While
promising the duke a posterity and requiring his master's word of
honor to approve his acts, he thought suddenly of Gabrielle, of that
sweet child whose mother had been neglected and forgotten by the duke
as he had also neglected and forgotten his son Etienne.
He awaited the departure of his master before putting his plan into
execution; foreseeing that, if the duke became aware of it, the
enormous difficulties in the way would be from the first
insurmountable.
Beauvouloir's house at Forcalier had a southern exposure on the slope
of one of those gentle hills which surround the vales of Normandy; a
thick wood shielded it from the north; high walls and Norman hedges
and deep ditches made the enclosure inviolable. The garden, descending
by an easy incline to the river which watered the valley, had a thick
double hedge at its foot, forming an natural embankment. Within this
double hedge wound a hidden path, led by the sinuosities of the
stream, which the willows, oaks, and beeches made as leafy as a
woodland glade. From the house to this natural rampart stretched a
mass of verdure peculiar to that rich soil; a beautiful green sheet
bordered by a fringe of rare trees, the tones of which formed a
tapestry of exquisite coloring: there, the silvery tints of a pine
stood forth against the darker green of several alders; here, before a
group of sturdy oaks a slender poplar lifted its palm-like figure,
ever swaying; farther on, the weeping willows drooped their pale
foliage between the stout, round-headed walnuts.
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