The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel
Page 3
III
TWO GOOD PATRIOTS
Being the deposition of citizeness Fanny Roussell, who was brought up,together with her husband, before the Tribunal of the Revolution on acharge of treason--both being subsequently acquitted.
My name is Fanny Roussell, and I am a respectable married woman, and asgood a patriot as any of you sitting there.
Aye, and I'll say it with my dying breath, though you may send me to theguillotine ... as you probably will, for you are all thieves andmurderers, every one of you, and you have already made up your mindsthat I and my man are guilty of having sheltered that accursedEnglishman whom they call the Scarlet Pimpernel ... and of having helpedhim to escape.
But I'll tell you how it all happened, because, though you call me atraitor to the people of France, yet am I a true patriot and will proveit to you by telling you exactly how everything occurred, so that youmay be on your guard against the cleverness of that man, who, I dobelieve, is a friend and confederate of the devil ... else how could hehave escaped that time?
Well! it was three days ago, and as bitterly cold as anything that myman and I can remember. We had no travellers staying in the house, forwe are a good three leagues out of Calais, and too far for the folk whohave business in or about the harbour. Only at midday the coffee-roomwould get full sometimes with people on their way to or from the port.
But in the evenings the place was quite deserted, and so lonely that attimes we fancied that we could hear the wolves howling in the forest ofSt. Pierre.
It was close on eight o'clock, and my man was putting up the shutters,when suddenly we heard the tramp of feet on the road outside, and thenthe quick word, "Halt!"
The next moment there was a peremptory knock at the door. My man openedit, and there stood four men in the uniform of the 9th Regiment of theLine ... the same that is quartered at Calais. The uniform, of course, Iknew well, though I did not know the men by sight.
"In the name of the People and by the order of the Committee of PublicSafety!" said one of the men, who stood in the forefront, and who, Inoticed, had a corporal's stripe on his left sleeve.
He held out a paper, which was covered with seals and with writing, butas neither my man nor I can read, it was no use our looking at it.
Hercule--that is my husband's name, citizens--asked the corporal whatthe Committee of Public Safety wanted with us poor hoteliers of awayside inn.
"Only food and shelter for to-night for me and my men," replied thecorporal, quite civilly.
"You can rest here," said Hercule, and he pointed to the benches in thecoffee-room, "and if there is any soup left in the stockpot, you arewelcome to it."
Hercule, you see, is a good patriot, and he had been a soldier in hisday.... No! no ... do not interrupt me, any of you ... you would only besaying that I ought to have known ... but listen to the end.
"The soup we'll gladly eat," said the corporal very pleasantly. "As forshelter ... well! I am afraid that this nice warm coffee-room will notexactly serve our purpose. We want a place where we can lie hidden, andat the same time keep a watch on the road. I noticed an outhouse as wecame. By your leave we will sleep in there."
"As you please," said my man curtly.
He frowned as he said this, and it suddenly seemed as if some vaguesuspicion had crept into Hercule's mind.
The corporal, however, appeared unaware of this, for he went on quitecheerfully:
"Ah! that is excellent! Entre nous, citizen, my men and I have adesperate customer to deal with. I'll not mention his name, for I seeyou have guessed it already. A small red flower, what?... Well, we knowthat he must be making straight for the port of Calais, for he has beentraced through St. Omer and Ardres. But he cannot possibly enter Calaiscity to-night, for we are on the watch for him. He must seek sheltersomewhere for himself and any other aristocrat he may have with him,and, bar this house, there is no other place between Ardres and Calaiswhere he can get it. The night is bitterly cold, with a snow blizzardraging round. I and my men have been detailed to watch this road, otherpatrols are guarding those that lead toward Boulogne and to Gravelines;but I have an idea, citizen, that our fox is making for Calais, and thatto me will fall the honour of handing that tiresome scarlet flower tothe Public Prosecutor en route for Madame la Guillotine."
Now I could not really tell you, citizens, what suspicions had by thistime entered Hercule's head or mine; certainly what suspicions we didhave were still very vague.
