"I follow you, sir," I replied: and, still holding my hand in his, with a smile upon his lip that I neither liked nor understood, he led me back to the spot where I had left Laura and Monsieur de Villardin. The Duke was seated on the bank, pale, but apparently not so much injured as I had imagined. Laura, leaning beside him, held one of his hands in hers, and gazed anxiously on his face. She, too, was very pale; but, as I came forward, with the Count still holding my hand, a bright blush spread itself over all her countenance.
"Mademoiselle de Villardin," said the Count, "here is your young friend come in person to show you that he is unhurt; and let us altogether offer him our thanks for the important service that he has rendered us----" He paused a single instant, and then added, "Monsieur de Villardin, believing it to be impossible that any young lady can have been brought up from infancy with so worthy a gentleman, without having felt for him affections that ought not to be disappointed, and being myself the last man to take advantage of accidental circumstances to seek my own happiness at the expense of others, allow me to propose that all engagements between you and me should be considered as henceforth null and void; and, if you will follow my counsel, you will join these two hands for ever with your blessing:" and, as he spoke, he placed that of Laura in mine.
Monsieur de Villardin did not venture to reply; but, while Laura, with a burning cheek and glittering eyes, gazed earnestly upon his face, he laid his hand upon ours, as they were clasped together, with a gentle pressure which was quite confirmation enough. Laura spoke not, and my heart was too full to permit the use of words. The silence became embarrassing to all parties; and the very intense happiness that thrilled through my heart showed me, for the first time in life, that joy can reach such a height as to be, in some degree, even painful.
We were relieved by the approach of the young officer who had commanded the guards, and who now came to report that, as soon as the litters arrived, everything was prepared for our return to the Prés Vallée. He would have the honour of escorting us thither, he said; and, in the meantime, he gave into my hands the only paper which had been found upon Gaspard de Belleville. It proved to be a written agreement between that scoundrel and a person calling himself Hubert Hubert, by which the worthy captain stipulated that, when, by the means and with the assistance of Gaspard de Belleville, he should have obtained possession of the person of Mademoiselle de Villardin, and married her, he would make over to the said Gaspard one-half of whatever portion or dowry he might force Monsieur de Villardin, at any after period, to bestow upon his daughter. It was also expressly stipulated, that Hubert was to carry his bride to the Colonies, for the space of one year; and that he was likewise to provide a passage for Gaspard de Belleville and his wife; with various other articles of the same kind, all showing that the villains had calculated upon Monsieur de Villardin's making up his mind, at the end of a certain period, to recognise the marriage, however informal in law, and to receive the daring villain who had accomplished it, as his son-in-law.
A number of letters and papers, however, which were found upon the body of Hubert, clearly proved that the scheme had not been laid by him, but had been suggested by Gaspard de Belleville; and it was very evident, from every circumstance connected with the whole affair, that the desire of vengeance, both upon myself and upon Monsieur de Villardin, had taken fully as much part as rapacity in the whole design. That Gaspard de Belleville and his ruffian brother-in-law had been lingering about in the neighbourhood of the Prés Vallée for many weeks was clear, both from the circumstances which I had observed on the night before my departure for Dumont, and from the fact of Suzette having informed me that I and Laura had been watched for many a day, in our morning meetings at the grave of Monsieur de Mesnil; and thus it was, in all probability, that Gaspard de Belleville had learned the means by which he could most bitterly wring my heart, as well as that of Monsieur de Villardin. The villains had been caught in their own scheme, it is true; but a sad number of innocent persons had suffered as well as themselves.
To me, on the contrary,--as soon as I began to entertain hopes that the wound of Monsieur de Villardin would not prove of a serious nature,--the whole seemed to promise unequalled joy: and, as I sat upon the bank beside Laura, speaking, every now and then, a few words of hope and affection to her; and conversing more frequently with the Count, who now took upon himself the arrangements of all our after-proceedings, I fondly fancied that every difficulty was overcome, that every danger was averted, and that the whole current of my days was thenceforth to flow on in peace and happiness.
Whoever entertains such a dream will have to drink the bitter cup of disappointment; but still the vision, though it last but for an hour, is the brightest thing that imagination, amongst all its pageants, can conjure up. In this state passed nearly an hour and a half: but, at the end of that time, the tidings having been spread by Jerome's first messenger to Rennes, and the rumour having found its way--by all the thousand invisible channels which convey reports about the world--to half a dozen different places in the neighbourhood of the forest, litters, and carts, and horsemen, and pedestrians, began to arrive; and, placing our wounded in various conveyances, we commenced our march in long and slow procession once more towards the Prés Vallée.
[CHAPTER XXXIX.]
The day was just at its close as we issued forth from the forest, and took our way towards the bridge which crossed the river. I followed the procession on horseback amongst the last; and the whole scene, associated as it was with many deep interests and strange memories, was one of the most beautiful and extraordinary that ever my eye beheld. It was a splendid autumn evening, with the sun pouring his setting beams from the west, amidst scattered clouds tinged with every glorious colour that the mind can conceive. The long line of litters, and carriages, and horsemen, and foot, was winding slowly down the slope, which led from the edge of the wood towards the stream; and far and wide beneath my eyes--with every undulation marked by its own peculiar shade, and every building or group of trees casting long purple shadows as they cut off the rays of the declining sun--lay the rich wide lands of Brittany; while round about me, dark and heavy with the evening twilight, rose the broken masses of wood, with the thousands of wild banks and thorny dingles which skirted the verge of the forest. The peculiar rich light of the hour, too, spread over all the scene; and, catching here and there upon the bright arms and gay dresses of the soldiers and the servants, marked the different points in the procession; while every now and then, even in the more distant prospect, it touched some glistening object, and made it start forth, like a diamond, from the dark lines of planting or the gray slopes of the lulls, not unlike one of those bright goals which youth fixes for its endeavours through life, as it stands upon the verge of manhood, and contemplates the distant future, while imagination flashes brilliantly on the object of desire, and lends it a lustre not its own. There was a fascination in the moment, and the scene, and the feelings of my own heart, not to be resisted; and I reined in my horse, for a single instant, to gaze upon the prospect, and then followed on, thinking, that if the beauties of nature be a substantial blessing to man, how much does his appreciation of them depend upon the state of his own bosom. A few hours before, I might have ridden through Tempe at day-break, without noting that there was anything lovely before my eyes; and now, I could not have passed a quiet dell, or a bubbling brook, without feeling that the whole world is beautiful.
I had lingered awhile behind the rest in order to hear the report of a party which had been sent to examine the mill, at which I doubted not that Hubert and his companions had established their chief rendezvous: but nothing was found there which could lead to any further discovery; and, as soon as the other horsemen overtook me, I rode on; and, easily passing the rest of the cavalcade, acted as their harbinger at the Prés Vallée. I found Father Ferdinand in no small agitation; but before giving him any particulars of the events which had occurred, I despatched messengers to Rennes for every sort of medical assistance, and then relieved more fully the good Father's anxiety concerning Monsieur de Villardin and Laura.