Part 47 (1/2)
”Where is Capet? Tell us where Capet is, or--”
He was like a raging tiger that had thought to hold its prey and suddenly realised that it was being snatched from him He raised his fist, and without doubt the next moment he would have silenced forever the lips that held the precious secret, but Chauvelin fortunately was quick enough to seize his wrist
”Have a care, citizen,” he said peremptorily; ”have a care! You called ht I had killed the prisoner It is his secret ant first; his death can follow afterwards”
”Yes, but not in this d--d hole,” uillotine if you'll speak,” cried Heron, whose exasperation was getting the better of his self-interest, ”but if you'll not speak then it shall be starvation in this hole--yes, starvation,” he growled, showing a row of large and uneven teeth like those of soht, and not another living soul shall cross this threshold again until your flesh has rotted on your bones and the rats have had their fill of you”
The prisoner raised his head slowly, a shi+ver shook hihtless, now looked with a strange glance of horror on his enemy
”I'll die in the open,” he whispered, ”not in this d--d hole”
”Then tell us where Capet is”
”I cannot; I wish to God I could But I'll take you to hiive him up to you Do you think that I would not tell you now, if I could”
Heron, whose every instinct of tyranny revolted against this thwarting of his will, would have continued to heckle the prisoner even now, had not Chauvelin suddenly interposed with an authoritative gesture
”You'll gain nothing this way, citizen,” he said quietly; ”the ive you clear directions at this mohly
”He cannot live another twenty-four hours now, and would only grow more and more helpless as tii this situation indefinitely; and in thespirited away out of the country?”
The prisoner, with his head once more buried in his arms, had fallen into a kind of torpor, the only kind of sleep that the exhausted systeesture Heron shook him by the shoulder
”He,” he shouted, ”none of that, you know We have not settled theCapet yet”
Then, as the prisoner ed in one of his favourite volleys of oaths, Chauvelin placed a pereue's shoulder
”I tell you, citizen, that this is no use,” he said firhts of finding Capet, you must try and curb your temper, and try diplomacy where force is sure to fail”
”Diplomacy?” retorted the other with a sneer ”Bah! it served you well at Boulogne last autumn, did it not, citizen Chauvelin?”
”It has served me better now,” rejoined the other imperturbably ”You will own, citizen, that it is my diplomacy which has placed within your reach the ulti Capet”
”H'm!” muttered the other, ”you advised us to starve the prisoner Are we any nearer to knowing his secret?”
”Yes By a fortnight of weariness, of exhaustion and of starvation, you are nearer to it by the weakness of the th you could never hope to conquer”
”But if the cursed Englishman won't speak, and in the meanwhile dies on my hands--”
”He won't do that if you will accede to his wish Give hiood food now, and let hiain I believe now that he has some scheme in his ine, is h,” he added with a conteure of his once brilliant enemy, ”neither mind nor body seem toplot or intrigue; but even if--vaguely floating through his clouded ive you my word, citizen Heron, that you can thwart hiain all that you desire, if you will only follow reat amount of persuasive power in citizen Chauvelin, ex-envoy of the revolutionary Government of France at the Court of St James, and that same persuasive eloquence did not fail now in its effect on the chief agent of the Committee of General Security
The latter was ue