It was wonderful to behold,
every street and all the gates marked out by bright lights in the
windows, and in the open spaces and crossings of the street bonfires,
with dark figures dancing wildly round them in perfect ecstasies of
frantic delight; while guns were fired out, and the chorus of songs
came up to us; horrid, savage, abusive songs, Sir Francis said they
were, when he had plodded his way up to us on the roof, after having
again reassured my mother, who had remained below trying to comfort
the weeping Cecile.
Sir Francis said he had asked a tradesman with whom he dealt,
ordinarily a very reasonable and respectable man, what good they
expected from this arrest that it should cause such mad delirium of
joy. The man was utterly at a loss to tell him anything but that the
enemies of Paris were fallen. And then he began shouting and dancing
as frantically as ever.
It was to his wife and me that the English knight told his
adventures; Annora and M. Darpent had drawn apart on the opposite
side of the paraget. If to Madame d'Aubepine this great stroke of
policy meant nothing but that her husband was in prison, to my sister
a popular disturbance signified chiefly a chance of meeting Clement
Darpent; and Lady Ommaney and I exchanged glances and would not look
that way. Nay, we stayed as long as we could bear the cold of that
January night to give them a little more time. For, as I cannot too
often remind you, my grand-daughters, we treated an English maiden,
and especially one who had had so many experiences as my sister, very
differently from a simple child fresh from her convent.
Pages:
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305