Historical Romances: Under the Red Robe, Count Hannibal, A Gentleman of France

by Stanley John Weyman

  CHAPTER XXIX.

  THE ESCAPE.

  In a small back room on the second floor of the inn at Angers, a mean,dingy room which looked into a narrow lane, and commanded no prospectmore informing than a blind wall, two men sat, fretting; or, rather,one man sat, his chin resting on his hand, while his companion, lesspatient or more sanguine, strode ceaselessly to and fro. In the firstdespair of capture--for they were prisoners--they had made up theirminds to the worst, and the slow hours of two days had passed overtheir heads without kindling more than a faint spark of hope in theirbreasts. But when they had been taken out and forced to mount andride--at first with feet tied to the horses' girths--they had let thechange, the movement, and the open air fan the flame. They hadmuttered a word to one another, they had wondered, they had reasoned.And though the silence of their guards--from whose sour vigilance thekeenest question drew no response--seemed of ill-omen, and, taken withtheir knowledge of the man into whose hands they had fallen, shouldhave quenched the spark, these two, having special reasons, the onethe buoyancy of youth, the other the faith of an enthusiast, cherishedthe flame. In the breast of one indeed it had blazed into a confidenceso arrogant that he now took all for granted, and was not content.

  "It is easy for you to say, 'Patience!'" he cried, as he walked thefloor in a fever. "You stand to lose no more than your life, and ifyou escape go free at all points! But he has robbed me of more thanlife! Of my love, and my self-respect, curse him! He has worsted menot once, but twice and thrice! And if he lets me go now, dismissingme with my life, I shall--I shall kill him!" he concluded, through histeeth.

  "You are hard to please!"

  "I shall kill him!"

  "That were to fall still lower!" the minister answered, gravelyregarding him. "I would, M. de Tignonville, you remembered that youare not yet out of jeopardy. Such a frame of mind as yours is no goodpreparation for death, let me tell you!"

  "He will not kill us!" Tignonville cried. "He knows better than mostmen how to avenge himself!"

  "Then he is above most!" La Tribe retorted. "For my part I wish I weresure of the fact, and I should sit here more at ease."

  "If we could escape, now, of ourselves!" Tignonville cried. "Then weshould save not only life, but honour! Man, think of it! If we couldescape, not by his leave but against it! Are you sure that this isAngers!"

  "As sure as a man can be who has only seen the Black Town once ortwice!" La Tribe answered, moving to the casement--which was notglazed--and peering through the rough wooden lattice. "But if we couldescape we are strangers here. We know not which way to go, nor whereto find shelter. And for the matter of that," he continued, turningfrom the window with a shrug of resignation, "'tis no use to talk ofit while yonder foot goes up and down the passage, and its owner bearsthe key in his pocket."

  "If we could get out of his power as we came into it!" Tignonvillecried.

  "Ay, if! But it is not every floor has a trap!"

  "We could take up a board."

  The minister raised his eyebrows.

  "We could take up a board!" the younger man repeated; and he steppedthe mean chamber from end to end, his eyes on the floor. "Or--yes,_mon Dieu!_" with a change of attitude, "we might break through theroof!" And, throwing back his head, he scanned the cobwebbed surfaceof laths which rested on the unceiled joists.

  "Umph!"

  "Well, why not, monsieur? Why not break through the ceiling?"Tignonville repeated, and in a fit of energy he seized his companion'sshoulder and shook him. "Stand on the bed, and you can reach it."

  "And the floor which rests on it!"

  "_Par Dieu_, there is no floor! 'Tis a cockloft above us! See there!And there!" And the young man sprang on the bed, and thrust the rowelof a spur through the laths.

  La Tribe's expression changed. He rose slowly to his feet. "Tryagain!" he said.

  Tignonville, his face red, drove the spur again between the laths, andworked it to and fro until he could pass his fingers into the hole hehad made. Then he gripped and bent down a length of one of the laths,and, passing his arm as far as the elbow through the hole, moved itthis way and that. His eyes, as he looked down at his companionthrough the lolling rubbish, gleamed with triumph. "Where is yourfloor now?" he asked.

