The Man in Black Read online

  CHAPTER II.

  SOLOMON NOTREDAME.

  A little later that night, at the hour which saw the showman pay hissecond visit to the street before the _Chariot d'Or_, there to standgaping at the lighted windows, and peering into the courtyard in akind of fascination--or perhaps to assure himself that the house wouldnot fly away, and his golden hopes with it--the twelve-year-old boy,the basis of those hopes, awoke and stirred restlessly in the straw.He was cold, and the chain galled him. His face ached where the manhad struck him. In the next stall two drunken men were fighting, andthe place reeked with oaths and foulness. But none of these thingswere so novel as to keep the boy awake; and sighing and drawing themonkey nearer to him, he would in a moment have been asleep again ifthe moon, shining with great brightness through the little squareaperture above him, had not thrown its light directly on his head, androused him more completely.

  He sat up and gazed at it, and God knows what softening thoughts andpitiful recollections the beauty of the night brought into his mind;but presently he began to weep--not as a child cries, with noise andwailing, but in silence, as a man weeps. The monkey awoke and creptinto his breast, but he hardly regarded it. The misery, thehopelessness, the slavery of his life, ignored from hour to hour, orborne at other times with a boy's nonchalance, filled his heart tobursting now. Crouching in his lair in the straw, he shook with agony.The tears welled up, and would not be restrained, until they hid theface of the sky and darkened even the moon's pure light.

  Or was it his tears? He dashed them away and looked, and rose slowlyto his feet; while the ape, clinging to his breast, began to mow andgibber. A black mass, which gradually resolved itself, as the boy'seyes cleared, into a man's hat and head, filled the aperture.

  "Hush!" came from the head in a cautious whisper. "Come nearer. I willnot hurt you. Do you wish to escape, lad?"

  The boy clasped his hands in an ecstasy. "Yes, oh yes!" he murmured.The question chimed in so naturally with his thoughts, it scarcelysurprised him.

  "If you were loose, could you get through this window?" the man asked.He spoke cautiously, under his breath; but the noise in the nextstall, to say nothing of a vile drinking song which was being chantedforth at the farther end of the stable, was such he might safely haveshouted. "Yes? Then take this file. Rub at the fifth link from theend: the one that is nearly through. Do you understand, boy?"

  "Yes, yes," Jehan cried again, groping in the straw for the tool,which had fallen at his feet. "I know."

  "When you are loose, cover up the chain," continued the other in aslow biting tone. "Or lie on that part of it, and wait until morning.As soon as you see the first gleam of light, climb out through thewindow. You will find me outside."

  The boy would have uttered his trembling thanks. But lo! in a momentthe aperture was clear again; the moon sailed unchanged through anunchanged sky; and all was as before. Save for the presence of thelittle bit of rough steel in his hand, he might have thought it adream. But the file was there; it was there, and with a choking sob ofhope and fear and excitement, he fell to work on the chain.

  It was clumsy work he made of it in the dark. But the link was so muchworn, a man might have wrenched it open, and the boy did not spare hisfingers. The dispute next door covered the song of the file; and thesmoky horn lantern which alone lighted that end of the stable had noeffect in the dark corner where he lay. True, he had to work by feel,looking out all the while for his tyrant's coming; but the tool wasgood, and the fingers, hardened by many an hour of work on the rope,were strong and lithe. When the showman at last stumbled to his placein the straw, the boy lay free--free and trembling.

  All was not done, however. It seemed an hour before the man settledhimself--an hour of agony and suspense to Jehan, feigning sleep; sinceat any moment his master might take it into his head to look intothings. But Crafty Eyes had no suspicion. Having kicked the boy andheard the chain rattle, and so assured himself that he was there--somuch caution he exercised every night, drunk or sober--he wassatisfied; and by-and-by, when his imagination, heated by thoughts ofwealth, permitted it, he fell asleep, and dreamed that he had marriedthe Cardinal's cook-maid and ate collops on Sundays.

  Even so, the night seemed endless to the boy, lying wakeful, with hiseyes on the sky. Now he was hot, now cold. One moment the thought thatthe window might prove too strait for him threw him into a bath ofperspiration; the next he shuddered at the possibility of re-capture,and saw himself dragged back and flayed by his brutal owner. But awatched pot _does_ boil, though slowly. The first streak of dawn cameat last--as it does when the sky is darkest; and with it, even as theboy rose warily to his feet, the sound of a faint whistle outside thewindow.

