Chapter LXV: Appointed Captain of Lutzelstein

I bit my lips, and strove to conceal from René the real emotions that stirred my soul; but had not a sudden giddiness and dimness of sight, consequent to his wound and loss of blood, assailed him at that moment, he must have detected it. I gave him my arm, and, propped on the other side by his long rapier, he walked beside me in search of a surgeon. Chancing to meet the physician of the Marquis de Toneins, I had his wound skilfully dressed, and he was soon pronounced, out of all danger. It was the barbarous custom of those wars, to exact ransoms from prisoners; so, on finding himself well enough to walk about next day, René, who lived with me at the quarters of the Guard, said,

'I cannot pay you a ransom, M. Blane, for I possess nothing in this world but my sword and the cross of my order.'

'You are my special prisoner, dear René,' said I; 'but never had the thought of ransom from you entered my mind. I shall obtain your release from Lavalette, with passports wherewith to cross the Rhine. You have been the faithful friend of Marie Louise--'

'All, yes--ever since the happy days at Nanci, where, as a boy and girl, we fed the golden fish in the fountains and played and shot together with the arbalest à jallet in the palace gardens.'

'Well; continue to be her friend: for in such times as these with a child for her husband, she will have much need of an ally so faithful as you.'

René grew pale and cast down his eyes, while my own breast heaved responsive to the sigh that escaped him; for the love of René, like my own, seemed one of the many misplaced affections that, in spite of reason, will ever exist in the world. We parted; but as we knew not where Marie Louise was residing--whether secluded in her father's conquered dukedom, or on the German side of the Rhine--he crossed the latter, and joined the army of Count Gallas, under whose command, he, poor fellow! perished soon after at the siege of St. Jean de Losne.

Poor René! in his heart were united the tenderness of a woman with the faith of a dog and the valour of a lion.

I was sad for many days after parting with René, for our mutual love for Marie Louise, which neither avowed but both suspected, formed a tie and community of spirit between us. Yet the tidings he had given me were not calculated to rouse my spirit or make me happy. She was indeed lost to me for ever; and now I had nothing to look forward to but steadily dedicating myself to the desperate profession of a soldier of fortune. At times a burst of anger and anxiety seized me--anger at the facility which made her yield to a union so absurd, and anxiety lest this mere child D'Alsace might grow up a very Pappenheim in temper and morality; one who might lead a wife, ten years his senior, a life of anything but happiness and peace. Amid such speculations as these, Patrick Gordon, the Marechal de Logis, found me one evening, and summoned me to the presence of the Marquis de Gordon, who occupied the house of the Bailiff of Schlettstadt, a comfortable mansion, which he shared with Dundrennan and some others of the Guard.

I found him seated at table, with several letters and a good bottle of Rhenish before him.

'Blane,' said he, 'I have the happiness to acquaint you that I have here letters from his Eminence Cardinal Richelieu, and from Sir Archibald Acheson of Glencairn, the Secretary of State in Scotland, announcing that your patrimonial estate of Blanerne is restored to you, together with the Bailerie of Tungland Abbey, and the Captainry of Carlaverock as possessed by your father Sir Arthur, and that now you are free to return and hang your sword under the roof where you first saw the light; but where I may warn you it will not hang long; for a day is coming--and coming fast, too--when Scotland will need all her sons and all their swords to defend her.'

'When that day comes, Marquis, I shall not fail her,' said I.

'Nor I,' added our white-headed Marechal de Logis, with a kindling eye.

'I give you my warmest thanks, dear Marquis, for these most welcome tidings.'

'What, of a probable war at home?'

'No; of the reversal of that most unjust and cruel act of proscription which was passed against me. So Madame la Comtesse d'Amboise did not forget me?'

'My dear fellow,' said the Marquis, laughing, 'Clara never forgets a lover so near the Rhine, and so far from the Bastille, if I may say so.'

'Marquis, I swear to you----'

'Do not swear, my friend,' continued the gay Gordon, 'for I will not even then believe you. The deuce! no woman would make such a fuss with a handsome young fellow as she did with you, and give him a Spanish barb worth six hundred crowns of the sun, without feeling something more than mere friendship for him. But I have nothing to do with all this. You are now free, Blane--free to leave the old Garde du Corps Ecossais of a thousand gallant memories--free to go home to Scotland, our dear fatherland, if you will.'

'Ah, Marquis, at present I have little desire to leave them and these exciting scenes, even for the pastoral home where my gallant father and his forefathers sleep.'

'How! You have another love affair in hand. (A blush and a sigh.) I am right, then. The devil, Blane! you are very lucky to have all these pretty amusements at this distance from the Louvre. But as a bribe to detain you among us----'

'My Lord Marquis, believe me, I require no bribe.'

'I have obtained for you from the Cardinal Duke de Lavalette the captaincy of Lutzelstein; you remember that old tower which commands an important defile of the Vosges, two or three leagues from Phalsbourg; and if you accept----'

'Accept, Marquis! I do so with gratitude; and if the enemy pass that way, Lavalette will find that his confidence has not been misplaced.'

'Good. An escort of thirty of the dragoons De Brissac will be given to you, and you will have to depart this very evening to assume this new command.'

'I shall be ready in an hour.'

'Adieu, then, till we meet again.'

'Farewell, my lord.'

And we parted. I left this brilliant, high-born, and high-spirited noble, little weening that I was never again to see either him, or my brave comrades of the Garde du Corps Ecossais!