A Ladder of Swords: A Tale of Love, Laughter and Tears Read online

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  "SHE SCANNED THE SEA FOR A SAIL"]

  A LADDER OF SWORDS

  A TALE OF LOVE, LAUGHTER AND TEARS

  BY

  GILBERT PARKER

  "_On every height there lies repose, and so must we still be climbing, but alas! I have been climbing a ladder of swords these many years_" (From a woman's letter)

  ILLUSTRATED BY THE KINNEYS

  HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS NEW YORK AND LONDON 1904

  Copyright, 1904, by _Gilbert Parker_.

  _All rights reserved._

  Published September, 1904.

  To The Countess of Darnley

  Whose Home Contains Many Relics and Memories of the Spacious Times of Queen Elizabeth, the Friend of Michel and Angele

  A Note

  There will be found a few anachronisms in this tale, but none so important as to give a wrong impression of the events of Queen Elizabeth's reign.

  Illustrations

  "SHE SCANNED THE SEA FOR A SAIL" _Frontispiece_ ISLAND OF JERSEY _Facing p._ 1 "'LET US KNEEL AND PRAY FOR TWO DYING MEN'" 28 "BUONESPOIR LOOKED TO THE PRIMING OF HIS PISTOLS" 70 "SHE WAS IN CURIOUS CONTRAST TO THE QUEEN" 128 "'HANG FAST TO YOUR HONORS BY THE SKIN OF YOUR TEETH, MY LOR 162 "IT WAS THE QUEEN'S FOOL" 220 "THEY SAW, SMILING AND APPLAUSIVE, THE DUKE'S DAUGHTER AND ANGELE" 266 "'AND WHAT MATTER WHICH IT IS WE WIELD'" 276

  _J Hort Scalp_]

  A Ladder of Swords

  I

  If you go to Southampton and search the register of the Walloonchurch there, you will find that in the summer of 157- "_Madame Vefuede Montgomery with all her family and servants were admitted to theCommunion_"--"_Tous ceux ci furent Recus la a Cene du 157-, commepassans, sans avoir Rendu Raison de la foi, mes sur la tesmognage deMons. Forest, Ministre de Madame, qui certifia qui ne cognoisoit Rienen tout ceux la po quoy Il ne leur deust administre la Cene s'ilestoit en lieu po la ferre._"

  There is another striking record, which says that in August of thesame year Demoiselle Angele Claude Aubert, daughter of Monsieur dela Haie Aubert, Councillor of the Parliament of Rouen, was married toMichel de la Foret, of the most noble Flemish family of that name.

  * * * * *

  When I first saw these records, now grown dim with time, I fell towondering what was the real life-history of these two people.Forthwith, in imagination, I began to make their story piece bypiece; and I had reached a romantic _denoument_ satisfactory tomyself and in sympathy with fact, when the Angel of Accident steppedforward with some "human documents." Then I found that my tale, wovenback from the two obscure records I have given, was the true story oftwo most unhappy yet most happy people. From the note struck in mymind, when my finger touched that sorrowful page in the register ofthe Church of the Refugees at Southampton, had spread out the wholemelody and the very book of the song.

  One of the later-discovered records was a letter, tear-stained,faded, beautifully written in old French, from Demoiselle AngeleClaude Aubert to Michel de la Foret at Anvers in March of the year157-. The letter lies beside me as I write, and I can scarcelybelieve that three and a quarter centuries have passed since it waswritten, and that she who wrote it was but eighteen years old at thetime. I translate it into English, though it is impossible adequatelyto carry over either the flavor or the idiom of the language:

  "_Written on this May Day of the year 157-, at the place hight Rozelin the Minor called of the same of Jersey Isle, to Michel de laForet, at Anvers in Flanders._

  "MICHEL,--Thy good letter by safe carriage cometh to my hand,bringing to my heart a lightness it hath not known since that daywhen I was hastily carried to the port of St. Malo, and thou towardsthe King his prison. In what great fear have I lived, having no newsof thee and fearing all manner of mischance! But our God hathbenignly saved thee from death, and me He hath set safely here inthis isle of the sea.

  "Thou hast ever been a brave soldier, enduring and not fearing; thoushalt find enow to keep thy blood stirring in these days of trial andperil to us who are so opprobriously called Les Huguenots. If thouwouldst know more of my mind thereupon, come hither. Safety is here,and work for thee--smugglers and pirates do abound on these coasts,and Popish wolves do harry the flock even in this island province ofEngland. Michel, I plead for the cause which thou hast noblyespoused, but--alas! my selfish heart, where thou art lie work andfighting, and the same high cause, and sadly, I confess, it is for myown happiness that I ask thee to come. I wot well that escape fromFrance hath peril, that the way hither from that point upon yondercoast called Carteret is hazardous, but yet--but yet all ways tohappiness are set with hazard.

  "If thou dost come to Carteret thou wilt see two lights turningthis-wards: one upon a headland called Tour de Rozel, and one uponthe great rock called of the Ecrehos. These will be in line with thysight by the sands of Hatainville. Near by the Tour de Rozel shall Ibe watching and awaiting thee. By day and night doth my prayer ascendfor thee.

  "The messenger who bears this to thee (a piratical knave with a mostkind heart, having, I am told, a wife in every port of France and ofEngland the south, a most heinous sin!) will wait for thy answer, orwill bring thee hither, which is still better. He is worthy of trustif thou makest him swear by the little finger of St. Peter. By allother swearings he doth deceive freely.

  "The Lord make thee true, Michel. If thou art faithful to me, I shallknow how faithful thou art in all; for thy vows to me were mostfrequent and pronounced, with a full savor that might warrant shortseasoning. Yet, because thou mayst still be given to such dearfantasies of truth as were on thy lips in those dark days wherein thysword saved my life 'twixt Paris and Rouen, I tell thee now that I dolove thee, and shall so love when, as my heart inspires me, thecloud shall fall that will hide us from each other forever.

  "ANGELE

  "_An Afterword_:

  "I doubt not we shall come to the heights where there is peace,though we climb thereto by a ladder of swords.

  A."

  Some years before Angele's letter was written, Michel de la Foret hadbecome an officer in the army of Comte Gabriel de Montgomery, andfought with him until what time the great chief was besieged in thecastle of Domfront in Normandy. When the siege grew desperate,Montgomery besought the intrepid young Huguenot soldier to escortMadame de Montgomery to England, to be safe from the oppression andmisery sure to follow any mishap to this noble leader of theCamisards.

  At the very moment of departure of the refugees from Domfront withthe Comtesse, Angele's messenger--the "piratical knave with a mostkind heart"--presented himself, delivered her letter to De la Foret,and proceeded with the party to the coast of Normandy by St. Brieuc.Embarking there in a lugger which Buonespoir the pirate secured forthem, they made for England.

  Having come but half-way of the Channel, the lugger was stopped by anEnglish frigate. After much persuasion the captain of the frigateagreed to land Madame de Montgomery upon the island of Jersey, butforced De la Foret to return to the coast of France; and Buonespoirelected to return with him.