The Knight of Malta Part 25

CHAPTER XVII. THE JUDGMENT

The general astonishment was very natural.

Slowly descending the street, in the direction of the public square, was seen the heavy ceremonial carriage of Raimond V.

Four of his men, armed and on horseback, preceded by Laramee, opened the march; then came the carriage, with a crimson velvet canopy, somewhat worn; the retinue, as well as the body of the carriage, which was without windows, yet bore conspicuously the baron's coat of arms, showed the red and yellow colours of the livery of Raimond V.

Four strong draught-horses, yoked with rope traces, laboriously dragged this rude and ma.s.sive vehicle, in the depth of which sat the baron majestically enthroned.

Opposite him sat Honorat de Berrol.

Inside the coach, near the doors, two small stools were placed. On one sat Abbe Mascarolus, with a bag of papers on his knees. The steward of the baron occupied the other.

The imperfect construction of this ponderous vehicle permitted no place for a coachman. A carter, dressed for the occasion in a greatcoat, with the baron's livery, walked at the head of each pair of horses, and conducted the equipage as he would have managed a farm-wagon.

Finally, behind the carriage came four other armed men on horseback.

Although rude, this equipage and retinue inspired profound admiration among the inhabitants of the little town; the sight of a coach, however inelegant, was always to them a novel and interesting thing.

As we have said, the crowd stood silently looking on. They knew that Raimond V. never used this carriage except on important occasions, and a lively curiosity suspended for a time their most violent pa.s.sions.

They whispered among each other concerning the direction the carriage would take: was it to the church, or was it to the town hall?

This last supposition became probable as Raimond V., having turned the corner of the street, took the road which led to the edifice where the overseers of the port were a.s.sembled.

Soon doubt changed to certainty, when they heard the stentorian voice of Laramee cry:

"Room! make way for monseigneur, who is going to the tribunal of the overseers!"

Theae words, pa.s.sing from mouth to mouth, finally reached the ears of the consul and the recorder, whose disappointment and vexation were extreme.

"Why, what have you said, recorder?" cried the men who surrounded him, "here is Raimond V.; he is coming to present himself before the tribunal of overseers."

"Then he has not resolved to make straw of our privileges?"

"He intends to appear, yes, he intends to appear without doubt,"

said Master Isnard, "but he is coming with a retinue of armed men; who can tell what he is going to say to those poor overseers of the port?"

"Doubtless he wishes to intimidate them," said the consul.

"He wishes to make his refusal to recognise their jurisdiction all the more contemptuous by coming to tell them so himself," said the recorder.

"An armed retinue?" said a hearer. "And what do these men with carbines intend to do against us?"

"The consul is right. He is coming to insult the overseers," said one of the most defiant citizens.

"Come now, Raimond V., as bold as he is, would never dare do that,'' replied a third.

"No, no; he recognises our privileges,--he is a good and worthy lord," cried several voices. "We were wrong to distrust him."

In a word, by one of those sudden changes so common in popular excitements, the mind of the people at once turned over to the favour of Raimond V. and to hostility toward the recorder.

Master Isnard put both his responsibility and his person under cover, and, in so doing, did not hesitate to expose his unfortunate clerk to the anger of the people.

Instead of manifesting hostility to the baron, several of the citizens now a.s.sumed a threatening att.i.tude toward the recorder for having deceived them.

"It is this stranger," said they, "who has excited us against Raimond V."

"This good and worthy n.o.ble who has always stood for us!"

"Yes, yes, that is so; he told us that Raimond wished to destroy our privileges, and, on the contrary, he respects them."

"Without doubt, monseigneur did well in delivering him to the bulls of Camargne," cried a sailor, shaking his fist at the recorder.

"Permit me, my friends," said the recorder, painfully realising the absence of the consul, who had prudently escaped to the town hall, where he would appear as a plaintiff against the baron, "permit me to say that, although nothing could make me put faith in the baron's good intentions, I do not hesitate to say that good may come out of all this. Perhaps my clerk has been mistaken; perhaps he has exaggerated the extent of the remarks made by the Baron des Anbiez. Come now, clerk,"

said he, turning to the scribe with a severe and haughty air, "do not lie. Have you not deceived me? Recall your experience. Perhaps you were frightened into wrong. I know you are a coward. What did the baron say to you? Zounds! clerk, woe to you if you have deceived me, and if by your folly I, myself, have deceived these estimable citizens!"

Opening his large eyes to their utmost, and utterly confounded by the audacity of the recorder, the poor clerk could only repeat, in a trembling voice: "Monseigneur told me nothing; he made me sit down at his table, and every time I tried to tell him of the summons from the overseers Master Laramee came with a big gla.s.s of Spanish wine, that I was, to speak reverently, obliged to swallow at one draught."

"Zounds!" cried the recorder, in a thundering voice. "What! this is the bad treatment you complained of! Forgive him, gentlemen, he was certainly drunk, and I am sorry to see that he has deceived us about the designs of Raimond V. Let us hasten to the town hall, where we can a.s.sure ourselves of the reality of certain facts, for the baron's carriage has stopped there, I see."

Thus speaking, and without appearing to hear the threatening murmurs of the crowd, the recorder hurried away, accompanied by the unfortunate clerk, who in the retreat received several thrusts, evidently addressed to Master Isnard.

The large audience-chamber of the town hall in La Ciotat formed a long parallelogram lighted by tall, narrow windows, with panes set in frames of lead.

On the walls opposite the windows--bare walls, white with a coating of lime--were displayed several flags captured from Barbary pirates.

Projecting rafters of unpolished wood crossed each other beneath the ceiling. At the extremity of this immense hall and opposite the large door of entrance could be seen, upon a stage, the tribunal of the overseers of the port. Before them was a long table roughly cut at right angles.

The judges were four in number, presided over by the watchman from the cape of l'Aigle, who had temporarily resigned his ordinary functions into the hands of Luquin Trinquetaille.

According to custom, these fishermen wore black breeches, a black doublet, and a black mantle, with a white band; on their heads they wore hats with a wide brim. The youngest of these judges was not less than fifty years old. Their att.i.tude was simple and serious; their sunburnt faces and long white or gray hair shone with a Rembrandt light under the sudden ray of suns.h.i.+ne shooting from the narrow windows, and were distinctly outlined on the shadowy light which reigned in the body of the hall.

These five old seamen, elected by their corporation on St. Stephen's Day, justified the choice of their companions. Brave, honest, and pious, they a.s.suredly represented the best of the maritime population of the town and the gulf.

The tribunal and the place reserved for those who were to appear before them were separated from the crowd by a rude barrier of wood.

We quote from the work, "Voyage and Inspection of M. de Seguiran,"

already cited in the preface: "The jurisdiction of the overseers was very simple. Whoso wishes to enter a complaint before these overseers can be heard, but not before he has deposited two sous and eight farthings in the common purse, after which he can demand the party against whom he enters a complaint. The said party is obliged to make the same deposit, and both are heard; and at the end of the argument the eldest of these overseers p.r.o.nounces judgment according to the counsel of his colleagues."

The secretary of the community called in a loud voice the plaintiffs and defendants.

Never had a session excited so much interest in the public mind.