  "You can touch nothing?"

  "Nothing. It's open. A little more and I might touch the tiles." Andhe strove to reach higher.

  For answer La Tribe gripped him. "Down! Down, monsieur," he muttered."They are bringing our dinner."

  Tignonville thrust back the lath as well as he could, and slipped tothe floor; and hastily the two swept the rubbish from the bed. WhenBadelon, attended by two men, came in with the meal he found La Tribeat the window blocking much of the light, and Tignonville laidsullenly on the bed. Even a suspicious eye must have failed to detectwhat had been done; the three who looked in suspected nothing and sawnothing. They went out, the key was turned again on the prisoners, andthe footsteps of two of the men were heard descending the stairs.

  "We have an hour, now!" Tignonville cried; and leaping, with flamingeyes, on the bed, he fell to hacking and jabbing and tearing atthe laths amid a rain of dust and rubbish. Fortunately the stuff,falling on the bed, made little noise; and in five minutes, workinghalf-choked and in a frenzy of impatience, he had made a hole throughwhich he could thrust his arms, a hole which extended almost from onejoist to its neighbour. By this time the air was thick with floatinglime; the two could scarcely breathe, yet they dared not pause.Mounting on La Tribe's shoulders--who took his stand on the bed--theyoung man thrust his head and arms through the hole, and, resting hiselbows on the joists, dragged himself up, and with a final effort ofstrength landed nose and knees on the timbers, which formed hissupports. A moment to take breath, and press his torn and bleedingfingers to his lips; then, reaching down, he gave a hand to hiscompanion and dragged him to the same place of vantage.

  They found themselves in a long narrow cockloft, not more than sixfeet high at the highest, and insufferably hot. Between the tiles,which sloped steeply on either hand, a faint light filtered in,disclosing the giant rooftree running the length of the house, and atthe farther end of the loft the main tie-beam, from which a network ofknees and struts rose to the rooftree.

  Tignonville, who seemed possessed by unnatural energy, stayed only toput off his boots. Then "Courage!" he panted, "all goes well!" and,carrying his boots in his hands, he led the way, stepping gingerlyfrom joist to joist until he reached the tie-beam. He climbed on it,and, squeezing himself between the struts, entered a second loftsimilar to the first. At the farther end of this a rough wall ofbricks in a timber-frame lowered his hopes; but as he approached it,joy! Low down in the corner where the roof descended, a small door,square, and not more than two feet high, disclosed itself.

  The two crept to it on hands and knees and listened. "It will lead tothe leads, I doubt?" La Tribe whispered. They dared not raise theirvoices.

  "As well that way as another!" Tignonville answered recklessly. He wasthe more eager, for there is a fear which transcends the fear ofdeath. His eyes shone through the mask of dust, the sweat ran down tohis chin, his breath came and went noisily. "Naught matters if we canescape him!" he panted. And he pushed the door recklessly. It flewopen, the two drew back their faces with a cry of alarm.

  They were looking, not into the sunlight, but into a grey dingygarret open to the roof, and occupying the upper part of a gable-endsomewhat higher than the wing in which they had been confined. Filthytruckle-beds and ragged pallets covered the floor, and, eked out byold saddles and threadbare horse-rugs, marked the sleeping quarterseither of the servants or of travellers of the meaner sort. But thedinginess was naught to the two who knelt looking into it, afraid tomove. Was the place empty? That was the point; the question which hadfirst stayed, and then set their pulses at the gallop.

  Painfully their eyes searched each huddle of clothing, scanned eachdubious shape. And slowly, as the silence persisted,
their heads cameforward until the whole floor lay within the field of sight. And stillno sound! At last Tignonville stirred, crept through the doorway, androse up, peering round him. He nodded, and, satisfied that all wassafe, the minister followed him.

  They found themselves a pace or so from the head of a narrowstaircase, leading downwards. Without moving they could see the doorwhich closed it below. Tignonville signed to La Tribe to wait, andhimself crept down the stairs. He reached the door, and, stooping, sethis eye to the hole through which the string of the latch passed. Amoment he looked, and then, turning on tiptoe, he stole up again, hisface fallen.