I prepared the soup for the men and they ate it heartily, after which myhusband led the way to the outhouse where we sometimes stabled atraveller's horse when the need arose.
It is nice and dry, and always filled with warm, fresh straw. Theentrance into it immediately faces the road; the corporal declared thatnothing would suit him and his men better.
They retired to rest apparently, but we noticed that two men remained onthe watch just inside the entrance, whilst the two others curled up inthe straw.
Hercule put out the lights in the coffee-room, and then he and I wentupstairs--not to bed, mind you--but to have a quiet talk together overthe events of the past half-hour.
The result of our talk was that ten minutes later my man quietly stoledownstairs and out of the house. He did not, however, go out by thefront door, but through a back way which, leading through acabbage-patch and then across a field, cuts into the main road some twohundred metres higher up.
Hercule and I had decided that he would walk the three leagues intoCalais, despite the cold, which was intense, and the blizzard, which wasnearly blinding, and that he would call at the post of gendarmerie atthe city gates, and there see the officer in command and tell him theexact state of the case. It would then be for that officer to decidewhat was to be done; our responsibility as loyal citizens would becompletely covered.
Hercule, you must know, had just emerged from our cabbage-patch on tothe field when he was suddenly challenged:
"Qui va la?"
He gave his name. His certificate of citizenship was in his pocket; hehad nothing to fear. Through the darkness and the veil of snow he haddiscerned a small group of men wearing the uniform of the 9th Regimentof the Line.
"Four men," said the foremost of these, speaking quickly andcommandingly, "wearing the same uniform that I and my men are wearing... have you seen them?"
"Yes," said Hercule hurriedly.
"Where are they?"
"In the outhouse close by."
The other suppressed a cry of triumph.
"At them, my men!" he said in a whisper, "and you, citizen, thank yourstars that we have not come too late."
"These men ..." whispered Hercule. "I had my suspicions."
"Aristocrats, citizen," rejoined the commander of the little party, "andone of them is that cursed Englishman--the Scarlet Pimpernel."
Already the soldiers, closely followed by Hercule, had made their waythrough our cabbage-patch back to the house.
The next moment they had made a bold dash for the barn. There was agreat deal of shouting, a great deal of swearing and some firing, whilstHercule and I, not a little frightened, remained in the coffee-room,anxiously awaiting events.
Presently the group of soldiers returned, not the ones who had firstcome, but the others. I noticed their leader, who seemed to beexceptionally tall.
He looked very cheerful, and laughed loudly as he entered thecoffee-room. From the moment that I looked at his face I knew, somehow,that Hercule and I had been fooled, and that now, indeed, we stood eyeto eye with that mysterious personage who is called the ScarletPimpernel.
I screamed, and Hercule made a dash for the door; but what could twohumble and peaceful citizens do against this band of desperate men, whoheld their lives in their own hands? They were four and we were two, andI do believe that their leader has supernatural strength and power.
He treated us quite kindly, even though he ordered his followers to bindus down to our bed upstairs, and to tie a cloth round our mouths so thatour cries could not be distinctly
heard.
Neither my man nor I closed an eye all night, of course, but we heardthe miscreants moving about in the coffee-room below. But they did nomischief, nor did they steal any of the food or wines.
At daybreak we heard them going out by the front door, and theirfootsteps disappearing toward Calais. We found their discarded uniformslying in the coffee-room. They must have entered Calais by daylight,when the gates were opened--just like other peaceable citizens. No doubtthey had forged passports, just as they had stolen uniforms.
Our maid-of-all-work released us from our terrible position in thecourse of the morning, and we released the soldiers of the 9th Regimentof the Line, whom we found bound and gagged, some of them wounded, inthe outhouse.
That same afternoon we were arrested, and here we are, ready to die ifwe must, but I swear that I have told you the truth, and I ask you, inthe name of justice, if we have done anything wrong, and if we did notact like loyal and true citizens, even though we were pitted against anemissary of the devil?