just entered the wood, the latter, turning a glance towardsthe house, beheld, to his dismay, several persons emerging from thegarden.
"On, on, my lord! we are pursued!" he exclaimed.
"Then all is lost!" cried the Duke, abandoning himself to despair.
"Not so, your Excellency. By plunging deeper into the wood, we may findsome spot where, throwing ourselves on the ground, we may remainconcealed till the soldiers have passed by," the servant answered.
The Duke caught at the idea as a drowning man will at a straw; and, hiscourage once more reviving, they ran forward among the trees, completelyscreened from the view of those who were on the other side of the field.They ran for life and liberty, straining every nerve, and exertingevery faculty, to escape, while their pursuers were urged on in thechase by the hopes of the reward they expected to receive, and theexcitement of hunting a fellow-creature. We leave the case to moralphilosophers to determine which have the most powerful incentive, thehunted, or the blood-hounds thirsting for their blood; though we shouldbe inclined to award it to the latter. The first can but, at the worst,be captured and slain, while the hunters may gloat over their prey, andtalk in after times of the deeds they have done.
The Duke and his servant now reached a deep dell, to cross which wasabsolutely necessary; yet, on mounting on the opposite side, they mustbe exposed to observation.
"We are lost!" cried the Duke again.
"No, no, your Excellency," returned Manoel. "Quick! quick! it may proveour salvation. See those piles of wood heaped up at the bottom, whichthe wood-cutters have left, we may crawl beneath some of them, and thesoldiers will, probably, in their haste, not think of stopping to searchfor us."
This being the only feasible plan, they hurried down the bank towardsthe piles of wood. They could hear the shouts of their pursuers, justentering the forest, as they reached their place of refuge. A quantityof branches and brushwood had been cut down, and lay scattered about.These they hastily collected together against the piles of newly-cutwood, when, an instant before the foremost pursuer had reached thesummit of the bank, they crept beneath the heap. Onward came thehunters in full cry. They rushed down the glen.
"He has gained the opposite bank," cried one.
"Yes, I just now caught sight of his dress among the trees," shoutedanother.
"Hurra for the reward of the lucky one who captures him!" echoedseveral.
"Courage, comrades! Onward, on!"
The Duke trembled with alarm, as these sounds reached his ear. Thetramp of feet was heard hurrying close by the place of theirconcealment--they passed--they mounted the bank,--their voices grew lessdistinct, and at greater distances from each other, as if they hadextended their line. Gradually the noises altogether ceased, and theDuke and his companion breathed more freely. Manoel ventured to lookout, and, as far as he could see, no one appeared.
"What shall we now do, my good Manoel?" asked his master.
"We must remain quietly here till the night," was the answer; "we maythen with some degree of safety be able to reach the interior of thecountry before the morning breaks; but never must we allow ourselves tobe discovered by daylight on the road."
"This is a very uneasy posture I am in," observed the Duke.
"It is better than your Excellency would enjoy on the scaffold," pithilyanswered the servant; and the master made no further complaints. "Hark!what sound is that? Footsteps approach--silence, for our lives!"whispered Manoel.
When the Desembargador had despatched the soldiers in pursuit of thefugitives, he had also ordered the Notary, Senhor de Leiro, to accompanythem, an office that respectable personage was not very well qualifiedto perform, seeing that, although his fingers, from constant practice,were active and pliant, his legs, as for many years they had never movedfaster than a sedate walk, were very far from being so. He had alsoread that the van of an advancing army was a far more dangerous postthan the rear; and, as it was said that the terrible Duke had fired atthe King, he felt that he would make very little ceremony in shootinghim outright; he therefore allowed the fighting party to precede him,while he advanced in a more dignified way in the same direction. By thetime, however, that he reached the side of the dell, the soldiers hadalready run completely out of sight. He sighed as he thought of thetoil before him; but his duty peremptorily called on him to proceed; orit might have been that he dreaded the loss of his situation if heneglected it; so he managed to reach the bottom of the glen, and toscramble again up the opposite side. Here, however, fatigue overpoweredhim, and he was obliged to seat himself down on the bank to rest. Whilethere, hoping that the soldiers would quickly return with the prisoners,and thus save him further exertion, and, bemoaning his hard fate, heobserved a heap of dried boughs at the bottom of the glen begin to move,and a man's head protrude beyond it.
