The Blacksmith's Hammer; or, The Peasant Code: A Tale of the Grand Monarch

"A confession of what, dear Tina?" answered the young man affectionately, turning his head to his wife in order to see her over his shoulder.

But Tina, foreseeing the move, put in: "I beg you, do not look at me! If you do I would not dare to say a word!"

"It shall be as you desire, sweet girl;" and smiling, he added: "What can be that redoubtable secret that you fear to confess to my face? Speak, my dear Tina; reveal your secret to me."

"A sad secret – that I am ashamed of, very much ashamed. I pray to God you may pardon me for it. I have been very guilty."

Tina's voice was so moved as she spoke these words, that Nominoë was surprised, and involuntarily moved in his saddle in order to turn around to his wife. But once more she stopped him, saying:

"I entreat you, do not look at me," and she proceeded after a short pause: "I am your wife – you must not be ignorant of any of my thoughts, be they good or bad. No! nothing must remain hidden from my husband."

"A bad thought in your mind, you angelic creature! That is impossible. You surely exaggerate some trifle, my dear Tina."

"And yet it is so, Nominoë. I doubted you – I doubted your love."

"And why? And when was that?"

"This morning, seeing you delayed in arriving, I said to myself: 'Nominoë does not want me for his wife' – 'Nominoë does not love me' – "

And noticing that an involuntary shudder ran over the young man's frame, Tina interjected, almost alarmed:

"Do you feel hurt at my mistrust? I knew you would! I deserve your reproof. That is the very reason that I accuse myself. I prefer to be blamed by you, rather than to conceal aught from my husband. May the sincerity of my confession earn your pardon for me."

The young man remained silent, surprised and struck by the correctness of Tina's presentiment. To himself he thought: "What a fatality hovers over this marriage! My union is consecrated before man, it will shortly be before God. Let me at least reassure the poor child."

Nominoë was about to answer his young wife when an unexpected incident suddenly changed the course of his thoughts. His attention being at first turned to Tina's words, and being immediately afterwards absorbed in his own meditations, Nominoë had not noticed the approach of a detachment of soldiers that seemed to be hastening to meet the nuptial procession. Suddenly the captain of the troop waved to the peasants to stop.

"Fire and flames! Let us face these red-coats!" said Tankeru to Salaun.

"We are unarmed, and we have women and children with us," answered Salaun. "No imprudence – let us wait till the hour shall have come. I shall ride forward and ascertain what these soldiers want."

"Father," said Nominoë overhearing Salaun's words, "I shall accompany you. You must not go alone."

"You forget that you have your wife on your crupper. Both of you remain near Tankeru," answered Salaun, and making his horse jump forward, he rode towards the soldiers.

Paskou the Long and Madok the miller, the one in his capacity of Baz-valan, the other of Brotaer, both official representatives of the wedding, joined Salaun Lebrenn. The three trotted briskly towards the armed force in order to ascertain the reason for the hold-up.

The King's soldiers, fifteen in number and commanded by a sergeant, belonged to the Crown Regiment, and wore the red uniform. The sergeant in command of the detachment had an assumed military name. He called himself La Montagne. He was an athletic man, tall of stature and in the prime of life. His uniform consisted of a scarlet coat embroidered with alternate blue and silver threads. His hose, his stockings and the lining of his cloak were blue and of the color of his shoulder knot. His sword hung from a white baldric that matched the cockade in his three-cornered hat, which was surmounted by red and blue feathers, gallooned in silver, and challengingly tipped on his hair which, agreeable to the new military regulation, was dressed in the fashion called cadenette. His hair was curled on his temples, and was twisted behind his neck in a thick queue, tied with a leather thong. The face of the weather-beaten soldier – clean shaven, except for his moustache, and furrowed by a deep scar – bore the stamp of hardihood, daring and insolence. In his hand he carried a long cane with an ivory head. His soldiers, clad in a uniform like his own, except that a simple galloon of white wool ornamented their coats and hats, were armed with a new pattern of guns that replaced the old muskets. A triangular and pointed blade of steel, resembling the long poniards used by the people of Bayonne, and therefore called a bayonet, was attached to the muzzle of these guns.

A drummer and a man clad in a blouse, who carried on his back a ball of rope and in his hand a bell which he rang when the drum beat, preceded the troop. The sergeant marched at its head; behind him came two men clad in black. One was the bailiff of the Seigneur of Plouernel and Mezlean, the other the usher of the fisc. Salaun Lebrenn, the Baz-valan and the Brotaer, the last mounted on his ass, and his two companions on their horses, reined in a few paces from the detachment. Obedient to the suggestion of Salaun, and anxious to avoid a collision, all three alighted, and approached the sergeant, holding their mounts by the bridle. The soldiers had halted upon the command of their chief, and, drawn up in a semi-circle, they leaned upon the barrels of their guns.

"Messieurs," said Salaun courteously, "we are peaceful people; we are celebrating a wedding; I am the father of the bride; our company consists of our relatives and friends."

"And I," put in Paskou the Long with an air of importance, "I am the Baz-valan of the wedding, the master of ceremonies."

