The Scourge of God

to once more answer all the questions that would be put to him. Yet he also thanked Heaven, in a somewhat wearied manner, that this must be the last of

ely in the same manner as it had been gone through with at Boulogne, where h

wer was made he glanced at the passport handed to him and countersigned b

in As

unt

gla

sit

man. Al

d, whenever the inquiring eyes of warders or guets or gatekeepers (in some cases soldiers) had lit upon one of the many s

his, and saluting as all the other men had saluted; after which, with a dir

rline muttered, "the last. It has been wearis

y yellowish brown, Martin Ashurst presented an attractive appearance. His features were handsome and manly, clear-cut and aristocratic--Madame la Princesse de Rochebazon, once Aurora Ashurst, had herself possessed the same features when young--his figure was slight, yet strong and well knit, his whole appearance satisfactory. Also he bore about him those indefinable traits

, indeed, spent in France under the patronage of the aunt to whom the Berline à quat

s of the Stuarts had repined so much at first, and which, in due course, so many had come to like and, in some cases, to appreciate. Also there had come to this exiled family a splendid piece of good fortune, the like of which did not fall often in the way of English exiles. Aurora Ashurst, a girl of twenty, had won the heart of Henri de Beauvilliers, then Baron de Beau

it. The whole control of the de Rochebazon wealth was hers to do what she pleased with; she might, if she had desired, have left their chateaux, their woods and forests in half a dozen provinces, their hotel in the Rue Champfleury--everything, to him. Only, because she was a just woman and a religious, she would not do that, recognising that the wealth accumulated by generations of French nobles ought not in common honesty to go to one who had no tie of blood with them and who belonged to a land which was

commodities too expensive to be indulged in, the men whom they loved; a fortune that would buy him a peerage in England, obtain for him the justaucorps à brevet in France, and orders and decorations, the co

scattering a flock of ducks and fowls before it as they sought for subsistence amid the dust and filth, while the coachman and postillion hurled curses at all and everything that came in their way, and the English man servant in the banquette roared with

ast back to England, to London, to St. James's and the suppers at Locket's and Pontac's, the merry nights at Chaves's

er, too, with his father and mother, he had imagined with them that there might be some thirty or forty thousand pounds which would be his, and that, owning this sum o

itch to fly at this French king's throat. It will come again. It must. No treaty ever yet put an end to our wars for any considerable time. Also--also--there is the other thing. In hon

with still the driver hurling curses at all who got in his way, at children playing in the road and at a cordelier telling his beads as he walked, yet glinting an evil eye at the coachman and muttering maledictions at him under his breath, and with the English servant still laughing as now he do

n through the open window in the back of

y passed under the Beau Dieu stuck in a corner house of the stre

also the road is half a foot deep in tan to deaden sounds. And a fellow with a thre

e. Also I will aligh

d, as well as pay the driver and see to the necessaries being taken off the r

ith Madame l

richly laced hat of the traveller; noticing, too, the rings upon his fingers and the silver-hilted ra

am

ool vestibule to where some footmen stood about, then ordered them to conduct mo

d often before, I hear," this man of importance said. "Up

the dust and dirt of the journey, discarding, too, his scarlet coat and waistcoat for others of a more suitable colour, changing

eats to fair Touraine--where was a castle of the de Rochebazon's embowered in woods--or to that other great chateau in Perche, or to still a third one which hung over the golden sands of La Gironde, she seemed to live almost to shower gentle kindnesses upon him, her brother's child. To do all for him that she would have done had he been her own; to surround him

desired that, in all things, he should have the best, should be able to hold his own with those who were in the court circle and the fashion. That his early years should never know any

e for some simple, unambitious calling, beyond, perhaps, obtaining me a pair of colours in some marching regiment. I owe her all--the clothes upon my back, the food I eat, the very knowledge of how to wield a sword! And--and--God forgive me! I ha

tering at his command, told him that the Demoiselle Manon was without and