"I shall neither spare my men nor my person, as I am bound in honour," answered Wolfstrom; "but it matters little to me whether France falls under the power of the Bearnois or not. The term for which I took arms will soon be expired; and I can always find employment for my sword, thanks to the Protestants and Catholics here and in other lands."
"True," replied D'Aubin; "but you may find my lands confiscated to the crown for treason and rebellion some fine day, if the Bearnois wins the day of us ultimately; and then what becomes of your hypothèque?"
"That consideration shall make me give a good stroke or two more, my dear friend," replied the German coolly; "but I seldom find means wanting to repay myself; and, methinks, if the Bearnois does beat us completely, and declares himself your heir, I shall still contrive to skin his inheritance before I go."
D'Aubin made no reply, and for some time the two commanders rode on in silence; the German leader probably calculating upon the best means of skinning, as he termed it, other men's inheritance, and the Count d'Aubin, on his part, revolving bitterly all that had just passed in a conversation which presented so very few agreeable points for the mind to rest on. What his companion had said in regard to Eugenie and St. Real, he had repelled only the more angrily because it was confirmed by suspicions existing previously in his own mind; for such is the nature of the human heart, to combat on the lips of others the self-same feelings that we experience with terror within us. To that point of their conversation, therefore, did he most earnestly turn his thoughts; and bitter and angry were the sensations which he now felt towards a being whom he had once loved, but who had since committed the unforgiveable offence of holding firm to virtue and to honour where D'Aubin's own grasp had given way. Gradually as he nourished and pampered the doubts and suspicions within him, the emotions of his mind communicated themselves to his features and to his frame; and suddenly remembering himself, as he was spurring on his horse under the impulse of his irritated feelings, he affected to see some object in the distant plain, and asked his companion whether he did not perceive a light in the eastern part of the landscape.
Wolfstrom answered in the negative; and the conversation between them was renewed, but took a different turn, touching chiefly upon the chances of a battle on the following day, the respective forces of the Royalists and Leaguers, and the probability of success on either part.
"We should soon know how the strife will end, if we were in my country," said Wolfstrom; "at least, we might easily find persons to tell us."
"How so?" demanded D'Aubin. "I hear that our holy Father the Pope, although friendly to our cause, predicts that the day will go against us."
"Ay, but in Germany," replied Wolfstrom, "we should find those who pretend to know as much as his holiness, and do know a great deal more. Have you never heard, that in the Odenwald, when a war is about to begin, the Wild Huntsman goes out with all his dogs, and that, on the tops of our mountains, on many a stormy night, the spirits of the rivers and the floods hold their meetings, and reveal dark secrets of coming events to those who have the courage to go and consult them?"
"No, indeed, Wolfstrom," answered D'Aubin, "I never did hear all that; and I can but say, that I think those spirits must be very foolish spirits to haunt Germany at all, when there is many a warmer and a fairer land would be very willing to receive them; and still more foolish to go up to the tops of mountains on a stormy night! No, no, Wolfstrom; I am no believer in spirits, or ghosts, or phantasms, or necromancers, or any sort of portents, except the wonders to be effected by strong wits and strong arms."
"Say many a warmer land, if you will," replied Wolfstrom, angry at D'Aubin's sneer at his native country. "Say many a warmer land, if you will, but not many a fairer; for the whole earth does not contain a fairer than Germany. Why, everything that stream, and mountain, and forest, rich plain, and sweeping upland, can do to make a land lovely is to be found in Germany: but as you have not seen it, you cannot judge; and as to your disbelief in portents, you, as every other incredulous doubter, will some day be convinced."