The Casque's Lark; or, Victoria, the Mother of the Camps

CHAPTER III
THE MORTUARY CHAMBER

Victoria entered the house amidst the religious silence of the soldiers who stood grouped without. Captain Marion and Tetrik followed her in. She motioned to them to remain outside of the death room, where she wished to be left alone with me and Sampso.

At the sight of my wife, lying dead upon the floor, I fell upon my knees sobbing beside her. I raised her beautiful head, now pale and cold; closed her eyes; and taking the beloved body in my arms I laid it on my bed. Again I knelt down, and with my head resting upon the pillow on which hers reclined, I could no longer restrain my grief. I sobbed and moaned. I remained there long weeping and disconsolate; I could hear the suppressed sobs of Victoria.

Finally her voice recalled me to myself; I thought of what she must be suffering; I looked around. She was seated on the floor near the corpse of Victorin, whose head rested on her maternal knees.

"Schanvoch," said my foster-sister as she gently brushed back with her hands the hair that fell over Victorin's forehead, "my son is no more; I may weep over him, despite his crime. Here he lies dead – dead – dead and not yet twenty-three years old!"

"Dead – and killed by me – who loved him as my son!"

"Brother, you avenged your honor – you have my pardon and pity – "

"Alas! I struck Victorin in the dark – I struck him in a fit of blind rage – I struck him without knowing that it was he! Hesus is my witness! Had I recognized your son, Oh, sister! I would have cursed him, but my sword would have dropped at my feet – "

Victoria gazed at me in silence. My words seemed to lift a heavy weight from her heart. She looked relieved at learning that I had killed her son without knowing him. She reached out her hand to me feelingly, and I carried it respectfully to my lips. For several minutes we remained silent. She then said to Ellen's sister:

"Sampso, were you here this fatal night? Speak, I pray you. What happened?"

"It was midnight," Sampso answered in a voice broken with sobs. "Schanvoch had left the house two hours before on his journey. I was lying here beside my sister – I heard a rap at the house door – I threw a cloak over my shoulders and went to the door to ask who it was. A woman's voice with a foreign accent answered – "

"A woman's voice?" I asked in a tone of surprise shared by Victoria. "Are you sure it was a woman's voice that answered you, Sampso?"

"Yes; that was the snare. The voice said to me: 'I come from Victoria with a very important message for Ellen, the wife of Schanvoch, who left on a journey two hours ago.'"

At these words of Sampso's, Victoria and I exchanged looks of increasing astonishment. Sampso proceeded:

"As I could in no way suspect a messenger from Victoria, I opened the door. Immediately, instead of a woman, a man rushed at me; he violently pushed me back – and immediately bolted the street door. By the light of the lamp, which I had placed on the floor, I recognized Victorin. He was pale – frightful to behold – he seemed to be intoxicated, and could hardly stand on his feet – "

"Oh! The unhappy boy! The unhappy boy!" I cried. "He was not in his senses! Only so! Oh, only so! He never could otherwise have attempted such a crime!"

"Proceed, Sampso," said Victoria with a profound sigh; "proceed with your account – "

"Without saying a word to me, Victorin pointed to the door of my own room, the room I always occupied when I did not share my sister's room during the absence of Schanvoch. In my terror I guessed all. I cried to Ellen: 'Sister, lock your door!' and I began to call for help as loud as I could. My cries exasperated Victorin. He seized and threw me into my room. Just as he was about to lock me in I saw Ellen hurrying out of her room. She looked pale and frightened; she was almost naked. I afterwards heard the distressing cries of my sister calling for help – I heard them struggle – I fainted away. I know not how long I remained in that state. I regained consciousness when someone knocked at my door and called me by name. It was Schanvoch. I answered him. He must have opened it for me – I saw him – "

"And you," Victoria said, turning to me. "How was it that you returned so suddenly?"

"At about four leagues from Mayence, I was notified that a crime was being committed in my house."

"And who could have notified you?"

"A soldier; my escort."

"And who was that soldier?" asked Victoria with heightening intensity. "How did he know of the crime?"

