Part 21 (1/2)

”They-have-put-her-head-in-the crossboard-and--oh, oh!--fastened-it-down!

”The-executioner-is-all-ready.” Pierre was gesticulating like a madman. He seemed to be raising despairing hands to high Heaven, in token of helplessness.

Above--around--everywhere, he looked for succor; found none. A glance from Henriette's doomed form to Louise's bitter anguish converts him into a maniac.

”HE'S ASKING THE MASTER FOR THE SIGNAL TO PULL THE ROPE!”

Pierre shouts the words in a fury that is rapidly growing uncontrollable.

Spectators for the first time notice his strange actions. But neither the expectant executioner nor the self-important master of ceremonial looks down, or distinguishes the cry in the babel of savage sounds.

The wild youth now disengages himself from Louise's clutch. With his right hand he pulls a dagger from his hip pocket. Look! As the master's signalling hand is upraised high and begins to lower, the boy leaps up the steps of the guillotine, and attacks the executioner whose fingers are already on the death rope....

Ride on yet more fiercely, O Danton and ye fierce Cavalrymen--ride on, e'en past the barrier, if Jacques-Forget-Not and his men do not stay thee. Yes, thank G.o.d! there may yet be time, should this maniac with the dagger provide sufficient respite!

... The brawny butcher is too astonished to defend himself. His nerveless fingers are no longer on the rope; he stands like a stalled ox in front of his homicidal a.s.sailant. With the rapidity of lightning Pierre plunges his long Provencal dirk in the executioner's side. The butchered butcher falls with a single bawling outcry and a groan. The crowd is thunderstruck, and the pinioned de Vaudrey is wild with joy.

Though bound and helpless, he tries to leap up to his prostrate Henriette.

But the master of ceremonial, at first too panic-stricken to intervene, now summons the sansculotte guards from the ground below.

Up the steps on the double-quick they rush with fixed bayonets. As the huge victim falls back into the arms of his a.s.sistant, the bayoneting soldiers corner the dirk-waving Pierre.

The brief contest is quite unequal. In less time than it takes to tell it, one of the men plunges his bright, long steel in Pierre's side.

The latter falls like a lump of clay on the scaffold flooring. Several of the bayonets speed toward the inert lump, with the intent on the part of their owners to fling the body contemptuously from the scaffold to the floor.

But a more refined cruelty speaks: ”Save him for the guillotine!” The soldiers leave the crumpled-up, desperately wounded Pierre, dooming him yet to taste La Guillotine's embrace. They subdue de Vaudrey and truss him up anew.

The roars of the crowd die down. Comparative order is again restored.

The master of ceremonial, having recovered the habit of command, orders Jean, the remaining executioner, to complete the stricken one's job.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HENRIETTE SAVED FROM THE GUILLOTINE'S KNIFE.]

Fortunately for our heroine under the knife, the second executioner is slow and awkward. He has seen butchery come quite too close to his own fles.h.!.+ Still somewhat unnerved, he prepares himself for the task with clumsy movements and halting fingers. The master bids him hurry--Jean takes his time, he's not going to bungle the job....

As the supreme moment nears, it is well that we should note what is happening with Danton and his Centaurs--

CHAPTER XXIX

DANTON'S RIDERS

About half way of the journey through the City, Jacques-Forget-Not and his men take up a stand in front of the onrus.h.i.+ng cavalry.

They wave orders and prohibitions.

They yell to the hors.e.m.e.n to draw rein.

Resistlessly the troopers keep their careering course--the talk and gestures are but as the East Wind to tensed Danton, stern-set Captain, and the rest.

Forget-Not's tribe escape the deadly horse hoofs by quick side jumps.