  A common mortal could no more have passed through that window withoutnoise than an old man can make himself young again. But the boy didit. As he dropped to the ground outside he heard the whistle again.The air was still dark; but a score of paces away, beyond a low wall,he made out the form of a horseman, and went towards it.

  It was the man in the cloak, who stooped and held out his hand. "Jumpup behind me," he muttered.

  The boy went to obey, but as he clasped the outstretched hand, it wassuddenly withdrawn. "What is that? What have you got there?" the riderexclaimed, peering down at him.

  "It is only Taras, the monkey," Jehan said timidly.

  "Throw it away," the stranger answered. "Do you hear me?" he continuedin a stern, composed tone. "Throw it away, I say."

  The boy stood hesitating a moment; then, without a word, he turned andfled into the darkness the way he had come. The man on the horse sworeunder his breath, but he had no remedy; and before he could tell whatto expect, the boy was at his side again. "I've put it through thewindow," Jehan explained breathlessly. "If I had left it here, thedogs and the boys would have killed it."

  The man made no comment aloud, but jerked him roughly to the crupper;and bidding him hold fast, started the horse, which, setting off at aneasy amble, quickly bore them out of Fecamp. As they passed throughthe fair-ground of yesterday--a shadowy, ghastly waste at this hour,peopled by wandering asses, and packhorses, and a few lurking figuresthat leapt up out of the darkness, and ran after them whining foralms--the boy shivered and clung close to his protector. But he had nomore than recognised the scene before they were out of sight of it,and riding through the open fields. The grey dawn was spreading, thecocks at distant farms were crowing. The dim, misty countryside, thelooming trees, the raw air, the chill that crept into his ill-coveredbones--all these, which might have seemed to others wretchedconditions enough, filled the boy with hope and gladness. For theymeant freedom.

  But presently, as they rode on, his thoughts took a fresh turn. Theybegan to busy themselves, and fearfully, with the man before him,whose continued silence and cold reserve set a hundred wild ideashumming in his brain. What manner of man was he? Who was he? Why hadhe helped him? Jehan had heard of ogres and giants that decoyedchildren into forests and devoured them. He had listened to ballads ofsuch adventures, sung at fairs and in the streets, a hundred times;now they came so strongly into his mind, and so grew upon him in thisgrim companionship, that by-and-by, seeing a wood before them throughwhich the road ran, he shook with terror and gave himself up for lost.Sure enough, when they came to the wood, and had ridden a little wayinto it, the man, whose face he had never seen, stopped. "Get down,"he said sternly.

  "JEHAN WENT TREMBLING AND FOUND THE HOLE" (_p_. 33).]

  Jehan obeyed, his teeth chattering, his legs quaking under him. Heexpected the man to produce a large carving-knife, or call some of hisfellows out of the forest to share his repast. Instead, the strangermade a queer pass with his hands over his horse's neck, and bade theboy go to an old stump which stood by the way. "There is a hole in thefarther side of it," he said. "Look in the hole."

  Jehan went trembling and found the hole, and looked. "What do yousee?" the rider asked.

  "A piece of money," said Jehan.
/>   "Bring it to me," the stranger answered gravely.

  The boy took it--it was only a copper sou--and did as he was bidden."Get up!" said the horseman curtly. Jehan obeyed, and they went on asbefore.

  When they had ridden half-way through the forest, however, thestranger stopped again. "Get down," he said.

  The boy obeyed, and was directed as on the former occasion--but notuntil the horseman had made the same strange gesture with hishands--to go to an old stump. This time he found a silver livre. Hegave it to his master, and climbed again to his place, marvellingmuch.

  A third time they stopped, on the farther verge of the forest. Thesame words passed, but this time the boy found a gold crown in thehole.

  After that his mind no longer ran upon ogres and giants. Instead,another fancy almost as dreadful took possession of him. He remarkedthat everything the stranger wore was black: his cloak, his hat, hisgauntlets. Even his long boots, which in those days were commonly madeof untanned leather, were black. So was the furniture of the horse.Jehan noticed this as he mounted the third time; and connecting itwith the marvellous springing up of money where the man willed, beganto be seized with panic, never doubting but that he had fallen intothe hands of the devil. Likely enough, he would have dropped off atthe first opportunity that offered, and fled for his life--or hissoul, but he did not know much of that--if the stranger had not in thenick of time drawn a parcel of food from his saddle-bag. He gave someto Jehan. Even so, the boy, hungry as he was, did not dare to touch ituntil he was assured that his companion was really eating--eating, andnot pretending. Then, with a great sigh of relief, he began to eattoo. For he knew that the devil never ate!

