At the time I speak of, however, various circumstances combined to show that the apartment was the abode of sorrow. Only one of the lamps was lighted. The cloak and bonnet of a citizen of the time were cast recklessly on the ground, near the door. A small dagger lay upon the table; and, in a seat before it, with his eyes buried in his hands, and his body shaken with convulsive sobs, sat the little druggist, Ganay, displaying that sort of dejected disarray of dress, and careless fall of the limbs, which denotes so strongly that despair has mastered the citadel of hope in the human heart.
From time to time, the sighs and groans which struggled from his bosom gave way to momentary exclamations: sometimes loud and fierce, sometimes muttered and low. "He was my son," he would exclaim, "ay, notwithstanding all, he was my son! He had robbed me, it is true--taken my gold--resisted my authority--scoffed at my rebuke--but still my blood poured through his veins:--and to die such a death--by the common hangman!--like a dog!--to hang over the gate of the city, for the ravens to eat him, like the carrion of a horse!" and once more, he gave way to tears and groans.
Then again he would exclaim--"The fiends! the incarnate fiends! to slaughter my poor boy like a wolf: to refuse prayers, entreaties, gold! Can they be fathers? Out upon them, cold-hearted tigers! he has done no more than many a man has done. What though the woman was wronged? what though her brother was slain in the affray? Do not these proud nobles do worse every day? Besides, she should have had gold, oceans of gold; but now I will have revenge--deep, bitter, insatiable revenge!" and he shook his thin bony hand in the air, while the fire of hell itself seemed gleaming from the bottom of his small dark eyes.
At that moment there was a noise heard without; and the voices of two persons in some degree of contention, as if the one strove to prevent the other from entering, sounded along the passage.
"Out of my way!" cried the one, in a harsh, sharp, grating tone; "I tell you, boy, I must enter; I have business with your master. I enter everywhere, at all times and seasons."
"But don't you know, sir, what has happened?" cried the other voice; "my master is in great affliction, and bade us deny sight of him to every one."
"I know all about it, much better than you do, lad," replied the first. "Out of my way, I say, or I will knock your head against the wall."
The little druggist had started up at the first sounds; and, after gazing upon the door for a moment, with the fierce intensity of the tiger watching his victim before the spring, he seemed to recognise the voice of the speaker who sought to force his way in; and, snatching the dagger hastily from the table, he placed it in his bosom, wiped away the marks of tears from his eyes, and then cast himself back again in his seat.
Almost at the same moment the door opened, and Maillotin du Bac, the Prevot of the Duke of Burgundy, appeared, together with a lad, who seemed to be a serving boy of the druggist's. The Prevot was habited in a different manner, on the present occasion, from that in which we have before depicted him. He was no longer either clad in arms, as he had appeared at the castle of Hannut, or wrapped in bandages, as he had shown himself before the council. His dress was now a rich and costly suit of fine cloth, splendidly embroidered, together with a bonnet of the same colour, in which, as was then very customary amongst the nobles, he wore the brush of a fox, slightly drooping on one side, as it may sometimes be seen in the cap of the successful hunter of the present day. Over his more gaudy apparel, however, he had cast a long black cloak, bordered with sable, which he probably used, in general, on occasions of mourning.
"This person will have entrance," said the youth who accompanied him, addressing the little druggist, "notwithstanding all I can do to prevent him."