by G. A. Henty
CHAPTER XV
England
"Go below, mesdemoiselles," the captain of the lugger said as soonas they had put foot on the deck. "If anyone on the shore were tosee us as we ran down, and notice women on deck, he would think itstrange. At anyrate it's best to be on the safe side."
So saying he led the way to his cabin below.
"It is a rough place, mesdemoiselles," he said, removing his cap,"but it is better than the prisons at Nantes. I am sorry to saythat when we get down near the forts I shall have to ask you tohide down below the casks. I heard last night that in future everyboat going out of the river, even if it is only a fishing-boat,is to be searched. But you needn't be afraid; we have constructeda hiding-place, where they will never find you unless they unloadedthe whole lugger, and that there is no chance of their doing."
"We do not mind where we hide, captain," Jeanne said. "We have beenhiding for the last six months, and we are indeed grateful to youfor having consented to take us with you."
"I hope that you will not be the last that the Trois Freres willcarry across," the captain said. "Whatever be the risk, in futureI will take any fugitives who wish to escape to England. At firstI was against the government, for I thought the people were taxedtoo heavily, and that if we did away with the nobles things wouldbe better for those who work for their living, but I never bargainedfor bloodshed and murder, and that affair I saw yesterday hassickened me altogether; and fond as I am of the Trois Freres, Iwould myself bore holes in her and sink her if I had Carrier andthe whole of his murderous gang securely fastened below hatches.This cabin is at your disposal, mesdemoiselles, during the voyage,and I trust you will make yourselves as comfortable as you can.Ah, here is the boy with coffee. Now, if you will permit me, I willgo on deck and look after her course."
In the meantime Harry was chatting with Adolphe, who introducedhim to the crew, whom he had already told of the services Jeannehad rendered, and as several of them lived in the same street theytoo had heard from their wives of the young woman who lodged withMere Leflo, and had done so much for those who were suffering. Hewas therefore cordially received by the sailors, to each of whomthe captain had already promised double pay for the voyage if theygot through safely.
"You will remember," Adolphe said, "that you are Andre Leboeuf.Andre had to make a cold swim of it this morning, for there was thecommissary on the wharf when we started, and he had the captain'slist of the crew, and saw that each man was on board and searchedhigh and low to see that there was no one else. So Andre, insteadof slipping off home again, had to go with us. When we were out ofsight of the town the captain steered as near the bank as he couldand Andre jumped over and swam ashore. It is all the better as ithas turned out, because the commissary signed the list of the crewand put a seal to it."
In four hours the Trois Freres was approaching the forts at themouth of the river, and the captain came down to the cabin, inwhich Harry was chatting with the two girls.
"Now, mesdemoiselles," he said, "it is time for you to go to yourhiding-place, for it will take us nearly half an hour to close itup again. As soon as the Reds have left us we will let you out."
The hatch was lifted and they descended into the hold of thevessel, which was full of kegs to within three feet of the deck.The captain carried a lantern.
"Please follow me, mesdemoiselles, you must crawl along here."
The girls followed him until they were close to the bulkhead dividingthe hold from the forecastle. Two feet from this there was a vacantspace.
"Now, mesdemoiselles, if you will give me your hands I will loweryou down here. Do not be afraid--your feet will touch the bottom;and I have had some hay put there for you to sit upon. Adolphe,you had better go down first with that lantern of yours to receivethem."
The girls were lowered down and found themselves in a space of fivefeet long and two feet wide. One side was formed by the bulkhead,on the other there were kegs. Four feet from the bottom a beam ofwood had been nailed against the bulkhead. The captain now handeddown to Adolphe some short beams; these he fixed with one endresting on the beam, the other in a space between the kegs.
"This is to form the roof, mesdemoiselles," he said. "I am goingup now, and then we shall place three tiers of kegs on these beams,which will fill it up level with the rest above. I think you willhave plenty of air, for it can get down between the casks, and thecaptain will leave the hatchway open. Are you comfortable?"
"Quite," Jeanne said firmly, but Virginie did not answer; thethought of being shut up down there in the dark was terrible toher. However, the warm, steady pressure of Jeanne's hand reassuredher, and she kept her fears to herself. The kegs were lowered intotheir places, and all was made smooth just as one of the men calleddown the hatchway to the captain:
"There is a gunboat coming out from the port, captain."