  "You may throw the handle after the hatchet!" he muttered. "The man onguard is within four yards of the door." And in the rage ofdisappointment he struck the air with his hand.

  "Is he looking this way?"

  "No. He is looking down the passage towards our room. But it isimpossible to pass him."

  La Tribe nodded, and moved softly to one of the lattices which lightedthe room. It might be possible to escape that way, by the parapet andthe tiles. But he found that the casement was set high in the roof,which sloped steeply from its sill to the eaves. He passed to theother window, in which a little wicket in the lattice stood open. Helooked through it. In the giddy void white pigeons were wheeling inthe dazzling sunshine, and gazing down he saw far below him, in thehot square, a row of booths, and troops of people moving to and frolike pigmies; and--and a strange thing, in the middle of all!Involuntarily, as if the persons below could have seen his face at thetiny dormer, he drew back.

  He beckoned to M. Tignonville to come to him; and when the young mancomplied, he bade him in a whisper look down. "See!" he muttered."There!"

  The younger man saw and drew in his breath. Even under the coating ofdust his face turned a shade greyer.

  "You had no need to fear that he would let us go!" the ministermuttered, with half-conscious irony.

  "No."

  "Nor I! There are two ropes." And La Tribe breathed a few words ofprayer. The object which had fixed his gaze was a gibbet: the only oneof the three which could be seen from their eyrie.

  Tignonville, on the other hand, turned sharply away, and with haggardeyes stared about the room. "We might defend the staircase," hemuttered. "Two men might hold it for a time."

  "We have no food."

  "No." And then he gripped La Tribe's arm. "I have it!" he cried. "Andit may do! It must do!" he continued, his face working. "See!" Andlifting from the floor one of the ragged pallets, from which the strawprotruded in a dozen places, he set it flat on his head. It drooped ateach corner--it had seen much wear--and while it almost hid his face,it revealed his grimy chin and mortar-stained shoulders. He turned tohis companion.

  La Tribe's face glowed as he looked. "It may do!" he cried. "It's achance! But you are right! It may do!"

  Tignonville dropped the ragged mattress, and tore off his coat; thenhe rent his breeches at the knee, so that they hung loose about hiscalves. "Do you the same!" he cried. "And quick, man, quick! Leaveyour boots! Once outside we must pass through the streets underthese"--he took up his burden again and set it on his head--"until wereach a quiet part, and there we----"

  "Can hide! Or swim the river!" the minister said. He had followed hiscompanion's example, and now stood under a similar burden. Withbreeches rent and whitened, and his upper garments in no better case,he looked a sorry figure.

  Tignonville eyed him with satisfaction, and turned to the staircase."Come," he cried, "there is not a moment to be lost. At any minutethey may enter our room and find it empty! You are ready? Then, nottoo softly, or it may rouse suspicion! And mumble something at thedoor."

  He began himself to scold, and, muttering incoherently, stumbled downthe staircase, the pallet on his head rustling against the wall oneach side. Arrived at the door he fumbled clumsily with the latch,and, when the door gave way, plumped out with an oath--as if theawkward burden he bore were the only thing on his mind. Badelon--hewas on duty--stared at the apparition; but the next moment he sniffedthe pallet, which was none of the freshest, and, turning up his nose,he retreated a pace. He had no suspicion; the men did not come fromthe part of the house where the prisoners lay, and he stood aside tolet them pass. In a moment, staggering, and going a little unsteadily,as if they scarcely saw their way, they had passed by him, and weredescending the staircase.

  So far well! Unfortunately, when they reached the foot of that flightthey came on the main passage of the first-floor. It ran right andleft, and Tignonville did not know which way he must turn to reach thelower staircase. Yet he dared not hesitate; in the passage, waitingabout the doors, were four or five servants, and in the distance hecaught sight of three men belonging to Tavannes' company. At anymoment, too, an upper servant might meet them, ask what they weredoing, and detect the fraud. He turned at random, therefore--to theleft as it chanced--and marched along bravely, until the very thinghappened which he had feared. A man came from a room plump upon them,saw them, and held up his hands in horror.

