A Ladder of Swords: A Tale of Love, Laughter and TearsParker, Gilbert
History
A Ladder of Swords: A Tale of Love, Laughter and Tears
Parker, Gilbert
Great Britain -- History -- Elizabeth, 1558-1603 -- Fiction; Huguenots -- Fiction; Jersey (Channel Islands) -- Fiction
But the longest waiting must end. It came on the evening of the very
day that the Seigneur of Rozel went to Angèle’s father and bluntly
told him he was ready to forego all Norman-Jersey prejudice against
the French and the Huguenot religion, and take Angèle to wife without
penny or estate.
In reply to the seigneur, Monsieur Aubert said that he was conscious
of an honor, and referred monsieur to his daughter, who must answer
for herself; but he must tell Monsieur of Rozel that monsieur’s
religion would, in his own sight, be a high bar to the union. To that
the seigneur said that no religion that he had could be a bar to
anything at all, and so long as the young lady could manage her
household, drive a good bargain with the craftsmen and hucksters, and
have the handsomest face and manners in the Channel Islands, he’d ask
no more; and she might pray for him and his salvation without let or
hindrance.
The seigneur found the young lady in a little retreat among the
rocks, called by the natives _La Chaire_. Here she sat sewing upon
some coarse linen for a poor fisherwoman’s babe when the seigneur
came near. She heard the scrunch of his heels upon the gravel, the
clank of his sword upon the rocks, and looked up with a flush, her
needle poised; for none should know of her presence in this place
save her father. When she saw who was her visitor, she rose. After
greeting and compliment, none too finely put, but more generous than
fitted with Jersey parsimony, the gentleman of Rozel came at once to
the point.
“My name is none too bad,” said he--“Raoul Lemprière, of the
Lemprières that have been here since Rollo ruled in Normandy. My
estate is none worse than any in the whole islands; I have more
horses and dogs than any gentleman of my acres; and I am more in
favor at court than De Carteret of St. Ouen’s. I am the Queen’s
butler, and I am the first that royal favor granted to set up three
dove-cotes, one by St. Aubin’s, one by St. Helier’s, and one at
Rozel; and--and,” he added, with a lumbering attempt at humor--“and,
on my oath, I’ll set up another dove-cote without my sovereign’s
favor, with your leave alone. By Our Lady, I do love that color in
yon cheek! Just such a color had my mother when she snatched from the
head of my cousin of Carteret’s milkmaid-wife the bonnet of a lady of
quality and bade her get to her heifers. God’s beauty! but ’tis a
color of red primroses in thy cheeks and blue campions in thine eyes.
Come, I warrant I can deepen that color”--he bowed low--“Madame of
Rozel, if it be not too soon!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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