After a last look round the captain sprang on to the deck andordered the sails to be lowered, and in a few minutes the gunboatran alongside.
"Show me your papers," an officer said as he leaped on board followedby half a dozen sailors. The captain went down into his cabin andbrought up the papers.
"That is all right," the officer said glancing at them; "now, whereis the list of your crew?"
"This is it," the captain said taking it from his pocket; "acommissary at Nantes went through them on starting and placed hisseal to it, as you see."
"Form the men up, and let them answer to their names," the officersaid. The men formed in line and the officer read out the names;Harry answering for Andre Leboeuf. "That is all right, so far,"the officer said. "Now, sir, I must, according to my orders, searchyour vessel to see that no one is concealed there."
"By all means," the captain said, "you will find the Trois Frerescarries nothing contraband except her cargo. I have already takenoff the hatch, as you see, in order to save time."
The forecastles and cabin were first searched closely. Several ofthe sailors then descended into the hold. Two lanterns were handeddown to them.
"It looks all clear, sir," one of the sailors said to their officer.The latter leaped down on to the kegs and looked round.
"Yes, it looks all right, but you had better shift some of the kegsand see that all is solid."
Some of the kegs were moved from their position, and in a few placessome of the second tier were also lifted. The officer himselfsuperintended the search.
"I think I can let you go on now, Captain Grignaud," he said."Your men can stow the cargo again. A good voyage to you, and mayyou meet with no English cruisers by the way."
The captain at once gave orders for the sails to be run up again,and by the time the officer and his men had climbed over the bulwarksinto the gunboat the Trois Freres had already way upon her. Thecaptain then gave the order for the men to go below and stow thecasks again. Adolphe and Harry were the first to leap down, andbefore the vessels were two hundred yards apart they had removedthe two uppermost tiers of kegs next to the bulkhead, and were ableto speak to the girls.
"Are you all right down there, Jeanne?" Harry asked.
"Yes, quite right, Harry, though the air is rather close. Virginiehas fainted; she was frightened when she heard them moving thekegs just over our heads; but she will come round as soon as youget her on deck."
The last tier was removed, and Harry lowered himself into the hold;he and Jeanne raised Virginie until Adolphe and one of the othersailors could reach her. Jeanne was lifted on to the cross beams,and was soon beside her sister, and Harry quickly clambered up.
"They must not come on deck yet," the captain said, speaking downthe hatchway. "We are too close to the gunboat, and from the fortswith their glasses they can see what is passing on our deck. Don'treplace the kegs over the hole again, Adolphe; we may be overhauledagain, and had better leave it open in case of emergencies."
Virginie was carried under the open hatchway; some water was handeddown to Jeanne, who sprinkled it on her face, and this with thefresh air speedily brought her round. When the l
ugger was a milebelow the forts, the captain said that they could now safely comeup, and they were soon in possession of the cabin again. Beforeevening the lugger was out of sight of land. The wind was blowingfreshly, and she raced along leaving a broad track of foam behindher. The captain and crew were in high spirits at having succeededin carrying off the fugitives from under the noses of their enemies,and at the progress the lugger was making.
"We shall not be far from the coast of England by to-morrow night,"the captain said to Harry, "that is if we have the luck to avoidmeeting any of the English cruisers. We don't care much for therevenue cutters, for there is not one of them that can overhaulthe Trois Freres in a wind like this. They have all had more thanone try, but we can laugh at them; but it would be a differentthing if we fell in with one of the Channel cruisers; in a lightwind we could keep away from them too, but with a brisk wind likethis we should have no chance with them; they carry too much sailfor us. There is the boy carrying in the supper to your sisters;with their permission, you and I will sup with them."
The captain sent in a polite message to the girls, and on thereceipt of the answer that they would be very pleased to have thecaptain's company, he and Harry went down. The meal was an excellentone, but the girls ate but little, for they were both beginning tofeel the effects of the motion of the vessel, for they had, whenonce fairly at sea, kept on deck. The captain perceiving that theyate but little proposed to Harry that coffee should be served ondeck, so that the ladies might at once lie down for the night.