  "What are you doing!" he cried in a rage and with an oath. "Who setyou on this?"

  Tignonville's tongue clave to the roof of his mouth. La Tribe frombehind muttered something about the stable.

  "And time too!" the man said. "Faugh! But how come you this way! Areyou drunk? Here!" He opened the door of a musty closet beside him,"Pitch them in here, do you hear! And take them down when it is dark!Faugh! I wonder you did not carry the things through her ladyship'sroom at once! If my lord had been in and met you! Now then, do as Itell you! Are you drunk!"

  With a sullen air Tignonville threw in his mattress. La Tribe did thesame. Fortunately the passage was ill-lighted, and there were manyhelpers and strange servants in the inn. The butler only thought themill-looking fellows who knew no better. "Now be off!" he continuedirascibly, "This is no place for your sort. Be off!" And, as theymoved, "Coming! Coming!" he cried in answer to a distant summons; andhe hurried away on the errand which their appearance had interrupted.

  Tignonville would have gone to work to recover the pallets, for theman had left the key in the door. But as he went to do so the butlerlooked back, and the two were obliged to make a pretence of followinghim. A moment, however, and he was gone; and Tignonville turned anewto regain them. A second time fortune was adverse; a door within apace of him opened, a woman came out. She recoiled from the strangefigure; her eyes met his. Unluckily the light from the room behind herfell on his face, and with a shrill cry she named him.

  One second and all had been lost, for the crowd of idlers at the otherend of the passage had caught her cry, and were looking that way. Withpresence of mind Tignonville clapped his hand on her mouth, and,huddling her by force into the room, followed her, with La Tribe athis heels.

  It was a large room, in which seven or eight people, who had been atprayers when the cry startled them, were rising from their knees. Thefirst thing they saw was Javette on the threshold, struggling in thegrasp of a wild man, ragged and begrimed; they deemed the city risenand the massacre upon them. Carlat threw himself before his mistress,the Countess in her turn sheltered a young girl, who stood beside herand from whose face the last trace of colour had fled. Madame Carlatand a waiting-woman ran shrieking to the window; another instant andthe alarm would have gone abroad.

  Tignonville's voice stopped it. "Don't you know me?" he cried."Madame! you at least! Carlat! Are you all mad?"

  The words stayed them where they stood in an astonishment scarce lessthan their alarm. The Countess tried twice to speak; the third time,"Have you escaped?" she muttered.

  Tignonville nodded, his eyes bright with triumph. "So far," he said."But they may be on our heels at any moment! Where can we hide?"

  The Countess, her hand pressed to her side, looked at Javette. "Thedoor, girl!" she whispered. "Lock it!"

  "Ay, lock it! And they can go by the backstairs," Madame Carlatanswered, awaking suddenly to the situation. "Through my closet! Oncein the yard they may pass out through the stables." />
  "Which way?" Tignonville asked impatiently. "Don't stand looking atme, but----"

  "Through this door!" Madame Carlat answered, hurrying to it.

  He was following when the Countess stepped forward and interposedbetween him and the door. "Stay!" she cried; and there was not one whodid not notice a new decision in her voice, a new dignity in herbearing. "Stay, monsieur, we may be going too fast. To go out now andin that guise--may it not be to incur greater peril than you incurhere? I feel sure that you are in no danger of your life at present.Therefore, why run the risk----"

  "In no danger, madame!" he cried, interrupting her in astonishment."Have you seen the gibbet in the Square? Do you call that no danger?"

  "It is not erected for you."

  "No?"

  "No, monsieur," she answered firmly, "I swear it is not. And I know ofreasons, urgent reasons, why you should not go. M. de Tavannes"--shenamed her husband nervously, as conscious of the weak spot--"before herode abroad laid strict orders on all to keep within, since thesmallest matter might kindle the city. Therefore, M. de Tignonville, Irequest, nay I entreat," she continued with greater urgency, as shesaw his gesture of denial, "you to stay here until he returns."

