"The Milady Dorchester," as she was called among the people, was of the famous line of the Howards, daughter of that Earl of Effingham who refused in 1776 to draw his sword against the liberties of his fellow-subjects in America.
At her table many a scathing dissertation on the nobodiness of nobodies had been given the youthful gentry of the Province, a fact not unknown to Germain. De la Naudière himself had experienced her sharpness when he was first introduced at her table. On that occasion in carving a joint he had the misfortune to spill some gravy on the cloth. "Young man," cried Milady, "where were you brought up?" "At my father's table, where they change the cloth three times a day," he quickly retorted, and captured her favour.
A Garde-du-Corps, however, was sacred from reproach. To have with them for the day an inner member of the Court of France, fresh from delightful Paris, and from still more delightful Versailles, was really more than an exiled lady of fashion in her position could just then have dreamt. How he acquitted himself in her coach at the review and during the beautiful afternoon drive to the Falls, how he kept the table smiling at dinner, and of their walk in the Castle garden, with its low cannon-embrasured wall along the cuff, it would scarcely profit the reader to hear, except in one particular.
On the shady lawn at Montmorenci—a name which thrilled him with sweet associations—he stood in the midst of the picnic party and sang them one of the current songs of the Bodyguard:—
"Yes, I am a soldier—I,
And for my country live—
For my Queen and for my King
My life I'll freely give.
When the insolent demagogue
Loud rants at this and that,
Not less do I go singing round,
'Vive an aristocrat!'
Yes, &c.
To the Devil, Equality!
Your squalor I decline,
With you I would no better be
Nor sprung of older line.
Yes, &c.
March on, my comrades gay,
Strike up the merry drums,
And drink the Bourbons long, long life
Whatever fortune comes.
Yes, &c."
Next morning her Excellency rose early to see him start upon his journey up the river.
One result followed, of which he did not know. La Naudière described his visit to the de Lérys in connection with the account received by them from Châlons. They again read over the paragraph and discussed it, and de la Naudière pronounced decidedly that the man could not be the same—the passport of the present individual did not bear the name of Répentigny, and he was too perfect a gentleman.
[CHAPTER XXXV]
AT ST. ELPHÈGE
All afternoon of the day of his arrival at St. Elphège, lofty clouds had been moving in threatening masses across the sky. When the Lecours were rejoicing together at supper, a storm came on, producing a raw, wet evening, which was not unwelcome to the reunited family, for it kept them undisturbed.