"Now, captain," Harry said as the skipper lit his pipe, "I daresayyou would like to hear how we came to be fugitives on board yourship."
"If you have no obligation to tell me, I should indeed," the captainreplied; "I have been wondering all day how you young people escapedthe search for suspects so long, and how you came to be at Nantes,where, as Adolphe tells me, your sister was an angel among the poor,and that you yourself were a member of the Revolutionary Committee;that seemed to me the most extraordinary of all, but I wouldn'task any questions until you yourself volunteered to enlighten me."
Harry thereupon related the whole story of their adventures,concealing only the fact that the girls were not his sisters; asit was less awkward for Jeanne that this relationship should besupposed to exist.
"Sapriste, your adventures have been marvellous, monsieur, and Icongratulate you heartily. You have a rare head and courage, andyet you cannot be above twenty."
"I am just nineteen," Harry replied.
"Just nineteen, and you succeeded in getting your friend safelyout of that mob of scoundrels in the Abbaye, got your elder sisterout of La Force, you fooled Robespierre and the Revolutionistsin Nantes, and you carried those two girls safely through France,rescued them from the white lugger, and got them on board the TroisFreres! It sounds like a miracle."
"The getting them on board the Trois Freres was, you must remember,my sister's work. I had failed and was in despair. Suspicions werealready aroused, and we should assuredly have been arrested if ithad not been that she had won the heart of Adolphe's wife by nursingher child in its illness."
"That is so," the captain agreed; "and they must have good couragetoo that they didn't betray themselves all that time. And now Itell you what I will do, monsieur. If you will write a letter toyour sister in Paris, saying that you and the other two have reachedEngland in safety, I will when I return send it by sure hand toParis. To make all safe you had better send it to the people sheis staying with, and word it so that no one will understand it ifthey were to read it. Say, for example:
"'My dear Sister, You will be glad to hear that the consignment oflace has been safely landed in England,' Then you can go on sayingthat 'your mother is better, and that you expect to be marriedsoon, as you have made a good profit out of the lace,' and so on;and just sign your name--'Your brother Henri.'
"I can trust the man who will deliver it in Paris, but it is justas well always to be on the safe side. If your letter is opened andread, anyone will suppose that it is written by a sailor belongingto one of the Nantes luggers."
Harry thanked the captain warmly for the offer, and said that theletter would indeed be an immense comfort to his sister and friend.
"I will tell the man that he is to ask if there is any answer," thecaptain said. "And if your sister is as sharp as you are she willwrite the same sort of letter, and I will bring it across with meto England the first voyage I make after I get it."
Harry slept down in the forecastle with the crew, the captainkeeping on deck all night. He was awoke by an order shouted downthe forecastle for all hands to come on deck; and hurrying up withthe rest found that the sun had just risen. The day was beautifullyfine, and to Harry's surprise he found that those on deck hadalready lowered the great lugsails.
"What is it, captain?" he asked.
"There is a sail there I don't like," the captain said. "If I amnot mistaken that is an English frigate."
There were several sails in sight, but the one to which the captainpointed was crossing ahead of the lugger. Her hull could not beseen, and indeed from the deck only her topsails and royals werevisible above the water.
"I hope she will not see us," the captain said. "We are low in thewater, and these stump masts could not be seen at that distanceeven by a look-out at the mast-head.
"We are already somewhat astern of her, and every minute will takeher further away. If she does not see us in a quarter of an hour,we shall be safe. If she does, there is nothing for it but to runback towards the French coast. We should have such a long startthat with this wind she would never catch us. But she may fire herguns and bring another cruiser down upon us and cut us off. Thereare a dozen of them watching on different parts of the coast."
Harry kept his eye anxiously upon the ship, but she sailed steadilyon; and in half an hour the sails were again hoisted and the TroisFreres proceeded on her way. She passed comparatively near severalmerchantmen, but these paid no attention to her. She was too smallfor a privateer, and her object and destination were easily guessedat. The girls soon came on deck, and the captain had some cushionsplaced for them under shelter of the bulwark; for although the sunwas shining brightly the wind was keen and piercing.
