



Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive







Transcriber's notes:

   1. Page scan source:
      http://www.archive.org/details/chevalierdauriac00leverich

   2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe].






                                 The

                          CHEVALIER D'AURIAC




                                  BY


                           S. LEVETT YEATS

                  AUTHOR OF "THE HONOUR OF SAVELLI"
                                 ETC.




                               NEW YORK

                       LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.

                          LONDON AND BOMBAY

                                 1897






                       Copyright, 1896 and 1897
                          By S. LEVETT YEATS
                              *   *   *
                        _All rights reserved_.




                      FIRST EDITION, MARCH, 1897
                REPRINTED, AUGUST, AND SEPTEMBER, 1897




                            TROW DIRECTORY
                   PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY
                               NEW YORK






                        THE CHEVALIER D'AURIAC






                                TO THE

                        CHUMMERY OF THE PALMS

                I DEDICATE THIS, IN MEMORY OF CERTAIN

                             RED-HOT DAYS

                                                        S. L. Y.






                               PREFACE


This story, like its predecessor, has been written in those rare
moments of leisure that an Indian official can afford. Bits of time
were snatched here and there, and much, perhaps too much, reliance has
had to be placed on memory, for books there were few or none to refer
to. Occasionally, too, inspiration was somewhat rudely interrupted.
Notably in one instance, in the Traveller's Bungalow at Hassan Abdal
(Moore's Lalla Rookh was buried hard by), when a bat, after making an
ineffectual swoop at a cockroach, fell into the very hungry author's
soup and put an end to dinner and to fancy. There is an anachronism in
the tale, in which the writer finds he has sinned with M. C. de
Remusat in "Le Saint-Barthelemy." The only excuse the writer has for
not making the correction is that his object is simply to enable a
reader to pass away a dull hour.

   Umballa Cantonments,
      March 16, 1896.




                               CONTENTS


                              CHAPTER I.

The Justice of M. de Rone.


                             CHAPTER II.

M. de Rone Cannot Read a Cypher.


                             CHAPTER III.

The Red Cornfield.


                             CHAPTER IV.

The Chateau de la Bidache.


                              CHAPTER V.

A Good Deed Comes Home to Roost.


                             CHAPTER VI.

'Green as a Jade Cup.'


                             CHAPTER VII.

Poor Nicholas!


                            CHAPTER VIII.

Monsieur de Preaulx.


                             CHAPTER IX.

The Master-General.


                              CHAPTER X.

An Old Friend.


                             CHAPTER XI.

A Swim in the Seine.


                             CHAPTER XII.

Monsieur Ravaillac does not Suit.


                            CHAPTER XIII.

The Louvre.


                             CHAPTER XIV.

Under the Limes.


                             CHAPTER XV.

The Hand of Babette.


                             CHAPTER XVI.

A Council of War.


                            CHAPTER XVII.

Maitre Pantin Sells Cabbages.


                            CHAPTER XVIII.

The Skylight in the Toison d'Or.


                             CHAPTER XIX.

'Plain Henri de Bourbon.'


                             CHAPTER XX.

At the Sign of 'The Toison d'Or.'




                               PRELUDE


                                  I.

   In no secret shrine doth my Lady sleep,
     But is ever before mine eyes;
   By well or ill, by wrong or right--
   By the burning sun, or the moon's pale light--
     Where the tropics fire or the fulmar flies,
   In rest or stormful fight.


                                 II.

   Good hap with the strong fierce winds that blow;
     Man holdeth the world in fee.
   By the light of her face, by my Lady's grace,
     Spread we our sails to the sea.
   With God above and our hearts below,
   Fight we the fight for weal or woe.


                                 III.

   Good hap with the strong fierce winds that blow,
     God rest their souls who die!
   By my Lady's grace, by her pure, pale face
   My pennon flies in its pride of place;
     Where my pennon flies am I.


                                 IV.

   Nor wind nor storm may turn me back,
     For I see the beacon fire.
   And time shall yield a hard fought field,
   And, with God's help, an unstained shield
     I win my heart's desire.

                                                 S. L. Y.

                                                 (_Vanity Fair_.)




                        THE CHEVALIER D'AURIAC

                              CHAPTER I

                      THE JUSTICE OF M. DE RONE


'_Mille diables!_ Lost again! The devil runs in those dice!' and de
Gomeron, with an impatient sweep of his hand, scattered the little
spotted cubes on to the floor of the deserted and half-ruined hut,
wherein we were beguiling the weariness of our picket duty before La
Fere, with a shake of our elbows, and a few flagons of wine, captured
from Monsieur the King of Navarre, as we, in our folly, called him
still.

A few days before we had cut out a convoy which the Bearnais was
sending into the beleaguered town. Some of the good things the convoy
bore found their way to the outposts; and on the night I speak of we
had made such play with our goblets that it was as if a swarm of bees
buzzed in my head. As for de Gomeron, he was in no better case, and
his sun-tanned face was burning a purple red with anger at his losses
and the strength of the d'Arbois, both of which combined to give a
more than usually sinister look to his grim and lowering features. In
short, we were each of us in a condition ripe for any mischief: I hot
with wine and the fire of five-and-twenty years, and de Gomeron