Part 54 (2/2)
But Chauvelin and Heron had seen nothing of this They were satisfied that there had been no communication between the prisoner and his wife and friend
”You are no doubt surprised, Sir Percy,” said Chauvelin after a while, ”to see Lady Blakeney here She, as well as citizen St Just, will accompany our expedition to the place where you will lead us We none of us knohere that place is--citizen Heron andus to certain death, or again to a spot where your own escape would be an easy matter to yourself You will not be surprised, therefore, that we have thought fit to take certain precautions both against any little aainst yourattempts at escape for which the noted Scarlet Pimpernel is so justly famous”
He paused, and only Heron's low chuckle of satisfaction broke the momentary silence that followed BlakeneyHe knew Chauvelin and his ways, knew the kind of tortuous conception that would find origin in his brain; the uessed that Chauvelin once more desired to put her precious life in the balance of his intrigues
”Citizen Heron is impatient, Sir Percy,” resumed Chauvelin after a while, ”so I must be brief Lady Blakeney, as well as citizen St Just, will accompany us on this expedition to whithersoever you ainst your own good faith At the slightest suspicion--a mere suspicion perhaps--that you have played us false, at a hint that you have led us into an ambush, or that the whole of this expedition has been but a trick on your part to effect your own escape, or ifCapet at the end of our journey is frustrated, the lives of our two hostages belong to us, and your friend and your ill be summarily shot before your eyes”
Outside the rain pattered against the -panes, the gale whistledthe stunted trees, but within this room not a sound stirred the deadly stillness of the air, and yet at this ation--the most power full passions the heart of man can know--held three men here enchained; each a slave to his dominant passion, each ready to stake his all for the satisfaction of his master Heron was the first to speak
”Well!” he said with a fierce oath, ”what are aiting for? The prisoner kno he stands Noe can go”
”One moment, citizen,” interposed Chauvelin, his quiet e mood ”You have quite understood, Sir Percy,” he continued, directly addressing the prisoner, ”the conditions under which we are all of us about to proceed on this journey?”
”All of us?” said Blakeney slowly ”Are you taking it for granted then that I accept your conditions and that I am prepared to proceed on the journey?”
”If you do not proceed on the journey,” cried Heron with savage fury, ”I'll strangle that woman with my own hands--now!”
Blakeney looked at hih half-closed lids, and it seemed then to those who knew him well, to those who loved hihty sinews almost cracked with the passionate desire to kill Then the sunken eyes turned slowly to Marguerite, and she alone caught the look--it was a mere flash, of a humble appeal for pardon
It was all over in a second; almost immediately the tension on the pale face relaxed, and into the eyes there came that look of acceptance--nearly akin to fatalis alone are capable, for with them it only coed his broad shoulders, and onceto Heron he said quietly:
”You leave me no option in that case As you have reer? Surely we can now go”
CHAPTER XLIII THE DREARY JOURNEY
Rain! Rain! Rain! Incessant, ed round to the southwest It ble in great gusts that sent weird, sighing sounds through the trees, and drove the heavy showers into the faces of the ale
The rain-sodden bridles slipped through their hands, bringing out sores and blisters on their pal persistence as the wet trickled into their ears, or the sharp, intermittent hailstones struck their sensitive noses
Three days of this awful ing of troops at one of the guard-houses on the way, the reiterated co on the next lap of this strange, momentous way; and all the while, audible above the clatter of horses' hoofs, the rues, each drawn by a pair of sturdy horses; which were changed at every halt A soldier on each box urged theood pace to keep up with the troopers, ere allowed to go at an easy canter or light jog-trot, whateverAnd froaunt head would appear at theof one of the coaches, asking the way, the distance to the next city or to the nearest wayside inn; cursing the troopers, the coachainst the interainst the wet
Early in the evening on the second day of the journey he had met with an accident The prisoner, who presumably eak and weary, and not over steady on his feet, had fallen up against him as they were both about to re-enter the coach after a halt just outside A in the slippery mud of the road His head caht temple was severely cut
Since then he had been forced to wear a bandage across the top of his face, under his sugar-loaf hat, which had added nothing to his beauty, but a great deal to the violence of his temper He wanted to push the men on, to force the pace, to shorten the halts; but Chauvelin knew better than to allow slackness and discontent to follow in the wake of over-fatigue
The soldiers were alell rested and well fed, and though the delay caused by long and frequent halts must have been just as irksome to him as it was to Heron, yet he bore it imperturbably, for he would have had no use on this momentous journey for a handful of men whose enthusiasale, or drowned in the fury of the constant downpour of rain
Of all this Marguerite had been conscious in a vague, dreamy kind of way She see panoraht to stop that final, inevitable ending, the cataclysm of sorrow and misery that awaited her, when the dreary curtain would fall on the last act, and she and all the other spectators--Armand, Chauvelin, Heron, the soldiers--would sloend their way ho the principal actor behind the fallen curtain, which never would be lifted again
After that first halt in the guard-room of the Rue Ste Anne she had been bidden to enter a second hackney coach, which, followed the other at a distance of fifty metres or so, and was, like that other, closely surrounded by a squad of e with her; all day she sat looking out on the endless ainst the -glass, and ran down from it like a perpetual stream of tears