"Are we beyond danger?" was Virginie's first question as Harry tookhis seat by her.
"Beyond all danger of being overtaken--that is to say, beyond alldanger of meeting a French vessel-of-war. They very seldom ventureto show themselves many miles from port, except, of course, as afleet; for single vessels would soon get picked up by our cruisers.Yes, I think we are quite out of danger. There is only one chanceagainst us."
"And what is that, Harry?" Jeanne asked.
"It is not a serious one," Harry replied; "it is only that we maybe chased by English revenue cutters and forced to run off from theEnglish coast again. But even then we should soon return. Besides,I have no doubt the captain would let us have a boat, so that wecould be picked up by the cutter in pursuit of us."
"I don't think that would be a good plan," Jeanne said; "becausethey might not stop to pick us up, and then we might have a longway to reach the shore. No, I think it will be better to stay onboard, Harry; for, as you say, if she does have to run away for atime, she is sure to come back again to unload her cargo. But ofcourse do whatever you think best."
"I think your view is the best, Jeanne. However, I hope theopportunity will not occur, and that the Trois Freres will run hercargo without interference. The captain tells me he is making fora point on the Dorsetshire coast, and that he is expected. Of coursehe could not say the exact day he would be here. But he told themthe day on which, if he could get his cargo on board, he shouldsail, and they will be looking out for him."
Before sunset the English coast was visible.
"We could not have timed it better," the captain said. "It will begetting dark before they can make us out even from the cliffs."
Every sail was now scrutinized by the captain through his glass,but he saw nothing that looked suspiciou
s. At nine o'clock in theevening the lugger was within three miles of the coast.
"Get ready the signal lanterns," the captain ordered. And a fewminutes later three lanterns were hoisted, one above the other.Almost immediately two lights were shown in a line on top of thecliff.
"There is our answer," the captain said. "There is nothing to bedone to-night. That means 'The revenue men are on the look-out;come back to-morrow night."'
"But they are always on the look-out, are they not?" Harry asked.
"Yes," the captain said; "but when our friends on shore know we arecoming they try to throw them off the scent. It will be whisperedabout to-morrow that a run is likely to be made ten miles alongthe coast, and they will take care that this comes to the ears ofthe revenue officer. Then to-morrow evening after dusk a fishing-boatwill go out and show some lights two miles off shore at the pointnamed, and a rocket will be sent up from the cliff. That willconvince them that the news is true, and the revenue officers willhurry away in that direction with every man they can get together.Then we shall run here and land our cargo. There will be plenty ofcarts waiting for us, and before the revenue men are back the kegswill be stowed safely away miles inland. Of course things go wrongsometimes and the revenue officers are not to be fooled, but innine cases out of ten we manage to run our cargoes without a shotbeing fired. Now I must get off shore again."
The orders were given, and the Trois Freres was soon running outto sea. They stood far out and then lowered the sails and drifteduntil late in the afternoon, when they again made sail for theland. At ten o'clock the signal lights were again exhibited, andthis time the answer was made by one light low down by the water'sedge.
"The coast is clear," the captain said, rubbing his hands. "We'lltake her in as close as she will go, the less distance there is torow the better."
The Trois Freres was run on until within a hundred yards of theshore, then a light anchor was dropped. The two boats had alreadybeen lowered and were towed alongside, and the work of transferringthe cargo at once began.
"Do you go in the first boat, monsieur, with the ladies," thecaptain said. "The sooner you are ashore the better. There is nosaying whether we may not be disturbed and obliged to run out tosea again at a moment's notice."
"Thank God!" he exclaimed, as after wading through the shallowwater he stood on the shore, while two of the sailors carried thegirls and put them beside him. "Thank God, I have got you safe onEnglish soil at last. I began to despair at one time."
"Thank God indeed," Jeanne said reverently; "but I never quitedespaired, Harry. It seemed to me He had protected us through somany dangers, that He must mean that we should go safely throughthem all, and yet it did seem hopeless at one time."
"We had better stand on one side, girls, or rather we had betterpush on up the cliff. These people are all too busy to notice us,and you might get knocked down; besides, the coastguard might arriveat any moment, and then there would be a fight. So let us get wellaway from them."
