The Little Ball O' Fire; or, the Life and Adventures of John Marston Hall / The Works of G. P. R. James, Vol. XV.

by G. P. R. James

I felt myself turn as red as fire, for, to say the truth, the good old lord had touched upon a tender point; and, though I was young enough to think of such matters lightly, yet, during the nine months which I had lately passed in a much more contemplative manner than pleased me, a suspicion would now and then come across my mind, that one or two things in my past life might as well have been left undone. Lord Langleigh observed me colour, and adding, with a nod, "It is worth your thinking of," he left me, and returned to the house. I did think of his advice long and eagerly; and his words sunk down into my heart, producing therein the first of many changes which I shall yet have to notice in my principles and conduct, as in passing through life I every now and then gained a lesson or an admonition, which taught me my own weaknesses, or restrained my wild passions. It was in vain, I soon felt, to look back and regret the past; but from that moment I formed my determination for the future, and tried never to forget, that no cause could ever justify an evil action.

All after arrangements were soon concluded. My dress was already more splendid than was at all necessary. My purse was well furnished by the liberality of my kind benefactors; and a pass having been procured for me to enter Paris, I took leave of the family at St. Maur three days after the conversation I have just detailed, and was delivered over into the hands of Monsieur de Villardin himself by the chief écuyer of Lord Langleigh, who accompanied me into Paris.

My new lord received me very graciously, and promised me great things if I attached myself to him as zealously as I had done to Lord Masterton. His countenance, I have already said, had pleased me from the first; and it certainly was one well calculated to command both respect and regard. Nevertheless, as I came to know him better, I remarked occasionally two expressions which I had not at first observed, but which were strongly indicative of his real character, or, rather, of his faults. The first was a quick, sharp, inquiring, perhaps fierce expression, when anything was said in an under tone by the persons around him. This, however, passed away in a minute; but the second, which consisted in a tremendous gathering together of the brows when any one seriously offended him, would last for some hours, and it was evidently with difficulty that he could reassume his usual gay and cheerful manner, through the whole of the rest of the day.

I had early learned to watch people's countenances as the weather-glasses of their minds, and thence to judge, not only of what was passing within at the moment, but also of their habitual feelings and inherent disposition. This had been taught me by my father, who had established his criterions for judging by long experience; and I had not seen the fierce, sharp look, and the deep, heavy scowl, upon the face of the Duke more than twice, when I established it in my own mind, as a fact beyond doubt, that he was both suspicious and revengeful. At the same time I discovered, by other circumstances, that he was highly sensitive to ridicule; and that, knowing well to how many jests he would expose himself if he suffered his irritable jealousy to appear, he laboured strenuously to cover it by the same light and witty manner of treating everything, which in that day was universally affected by all Frenchmen. In this he was not particularly successful; for, though his mind was quick and brilliant enough, his heart was too full of deep and powerful feelings to harmonise well with that playful badinage which alone affects the surface.

So much for my new master; but there are other members of his family who yet remain to be noticed. The first of these, of course, is Madame la Duchesse, to whom he led me immediately after I had been presented to himself, and introduced me as his new page, of whom she had heard so much. She was a very lovely woman, and at heart a most amiable one; considerably younger than her husband, perhaps about four-and-twenty years of age; and though, I believe, it would be doing Diana herself no injustice to compare her to Madame de Villardin in point of chastity, yet at the time I was first presented to her, ere sorrow or domestic discomfort had tamed the light heart and banished the vanities of youth, she had decidedly that love of admiration which has often, in this world, done more harm to a woman's character than half-a-dozen faux pas. It mattered not with whom she was in company--rank, station, age, made no difference--admired she was determined to be by every one who came within the sphere of her influence: a thousand little airs would she assume to excite attention; and bright and sparkling was the triumph which lighted up her eyes when she had succeeded in captivating or attracting. In the case of myself even, a boy of twelve years old, she could not resist the desire of displaying the same graces which she spread out before others; and when her husband brought me forward to her, the smile that played around her lips, the flash that glistened from her fine eyes, and the elegant attitude with which she held me by the arm, and gazed for a moment in my face, were all a little more than natural, and very, very different from the calm, sweet manners of the beautiful Emily Langleigh.