  "And you, madame, will answer for my life!"

  She faltered. For a moment, a moment only, her colour ebbed. What ifshe deceived herself! What if she surrendered her old lover to death?What if--but the doubt was of a moment only. Her duty was plain. "Iwill answer for it," she said, with pale lips, "if you remain here.And I beg, I implore you--by the love you once had for me, M.Tignonville," she added desperately, seeing that he was about torefuse, "to remain here."

  "Once!" he retorted, lashing himself into ignoble rage. "By thelove I once had! Say, rather, the love I have, madame--for I am nowoman-weathercock to wed the winner, and hold or not hold, stay or go,as he commands! You, it seems," he continued with a sneer, "havelearned the wife's lesson well! You would practise on me now, as youpractised on me the other night when you stood between him and me! Iyielded then, I spared him. And what did I get by it? Bonds and aprison! And what shall I get now! The same! No, madame," he continuedbitterly, addressing himself as much to the Carlats and the others asto his old mistress. "I do not change! I loved! I love! I was goingand I go! If death lay beyond that door"--and he pointed to it--"andlife at his will were certain here, I would pass the threshold ratherthan take my life of him!" And, dragging La Tribe with him, with apassionate gesture he rushed by her, opened the door, and disappearedin the next room.

  The Countess took one pace forward, as if she would have followed him,as if she would have tried farther persuasion. But as she moved a cryrooted her to the spot. A rush of feet and the babel of many voicesfilled the passage with a tide of sound, which drew rapidly nearer.The escape was known! Would the fugitives have time to slip outbelow?

  Someone knocked at the door, tried it, pushed and beat on it. But theCountess and all in the room had run to the windows and were lookingout.

  If the two had not yet made their escape they must be taken. Yet no;as the Countess leaned from the window, first one dusty figure andthen a second darted from a door below, and made for the nearestturning out of the Place Ste.-Croix. Before they gained it, four men,of whom Badelon, his grey locks flying, was first, dashed out inpursuit, and the street rang with cries of "Stop him! Seize him! Seizehim!" Someone--one of the pursuers or another--to add to the alarm letoff a musket, and in a moment, as if the report had been a signal, thePlace was in a hubbub, people flocked into it with mysteriousquickness, and from a neighbouring roof--whence, precisely, it wasimpossible to say--the crackling fire of a dozen arquebuses alarmedthe city far and wide.

  Unfortunately, the fugitives had been baulked at the first turning.Making for a second, they found it choked, and, swerving, dartedacross the Place towards St.-Maurice, seeking to lose themselves inthe gathering crowd. But the pursuers clung desperately to theirskirts, overturning here a man and there a child; and then in atwinkling, Tignonville, as he ran round a booth, tripped over a pegand fell, and La Tribe stumbled over him and fell also. The fourriders flung themselves fiercely on their prey, secured them, andbegan to drag them with oaths and curses towards the door of the inn.

  The Countess had seen all from her window; had held her breath whilethey ran, had drawn it sharply when they fell. Now "They have them!"she muttered, a sob choking her, "They have them!" And she clasped herhands. If he had followed her advice! If he had only followed heradvice!

  But the issue proved less certain than she deemed it. The crowd, whichgrew each moment, knew nothing of pursuers or pursued. On thecontrary, a cry went up that the riders were Huguenots, and that theHuguenots were rising and slaying the Catholics; and as no story wastoo improbable for those days, and this was one constantly set about,first one stone flew, and then another, and another. A man with astaff darted forward and struck Badelon on the shoulder, two or threeothers pressed in and jostled the riders; and if three of Tavannes'following had not run out on the instant and faced the mob with theirpikes, and for a moment forced them to give back, the prisoners wouldhave been rescued at the very door of the inn. As it was they weredragged in, and the gates were flung to and barred in the nick oftime. Another moment, almost another second, and the mob had seizedthem. As it was, a hail of stones poured on the front of the inn, andamid the rising yells of the rabble there presently floated heavy andslow over the city the tolling of the great bell of St. Maurice.