But they had difficulty in making their way up the cliff, for thepath was filled with men carrying up tubs or coming down for moreafter placing them in the carts, which were waiting to convey theminland. At last they got to the top. One of the carts was alreadyladen, and was on the point of driving off when Harry asked the manif he could tell him of any farmhouse near, where the two ladieswho had landed with him could pass the night.
"Master's place is two miles away," the man said; "but if you liketo walk as far, he will take you in, I doubt not."
The girls at once agreed to the proposal, and in three quarters ofan hour the cart drew up at a farmhouse.
"Is it all right, Bill?" a man asked, opening the door as the cartstopped.
"Yes, it be all right. Not one of them revenue chaps nigh the place.Here be the load of tubs; they was the first that came ashore."
"Who have you got here?" the farmer asked as Harry came forwardwith the girls.
"These are two young ladies who have crossed in the lugger," Harryreplied. "They have narrowly escaped being murdered in France bythe Revolutionists, and have gone through a terrible time. As theyhave nowhere to go to-night, I thought perhaps you would kindlylet them sit by your fire till morning."
"Surely I will," the farmer said. "Get ye in, get ye in. Mistress,here are two young French ladies who have escaped from thosebloody-minded scoundrels in Paris. I needn't tell you to do whatyou can for them."
The farmer's wife at once came forward and received the girls mostkindly. They had both picked up a little English during Harry'sresidence at the chateau, and feeling they were in good hands, Harryagain went out and lent his assistance to the farmer in carryingthe tubs down to a place of concealment made under the flooring ofone of the barns.
The next day the farmer drove them in his gig to a town some milesinland. Here they procured dresses in which they could travel withoutexciting attention, and took their places in the coach which passedthrough the town for London next day.
That evening Harry gently broke to the girls the news of theirbrothers' death, for he thought that it would otherwise come as aterrible shock to them on their arrival at his home. Virginie wasterribly upset, and Jeanne cried for some time, then she said:
"Your news does not surprise me, Harry. I have had a feeling allalong that you knew something, but were keeping it from me. Youspoke so very seldom of them, and when you did it seemed to me thatwhat you said was not spoken in your natural voice. I felt surethat had you known nothing you would have often talked to us ofmeeting them in London, and of the happiness it would be. I wouldnot ask, because I was sure you had a good reason for not tellingus; but I was quite sure that there was something."
"I thought it better to keep it from you, Jeanne, until the dangerwas all over. In the first place you had need of all your courageand strength; in the next place it was possible that you might neverreach England, and in that case you would never have suffered thepain of knowing anything about it."
"How thoughtful you are, Harry!" Jeanne murmured. "Oh how muchwe owe you! But oh how strange and lonely we seem--everyone goneexcept Marie, and we may never see her again!"
"You will see her again, never fear," Harry said confidently. "Andyou will not feel lonely long, for I can promise you that beforeyou have been long at my mother's place you will feel like one ofthe family."
"Yes; but I shall not be one of the family," Jeanne said.
"Not yet, Jeanne. But mother will look upon you as her daughterdirectly I tell her that you have promised to become so in realitysome day."
Harry's reception, when with the two girls he drove up in a hackneycoach to the house at Cheyne Walk, was overwhelming, and the twoFrench girls were at first almost bewildered by the rush of boysand girls who tore down the steps and threw themselves upon Harry'sneck.
"You will stifle me between you all," Harry said, after he hadresponded to the embraces. "Where are father and mother?"
"Father is out, and mother is in the garden. No, there she is"--asMrs. Sandwith, pale and agitated, appeared at the door, havinghurried in when one of the young ones had shouted out from a backwindow: "Harry has come!"
"Oh, my boy, we had given you up," she sobbed as Harry rushed intoher arms.
"I am worth a great many dead men yet, mother. But now let meintroduce to you Mesdemoiselles Jeanne and Virginie de St. Caux,of whom I have written to you so often. They are orphans, mother,and I have promised them that you and father will fill the placeof their parents."
