United States or Saint Kitts and Nevis ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
How we recovered from the confusion I do not know, but Gaspard joined me at the top of the stairs, bringing with him a page of his own age, the little Chevalier de Mericour, whom he entreated me to take with us. All the other boys had relations close at hand; but this child's mother was dead, and his father and brothers with the army.
It would have been mere madness to think of trusting the lady in such hands; and, without a word to each other, Gardon and Mericour resolved to give no hint even that she and her jewels were in La Sablerie.
'Ha! ha! chuckled Sir Duke to himself, 'so 'twas all Dame Nan's doing that the flame has been lighted! Ho! ho! But what is to come next is the question? and he eyed the French youth from head to foot with the same considering look with which he was wont to study a bullock. 'Sir, sir, cried Mericour, absolutely flinging himself on his knee before him with national vehemence, 'do give me hope!
The good knight would fain have kept both Berenger and his friend at the Manor, but Berenger was far too impatient to carry home his joy, and only begged the loan of a horse for Mericour. For himself, he felt as if fatigue or dejection would never touch him again, and he kissed his mother and his sisters, including Lucy, all round, with an effusion of delight.
It is my mistress! Since she is living, let the time run on To good or bad. Mericour found the welcome at Hurst Walwyn kindly and more polished than that at Combe Manor. He was more readily understood, and found himself at his natural element.
Henry and his suite departed the next morning, but the Duchess insisted on retaining her other guests till Philip's cure should be complete. Meantime, Claude de Mericour had written to his brother and arranged a meeting with him.
Mericour retreated from him; but the high-spirited young man crossed his arms on his breast, and gazing at the group with indignant scorn, made answer, 'My message is from her who deems herself a widow, to the mother of the husband whom she little imagines to be not only alive, but consoled. 'Faithful! Faithful! burst out Berenger, with a wild, exultant, strangely-ringing shout.
His counsel was that M. de Mericour should so far conform himself to the English Church as to obtain admission to one of the universities, and, through his uncle of Leicester, he could obtain for him an opening at Oxford, where he might fully study the subject. There was much to incline Mericour to accept this counsel. He had had much conversation with Mr.
Moreover, that Huguenot kinsman, whose extreme Calvinist opinions had so nearly revolted Mericour, had died and left him all his means, as the only Protestant in the family; and the amount, when Claude arranged matters with his brother, proved to be sufficient to bear him through his expenses handsomely as a student, with the hope of marriage so soon as he should have kept his terms at the Temple.
'Is that indeed your step-father? said Mericour, as they rode away together. 'And the young man, is he your half-brother? 'Brother wholly in dear love, said Berenger; 'no blood relation. The little girls are my mother's children. 'Ah! so large a family all one? All at home? None in convents? 'We have no convents. 'Ah, no, but all at home! All at peace! This is a strange place, your England.
Word Of The Day