"I know not – he vanished across the forest the instant that he gave me the sinister information. That soldier got back to town before me – he was the same man who tore your grandchild from your arms and killed it at your feet – "

"Schanvoch," resumed Victoria with a shudder and carrying both her hands to her forehead, "my son is dead – I shall neither accuse nor excuse him – but a horrible mystery underlies this crime – "

"Listen," I replied, as several circumstances that had slipped my memory at the first pangs of my grief now came back to my mind. "When I arrived before the door of my house, I knocked; only the distant sound of Sampso's cries answered me. A moment later the lower window of my wife's room was opened. I ran thither. The shutters were being pushed aside to give passage to a man, while Ellen cried for help. I pushed the man back into the room, which was dark as a tomb – in the darkness I struck and killed your son. Almost immediately after I felt two arms thrown around my neck – I imagined myself attacked by a new assailant – I made another thrust in the dark – it was Ellen, my beloved wife, whom I killed – "

And my sobs choked me.

"Brother – brother," said Victoria to me, "this has been a fatal night to us all – "

"Listen further – above all to this," I said to my foster-sister, controlling my emotion: "At the very moment when I recognized the voice of my expiring wife, I saw by the light of the moon a woman perched on the casement of the window – "

"A woman!" cried Victoria.

"It is she probably whose voice deceived me," observed Sampso, "by announcing to me a message from Victoria."

"I think so too," I replied; "and that woman, doubtlessly the accomplice of Victorin's crime, called to him, saying it was time to flee, and that she now was his, seeing he had kept the promise that he made to her."

"A promise?" Again Victoria pondered. "What promise could he have made to her?"

"To dishonor Ellen – "

My foster-sister shuddered and said:

"I repeat it, Schanvoch, this crime is wrapped in some horrible mystery. But who may that woman have been?"

"One of the two Bohemian dancers who recently arrived at Mayence. Listen. Seeing that she received no answer from Victorin, and hearing the distant but approaching clamors of the soldiers who were angrily hastening to my house, she leaped down and vanished. A second after the rumbling of her cart informed me of her flight. In my despair it never occurred to me to pursue her. I knew I had just killed Ellen near the cradle of our son – Ellen, my dearly beloved wife!"

I could not continue. Tears and sobs deprived me of speech. Sampso and Victoria remained silent.

"This is a veritable abyss!" resumed the Mother of the Camps. "An abyss that my mind can not fathom. My son's crime is great – his intoxication, so far from excusing, only serves to render the deed all the more shameful. And yet, Schanvoch, you know not what love this poor child had for you – "

"Say not so, Victoria," I murmured, hiding my face in my hands. "Say not so – my despair becomes only more distressing!"

"It is not a reproach that I make, brother," replied Victoria. "Had I been a witness of my son's crime, I would have killed him with my own hands, to the end that he cease to dishonor his mother, and Gaul, that chose him chief. I refer to Victorin's love for you because I believe that, without his being in a state of inebriety and without some dark machination, he never would have committed such a misdeed – "

"As for me, sister, I believe I see through this infernal plot – "

"You do? Speak!"

"Before the great battle of the Rhine an infamous calumny was spread over the camp against Victorin. The army's affection for him was being withdrawn. Your son's victory regained for him the soldiers' affection. See how that old calumny becomes to-day a frightful reality. Victorin's crime cost him his life – and also his son's. His stock is extinct. A new chief must now be chosen for Gaul. Is this not so?"

"Yes, brother, all that is true."

"Did not that unknown soldier, my traveling companion, know when he revealed to me that a crime was being committed in my house – did he not know that unless I arrived in time to kill Victorin myself in the first access of my rage, your son would certainly be slaughtered by the troops who would undoubtedly rise in revolt at the first tidings of the felony?"

"But how," put in Sampso, "was the army apprised so soon of the felony, seeing that no one left the house?"

Struck by Sampso's observation the Mother of the Camps started and looked at me. I proceeded:

"Who is the man, Victoria, who tore your grandson from your arms and dashed his life against the ground? The same unknown soldier! Did he yield to an impulse of blind rage against the child? Not at all! Accordingly, he was but the instrument of some ambition that is as concealed as it is ferocious. Only one man had an interest in the double murder that has just extinguished your stock – because, once your stock is extinguished Gaul must choose a new chief – and the man whom I suspect, the man whom I accuse has long wished to govern Gaul!"

"His name!" cried Victoria, fixing upon me a look of intense agony. "The name of the man whom you suspect – "

"His name is Tetrik, your relative, the Governor of Gascony."

