There had been a time when he, too, had taken part in and
enjoyed just such sports. He was a lover of the chase and of
horse-racing. No one knew better than he the keen delights of a clean
vault over ditches and hedges. If only he might join the merry company
down yonder, _he_ could show them some riding!
And as for hunting? He could spend whole days on the mountains,
clambering after the fleet-footed chamois, following the larger game
through morass and forest. He had grown up amid exhilarating sports such
as these.
And the dance-music! How alluring were the strains! and how often
through the day he found himself humming the melodies which had floated
to him from the open windows of the manor! Once he, too, had taken
pleasure in jesting with fair women until their white shoulders would
shake with merry laughter. And all this he must look upon and hear at a
distance, since he had made himself his own jailer!
* * * * *
During these weeks Marie was very restless. The sound of the trumpets
startled her; the unusual noises terrified her. She whose nightly
slumbers had been guarded from the barking of dogs and the crowing of
fowls now was obliged to listen half the night to clarionet, horn, and
piccolo, and to wonder what these people could be doing that they kept
their music going until such late hours.
Pages:
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220