As Raimond V. pa.s.sed the laundry, he was surprised not to see Dulceline, and asked where she was.

"Monseigneur," said a young girl with black eyes and cheeks the colour of a pomegranate, "Mile. Dulceline is in the chamber of the philters, with the abbe and Thereson; she is at work on the cradle, and forbids us to enter."

"The devil!" said the baron, "the supper-bell has rung, and the abbe must say grace for us."

He advanced to the door; it was fastened on the inside; he knocked.

"Come, come, abbe, supper is ready, and I am as hungry as the devil."

"One moment, monseigneur," said Dulceline, "we cannot open,--it is a secret."

"What, abbe, you have secrets with Dulceline?" said the old gentleman, laughing.

"Ah, monseigneur, G.o.d save us! Thereson is with us," screamed the old lady, offended at the baron's pleasantry. As she opened the door, she presented a pale, wrinkled face, framed in a ruff and cap, worthy of the pencil of Holbein.

The abbe, fifty years old, was dressed in a black robe and cap, which fit his head closely and displayed his gentle face to advantage.

Thereson, as soon as the baron entered, hid the cradle under a cloth.

The baron approached, and was about to lift it, when Dulceline cried, in a beseeching tone:

"Oh, monseigneur! permit us the pleasure of surprising you; rest a.s.sured this will be the most beautiful cradle that has ever adorned the great hall of Maison-Forte, and it ought to be, by Our Lady, since the commander and Father Elzear are coming such a distance to a.s.sist at the Christmas festivity."

"Manjour! I shall be unhappy indeed if they do not come," said the baron: "two years have pa.s.sed since my brothers have spent a night or a day in our father's house, and by St. Bernard, my patron, who a.s.sists me, the Lord will grant us a reunion this time!"

"G.o.d will hear you, monseigneur, and I join my prayers to yours,"

said the abbe. Then he added: "Monseigneur, did you have a successful hunt?"

"Very good, abbe, see for yourself!" and the baron took the hare's foot that Reine held in her hand, and showed it to the abbe.

"If mademoiselle does not desire to keep this foot," said the abbe, "I will ask her for it, for my pharmacy, and will monseigneur tell me if it is the right or the left foot of the animal?"

"And what are you going to do with it, abbe?"

"Monseigneur," said the good Mascarolus, pointing to an open volume on the table, "I have just received this book from Paris. It is the journal of M. de Maucaunys, a very ill.u.s.trious and learned man, and I read here, page 317: 'Recipe for the gout. Lay against the thigh, between the trousers and the shirt, on the side affected, two paws of a hare killed between Lady Day of September and Christmas, but with the important restriction, that the hind left paw must be used if it is the right arm which is ailing, and the right fore paw if it is the leg or the left thigh which is ailing: on the instant the application is made, the pain will cease.'"

"Stuff!" cried the baron, laughing with all his might. "This is a wonderful discovery; now the poachers will claim to be apothecaries, and they will catch hares only to cure the gout."

The good abbe, quite embarra.s.sed by the sarcasms of the baron, continued to read to keep himself in countenance, and added: "I see, baron, on page 177, wood-lice, given to dropsical nightingales, will cure them entirely."

Here the laughter of the good gentleman was more uproarious. Reine, notwithstanding her preoccupation, could not repress a smile, and finally laughed with her father.

The Abbe Mascarolus smiled softly, and bore these innocent railleries with Christian resignation, and no longer tried to defend an empiricism which, no doubt, may find a.n.a.logies in medical books of the present day.

Raimond V. took leave of the pharmacy to find pleasure elsewhere, when Laramee, majordomo and master of ceremonies, came to announce that supper had been waiting a long time.

Laramee, the advance guard of the baron's escort through the gorges of Ollioules, had the physiognomy of a real pandour; his complexion reddened by wine-drinking, his rough voice, his white and closely cut hair, his long gray moustache, and his continual swearing, were by no means to the taste of Dulceline.

She received the entrance of the majordomo into the sanctuary of the abbe with a sort of muttered remonstrance, which at last changed to sharp and loud complaint, when she saw that Laramee had the indiscretion to approach the veil which covered the mysterious cradle and try to lift it.