  After this they rode on in silence, until, about an hour before noon,they came to a small farm-steading standing by the road, half a leagueshort of the sleepy old town of Yvetot, which Beranger was one day tocelebrate. Here the magician--for such Jehan now took his companion tobe--stopped. "Get down," he said.

  The boy obeyed, and instinctively looked for a stump. But there was nostump, and this time his master, after scanning his ragged garments asif to assure himself of his appearance, had a different order to give."Go to that farm," he said. "Knock at the door, and say that SolomonNotredame de Paris requires two fowls. They will give them to you.Bring them to me."

  The boy went wide-eyed, knocked, and gave his message. A woman, whoopened the door, stretched out her hand, took up a couple of fowlsthat lay tied together on the hearth, and gave them to him without aword. He took them--he no longer wondered at anything--and carriedthem back to his master in the road.

  "Now listen to me," said the latter, in his slow, cold tone. "Go intothe town you see before you, and in the market-place you will find aninn with the sign of the _Three Pigeons_. Enter the yard and offerthese fowls for sale, but ask a livre apiece for them, that they maynot be bought. While offering them, make an excuse to go into thestable, where you will see a grey horse. Drop this white lump into thehorse's manger when no one is looking, and afterwards remain at thedoor of the yard. If you see me, do not speak to me. Do youunderstand?"

  Jehan said he did; but his new master made him repeat his orders frombeginning to end before he let him go with the fowls and the whitelump, which was about the size of a walnut, and looked like rock-salt.

  About an hour later the landlord of the _Three Pigeons_ at Yvetotheard a horseman stop at his door. He went out to meet him. Now,Yvetot is on the road to Havre and Harfleur; and though the former ofthese places was then in the making and the latter was dying fast, thelandlord had had experience of many guests. But so strange a guest asthe one he found awaiting him he thought he had never seen. In thefirst place, the gentleman was clad from top to toe in black; andthough he had no servants behind him, he wore an air of as graveconsequence as though he boasted six. In the next place, his face wasso long, thin, and cadaverous that, but for a great black line ofeyebrows that cut it in two and gave it a very curious and sinisterexpression, people meeting him for the first time might have beentempted to laugh. Altogether, the landlord could not make him out; buthe thought it safer to go out and hold his stirrup, and ask hispleasure.

  "I shall dine here," the stranger answered gravely. As he dismountedhis cloak fell open. The landlord observed with growing wonder thatits black lining was sprinkled with cabalistic figures embroidered inwhite.

  Introduced to the public room, which was over the great stone porchand happened to be empty, the traveller lost none of his singularity.He paused a little way within the door, and stood as if suddenlyfallen into deep thought. The landlord, beginning to think him mad,ventured to recall him by asking what his honour would take.

  "There is something amiss in this house," the stranger repliedabruptly, turning his eyes on him.

  "Amiss?" the host answered, faltering under his gaze, and wishinghimself well out of the room. "Not that I am aware of, your honour."

  "There is no one ill?"

  "No, your honour, certainly not."

  "Nor deformed?"

  "No."

  "You are mistaken," the stranger answered firmly. "Know that I amSolomon, son to Caesar, son to Michel Notredame of Paris, commonlycalled by the learned Nostradamus and the Transcendental, who read thefuture and rode the Great White Horse of Death. All things hidden areopen to me."

  The landlord only gaped, but his wife and a serving wench, who hadcome to the door out of curiosity, and were listening and staring withall their might, crossed themselves industriously. "I am here," thestranger continued, after a brief pause, "to construct the horoscopeof His Eminence the Cardinal, of whom it has been predicted that hewill die at Yvetot. But I find the conditions unpropitious. There isan adverse influence in this house."

  The landlord scratched his head, and looked helplessly at his wife.But she was quite taken up with awe of the stranger, whose head nearlytouched the ceiling of the low room; while his long, pale face seemedin the obscurity--for the day was dark--to be of an unearthly pallor.