"And I," added Madok the miller without lowering his eyes before the piercing looks of the sergeant, "I am the Brotaer. You ordered our procession to stop – it obeyed – what do you want? Speak. We shall be pleased to accommodate you."

"By God's death! Here is a pack of inquisitive rustics!" observed Sergeant La Montagne to the bailiff and the usher, after measuring Salaun, Paskou the Long and Madok the miller with his eyes.

And addressing his two acolytes over his shoulder, La Montagne added, pointing with the tip of his cane at those whom he was referring to: "Are not these the ragamuffins whom you are looking for?"

"No," answered the bailiff and the usher. "The delinquents, whom we are after, are among the other people of the wedding."

"Soldiers, load your guns – and fire upon the woolen caps if they but budge!" ordered the sergeant. "Drummer, beat the march, and forward! Soldiers, fire upon these peasants at the slightest resistance!"

"And you, ring the bell – and forward!" said the usher to his subaltern. "The bell is to the civilian what the drum is to the military. Forward, and ring loud, so that those ragamuffins may hear you, and be notified of our approach."

Grieved and alarmed at seeing their pacific intervention so rudely brushed aside, the three Bretons exchanged a few words in a low voice, and when the troop was about to resume its march, Salaun Lebrenn addressed the sergeant, the bailiff and the usher in carefully measured words: "Messieurs, I do not know the purpose of your coming here. But be your purpose whatever it may, I entreat you to postpone until after the marriage ceremony the measures that you intend to take. Do not alarm and throw our relatives, friends, wives and children into a fright. Are you in quest of any one? I give you my word of honor that no one will attempt to escape. I invite you to escort us back to the burg of Mezlean – "

Salaun Lebrenn broke off. He noticed that he and his two companions had fallen into a sort of ambush. While simulating great attention to what was being said to him, the sergeant had whispered a few words to his corporal, and the latter, obeying the orders given him, had disposed his soldiers in such manner that the three Bretons found themselves surrounded from all sides, and unable to rejoin their friends. Addressing himself thereupon to Salaun Lebrenn, who, no less surprised than his two friends at finding himself obviously treated as a prisoner, looked at his companions in amazement, the sergeant said sneeringly:

"Your promise notwithstanding, that none of those woolen bonnets will be allowed to run off, I prefer something more substantial than a promise, rather than to have to chase all over this devilish country that is so cut up with moats and hedges. I shall hold you as hostages, you and your two companions. You are the chiefs of the band. You will be a guarantee for the rest. If any one of them escapes, you will go to prison, and stay there until each of you will have paid me two gold louis – besides six pistoles for my men. That's the end of it. I want no answer or further remarks from you. Forward!"

"So, then, you arrest us?" observed Salaun calmly. "Besides, you place us under ransom. But what do you charge us with? What crime are we guilty of, sergeant?"

"You double rustic! I charge you with speaking when I order you to hold your tongue! Head and bowels! Forward, or I shall knock you down!" cried the petty officer brutally, raising his cane; and stroking his moustache he proceeded:

"Oh, there is the wedding! The bride may, perhaps, be worth rumpling! Bah! She probably is but one of their big flat-footed wenches! And yet, who knows! We shall see! Drummers, beat the march!"

When Paskou the Long heard the sergeant's allusions to the bride, he raised his two long arms to heaven; Madok the miller, a resolute man, clenched his fists, and casting a defiant look at the soldier, was about to explode, when he was restrained by a sign from Salaun. Madok yielded to his friend, realizing that it would be an act of madness to attempt, under the circumstances, a struggle against the armed men. Surrounded by these, the three Bretons resigned themselves to move forward, leading their mounts by the bridle. The detachment resumed its march, drums beating and bell ringing, towards the nuptial procession. The sergeant walked ahead.

Such was the terror with which the soldiers of Louis XIV inspired the poor folks of our country districts, that at the first sight of the red-coats the children threw themselves weeping into their mothers' arms; the young girls drew timidly close to their parents; and a good number of the vassals began to tremble, while the blacksmith and other determined men of his stamp could hardly control their anger. At this place the road was narrowed between two bluffs topped with brush. The detachment divided in two. One-half halted at the head of the procession in order to bar its passage, should it attempt to proceed; the other half marched on to the rear in order to cut off the retreat.

Kept as hostages in the midst of the rear guard platoon, Salaun Lebrenn, Paskou the Long and Madok the miller were unable to approach their friends. Nominoë, with his wife on the crupper of his horse, saw with as much surprise as anxiety his father a prisoner of the soldiers.

"Let none of you budge or breathe, ye rustics! If you do, by God's death! my men will open fire, and will rip you open with their bayonets!" cried Sergeant La Montagne, stepping with his cane raised towards the peasants, who crowded back upon one another in order to make room for him.

Turning thereupon to the bailiff and the usher:

"Do your work! I shall in the meantime step over to the bride and inspect her," added the swash-buckler, looking to the right and to the left.

It did not take the sergeant long to discover the charming face of the bride, who, moreover, was recognizable by the nuptial ribbons, and was all the more in evidence being on horseback behind Nominoë.

"God's blood! The handsome girl! The lassie is too dainty a morsel for that clod-hopping husband!" exclaimed the sergeant, and he took several steps to draw nearer to Tina.