For the first time since I first expressed my suspicions of her relative, did Victoria seem to share them. She cast her eyes upon the corpse of her son with an expression of pitiful sorrow, kissed his icy forehead several times, and after a moment of profound reflection she seemed to take a supreme resolution. She rose and said to me in a firm voice:

"Where is Tetrik?"

"He awaits your orders in the next room, I presume, with Captain Marion. What are your orders?"

"I wish them both to come in, immediately."

"In this chamber of death?"

"Yes, in this chamber of death. Yes, here, Schanvoch, before the inanimate remains of your wife, my son and his child. If it was that man who wove this dark and horrible plot, then, even if he were a demon of hypocrisy and bloodthirstiness, he can not choose but betray himself at the sight of his victims – at the sight of a mother between the corpses of her son and grandson; at the sight of a husband beside the corpse of his wife. Go, brother. Order them in! Order them in! Then also, we must at all cost find that unknown soldier, your traveling companion!"

"I have thought of that – " and struck with a sudden thought, I added: "It was Captain Marion who chose the rider that was to escort me."

"We shall question the captain. Go, brother. Order them in! Order them in!"

I obeyed Victoria and called in Tetrik and Marion. Both hastened to answer to the summons.

Despite the grief that rent my heart I had the fortitude to watch attentively the face of the Governor of Gascony. The moment he stepped into the room, the first object he seemed to notice was the corpse of Victorin. Tetrik's features immediately assumed the appearance of unspeakable anguish; tears flowed copiously down his cheeks; clasping his hands he dropped on his knees near the body and cried in a voice that seemed rent with grief:

"Dead at the prime of his age – dead – he, so brave – so generous! The hope, the strong sword of Gaul. Ah! I forget the foibles of this unhappy youth before the frightful misfortune that has befallen my country!"

Tetrik could not proceed. Sobs smothered his voice. On his knees and cowering in a heap, his face hidden in his hands and dropping scalding tears he remained as if crushed with pain near Victorin's body.

Standing motionless at the door, Captain Marion was the prey of profound internal sorrow. He indulged in no outbursts of moans; he shed no tears; but he ceased not to contemplate the corpse of Victoria's grandson with a pathetic expression, as the little body lay in my son's cradle; and presently I heard him say in a low voice looking from Victoria to the innocent victim:

"What a calamity! Ah! poor child! Poor mother!"

Captain Marion then took a few steps forward and said in short and broken words:

"Victoria – you are to be pitied – I pity you. Victorin loved you – he was a worthy son – I also loved him. My beard has turned grey, and yet I found a delight in serving under that young man. He was the first captain of our age. None of us can replace him. He had but two vices – the taste for wine and, above all, the pest of profligacy. I often quarreled with him on that. I was right, you see it! Well, we must not quarrel with him now. He had a brave heart. I can say no more to you, Victoria. And what would it boot? A mother can not be consoled. Do not think me unfeeling because I do not weep. One weeps only when he can; but I assure you that you have my sympathy from the bottom of my heart. I could not be sadder or more cast down had I lost my friend Eustace – "

And taking a few steps, Marion again looked from Victoria to her little grandson, repeating as his eyes wandered from the one to the other:

"Oh! the poor child! Oh! the poor mother!"

Still upon his knees beside Victorin, Tetrik did not cease sobbing and moaning. While his grief was as demonstrative as Captain Marion's was reserved, it seemed sincere. Nevertheless, my suspicions still resisted the test, and I saw that my foster-sister shared my doubts. Again she made a violent effort over herself and said:

"Tetrik, listen to me!"

The Governor of Gascony did not seem to hear the voice of his relative.

"Tetrik," Victoria repeated, leaning over to touch the man's shoulder, "I am speaking to you; answer me."

"Who speaks?" cried the governor as if his mind wandered. "What do they want? Where am I?"

A moment later he raised his eyes to my foster-sister and cried surprised:

"You here – here, Victoria? Oh, yes! I was with you shortly ago – I had forgotten. Excuse me. My head swims. Alas! I am a father – I have a son almost of the age of this unfortunate boy. More than anyone else, I pity you!"

"Time presses and the occasion is grave," replied my foster-sister solemnly while she fastened a penetrating look upon Tetrik in order to fathom the man's most hidden thoughts. "Private sorrow is hushed before the public interest. I have my whole life left to weep my son and grandson; but we have only a few hours to consider the succession of the Chief of Gaul and of the general of the army – "

"What!" exclaimed Tetrik. "At such a moment as this – "

"I wish that before daylight breaks upon us, I, Captain Marion and you, Tetrik, my relative, one of my most faithful friends, you, who are so devoted to Gaul, you, who grieve so bitterly over Victorin – I wish that we three revolve in our wisdom what man we shall to-morrow propose to the army as my son's successor."

"Victoria, you are a heroic woman!" cried Tetrik clasping his hands in admiration. "You match with your courage and patriotism the most august women who have honored the world!"

"What is your opinion, Tetrik, as to the successor of Victorin? Captain Marion and myself will speak after you," the Mother of the Camps proceeded to say without noticing the praises of the Governor of Gascony. "Yes, whom do you think capable of replacing my son – to the glory and advantage of Gaul?"

"How can I give you my opinion?" Tetrik replied dejectedly. "How can I give you advice upon a matter of such gravity, when my heart is racked with pain – it is impossible!"

"It is possible, since you see me here – between the corpses of my son and my grandson – ready to give my opinion – "

"If you insist, Victoria, I shall speak, provided I can collect my thoughts. I am of the opinion that Gaul needs for her chief a wise, firm and enlightened man, a man who inclines to peace rather than to war – especially now when we no longer have the neighborhood of the Franks to fear, thanks to the sword of this young hero, whom I loved and will eternally mourn – "

At this moment the governor interrupted himself to give renewed vent to his grief.

"We shall weep later," said Victoria. "Life is long enough, but the night is short. It will soon be morning."

Tetrik wiped his eyes and proceeded:

"As I was saying, the successor of our Victorin should, above all, be a man of good judgment, and of long and approved devotion in the service of our beloved Gaul. Now, then, if I am not mistaken, the only one whom I can think of who unites these virtues, is Captain Marion, whom we see here."

"I!" cried the captain raising his two enormous hands heavenward. "I, the Chief of Gaul! Grief makes you talk like a fool! I, Chief of Gaul!"

"Captain Marion," Tetrik resumed in a dismal accent, "I know that the shocking death of Victorin and his innocent child has thrown my mind into disorder and desolation. And yet I believe that at this moment I speak not like a fool but like a sage – and Victoria will herself be of my opinion. Although you do not enjoy the brilliant military reputation of our Victorin, whom we shall never be able to mourn sufficiently, you have deserved, Captain Marion, the confidence and affection of our troops by your good and numerous services. Once a blacksmith, you exchanged the hammer for the sword; the soldiers will see in you one of their own rank rise to the dignity of chief through his valor and their own free choice. They will esteem you all the more knowing, above all, that, although you reached distinction, you never lost your friendship for your old comrade of the anvil."

"Forget my friend Eustace!" said Marion. "Oh! Never!"

"The austerity of your morals is known," Tetrik proceeded to say; "your excellent judgment, your straightforwardness, your calmness, are, according to my poor judgment, a guarantee for the future. You have put into practice Victoria's wise thought that now the days of barren war are ended, and the hour has come to think of fruitful peace. The task is arduous, I admit; it can not choose but startle your modesty. But this heroic woman, who, even at this terrible moment, forgets her maternal despair in order to turn her thoughts upon our beloved country, Victoria, I feel certain, in presenting you to the soldiers as her son's successor, will pledge herself to assist you with her precious counsel. And now, Captain Marion, if you will hearken to my feeble voice, I implore you, I beg you in the name of Gaul to accept the reins of office. Victoria joins me in demanding of you this fresh proof of self-sacrificing devotion to our common country!"

"Tetrik," answered Marion in a grave voice, "you have ably described the man who is needed to govern Gaul. There is only one thing to change in the picture that you have drawn, and that is its name. In the place of my name, insert your own – it will then be complete – "

"I!" cried Tetrik. "I, Chief of Gaul! I, who in all my life never have held a sword in my hand!"

"Victoria said it," replied Marion. "The season for war is over, the season for peace has come. In times of war we need warriors – in times of peace we need men of peace. You belong to the latter category, Tetrik; it is your place to govern – do you not think so, Victoria?"

"By the manner in which he has governed Gascony, Tetrik has shown how he would govern Gaul," answered my foster-sister; "I join you, captain, in requesting – my relative – to replace my son – "

"What did I tell you?" broke in Captain Marion, addressing Tetrik. "Would you still refuse?"

"Listen to me, Victoria; listen to me, Captain Marion; listen to me, Schanvoch," replied the governor turning towards me. "Yes, you also, Schanvoch, listen to me, you who are as stricken as Victoria. You, who, in your nervous friendship for this august woman, suspected my sincerity; I wish you all to believe me. I have received an incurable wound here, in my heart, by the occurrences of this fatal night; they have bereft us at once, in the person of our unfortunate Victorin and in that of his innocent son, of the present and the future support of Gaul. It was for the purpose of securing and rendering the future certain that I sought to induce Victoria to propose her grandson to the army as the heir of Victorin, and that I have made this journey to Mayence. My hopes are dashed – an eternal sorrow takes their place – "

After stopping for a moment in order to allow his inexhaustible tears to flow, the governor proceeded:

"My resolution is formed. Not only do I decline the power that is offered me, but I shall also give up the government of Gascony. The few years of life left to me shall henceforth be spent with my son in seclusion and sorrow. At another time I might have been able to render some service to our country, but that is now past with me. I shall carry into my retirement a grief that will be rendered less unbearable by the knowledge that my country's future is in such worthy hands as yours, Captain Marion, and that Victoria, the divine genius of Gaul, will continue to watch over our land. And now, Schanvoch," added the Governor of Gascony turning once more towards me, "have I put an end to your suspicions? Do you still think me ambitious? Is my language, are my actions those of a perfidious or treacherous man? Alas! Alas! I never thought that the frightful misfortunes of this night would so soon afford me the opportunity to justify myself – "

"Tetrik," said Victoria extending her hand to her relative, "if ever I could have doubted the loyalty of your heart, I would at this hour perceive my error – "

"And I admit it freely, my suspicions were groundless," I added in turn. After all that I had seen and heard, I was, as Victoria, convinced of her relative's innocence. And still, as my mind ever returned to the mysterious circumstances that surrounded the events of that night, I said to Marion, who, silent and pensive, seemed overwhelmed with the tender that was made to him:

"Captain, yesterday I asked you for a discreet and safe man to serve me as escort."

"You did."

"Do you know the name of the soldier whom you picked out for me?"

"It was not I who chose him – I do not know his name."

"And who chose him?" asked Victoria.

"My friend Eustace is better acquainted with the soldiers than I am. I commissioned him to find me a safe man, and to order him to repair after dark to the town gate, where he was to wait for the rider whom he was to accompany on the journey."

"And after that," I asked the captain, "did you see your friend Eustace again?"

"No; he has been mounting guard at the outposts of the camp since last evening, and he was not to be relieved until this morning."

"But at any rate we could learn from him the name of the rider who escorted Schanvoch," observed Victoria. "I shall let you know later, Tetrik, the importance that I attach to that information, and you will be able to counsel me."

"You must excuse me, Victoria, if I do not acceed to your wishes," the governor replied with a sigh. "Within an hour, at earliest dawn, I shall leave Mayence – the sight of this place is too harrowing to me. I have a humble retreat in Gascony; I shall bury my life there in the company of my son; he is to-day the only consolation left to me."

"My friend," said Victoria reproachfully, "do you leave me at such a moment as this? The sight of this place is harrowing to you, you say – and what about myself? Does not this place recall at every turn memories that must distress me? And yet I shall leave Mayence only when Captain Marion will no longer stand in need of whatever counsel he may think that he may be in need of from me at the start of his government."

"Victoria," put in Captain Marion in a resolute tone, "I have said nothing during this conversation in which you and Tetrik have disposed of me. I am not fluent in words, moreover, my heart is too heavy to-night. I have said little, but I have reflected a good deal. These are my thoughts: I love the profession of arms; I know how to execute a general's orders, and I am not altogether unskilful in the management of troops confided to me. At a pinch I can plan an attack like the one which completed Victorin's great victory by the destruction of the camp and reserve forces of the Franks. This is to say, Victoria, that I do not consider myself more of a fool than others – wherefore I have sense enough to understand that I am not fit for the government of Gaul – "

"Nevertheless, Captain Marion," Tetrik broke in, "Victoria will agree with me that the task is not beyond your strength."

