Harris Dickson

The Siege of Lady Resolute Harris Dickson

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1902. Excerpt: ... THE opening years of the eighteenth century shuddered at the ferocity of a religious war then being waged in the far south of France. In that secluded region there dwelt a simple and hardy race, generous as their vineyards, sunny tempered as their skies, yet strong and brave withal as their own impenetrable mountains. Under their dashing leaders, Cavalier and Roland, they had again and again repulsed the Royal troops; but courage and devotion could not forever withstand the might of numbers and the skill of men bred to the business of battle. And now the desolated CeVennes were being ravaged in the name of the Man of Peace. The armies of his most Christian Majesty Louis XIV. enforced their King's benignant creed. With sword and torch they scarred his blood-red rubrics across a blackened land. Cavalier had been routed, and the rebellion was at an end. Against the base of Mont Pilat there clung the chateau of Rougemont. Turreted and towered, it grew where centuries had bound it to the mountain-side, with rambling wings and fantastic gables, with echoing corridors and alluring casements--and the ivy waving over all. Without were grass-grown walks and neglected rosegardens; a long-forgotten dial faithfully marked the hours in a tangle of brush where no human eyes ever came to see. It was a prim old chateau, this Rougemont, built of red brick faced with cold gray stone, dignified and sedate, the home of drowsy peace. Like a simple country gentleman it looked serenely out upon its grove of stunted oaks, grown gnarled through battling with the storms. And like a simple country gentleman it shrank back again, aghast to find itself the headquarters of invading soldiery, the centre of turmoil and tumult, and of death. This monument of ancient peace had become a ren...