  "An adverse influence," the astrologer continued gravely. "What ismore, I now see where it is. It is in the stable. You have a greyhorse."

  The landlord, somewhat astonished, said he had.

  "You had. You have not now. The devil has it!" was the astoundinganswer.

  "My grey horse?"

  The stranger inclined his head.

  "Nay, there you are wrong!" the host retorted briskly. "I'm hanged ifhe has! For I rode the horse this morning, and it went as well andquietly as ever in its life."

  "Send and see," the tall man answered.

  The serving girl, obeying a nod, went off reluctantly to the stable,while her master, casting a look of misliking at his guest, walkeduneasily to the window. In a moment the girl came back, her facewhite. "The grey is in a fit," she cried, keeping the whole width ofthe room between her and the stranger. "It is sweating andstaggering."

  The landlord, with an oath, ran off to see, and in a minute theappearance of an excited group in the square under the window showedthat the thing was known. The traveller took no notice of this,however, nor of the curious and reverential glances which thewomenfolk, huddled about the door of the room, cast at him. He walkedup and down the room with his eyes lowered.

  The landlord came back presently, his face black as thunder. "It hasgot the staggers," he said resentfully.

  "It has got the devil," the stranger answered coldly. "I knew it wasin the house when I entered. If you doubt me, I will prove it."

  "Ay?" said the landlord stubbornly.

  The man in black went to his saddle-bag, which had been brought up andlaid in a corner, and took out a shallow glass bowl, curiouslyembossed with a cross and some mystic symbols. "Go to the churchthere," he said, "and fill this with holy water."

  The host took it unwillingly, and went on his strange errand. While hewas away the astrologer opened the window, and looked out idly. Whenhe saw the other returning, he gave the order "Lead out the horse."

  There was a brief delay, but presently two stablemen
, with a littleposse of wondering attendants, partly urged and partly led out ahandsome grey horse. The poor animal trembled and hung its head, butwith some difficulty was brought under the window. Now and again asharp spasm convulsed its limbs, and scattered the spectators rightand left.

  Solomon Notredame leaned out of the window. In his left hand he heldthe bowl, in his right a small brush. "If this beast is sick with anyearthly sickness," he cried in a deep solemn voice, audible across thesquare, "or with such as earthly skill can cure, then let this holywater do it no harm, but refresh it. But if it be possessed by thedevil, and given up to the powers of darkness and to the enemy of manfor ever and ever to do his will and pleasure, then let these dropsburn and consume it as with fire. Amen! Amen!"

  With the last word he sprinkled the horse. The effect was magical. Theanimal reared up, as if it had been furiously spurred, and plunged soviolently that the men who held it were dragged this way and that. Thecrowd fled every way; but not so quickly but that a hundred eyes hadseen the horse smoke where the water fell on it. Moreover, when theycautiously approached it, the hair in two or three places was found tobe burned off!

  The magician turned gravely from the window. "I wish to eat," he said.

  None of the servants, however, would come into the room or serve him,and the landlord, trembling, set the board with his own hands andwaited on him. Mine host had begun by doubting and suspecting, but,simple man! his scepticism was not proof against the holy water trialand his wife's terror. By-and-by, with a sidelong glance at his guest,he faltered the question: What should he do with the horse?

  The man in black looked solemn. "Whoever mounts it will die within theyear," he said.

  "I will shoot it," the landlord replied, shuddering.

  "The devil will pass into one of the other horses," was the answer.

  "Then," said the miserable innkeeper, "perhaps your honour wouldaccept it?"

  "God forbid!" the astrologer answered. And that frightened the othermore than all the rest. "But if you can find at any time," the wizardcontinued, "a beggar-boy with black hair and blue eyes, who does notknow his father's name, he may take the horse and break the spell. SoI read the signs."

  The landlord cried out that such a person was not to be met with in alifetime. But before he had well finished his sentence a shrill voicecalled through the keyhole that there was such a boy in the yard atthat moment, offering poultry for sale.

  "In God's name, then, give him the horse!" the stranger said. "Bid himtake it to Rouen, and at every running water he comes to say apaternoster and sprinkle its tail. So he may escape, and you, too. Iknow no other way."

  The trembling innkeeper said he would do that, and did it. And so,when the man in black rode into Rouen the next evening, he did notride alone. He was attended at a respectful distance by a good-lookingpage clad in sable velvet, and mounted on a handsome grey horse.