CHAPTER X.
THE CHÂTELET.
"They sought her baith by bower and ha';
The ladye was not seen!
She's ower the border, and awa'
Wi' Jock o' Hazeldean!"
Scott.
I must now present the reader with a change of scene, or at least of adventures, in describing those of Louis Lisle; who, after having been severely wounded in the arm by the sword of De Mesmai, was carried off a prisoner from the skirmish of Fuente Duenna. With a few hundred other captives, gleaned up on different occasions, he had been confined within the strong fortress of Pampeluna until the French army retired beyond it, when, with his comrades in misfortune, he was sent into France and placed in a solitary strong-hold on the left bank of the Nive, a few miles from the village of Cambo. This was a gloomy old feudal fortress, the property of the Duke of Alba de T——, who has already figured in preceding chapters. It consisted of a high square keep, a few flanking towers, and a high wall, embattled along the top; and every means had been taken to strengthen the place by stockades, loop-holes, cannon, &c. The garrison consisted of two or three companies of the 105th French regiment of the line. Louis, who had been heartily tired of his residence in Pampeluna, was but little pleased when he beheld the gloomy château, as the body of prisoners, with an escort of French lancers, marched up the ascent leading to it.
It was on a dark and louring November morning, when the black towers, the grey palisades, the gloomy court, and muffled-up sentinels appeared more sombre in the dull red light of the sun, which, like a crimson globe, seemed resting on the eastern summits of the Pyrenees, and struggling to show its face through the masses of dun clouds which floated across the sky. The tri-coloured standard of the emperor was drooping on the summit of the keep, and the guard were under arms as the prisoners entered the gate. These consisted principally of Spaniards and Portuguese; there were a few British soldiers, but Louis was the only officer,—and a very discontented one he seemed, as he looked forward with considerable repugnance to a long imprisonment in France.
As they halted and formed line in the court of the fortress, Lisle was somewhat surprised to hear himself accosted in Spanish by an officer, who, muffled in a large military cloak, came from the keep. He recognised his friend of Aranjuez, the father of Donna Virginia,—the same traitorous Spanish noble who now openly served Buonaparte; and as commandant of a French garrison wore a staff-uniform embroidered with oak-leaves. Lisle thought of Virginia,—indeed he never thought of aught else: and veiling his dislike to the duke, he answered him as politely as possible. He would fain have asked after the fair donna, but feared to arouse the keen and ready suspicions of the proud and pompous Spaniard, while so completely within his power. The duke behaved to him coldly but courteously; and, after receiving his parole of honour that he would not transgress the bounds of the châtelet, invited him to dinner, and retired.
Louis was now his own master, with leave to perambulate as much as he chose the court-yard and palisades of the out-works, while the sentries from every nook and corner kept sharp eyes upon him, and often, when he attempted to pass their posts, barred the way with ported arms, and saying, "Pardon me, monsieur, you must not pass;" but with a softness of tone and politeness of manner, very different from what those of a British sentinel would be on a similar occasion.
The hours passed slowly away, and Louis began to feel very disconsolate, and very impatient of the monotony and restraint of a prisoner's life, forming as it did so strong a contrast to the heart-stirring excitement of campaigning. As it was contrary to their orders, the sentinels could not converse with him, and in truth his French was none of the best; so he passed the time in sauntering dismally about until the sun began to verge westward, and he knew that the dinner-hour was approaching. In the mean time, he wiled away the hours as well as he could, by whistling a march, humming a waltz, or tossing pebbles and fragments of lime from the ramparts to raise circles and bubbles in the Nive, which swept round an angle of the rocks on which the fortress stood. These employments he varied by watching with an intense interest the distant Pyrenees, in hopes to see the far away glitter of arms announce the approach of the allies, whose troops he knew to be in that direction. The eagerness of his glance towards Spain did not escape the observation of messieurs the sentries of the 105th; and they twirled their moustaches and regarded each other with a truly French smile of hauteur and complaisance, as they strode briskly to and fro on their posts; and one young man, pointing towards the Lower Pyrenees, remarked to him significantly with a smile, "Ce pays sent lapoudre à canon, monsieur!"[*]
[*] Literally, "this place, or country, smells of gunpowder, sir."
About four o'clock in the afternoon (an early hour in 1813) dinner was announced, and Lisle was ushered into an ancient hall, roofed with oak and floored with stone, but in no way very magnificent. There he was received by the duke and his daughter, Virginia, who, having heard of her friend's arrival, was dressed with unusual care to receive him; her woman had been occupied two good hours in arranging the massive braids of her glossy hair in a way to please their coquettish owner. A few officers of the French regiment were present, and Louis could have dispensed with their presence very well. He felt jealous at the very sight of them, as they were all handsome fellows, chevaliers of the Legion and many other orders. Besides, a Frenchman makes love as no other man does, and a douce Scot is certainly no match for him in volubility of words and laughter. There was a Spaniard present, who, although not greatly gifted with personal attractions, appeared to pay so much attention to Virginia, that Lisle cursed him in his heart for his impudence, and began to form plans for calling him to a severe account for his presumption.