"That will we willingly," Mrs. Sandwith said, turning to the girlsand kissing them with motherly kindness. "Come in, my dears, andwelcome home for the sake of my dear boy, and for that of yourparents who were so kind to him. Never mind all these wild youngpeople," she added, as the boys and girls pressed round to shakehands with the new-comers. "You will get accustomed to their waypresently. Do you speak in English?"
"Enough to understand," Jeanne said; "but not enough to speak much.Thank you, madame, for receiving us so kindly, for we are all
alonein the world."
Mrs. Sandwith saw the girl's lip quiver, and putting aside herlonging to talk to her son, said:
"Harry, do take them all out in the garden for a short time. Theyare all talking at once, and this is a perfect babel."
And thus having cleared the room she sat down to talk to the twogirls, and soon made them feel at home with her by her unaffectedkindness. Dr. Sandwith soon afterwards ran out to the excitedchattering group in the garden, and after a few minutes' happy talkwith him, Harry spoke to him of the visitors who were closeted withhis mother.
"I want you to make them feel it is their home, father. They willbe no burden pecuniarily, for there are money and jewels worth alarge sum over here."
"Of course I know that," Dr. Sandwith said, "seeing that, as youknow, they were consigned to me, and the marquis wrote to ask meto act as his agent. The money is invested in stock, and the jewelsare in the hands of my bankers. I had begun to wonder what wouldbecome of it all, for I was by no means sure that the whole familyhad not perished, as well as yourself."
"There are only the three girls left," Harry said.
"In that case they will be well off, for the marquis inclosed me awill, saying that if anything should happen to him, and the estatesshould be altogether lost, the money and proceeds of the jewelswere to be divided equally among his children. You must have gonethrough a great deal, old boy. You are scarcely nineteen, and youlook two or three and twenty."
"I shall soon look young again, father, now I have got my mindclear of anxiety. But I have had a trying time of it, I can tellyou; but it's too long a story to go into now, I will tell you allthe whole yarn this evening. I want you to go in with me now tothe girls and make them at home. All this must be just as tryingfor them at present as the dangers they have gone through."
The young ones were all forbidden to follow, and after an hourspent with his parents and the girls in the dining-room, Harrywas pleased to see that the latter were beginning to feel at theirease, and that the strangeness was wearing off.
That evening, before the whole circle of his family, Harry relatedthe adventures that they had gone through, subject, however, to agreat many interruptions from Jeanne.
"But I am telling the story, not you, Jeanne," he said at last."Some day when you begin to talk English quite well you shall giveyour version of it."
"But he is not telling it right, madame," Jeanne protested, "hekeeps all the best part back. He says about the dangers, but he saysnoting about what he do himself." Then she broke into French, "No,madame, it is not just, it is not right; I will not suffer the taleto be told so. How can it be the true story when he says no wordof his courage, of his devotion, of the way he watched over us andcheered us, no word of his grand heart, of the noble way he riskedhis life for us, for our sister, for our parents, for all? Oh,madame, I cannot tell you what we all owe to him;" and Jeanne, whohad risen to her feet in her earnestness, burst into passionatetears. This put an end to the story for the evening, for Mrs.Sandwith saw that Jeanne required rest and quiet, and took the twogirls up at once to the bed-room prepared for them. From thisJeanne did not descend for some days. As long as the strain wasupon her she had borne herself bravely, but now that it was overshe collapsed completely.
After the young ones had all gone off to bed, Harry said to hisfather and mother:
"I have another piece of news to tell you now. I am afraid you willthink it rather absurd at my age, without a profession or anythingelse, but I am engaged to Jeanne. You see," he went on, as hisparents both uttered an exclamation of surprise, "we have gonethrough a tremendous lot together, and when people have to lookdeath in the face every day it makes them older than they are; andwhen, as in this case, they have to depend entirely on themselves,it brings them very closely together. I think it might have beenso had these troubles never come on, for somehow we had taken verymuch to each other, though it might have been years before anythingcame of it. Her poor father and mother saw it before I knewit myself, and upon the night before they were separated told herelder sister and brother that, should I ever ask for Jeanne's hand,they approved of her marrying me. But although afterwards I cameto love her with all my heart, I should never have spoken had itnot been that I did so when it seemed that in five minutes we shouldneither of us be alive. If it hadn't been for that I should havebrought her home and waited till I was making my own way in life."
