Part 16 (2/2)
”No,” replied O'Brien; ”they will think that I am behind. It is of no consequence.”
”Well,” replied the woman, ”do as you please, you may trust me; but I am so busy, without anyone to a.s.sist me, that until they leave the town, I can hardly find time to speak to you.”
”That will be soon enough, my good hostess,” replied O'Brien: ”_au revoir_.”
The next evening, the woman came in, in some alarm, stating that a conscript had arrived whose name had been given in before, and that the person who had given it in had not mustered at the place. That the conscript had declared that his pa.s.s had been stolen from him by a person with whom he had stopped at St. Nicholas, and that there were orders for a strict search to be made through the town, as it was known that some English officers had escaped, and it was supposed that one of them had obtained the pa.s.s. ”Surely you're not English?” inquired the woman, looking earnestly at O'Brien.
”Indeed, but I am, my dear,” replied O'Brien; ”and so is this lad with me; and the favour which your sister requires is that you help us over the water, for which service there are one hundred louis ready to be paid upon delivery of us.”
”_Oh, mon Dieu! mais c'est impossible_.”
”Impossible!” replied O'Brien; ”was that the answer I gave your sister in her trouble?”
”_Au moins c'est difficile_.”
”That's quite another concern; but with your husband a pilot I should think a great part of the difficulty removed.”
”My husband! I've no power over him,” replied the woman, putting her ap.r.o.n up to her eyes.
”But one hundred louis may have,” replied O'Brien.
”There is truth in that,” observed the woman, after a pause; ”but what am I to do, if they come to search the house?”
”Send us out of it, until you can find an opportunity to send us to England. I leave it all to you--your sister expects it from you.”
”And she shall not be disappointed, if G.o.d helps us,” replied the woman, after a short pause; ”but I fear you must leave this house and the town also to-night.”
”How are we to leave the town?”
”I will arrange that; be ready at four o'clock, for the gates are shut at dusk. I must go now, for there is no time to be lost.”
”We are in a nice mess now, O'Brien,” observed I, after the woman had quitted the room.
”Devil a bit, Peter; I feel no anxiety whatever, except at leaving such good quarters.”
We packed up all our effects, not forgetting our two blankets, and waited the return of the hostess. In about an hour she entered the room. ”I have spoken to my husband's sister, who lives about two miles on the road to Middleburg. She is in town now, for it is market-day, and you will be safe where she hides you. I told her it was by my husband's request, or she would not have consented. Here, boy, put on these clothes: I will a.s.sist you.” Once more I was dressed as a girl, and when my clothes were on, O'Brien burst out into laughter at my blue stockings and short petticoats. ”_Il n'est pas mal_,” observed the hostess, as she fixed a small cap on my head, and then tied a kerchief under my chin, which partly hid my face. O'Brien put on a great coat, which the woman handed to him, with a wide-brimmed hat. ”Now follow me!” She led us into the street, which was thronged, till we arrived at the market-place when she met another women, who joined her. At the end of the marketplace stood a small horse and cart, into which the strange woman and I mounted, while O'Brien, by the directions of the landlady, led the horse through the crowd until we arrived at the barriers, when she wished us good day in a loud voice before the guard. The guard took no notice of us, and we pa.s.sed safely through, and found ourselves upon a neatly-paved road, as straight as an arrow, and lined on each side with high trees and a ditch. In about an hour we stopped near to the farm-house of the woman who was in charge of us. ”Do you observe that wood?” said she to O'Brien, pointing to one about half-a-mile from the road. ”I dare not take you into the house, my husband is so violent against the English, who captured his schuyt, and made him a poor man, that he would inform against you immediately; but go you there, make yourselves as comfortable as you can to-night, and to-morrow I will send you what you want. _Adieu! Je vous plains, pauvre enfant_,” said she looking at me as she drove off in the cart towards her own house.
”Peter,” said O'Brien, ”I think that her kicking us out of her house is a proof of her sincerity, and therefore I say no more about it; we have the brandy-flask to keep up our spirits. Now then for the wood, though, by the powers, I shall have no relish for any of your pic-nic parties, as they call them, for the next twelve years.”
”But, O'Brien, how can I get over this ditch in petticoats? I could hardly leap it in my clothes.”
”You must tie your petticoats round your waist and make a good run; get over as far as you can, and I will drag you through the rest.”
”But you forget that we are to sleep in the wood, and that it's no laughing matter to get wet through, freezing so hard as it does now.”
”Very true, Peter; but as the snow lies so deep upon the ditch, perhaps the ice may bear. I'll try; if it bears me, it will not condescend to bend at your shrimp of carca.s.s.”
O'Brien tried the ice, which was firm, and we both walked over, and making all the haste we could, arrived at the wood, as the woman called it, but which was not more than a clump of trees of about half an acre.
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