XLIII
IN WHICH I DRINK A DISH OF TEA
Being without specific orders what to do with me, my two sergeantbailiffs thrust me into that little den of a strong-room below stairswhere I had once found the master of the house, and one of them mountedguard whilst the other fetched the camp armorer to iron me.
The shackles securely on, I was left to content me as I could, with thedoor ajar and my two jailers hobnobbing before it. Having done all I hadhoped to do, there was nothing for it now but to wait upon theconsequences. So, hitching my chair up to the oaken table, I made apillow of my fettered wrists and presently fell adoze.
I know not what hour of the night it was when the half-blood Scipio, whowas Mr. Gilbert Stair's body-servant, came in and roused me. I startedup suddenly at his touch, making no doubt it was my summons. But themulatto brought me nothing worse than a cold fowl and a loaf, with acandle-end to see to eat them by, and a dish of hot tea to wash themdown.
I knew well enough whom I had to thank for this, and was set wonderingthat my lady's charity was broad enough to mantle even by this little mylatest sins against the king's cause. None the less, I ate and drankgratefully, draining the tea-dish to the dregs--which, by the by, werestrangely bitter.
I had scarce finished picking the bones of the capon before sleep cameagain to drag at my eyelids, a drowsiness so masterful that I could makeno head against it. And so, with the bitter taste of the tea still on mytongue, I fell away a second time into the pit of forgetfulness.
When I awakened from what seemed in the memory of it the most unrestingsleep I ever had, it was no longer night, and I was stretched upon theoaken settle in that same lumber garret where I had been bedded throughthat other night of hiding. So much I saw at the waking glance; and thenI realized, vaguely at first, but presently with startling emphasis,that it was the westering sun which was shining in at the high roofwindows, that the shackles were still on, and that my temples werethrobbing with a most skull-splitting headache.
Being fair agasp with astoundment at this new spinning of fate's wheel,I sprang up quickly--and was as quickly glad to fall back upon thepallet. For with the upstart a heaving nausea came to supplement theheadache, and for a long time I lay bat-blind and sick as any landsmanin his first gale at sea.
The sunlight was fading from the high windows, and I was deep sunk in asick man's megrims, before aught came to disturb the silence of thecobwebbed garret. From nausea and racking pains I had come to the stageof querulous self-pity. 'Twas monstrous, this burying a man alive, ill,fettered, uncared-for, to live or die in utter solitude as might happen.I could not remotely guess to whom I owed this dismal fate, and was toopetulant to speculate upon it. But the meddler, friend or foe, who hadbereft me of my chance to die whilst I was fit and ready, came in for aTurkish cursing--the curse that calls down in all the Osmanli variantsthe same pangs in duplicate upon the banned one.
It was in the midst of one of these impotent fits of malediction thatthe wainscot door was opened and closed softly, and light footstepstiptoed to my bedside. I shut my eyes wilfully when a voice low andtender asked: "Are you awake, Monsieur John?"
I hope you will hold me forgiven, my dears, if I confess that what withthe nausea and the headache, the fetters and the solitude, I was rabidenough to rail at her. 'Twas so near dusk in the ill-lighted garret thatI could not see how she took it; but she let me know by word of mouth.
"_Merci, Monsieur_," she said, icily. And then: "Gratitude does not seemto be amongst your gifts."
At this I broke out in all a sick man's pettishness.
"Gratitude! Mayhap you will tell me what it is I have to be gratefulfor. All I craved was the chance to die as a soldier should, and someone must needs spoil me of that!"
"Selfish--selfish always and to the last," she murmured. "Do you nevergive a moment's thought to the feelings of others, Captain Ireton?"
This was past all endurance.
"If I had not, should I be here this moment?" I raved. "You do make mesicker than I was, my lady."
"Yet I say you are selfish," she insisted. "What have I done that youshould come here to have yourself hanged for a spy?"
"Let us have plain speech, in God's name," I retorted. "You know wellenough there was no better way in which I could serve you."
"Do I, indeed, _mon ami_?" she flashed out. "Let me tell you, sir, hadshe ever a blush of saving pride, Margery Stair--or Margery Ireton, ifyou like that better--would kill you with her own hand rather than haveit said her husband died upon a gallows!"
A sudden light broke in upon me and I went blind in the horror of it.
"God in Heaven!" I gasped; "'twas you, then? I do believe you poisonedme in that dish of tea you sent me last night!"
She laughed, a bitter little laugh that I hated to think on afterward.
"You have a most chivalrous soul, Captain Ireton. I do not wonder youare so fierce to shake it free of the poor body of clay."
"But you do not deny it!" I cried.
"Of what use would it be? I have said that I would not have you dieshamefully on the gallows; so I may as well confess to the poppy-juicein the tea. Tell me, Monsieur John; was it nasty bitter?"
"Good Lord!" I groaned; "are you a woman, or a fiend?"
"Either, or both, as you like to hold me, sir. But come what might, Isaid you should not die a felon's death. And you have not, as yet."
"Better a thousand times the rope and tree than that I should rot byinches here with you to sit by and gird at me. Ah, my lady, you arehaving your revenge of me."
"_Merci, encore._ Shall I go away and leave you?"
"No, not that." A cold sweat broke out upon me in a sudden childishhorror of the solitude and the darkness and the fetters. And then Iadded: "But 'twould be angel kindness if you would leave off torturingme. I am but a man, dear lady, and a sick man at that."
All in a flash her mood changed and she bent to lay a cool palm on mythrobbing temples.