A heavy roll of the drum, accompanied by the repeated ringing of the bell, drowned the last words of the impudent soldier. After that signal for silence, the bailiff of the very high, very powerful, very honorable and very redoubtable Seigneur Justin-Dominic-Raoul Neroweg, Count of Issoire in Auvergne; Baron of Nointel, Valdeuil and other places in Beauvoisis; Seigneur of Plouernel and Mezlean in Brittany, etc., etc., announced:

"That the said Gildas Lebrenn, vassal and lease-holder of the fief of Mezlean, having, with evil intent and for other reasons, put off, beyond the only and last term, the payment of the taxes, imposts and duties, which it had pleased the very high and very powerful and very redoubted seigneur, etc., etc., to assess upon his vassals of Mezlean, therefore, the furniture, crops, cattle, domestic and field animals, household utensils, etc., etc., of the said Gildas Lebrenn are hereby ordered to be seized and sold by virtue of military constraint. And if the said goods and chattels of the said Gildas shall not suffice to meet his obligations, then action shall be instituted against a house, to him belonging as the property of his wife, and the said house, in default of a purchaser in block, shall be demolished, and its doors, windows, beams, rafters and other debris shall be sold to the highest bidder at the option of the said bailiff, who, having presented himself at the said farm, called Karnak, in order to execute the orders herein contained and to effect the seizure, found the house closed and the stable empty, the latter of which should have contained especially two yokes of white and orange oxen, the which, being exposed by the malignity of the said Gildas to being kept out of the farm in the evening and to being surreptitiously sold during the day, the said usher now came to seize them bodily, hic et nunc, without prejudice to the other seizures which he reserves the right of operating on the said farm, including the materials that may proceed from the demolition of the house above referred to.[5 - Facts like these would seem incredible by their savage barbarity, did not authentic witnesses confirm them, almost daily, under the reign of the Grand Monarch. "The military constraint arrived in the town to the sound of bell and drum; then was furnished the melancholy spectacle of the house being demolished, the stones, the beams, the lumber, the iron publicly sold, because the owner had failed to pay his tax, etc., etc." —Vauban, La Dime Royale, vol. 1, chap. X. See also the New Code of Taxes, or the Collected Ordinances, Paris, 1761, article on Military Constraints; Forbonnais, Researches in Finance, etc.]

"The bailiff, being also vested with the powers of the very respectable, discreet, pious and venerable curate of the parish, shall collect by force of the same seizures, an arrear of tithes due to the said venerable person by the said Gildas Lebrenn and other vassals herein below named, etc., etc.

"The said bailiff also comes to proceed against one Tankeru, a blacksmith, charged with and convicted of having poached in the confines of the forest of Mezlean, in order, wickedly and of deliberate purpose, to interfere with the pleasures of the very high, very redoubted and very powerful seigneur, etc., etc., by killing his game, notably a ten-pronged deer, in the course of the night of the 5th day of the present month, as appears from the deposition of one of the forester-watchers of the said seigneur, etc., etc. By reason of the said crime, the said Tankeru, a blacksmith, is ordered to be apprehended in body, and taken to the seigniorial jail, in order there to undergo the preliminary punishment of the whip, without prejudice to further imprisonment and fines to be paid, etc., etc."

The complaints of the bailiff having been made known amid the mournful silence of the nuptial party, the drum was once more beaten, the bell was once more rung, and then the usher of the fisc spoke in turn:

"A requisition against the same Gildas Lebrenn and five other leasehold peasants, hereinbelow named, etc., etc., who, with evil intent, or for other wrongful cause, having paid neither the taxes, nor the tithes, nor the capitation, etc., etc., furtively left their houses before the said usher could present himself there this morning, taking with them their spans of oxen, their wagons and their horses, the same being the most important part of the havings of the said peasants; and, fearing lest they may profit by the market day of Bezenek, which is to begin early to-morrow morning, and surreptitiously make away with their said oxen, wagons and horses, the said usher now comes to operate illico the seizure of the said animals and wagons, without prejudice of other recuperations, etc., etc."

The peasants listened to the reading of the preceding jargon with increasing consternation and rage, but without astonishment, similar seizures being matters of daily recurrence in Brittany and in all the other provinces of France. But what, on that day, drove the indignation of the peasants to the point of rage was the insolence of Sergeant La Montagne. While the bailiff and the usher reeled off their legal jargon, the insolent swash-buckler approached Tina, and, with his plumage dangling over his ear, stretching out his legs, arching himself in his gallooned coat, and stroking his moustache with one hand, while with the other he caressed the hilt of his sword, he pursued the young bride with his brazen looks. Tina turned her head away, and took shelter behind the back of Nominoë, who, outraged by the soldier's audacity, was livid with anger. Nevertheless, he restrained himself; in order to preserve his self-control all the more fully, he sought to move a little further to the rear; but the moment he made his horse take a few steps backward, the sergeant seized the bridle rudely and kept the animal motionless. The peasants who saw the sergeant's conduct, began to grumble. But he, casting a disdainful look at them and brandishing his cane, shouted: