Chapter XX But Mad Nor-nor-west

The steps came close to me, moved away, and were still. A sick man’s curiosity soon works, and here, surely, were incalculable matters for me to find out. I turned over suddenly.

It was a fantastic figure that faced me, sitting on a billet of wood not far from the door. Withered herbs were in the high, peaked cap. The black-and-yellow mantle was drawn forward to cover the folded arms. The steely eyes were at my inmost thought.

There is no doubt I was still a sick man. I was unspeakably disappointed. Looking back upon it now, I verily believe that I expected to see Yvonne, as in a fairy tale.

“Why did you come in,” I asked peevishly, twisting under those eyes, “without proclaiming—

“Woe, woe to Acadie the Fair, for the hour of her desolation cometh?”

“It has come,” said he quietly.

143I sat up as if a spring had moved me. My eyes alone questioned.

“Beauséjour has fallen. France is driven back on Louisbourg. The men of Acadie are in chains. The women await what fate they know not. Their homes await the flame.”

Here was no madman speaking.

“And—Yvonne?” I whispered.

“They all are safe, under shelter of the governor—and of Anderson,” he added icily.

I had no more words for a moment. Then I asked—“And the Black Abbé?”

His sane calm disappeared. His face worked; his hands came out from under his cloak, darting like serpents; his eyes veered like pale flame. As suddenly he was calm again.

“He is at Louisbourg,” said he, “at Isle St. Jean—here—there—anywhere; free, busy, still heaping and heating the fires which shall burn his soul alive.”

I like a man who is in earnest; but I could think of nothing appropriate to say. After a pause I changed the subject.

“I am thirsty,” said I, “and hungry too, I think, though I have eaten all the barley bread. And I’m sorry, but I’ve broken the jar.”

From a niche in the wall he at once brought me more barley cake, with butter, and fresh milk, and some dried beef. The wholesome, homely taste 144of them comes back to me now. Having eaten, I felt that nothing could be quite so good as sleep; and with grateful mutterings, half spoken, I slept.

When I woke it was the cold light of early morning that came in at the cave-mouth; and I was alone. I felt so much better that I got up at once; but ere I could reach the door a dizziness came over me, and I staggered back to my place, feeling that my hour was not yet. As I lay fretting my heart with a thousand hot conjectures, my host came in. He looked at me, but said not a word; nor could I get his tongue loosened all through our light breakfast. At last, to my obstinate repetition of the inquiry: “When shall I be strong enough to go down into Grand Pré?” he suddenly awoke and answered:

“A little way to-morrow, perhaps; and the next day, further; and within the week, if you are fortunate, you should be strong enough for anything. You will need to be, if you are going down into Grand Pré!” he added grimly.

Upon this direct telling I think I became in all ways my sane self—weak, indeed, but no longer whimsical. I felt that Gr?l’s promise was much better than I could have hoped. I knew there would be need of all my strength. I was a man again, no more a sick child. And I would wait.

Gr?l busied himself a few minutes about the 145cave, in a practical, every-day fashion that consorted most oddly with his guise and fame. I could not but think of a mad king playing scullion. But there was none of the changing light of madness in his eyes.

Soon he seated himself at the cave-mouth, and said, pointing to a roughly shaped ledge with a wolfskin upon it:

“Come hither, now, and take this good air. It will medicine your thin veins.”

Obeying gladly, I was soon stretched on the wolfskin at the very brink, as it seemed, of the open world. But it was cold. Perceiving this, he arose without a word, fetched another skin, and tucked it about me. His tenderness of touch was like a woman’s.

“How can I thank you?” I began. “It is to you, I now perceive, that I owe my life. How much besides I know not!”

He waved my thanks aside something impatiently.

“Yes, I saved you,” said he. “It suited me to do so. I foresaw you would some day repay me. And I like you, boy. I trust you; though in some ways you are a vain fool.”

I laughed. I had such confidence in him I began to think he would bring all my desires to pass.

“And I have been wont to imagine you a madman,” 146said I. “But I seem to have been mistaken.”

“Were I mad utterly as I seem,” said he, in a voice which thrilled me to the bone, “it would not be strange. I am mad but on one subject; and on that I believe that God will adjudge me sanest.”

He was silent for a long time, that white fire playing in his eyes; and I dared not break upon his reverie. At last I ventured, for my tongue ached with questions unasked:

“How did you find me when I fell over the cliff?” I queried. “And where was the Englishman?”

My mouth once opened, two questions instead of one jumped out.

“It was noon,” said Gr?l, “and I found your Englishman sitting by you waiting for the sky to fall. Had the Micmacs come instead of me, your two scalps would have risen nimbly together. He is a good man and brave; but he lacks wits. A woman could trust him to do anything but keep her from yawning!”

I grinned with the merest silly delight—a mean delight. But Gr?l went on:

“He is worth a dozen cleverer men; but he fatigued me. I sent him away. I told him just how to go to reach the Piziquid settlement, whom to ask for, and what help to bring for his sick comrade. Then, knowing what was about to befall, and having 147in mind a service which you will do me at a later day, and divining that you would rather be sick in a madman’s cave than in an English jail, I brought you here. I was reputed a wizard in the old days in France, for having brought men back from the very gape of the grave; and I knew you would be long sick.”

I looked at him, and I think my grateful love needed no words.

“And what became of the Englishman?” I asked presently.

“He appeared at last in Grand Pré,” answered Gr?l, “and told the truth of you, and dwelt awhile within the shadow of the chapel, to be near the guests of Father Fafard; and he got a strong guard placed in the village close at hand, that those who loved the English and feared the abbé might sleep in peace. I hear he presses for the redemption of Mademoiselle’s pledge; but she, to the much vexation of Monsieur and Madame, is something dilatory in her obedience. Of course she will obey in the end. Even Father Fafard exhorts her to that, for obedience sums all virtues in a maid. But she has an absurd idea that the Englishman should present alive to her the man who saved his life, before claiming reward at hands of hers. I might have enabled him to do this; but you were not in a mind to be consulted.”

“You are the wisest man I ever knew,” said I, 148conscious of an absurd inclination to fling myself at his feet and do penance for past supercilious underratings.

He seemed to accept the tribute as not undue, and again took up his monologue.

“Had you died, as seemed for some weeks likely for all my skill, I should have smoothed the way for the stupid Englishman; but finding that you would live, I thought to bind you to me by keeping your way open. In a few days you will be well, and must tread your own path, to triumph or disaster as your own star shall decree. In either case, I know you will stand by me when my need comes!”

“You know the merest truth,” said I.