Hoel the Fiddler [pp. 234-258]

HOEL THE FIDDLER.
fiancce, the old Breton ceremonial of "taking home the bride"
had to be observed in all its features. In obedience to the French
law, the young couple had contracted the civil marriage before
the mayor. Then the religious rites had taken place, with the
solemnity becoming the occasion, at the church of Le Vivier.
The bride had been escorted to her mother's house, but Hoel
was not permitted to follow her. His friends took charge of him.
Evening came at last. The doors and windows of the cottage
were closed and barricaded, as though the inmates were preparing to stand a siege. Pretty soon the squeaking of a biniou-the
Breton bagpipe-and the discharge of firearms announced the
approach of the enemy. It was the bridegroom, escorted by a
troop of young men. They had donned their best clothes for
the occasion; streamers of gay-colored ribbons were tied to their
hatbands, and huge nosegays were fastened to the left lapel of
their long vests. Some of them carried pistols and guns, which
they fired from time to time amid loud huzzas. An old piper,
blind of.an eye and a notorious wag, led the way. They called
a halt before the cottage, and, after a preliminary discharge of
firearms, sounded a parley.
The besieged were prepared for the emergency. They had
secured a spokesman fully able to cope with the smart piper.
This was a whimsical old shipmate of Pornic's, whom the latter
had fetched with much secrecy from Cancale and smuggled into
the house the night before.
This old tar showed himself suddenly at the garret-window
armed with an immense speaking-trumpet, through which he bellowed: "Ship ahoy! Where bound?"
The piper, taken aback at first by this unexpected summons,
was rejoiced on recognizing the seaman, whom he knew well.
He would have to deal with an adversary worthy of his steel.
He had come, he said, to see justice done to his young friend,
whose bride was unlawfully detained here and held captive by a
set of pirates and robbers.
There was no such craft here, the jolly tar replied, but honest
seamen and their families. His blind friend had better look elsewhere.
No, the piper insisted, he had good reasons to believe the girl
was here. If they were such honest folk they would not object
to a search.
This was a base insinuation which the ancient mariner repelled with scorn. But what sort of girl was that they sought?
Was she not a little hunchback, crooked as a drunkard's elbow?
I 887.]
247