"Ah!" he thought, "that head belongs to one of the criminals, to acertainty. Now, if I were a strong man, I would capture him myself; butas I am not, I had better not attempt it, for he may think fit to giveme a quietus instead."
The Notary having come to this judicious resolution, kept a vigilantwatch on the heap of branches, in the hopes that some one would passthat way to afford him assistance in capturing the prey; nor had he longto wait before chance led a farmer and his servant to cross the wood atno great distance from where he sat. On his beckoning to them, theyimmediately came up to him; when, in a few words, he explained that hewas on the watch for an atrocious criminal, and promised them a rewardif they would assist in capturing him. They immediately assented, whenthey all three set forward towards the spot where the wretched Duke wasconcealed.
"Seize the traitor, alive or dead!" exclaimed Senhor de Leiro, in a loudvoice, as he pointed to the underwood.
On hearing these words, Manoel, finding further concealment washopeless, sprang up, determined to make one struggle for life, the Dukefollowing his example, with the intention of flying. The appearance oftwo desperate men somewhat staggered the valour of the Notary,particularly when Manoel, rushing towards him, seized the sword from hisside, and would have run him through with his own weapon, when a cryfrom the Duke drew off his attention for the moment. On turning round,he beheld his master dragged away by the farmer and his servant.
"Release him, villains!" he cried; "he is the Duke of Aveiro!"
"We know that well enough," answered the farmer. "He shot at ourgracious King!"
Manoel was about to avenge his master, or endeavour to release him, whenthe shouts of the soldiers, returning through the wood, struck his ear.He now saw that all further attempts to save the Duke would be hopeless;so, abandoning him to his fate, he rushed past the Notary, who tried toimpede him, and sought his own safety in flight. He was still in sightwhen the soldiers appeared on the top of the bank, and the Notary,pointing in the direction of the fugitive, some set off in pursuit,while others hastened forward to secure the greater prize.
The unfortunate Duke was dragged back to his mansion, and, without beingallowed even to alter his dress, or to see his Duchess, he was hurriedinto a carriage, waiting ready in the court-yard to receive him. Justas he was driven off, he saw his young son brought in, vainly strugglingin the grasp of the rude soldiers who held him.
No sooner had the Duke disappeared, than the Duchess was led downstairs, and desired to enter her own carriage, which was now broughtround to the door. Almost fainting with grief and terror--for she hadbeheld her husband a prisoner, and her fears pictured his too probablefate--she requested that her son might accompany her; but this wasperemptorily refused. She then entreated that she might be allowed tosee him.
"Such cannot be, madam," answered the Desembargador. "My orders areexplicit to allow no communication between the prisoners. Yourdestination is the Convent of the Grillos; the young Marquis mustaccompany me." Without waiting to hear the answer of the unhappy lady,he ordered the driver to proceed.
A third carriage was in attendance to convey the young Marquis to theprison intended for him. He was now brough
t out of the house in thecustody of some soldiers. The news of his parent's apprehension hadcome on him like a thunderbolt; but he neither shed a tear, nor uttereda complaint. On being informed that he must quit his home, he insistedon being allowed to prepare for his journey: this was refused him. Hethen desired to return to his room, to procure some money andnecessaries.
"No, senhor," answered the Desembargador, "you will require no moneywhere you are going, and all necessaries will be supplied you. Come,quick, young sir; I am hurried."
"You seem to have the power to enforce your commands, so I must obey,"said the young noble, haughtily, as he stepped into the carriage.Looking from the window, to take a last farewell of the house, destined,poor youth, never to be his own, he saw, to his sorrow, the servantManoel dragged forward bleeding,
The Prime Minister Page 111