Besides herself, I found in the saloon where she was sitting her only child, a fine lively girl of little more than six years old, who afterwards became my frequent playfellow. Having introduced me to his lady, and told her several particulars of my history, adding no small commendations thereunto on my own behaviour, the Duke summoned his major-domo, to whose hands he consigned me, bidding him make me familiar with the house, and all that it contained. The old man, who had been in the family of De Villardin from infancy, took me by the hand kindly enough, and led me away to his own apartment, which consisted of two small, neat chambers, on the lower story, looking out into the court. Excellent old Jerome Laborde, for such was the name of the major-domo, took care, as we went along, to give me many a consolatory assurance of my being well taken care of, and rendered very happy, in the mansion of his master, conceiving me to be one of those young and inexperienced boys who are generally preferred to the place of page in a nobleman's house at a tender age, and who, commencing with timidity and innocence, generally end in impudence and intrigue. His compassion was also moved towards me from the misfortune, as he thought it, of my being an Englishman. But by this time I had learned to speak French almost as fluently as my native tongue; and, before I had been half an hour with the old major-domo, I had convinced him thoroughly that I was a person to make myself very much at home anywhere, and in any circumstances. His ideas of a page, however, did not permit him to imagine that, as I had not the bashful fears of the earlier stages of pagehood, I could have anything better in my character than the pert sauciness of its latter epoch; and, having conceived this bad opinion of me, the good old man very soon civilly told me, that he would lead me to the pages' room, where I would find three others, as gay and bold as myself. But before I proceed to this new theatre on which my young abilities were destined to display themselves, let me add that, ere many days had passed, I found means to convince worthy Jerome Laborde that the circumstances of my former life had rendered me a very different creature from any he had yet met with in all his long experience of pages. The injustice that he found he had done me, added to the favourable impression he afterwards received, gained me a place in his good will, which I did not lose till his death.

A scene, however, was yet to take place which was to signalise my entrance into the house of Monsieur de Villardin, and to place me, by my own exertions, in that station in his family which Lord Langleigh had previously stipulated that I should enjoy. On entering the pages' room, as it was called, I found, indeed, three boys as gay and bold as myself, full of saucy conceit and pert jocularity. They were all older than I was, and one seemed little less than fifteen years of age. No sooner was I left there by the major-domo, than, of course, I became the subject of their raillery, and for some time submitted to afford them matter for amusement. Their first employment was, naturally, the examination of my dress, which I could see, by a frequent shrug of the shoulders, and the words mauvais goût, did not particularly please these juvenile petit-maîtres. Going from that, however, to other matters, they carried their jocularity so far, that I soon found it would be necessary to exert one or two of the qualities which I had acquired in a harder school than any to which they had ever been subjected, in order to put them in that place which I intended them to occupy during the rest of my stay in the family. I consequently took advantage of the first insolent word spoken by the eldest--who appeared to have a right prescriptive to tyrannise--and, having drubbed him more heartily than ever he was drubbed before, I proceeded to reduce the two others to a complete state of discipline and subordination.

It may easily be supposed that all this was not effected without considerable noise; for though we were all small enough to have lain quiet in any house, my three companions were very vociferous. Just as I was putting what may be called the finishing stroke to the affair, by once more knocking down the eldest, who--on finding that his two fellow-pages, notwithstanding all they had suffered from him in former times, were now willing to espouse his cause against the new comer, had roused himself again to the combat--I perceived that the door of the apartment was ajar, and that the face of Monsieur de Villardin (with two or three écuyers behind) was gazing in upon the conflict. This discovery, however, did not prevent my giving full force to my blow, and my antagonist measured his length upon the floor at his master's feet.

"Very well struck for a coup d'essai" cried the Duke, walking in; "every fresh dog must of course fight his way through the pack; but now, young gentlemen, as your new comrade seems to have satisfied you pretty well that his must be the first station amongst you, by right of superior strength and activity, I also tell you that it is by my will, Gaspard," he continued, turning to his eldest page, "you are but a boy, and not fit to cope with one who has slain men. So submit with a good grace, and give him your hand."

The boy, who had by this time risen from the floor, obeyed; but, as he did so, he eyed me from under his bent brows with a look that was sufficient warning that I had gained an enemy. This was an acquisition not particularly disagreeable to me; for, to tell the truth, I had at that time been so much more accustomed to deal with enemies than friends, that I hardly felt in my element without them; and, indeed, as I looked upon man's natural position to be a state of warfare, I was always prepared to bear my share in it with good will. These opinions, it is true, changed greatly afterwards; but how the alteration was brought about is to be found in the history of my after life.