"I do not blame you, Harry, my boy," his father said heartily. "Ofcourse you are very young, and under ordinary circumstances wouldnot have been thinking about a wife for years to come yet; but Ican see that your Jeanne is a girl of no ordinary character, and itis certainly for her happiness that, being here with her sister aloneamong strangers, she should feel that she is at home. Personally sheis charming, and even in point of fortune you would be considereda lucky fellow. What do you say, mother?"
"I say God bless them both!" Mrs. Sandwith said earnestly. "Afterthe way in which Providence has brought them together, there canbe no doubt that they were meant for each other."
"Do you know I half guessed there was something more than meregratitude in Jeanne's heart when she flamed out just now; did notyou, mother?"
Mrs. Sandwith nodded and smiled. "I was sure there was," she said.
"I did not say anything about it when we came in," Harry said,"because I thought it better for Jeanne to have one quiet day, andyou know the young ones will laugh awfully at the idea of my beingengaged."
"Never you mind, Harry," his father said; "let those laugh thatwin. But you are not thinking of getting married yet, I hope."
"No, no, father; you cannot think I would live on Jeanne's money."
"And you still intend to go into the army, Harry?"
"No, father; I have had enough of bloodshed for the rest of my life.I have been thinking it over a good deal, and I have determined tofollow your example and become a doctor."
"That's right, my boy," Dr. Sandwith said heartily. "I have alwaysregretted you had a fancy for the army, for I used to look forwardto your becoming my right hand. Your brothers, too, do not take tothe profession, so I began to think I was going to be alone in myold age. You have made me very happy, Harry, and your mother too,I am sure. It will be delightful for us having you and your prettyFrench wife settled by us; will it not, mother?"
"It will indeed," Mrs. Sandwith said in a tone of deep happiness."You are certainly overworked and need a partner terribly, and whocould be like Harry?"
"Yes, I have been thinking of taking a partner for some time, butnow I will hold on alone for another three years. By that timeHarry will have passed."
The next morning the young ones were told the news. The elder girlswere delighted at the thought of Jeanne becoming their sister, butthe boys went into fits of laughter and chaffed Harry so unmercifullyfor the next day or two that it was just as well that Jeanne wasup in her room. By the time she came down they had recovered theirgravity. Mrs. Sandwith and the girls had already given her thewarmest welcome as Harry's future wife, and the boys received herso warmly when she appeared that Jeanne soon felt that she wasindeed one of the family.
Three years later, on the day after Harry passed his final examination,Jeanne and he were married, and set up a pretty establishmentclose to Cheyne Walk, with Virginie to live with them; and Harry,at first as his father's assistant, and very soon as his partner,had the satisfaction of feeling that he was not wholly dependenton Jeanne's fortune.
They had received occasional news from Marie. Victor had steadilyrecovered his strength and memory, and as soon as the reign of terrorhad come to an end, and the priests were able to show themselvesfrom their hiding-places in many an out-of-the-way village in thecountry, Marie and Victor were quietly married. But France was atwar with all Europe now, and Victor, though he hated the revolution,was a thorough Frenchman, and through some of his old friends whohad escaped the wave of destruction, he had obtained a commission,and joined Bonaparte when he went to take the command of the armyof Italy. He had att
racted his general's attention early in thecampaign by a deed of desperate valour, and was already in commandof a regiment, when, soon after Jeanne's marriage, Marie came overto England by way of Holland to stay for a time with her sisters.She was delighted at finding Jeanne so happy, and saw enough before shereturned to France to feel assured that before very long Virginiewould follow Jeanne's example, and would also become an Englishwoman,for she and Harry's next brother Tom had evidently some sort ofunderstanding between them. It was not until many years later thatthe three sisters met again, when, after the fall of Napoleon,Jeanne and Virginie went over with their husbands and stayed forsome weeks with General De Gisons and his wife at the old chateaunear Dijon. This the general had purchased back from the personsinto whose hands it had fallen at the Revolution with the moneywhich he had received as his wife's dowry.