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Virtue, moreover, was as natural to the Lavals as bravery on the field of battle, and whether it were in the retinue of Clovis, when the First Barons received the regenerating water of baptism, or on the immortal plain of Bouvines; whether it were by the side of Blanche of Castile, attacked by the rebellious nobles, or in the terrible holocaust of Crécy; whether it were in the fight of the giants at Marignan, or after Pavia during the captivity of the roi-gentilhomme; everywhere where country and religion appealed to their defenders one was sure of hearing shouted in the foremost ranks the motto of the Montmorencys: "Dieu ayde au premier baron chrétien!"
It is a sufficiently strange thing to find that great quality in an ignorant country-girl of seventeen and a half, but she had it. Joan was for receiving Richemont cordially, and so was La Hire and the two young Lavals and other chiefs, but the Lieutenant-General, d'Alencon, strenuously and stubbornly opposed it.
I wandered on then, wet and weary, trusting to fortune, but always blundering deeper and deeper into this horrible bog, until I began to think that my first night in France was destined also to be my last, and that the heir of the de Lavals was destined to perish of cold and misery in the depths of this obscene morass.
'Well, you can do as you please, said he roughly; 'I'm going no nearer, so you can take your choice of getting into the dingey or of swimming for it. It was in vain that I pleaded that he had been paid his price. I did not add that that price meant that the watch which had belonged to three generations of de Lavals was now lying in the shop of a Dover goldsmith.
My bundle was dropped in after me conceive to yourself the heir of all the de Lavals travelling with a single bundle for his baggage! and two seamen pushed her off, pulling with long slow strokes towards the low-lying shore.
It was as if the Breton blood of the Lavals and Rohans had brought to the solid stock of Beaumanoir the fairy whimsies of their dim ancestors. While the moors and woodlands were to Aimery only places to fly a hawk or follow a stag, to Philip they were a wizard land where dreams grew.
Those two young De Lavals were come now, and were joined to the Grand Staff. Which was well; war being their proper trade, for they were grandsons of that illustrious fighter Bertrand du Guesclin, Constable of France in earlier days. Louis de Bourbon, the Marshal de Rais, and the Vidame de Chartres were added also.
'You always said that the old families would never come back, and that they would settle in England as the Huguenots have done. You see that, as usual, you have miscalculated, for here is the heir of the de Lavals come to offer his services. Monsieur de Laval, you are now my aide-de-camp, and I beg you to keep with me wherever I go.
We hold the castle and the land, but it is for the heir of the de Lavals to tell us if he is satisfied with this. Her dark scornful eyes were fixed upon me as she waited for my reply, but her father hastened to intervene. 'This is not a very hospitable tone in which to greet your cousin, said he harshly.
"Matilda Laval has it," said the Judge. He began somehow to look gloomy. "Elisha Peters has freedom to go through the world on foot. Object, is to see everything." "Matilda Laval has it!" growled the Judge. "Dick Morton. His capital is rifles, with powder and ball; object in life, to kill or to hunt and eat wild beasts." "Don't come near Matilda Lavals," said the Judge.
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