in the early summer, and in whom my mistress took somewhat of an interest.”
“For that matter,” said her companion, “there is scarce a château in all Touraine whose lord I do not know; for there is ever a flagon of wine ready for the minstrel bard.”
“But not ever for Breton ballads,” slyly replied Marie, with a coquettish side-glance.
“Nay,” he laughed, “I suit my songs to my company, mademoiselle, for ’tis a foolish bird that sings only on one note, and there are chansons and rondeaux of Touraine and Anjou with which I can woo the dimples to thy cheeks, sweet mistress, as well as ballads of Brittany, to bring tears to those bright eyes.”
“But,” she said, shaking her head at him with a dimpling smile to moderate her rebuke—“but you are foolish, altogether foolish, and I want no compliments of France, but rather listen to what I would ask of you. In this fair Touraine, where all laugh and are gay, have you perchance met one who is named Monsieur Henri d’Estrailles, whose château lies not far from the banks of the Loire?”
“So well I know him,” replied Marcille, eyeing her steadily, as if he would fain read her very heart—“so well I know him, that at his bidding I am here; pretty maiden, to bring his message to thy fair mistress.”
“A messenger from Monsieur d’Estrailles!” gasped Marie, whilst the work slipped from her hands and lay unheeded on the floor. “A messenger from Monsieur d’Estrailles!”
“Ay, verily,” whispered the minstrel. “But speak not so loudly, mademoiselle, for, from what I gather, there were short shrift for me did some here suspect me or my errand.”
“But I cannot believe it,” murmured Marie, her eyes still round with wonder. “It is impossible.”
For reply Marcille slipped his hand into his vest and brought forth a small ring which lay safely shrouded in his brown palm.
“It is the token,” he said simply. “Do not fear, Mademoiselle Marie; all is as I say. I am in truth the servant of Monsieur d’Estrailles, who hath a message for his mistress’s ear, but knew too well that he might not come hither in his own proper person to tell it, seeing that even now the French army crosses the Breton border, and he feared that his presence at such a time might be less than welcome.”
“Less than welcome!” echoed Marie. “Nay, at the moment I ween it would be death itself to the gallant knight. But your message shall be delivered, monsieur, and at once. See, I go with haste to my mistress’s chamber, and it shall be that I will return anon to summon you to her presence.”
So saying, Marie Alloadec, without waiting to gather up her fallen embroidery, tripped quickly away, to return with haste in a few moments, softly calling to Marcille to follow her.
Neither of them noticed that close to the embrasure in which they had been seated knelt the figure of a woman, who withdrew almost behind the heavy tapestry hangings as they passed. But there was a smile on the face of Jeanne, the dark-browed waiting-woman of Diane de Coray, as she watched furtively their departing figures.
Notes
3 See Michelet’s History of France.