Part 10 (1/2)

It ca certainty

She was a prisoner in the hands of those who long ago had sworn to bring The Scarlet Pie in their hands! her freedom and safety offered to him as the price of his own! Here there was no question of dreahtmares: no illusions as to the ultimate intentions of her husband's enemies It was all a reality, and even now, before she had the strength fully to grasp the whole nature of this horrible situation, she knew that by her own act of mad and passionate impulse, she had hopelessly jeopardized the life of the man she loved

For with that subliotten of her love, she never for a moment doubted which of the two alternatives he would choose, when once they were placed before him He would sacrifice himself for her; he would prefer to die a thousand deaths so long as they set her free

For herself, her own sufferings, her danger or hu! Nay! at this very moment she was conscious of a wild passionate desire for death In this sudden onrush of ht she wished with all her soul and heart and mind to die here suddenly, on this hard paillasse, in this lonely and dark prison so that she should be out of the way once and for all so that she should NOT be the hostage to be bartered against his precious life and freedom

He would suffer acutely, terribly at her loss, because he loved her above everything else on earth, he would suffer in every fibre of his passionate and ardent nature, but he would not then have to endure the hu impotence and miserable death, the relentless ”either-or” which his ene for hiuerite's was essentially a buoyant and active nature, a keen brain which worked and schemed and planned, rather than one ready to accept the inevitable

Hardly had these thoughts of despair and of death formulated themselves in her an to take root

What if matters were not so hopeless after all?

Already her hts of escape Had she the right to despair? She, the wife and intimate companion of the , his prowess, his aine for a moment that in this all-supreme moment of adventurous life the Scarlet Pilish society peopled with enuity had rescued froly hopeless as her own, and would not all the resources of that inventive brain be brought to bear upon this rescue which touched him nearer and more deeply than any which he had atte herself for her doubts and for her fears Already she ree she had perceived a figure-unusually tall-following in the wake of Chauvelin and his companions Awakened hope had already assured her that she had not been mistaken, that Percy, contrary to her own surht: he always acted so differently to what anyone ht expect, that it was quite possible that he had crossed over in the packet-boat after all unbeknown to Marguerite as well as to his eneht about it all, the ne, and that he knew of her capture and her danger

What right had she to doubt even for a moment that he would kno to reach her, hohen the tian to fill her veins, she felt excited and alert, absolutely unconscious now of pain or fatigue, in this radiant joy of reawakened hope

She raised herself slightly, leaning on her elbow: she was still very weak and the slightand well shewhen the time for escape would have come

”Ah! you are better, ain, with its soft sing-song accent, ”but you must not be so venturesome, you know The physician said that you had received a cruel blow The brain has been rudely shaken and you must lie quite still all to-day, or your poor little head will begin to ache again”

Marguerite turned to look at the speaker, and in spite of her excitement, of her sorrow and of her anxieties, she could not help sure which sat opposite to her, on a very rickety chair, sole with slow and e supply of breath, to get up a polish on the worn-out surface of an ancient pair of buckled shoes

The figure was slender and almost wizened, the thin shoulders round with an habitual stoop, the lean shanks were encased in a pair of ure of an old entle, clear-cut face furrowed by a forest of wrinkles, and surmounted by scanty white locks above a smooth forehead which looked yellow and polished like an ancient piece of ivory

He had looked across at Marguerite as he spoke, and a pair of innately kind and uerite thought that she had never seen quite so oodness and simple-heartedness portrayed on any face before It literally beamed out of those pale blue eyes, which seemed quite full of unshed tears

The oldcleanliness, which had once been a soutane of smooth black cloth, but was now a mass of patches and threadbare at shoulders and knees He see his shoes, and having delivered himself of his little admonition, he very soleuerite's first and most natural instinct had, of course, been one of dislike and uard over her But when she took in every detail of the quaint figure of the old ned stoop of his shoulders, and aze of those moist eyes, she felt that the whole aspect of thehis shoes, was infinitely pathetic and, in its si of respect

”Who are you?” asked Lady Blakeney at last, for the oldwonder, seeood God, h and a shake of his scanty locks, ”who is not allowed to serve his divine Master any longer A poor old fellow, very harmless and very helpless, who had been set here to watch over you

”You must not look upon me as a jailer because of what I say, y ”I am very old and very small, and only take up a very little room I can make myself very scarce; you shall hardly know that I aainstand I am weak, how could I deny them since they put me here After all,” he concluded naively, ”perhaps it is the will of le bon Dieu, and He knows best, my child, He knows best”

The shoes evidently refused to respond any further to the oldtheret on his furrowed face, then set theed feet into the on her elbow Evidently her brain was still nurasp all that the old man said She smiled to herself too as she watched him How could she look upon him as a jailer? He did not see of the dissatisfied de anarchist ready to lend his hand to any act of ferocity directed against a so-called aristocrat, about this pathetic little figure in the ragged soutane and worn shoes

He seeularly bashful too and ill at ease, and loath to reat, ardent eyes, which were fixed questioningly upon hihter,” he said shyly, ”for concluding my toilet before you I had hoped to be quite ready before you woke, but I had some trouble with my shoes; except for a little water and soap the prison authorities will not provide us poor captives with any means of cleanliness and tidiness, and le bon Dieu does love a tidy body as well as a clean soul

”But there, there,” he added fussily, ”I et up, I know, and refresh your face and hands with a little water Oh! you will see hoell I have thought it out I need not interfere with you at all, and when you make your little bit of toilette, you will feel quite alone just as if the oldhi the rickety, rush-bottomed chairs forward There were four of these in the roo two side by side, then piling the two others up above

”You will see,at intervals as the work of construction progressed It was no easy matter, for he was of low stature, and his hands were unsteady frouerite, leaning slightly forward, her chin resting in her hand, was too puzzled and anxious to grasp the humour of this comical situation She certainly did not understand This old man had in some sort of way, and for a hitherto unexplained reason, been set as a guard over her; it was not an unusual device on the part of the inhuman wretches who now ruled France, to add to the miseries and terrors of captivity, where a woe of never leaving her alone for a moment

That peculiar form of mental torture, surely the invention of brains renderedinflicted on the hapless, dethroned Queen of France Marguerite, in far-off England, had shuddered when she heard of it, and in her heart had prayed, as indeed every pure-minded woht soon find release from such torments in death

There was evidently souerite herself in the minds of those who now held her prisoner But this old man seeht as he built up a screen to divide the squalid rooularly inefficient for the task of a watchful jailer

When the four chairs appeared fairly steady, and in coed the paillasse forward and propped it up against the chairs Finally he drew the table along, which held the cracked ewer and basin, and placed it against this improvised partition: then he surveyed the whole construction with evident gratification and delight

”There now!” he said, turning a face beauerite, ”I can continue my prayers on the other side of the fortress Oh! it is quite safe” he added, as with a fearsoerly pride, ”and you will be quite private Try and forget that the old abbe is in the room He does not count really he does not count he has ceased to be of any moment these er say Mass”

He was obviously prattling on in order to hide his nervous bashfulness He ensconced himself behind his own finely constructed bulwark, drew a breviary froe on one of the chairs, on which he could sit, withoutthe elaborate screen onto the top of his head, he soon becauerite watched hi to make her think that he had become oblivious of her presence, and his transparent little manoeuvers amused and puzzled her not a little

He looked so coentle and so kindly that she felt completely reassured and quite calm

She tried to raise herself still further and found the process astonishi+ngly easy Her limbs still ached and the violent, interiddy at times, but otherwise she was not ill She sat up on the paillasse, then put her feet to the ground and presently walked up to the i-rooood, and she felt quite capable of co-ordinating her thoughts, ofherself both rave events which she knew must be imminent

While she busied herself with her toilet her thoughts dwelt on the one all-absorbing thene, he knew that she was here, in prison, he would reach her without fail, in fact he ht communicate with her at any moment now, and had without a doubt already evolved a plan of escape for her, enious than any which he had conceived hitherto; therefore, she must be ready, and prepared for any eventuality, she er, in no way despondent, for if he were here, would he not chide her for her want of faith?

By the tiuerite caught herself singing quite cheerfully to herself

So full of buoyant hope was she

Chapter XIX: The Strength of the Weak

”M L'Abbe!” said Marguerite gravely

”Yes, mon enfant”

The old reat earnest eyes fixed with obvious calm and trust upon him She had finished her toilet as well as she could, had shaken up and tidied the paillasse, and was now sitting on the edge of it, her hands clasped between her knees There was so which still puzzled her, and impatient and impulsive as she was, she had watched the abbe as he cal the Latin prayers for the last five er