"Oh! As to my strength, that is well known," replied Captain Marion soberly. "Fetch me an ox, and I'll carry him on my back, or fell him with a blow of my fist. But square shoulders are not all that is wanted for the chief of a great people. No – no. I am robust – granted. But the burden of state is too heavy. Therefore, Victoria, do not put such a weight upon me. I would break down under it – and Gaul will, in turn, break down under the weight of my weakness. And, moreover, it might as well be said, I love, after service hours, to go home and empty a pot of beer in the company of my friend Eustace, and chat with him over our old blacksmith's trade, or entertain ourselves with furbishing our arms like skilful armorers. Such am I, Victoria – such have I ever been – and such I wish to remain."

"And these call themselves men! Oh, Hesus!" cried the Mother of the Camps indignantly. "I, a woman – I, a mother – I saw my son and grandson die this very night – and yet I have the necessary fortitude to repress my grief – and this soldier, to whom the most glorious post that can shed luster upon a man is offered, dares to answer with a refusal, giving his love for beer and the polishing of armor as an excuse! Oh! Woe is Gaul, if the very ones whom she regards as her bravest sons thus cowardly forsake her!"

The reproach of the Mother of the Camps impressed Captain Marion. He dropped his head in confusion, remained silent for a moment, and then spoke:

"Victoria, there is but one strong soul here – it is yours. You make me ashamed of myself. Well, then," he added with a sigh, "be it as you will – I accept. But the gods are my witnesses – I accept as a duty and under protest. If I should commit any asininities as Chief of Gaul, none will have a right to reproach me. Very well, I accept, Victoria, but under two imperative conditions."

"What are they?" asked Tetrik.

"This is the first," replied Marion: "The Mother of the Camps shall remain in Mayence to help me with her advice. I am as new a hand at my new work as a blacksmith's apprentice who for the first time dips the iron into the brasier."

"I promised you that I would, Marion," answered my foster-sister. "I shall remain here as long as you may need my services."

"Victoria, if your spirit should withdraw from me, I would be like a body without a soul – accordingly, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I know that that promise must cost you a good deal, poor woman. And yet," added the captain with his habitual good nature, "do not run away with the idea that I am so foolishly vainglorious as to imagine that it is to the strong bull of a warrior, named Marion, that Victoria the Great makes the sacrifice of burying her grief in order to guide him. No – no. It is to our old Gaul that she renders the sacrifice. As a good son of my country, I am as thankful for the kind act done to my mother, as if it were done to myself."

"Nobly thought and nobly said, Marion," replied Victoria deeply touched by these words of the captain. "Nevertheless, your straightforwardness and sound judgment will soon enable you to dispense with my advice; then," added she with an expression of profound pain that she strove to repress, "I shall be able, like you, Tetrik, to retire and bury myself in some secluded spot with my sorrows."

"Alas," replied the governor, "to weep in peace is the only consolation for irreparable losses." "But," he proceeded, addressing the captain, "you referred to two conditions. Victoria has accepted the first; which is the second?"

"Oh! As to the second, it is as important to me as the first," and the captain shook his head. "Aye, it is as important as the first – "

"And what is it?" asked my foster-sister. "Explain yourself, Marion."

"I know not," replied the good captain with a naïve and embarrassed mien, "I know not whether I ever spoke to you of my friend Eustace."

"Yes, and more than once," replied Tetrik. "But what has your friend Eustace to do with your new functions?"

"What!" cried Captain Marion, "you ask me what my friend Eustace has to do with me – you might as well ask what has the sheath of the sword to do with the blade, the hammer with the handle, the bellows with the forge."

"You are, in short, bound together by an old and close friendship; we know it," said Victoria. "Would you desire, captain, to accord some favor to your friend?"

"I shall never consent to be separated from him. True enough, he is not of a gay disposition; he is habitually sullen, often peevish. Still, he loves me as I do him, and we can not do without each other. Now, then, it may be considered surprising that the Chief of Gaul should have a common soldier, a former blacksmith, for his intimate friend and chum. But as I said to you, Victoria, if I must be separated from my friend Eustace, the plan falls through – I decline. Only his friendship can render the burden supportable to me."

"Is not Schanvoch, my foster-brother, who remained a simple horseman in the army, a close friend of mine?" observed Victoria. "No one is astonished at a friendship that does honor to us both. It will be so, Captain Marion, with you and your old blacksmith friend."

"And your elevation, Captain Marion, will redouble your mutual affection," put in Tetrik. "In his tender affection your friend will rejoice over your elevation perhaps more than yourself."