Part 16 (1/2)
CHAPTER XIII
_A NIGHT ADVENTURE_
As soon as I had heard that name from Rupert's lips, all my hesitation was at once overcome, as he no doubt foresaw would be the case.
”Come,” I said, springing upon my feet with an energy I had not felt for some time, ”let us be going, then.”
My fellow prisoners looked not a little astonished at this sudden change in my resolution. However, they offered me their good wishes for the journey, and Mr. Holwell in particular entrusted me with some messages to Mr. Drake, in case I should succeed in penetrating to him.
We had no certain information at this time as to the whereabouts of the English s.h.i.+ps, but supposed them to be lying somewhere about the mouth of the Hooghley. It was judged best that I should carry no writing.
We two then crept softly out of the hut, my cousin going first, and I following. There was no moon abroad, but a sufficiency of light was afforded us by the extraordinary brilliancy of the stars, which appear much bigger, as well as thicker in the sky, in these lat.i.tudes than in England. At a short distance from the door of the shed I could perceive the sentinel, seated with his back towards us, his hands resting on his matchlock.
”This way,” whispered Rupert in my ear. And turning in the opposite direction from the sentry, he stooped down and ran along under the shadow of a high wall which bordered a winding road.
The wall was about eight feet high, and enclosed a garden. Here and there it was overhung by branches of trees, whose foliage I failed to distinguish in the darkness, but I once or twice thought I smelt the fragrance of lemons. Within the garden behind the wall we could hear the tinkle of a fountain and a noise like the singing of some bird.
”What is this place?” I asked in a whisper, as I ran along by Rupert's side.
”Hus.h.!.+” he answered crossly. ”We shall be overheard. This is the Nabob's garden, where are the pavilions of his women.”
We ran on in silence for some little time longer, when we arrived at the end of the garden, and plunged into a narrow and dark lane that led out of the town. This pa.s.sage we followed till we came out upon a deserted nook immediately under the walls of Moorshedabad, which were here much damaged, and matted with ivy and other weeds.
”Now,” said Rupert, as he flung himself panting on the ground, in a little gra.s.sy place, ”we can talk over our plans without fear of being disturbed.”
I sat down beside him, inly marvelling at that great transformation which had so quickly converted us from deadly enemies seeking each other's lives, into allies, if not friends. After all our hostilities against each other in Great Yarmouth, at Gheriah, and in Calcutta, we were now in Moorshedabad, bound together by a common purpose, and that purpose concerned with her who had originally been the cause of our enmity.
I have often thought since that the change which took place in my cousin's behaviour about this time was due, not so much to any tardy p.r.i.c.ks of conscience, as to a sort of dizziness of mind, brought about by the spectacle of the prodigious crimes of Surajah Dowlah. His own spirit, however bold and wicked, was daunted in the presence of this being who, though so much younger in years, was so greatly superior in evil; so that he shrank back, like one brought suddenly to the edge of a precipice. Perhaps he had a secret apprehension of his coming fate; at all events, it is certain that for a short time he manifested a hearty longing to return to the society of honest men.
As soon as we were seated his first act was to pluck off the turban he wore on his head, and cast it to the ground.
”Faugh!” he exclaimed. ”What an intolerable thing to wear! If it were not for their turbans and their abstinence, I declare Mahometanism would suit me well enough.”
I gazed at him in horror.
”Do you mean, Rupert, that you have really embraced that idolatrous sect?” I demanded.
”You need not look so scandalised, cousin,” he retorted. ”In the first place you are quite wrong to call it idolatrous, images of every kind being strictly forbidden by the Alcoran. In the second place it is a very decent, respectable religion, as religions go, and extremely convenient for seafaring men who sometimes need an excuse for overhauling a Christian cargo.”
”Rupert Gurney,” I replied sternly, ”you have within the hour brought me away out of prison, and for that I thank you. But I will neither listen to your blasphemous talk, nor suffer it, and rather than consent to do so I will go back to the place from which you took me but now.”
”Fair and softly, young Athelstane,” he answered grinning. ”I see you are as fierce a Puritan as ever, and as I have lost the wish to quarrel with you I will endeavour to refrain from saying anything offensive to your delicacy. But do you, on your part, abstain from flying into a pa.s.sion at every word that does not happen to sound to your liking; for patience is a virtue recommended, as I believe, by your religion as well as mine, and it seems to me that your stock of it is rather scant.”
I cannot say how deeply mortified I was by this rebuke, which, coming from one whose evil life I held in just detestation, wrought more conviction in me than all the sermons I had heard from good Mr. Peter Walpole of Norwich, when I was a boy. I discovered, as though by a flash of light, how unchristian was the temper I had too often shown in my dealings, not only with my cousin, but with other persons, and from that moment I set an earnest watch on myself in this respect.
Forcing myself to acknowledge my error at once, though much against the grain, I said--
”I ask your pardon, Rupert, if I spoke harshly. But let us leave these questions, and come to the business in hand. What of Marian, and how do you propose that we should effect her escape?”