"Poor Monsieur John!" she said softly; "I meant not to make you suffermore, but rather less." Then she found water and a napkin to wring outand bind upon my aching head.
At the touch and the word of womanly sympathy I forgot all, and thelove-madness came again to blot out the very present memory of how shehad brought me to this.
"Ah, that is better--better," I sighed, when the pounding hammers in mytemples gave me some surcease of the agony.
"Then you forgive me?" she asked, whether jestingly or in earnest Icould not tell.
"There is none so much to forgive," I replied. "One hopeless day lastsummer I put my life in pledge to you; and you--in common justice youhave the right to do what you will with it."
"Ah; now you talk more like my old-time Monsieur John with the healingsword-thrust. But that day you speak of was not more hopeless for youthan for me."
"I know it," said I, thinking only of how the loveless marriage mustgrind upon her. "But it must needs be hopeless for both till death stepsin to break the bond."
Again she laughed, that same bitter little laugh.
"Indeed, it was a great wrong you did that night, sir. I could wish, asheartily as you, that it might be undone. But this is idle talk. Let mesee if this key will fit your manacles. I have been all day finding outwho had it, and I am not sure it will be the right one, after all."
But it did prove to be the right one; and when the irons were off I feltmore like a man and less like a baited bear.
"That is better," said I, drawing breath of unfeigned relief. "I bear myLord Charles no malice, but 'twas a needless precaution, this ironing ofa man who was never minded to run away."
"But you are going to run away," she said, decisively; "and that assoon as ever you are able to hold a horse between your knees. Shall Ibring you another dish of tea? Nay, never look so horrified; I shall notpoison you this time."
"Stay," I cried. "You mean that you are going to help me escape? 'Tis aneedless prolonging of the agony. Go and tell the guards where they canfind me."
She stopped midway to the wainscot door and turned to give me my answer.
"No; you are a soldier, and--and I will not be a gallows-widow. Do youhear, sir? If you are so eager to die, there is always thebattle-field." And with that she left me.
I may pass over the two succeeding days in the silence I was condemnedto endure through the major part of them. After that first visit,Margery came only at stated intervals to bring me food and drink, and mynurse was an old black beldame, either deaf and dumb, or else so newlyfrom the Guinea Coast as to be unable to twist her tongue to theEnglish.
And in the food-bringings I could neither make my lady stay nor answerany question; this though I was hungering to know what was going onbeyond the walls of my garret prison. Indeed, she would not even tell mehow I had been spirited away from the two sergeants keeping watch overme in her father's strong-room below stairs. "That is Scipio's secret,"she would say, laughing at me, "and he shall keep it."
But in the evening of the third day the mystery bubble was burst, and Ilearned from Margery's lips the thing I longed to know. Lord Cornwallishad decided to abandon North Carolina, and in an hour or two the armywould be in motion for withdrawal to the southward.
"Now, thanks be to God!" I said, most fervently. "King's Mountain hasbegun the good work, and we shall show Farmer George a thing or two hehad not guessed."
On this, my lady drew herself up most proudly and her lip curled.
"You forget, sir, you are speaking to Mr. Gilbert Stair's daughter."
"True," said I; "I did forget. We are at cross purposes in this, as inall things else. I crave your pardon, Madam."
Her eyes were snapping by now. Never tell me, my dears, that eyes of theblue-gray can not flash fire when they will.
"How painstakingly you will go about to make me hate you!" she burstout. And then, all in the same breath: "But you will be rid of mepresently, for good and all."
"Nay, then, Mistress Margery, you are always taking an ell of meaningfor my inch of speech. 'Tis I who should do the ridding."
"_Mon Dieu!_" she cried, in a sudden burst of petulance; "I am sick todeath of all this! Is there no way out of this coil that is stranglingus both, Captain Ireton?"
"I had thought to make a way three days ago; did so make it, but youkept me from walking in it. Yet that way is still open--if you will butdrop a word in my Lord's ear when you go below stairs."
"Oh, yes--a fine thing; the wife betray the husband!" This with anotherlip-curl of scorn. "I have some shreds and patches of pride left, sir,if you have not."
"Then free me of my obligation to you and let me do it myself. I am wellenough to hang."
"And so make me a consenting accomplice? Truly, as I have said before,you have a most knightly soul, Captain Ireton."
I closed my eyes in very weariness.
"You are hard to please, my lady."
"You have not to try to please me, sir. I am going away--to-night."
"Going away?" I echoed. "Whither, if I may ask?"
"My father has taken protection and we shall go south with the army. AsLord Cornwallis says, Mecklenburg is a hornets' nest of rebellion, andin an hour or two after we are gone you will be amongst your friends."
She made to leave me now, but I would not let her go without trying thelast blunt-pointed arrow in the quiver of expedients.
"Stay a moment," I begged. "You are leaving the untangling of this coilyou speak of to a chance bullet on a battle-field. Had you ever thoughtthat the Church can undo what the Church has done?"
Again I had that bitter laugh which was to rankle afterward in memory.
"You are a most desperate, pertinacious man, Captain Ireton. Failing allelse, you would even storm Heaven itself to gain your end," she scoffed;then, at the very pitch-point of the scornful outburst she put her facein her hands and fell a-sobbing as if her heart would break.
I knew not what to say or do, and ended, man-like, by saying and doingnothing. And so, still crying softly, she let herself out at thewainscot door, and this was our leave-taking.
The Master of Appleby Page 45