E-text prepared by Al Haines
A Romance
by
Author of
"The Lord Protector," "The Chevalier d'Auriac," etc.
Longmans, Green, and Co.91 and 93 Fifth Avenue, New YorkLondon and Bombay1904
Copyright, 1904, by
S. Levett-Yeats
All Rights Reserved
My father, René, Vidame d'Orrain, was twice married. By his first wifehe had one son, Simon, who subsequently succeeded to his title andestates, and was through his life my bitter enemy. By his second wife,whom he married somewhat late in life, he had two sons—the elder,Anne, known as the Chevalier de St. Martin from his mother's lands,which he inherited; and the younger, Bertrand—myself.
Simon betook himself early to the Court, and we heard but little ofhim, and that not to his credit; St. Martin went to Italy under thebanner of Brissac; and as for me, my parents yielding to the persuasionof my mother's uncle, the Bishop of Seez, decided that I should becomea Churchman, and I was forthwith packed off to Paris, and entered atthe College of Cambrai, being then about seventeen years of age. Beingremarkably tall and strongly built, with a natural taste for all manlyexercises, it might have been expected that my books saw little of me;but, on the contrary, I found in them a pleasure and a companionshipthat has lasted through my life. Thus it happened that I madeconsiderable progress. So much so that the good Bishop, mygreat-uncle, often flattered me with the ambitious hopes of some dayfilling his Episcopal chair—a hope that, I need not say, was neverrealised.
About this time, I being nineteen years of age, things happened thatentirely altered my life. My mother sickened and died. Shortly afternews came of the death of my brother St. Martin, who was killed in anaffair of honour at Milan. The Vidame, my father, then in hiseighty-first year, and much enfeebled by old wounds, especially one hehad received at Fornovo, felt that his last hours were come, andsummoned my brother Simon and myself home to receive his last blessingbefore he died.
I hurried back as fast as possible, but when I reached Orrain I foundto my astonishment the gates of the Chateau closed against me, andSimon, leaning over the battlements, bade me begone.
Overcome with this reception, I was for a sp