"Well, well, Laramee," said the baron, "Manjour, do you claim more privileges than your master, and insist upon seeing the wonders that Dulceline is hiding from our eyes? Come, come, take this lamp and light onr way."

Then, turning to Mascarolus, Raimond V. said humorously: "Since, according to your fine book, wood-lice will cure dropsy in nightingales, you ought to try your remedy on this old scoundrel, who surely is threatened with dropsy, for he is a veritable old bottle, swollen with wine, ready to burst; as for the rest, like the nightingale, he will sing at night,--and the devil knows what songs!"

"Yes, monseigneur, and with a voice loud enough to wake the whole castle, and make the owls fly from the top of the old tower," added Dulceline.

"And just as true as I drank two gla.s.ses of Sauvechretien wine this morning, screech owls know the owls, Dulceline, my dear," said the majordomo with a jocose manner as he pa.s.sed, lamp in hand, before the superintendent of the laundry.

"Monseigneur," cried she, "do you hear the insolence of Master Laramee?"

"And you shall be avenged, my dear, for I will make him drink a pint of water to your health. Come, come, go on, majordomo, the soup will get cold."

The baron, Reine, and the abbe left the pharmacy and descended the stairs, and crossed the long and dark gallery which united the two wings of Maison-Forte; they entered a large dining-room, brilliantly lighted by a good fire of beech, olive roots, and fir-apples, which shed through the whole room the odour of balsam.

The immense chimney, with a large stone mantel, and andirons of ma.s.sive iron, smoked a little, but by way of compensation, the windows latticed with lead, and the heavy doors of oak were not hermetically sealed, and the smoke found a way of escape through the numerous openings.

The north wind, entering these cracks, made a shrill whistle, which was victoriously combatted by the merry crackling of the beech and olive logs which burned in the fireplace.

The walls, simply plastered with lime, as well as the ceiling with its great projecting girders of black oak, had no other ornament than the skins of foxes and badgers and wolves, nailed at symmetrical distances by the careful hand of the majordomo.

In the s.p.a.ces between the skins hung fishing-lines, weapons of the chase, whips, and spurs; and as curiosities, a Moorish bridle with its two-edged bit and top-not of crimson silk.

On an oak dresser, with a beautifully bowed front, stood an ancient and ma.s.sive silver plate, whose richness contrasted singularly with the almost savage rusticity of the hall.

Great bottles of white gla.s.s were filled with the generous wines of Provence and Languedoc; smaller flagons contained Spanish wines, easily and promptly brought from Barcelona by coasting ships.

A few rustic valets, attired in ca.s.socks of brown serge, served the table under the orders of the major-domo, the liveries with the colours of the baron never leaving the wardrobe except on feast-days.

The oblong table placed near the fireside rested on a thick carpet of Spanish broom or esparto. The rest of the hall was paved with flags of sandstone.

At the head of the table was the armorial chair of Raimond V.; at his right, the cover for his daughter, at his left, the cover for the stranger,--a custom of touching hospitality.

Below this place was the cover for the chaplain.

The table was delicately and abundantly served.

Around an enormous tureen of soup, made of the excellent sea eels of La Ciotat, and fragments of swordfish and sea dates, were fowls from the Pyrenees, which surrounded a perfectly roasted goose; on the other side, a saddle of lamb three months old, and the half of a kid one month old, justified by their appetising odour the culinary proverb: _Cabri d'un mes, agneou de tres_,--kid of one month, lamb of three; sh.e.l.l-fish of all kinds, such as oysters and mussels, having above all the flavour of the rock, as the Provencals say, filled the s.p.a.ces left between substantial viands.

Side-dishes strongly salted and spiced, such as shrimps, lobsters, artichokes, celery, and tender fennel, formed a formidable reserve which Raimond V. called to his aid, when his appet.i.te showed signs of exhaustion.

This profusion, which at first glance seemed so prodigal, was easily explained by the abundant resources of the country, the customary hospitality of the time, and the great number of persons a lord was expected to entertain.

Grace being said by the worthy Abbe Mascarolus, the baron, his daughter, and the chaplain sat down to the table, and Laramee took his usual post behind the chair of his master.

CHAPTER VIII. THE LOVER

The baron was scarcely seated, when he said: