Lord Tony's Wife (21 page)

‘What is it that you wish to say to me, citizen Chauvelin?’ he asked at last.

‘Just a word, citizen,’ replied the other in his quiet urbane manner. ‘I have accompanied you faithfully on your journey to England: I have placed my feeble powers at your disposal: awhile ago I stood between you and the proconsul’s wrath. This, I think, has earned me the right of asking what you intend to do.’

‘I don’t know about the right,’ retorted Martin-Roget gruffly, ‘but I don’t mind telling you. As you remarked awhile ago the North-West wind is wont to be of good counsel. I have thought the matter over whilst I walked with you along the quay and I have decided to act on Carrier’s suggestion. Our eminent proconsul said just now that it was the duty of every true patriot to marry an aristo, an he be free and Chance puts a comely wench in his way. I mean,’ he added with a cynical laugh, ‘to act on that advice and marry Yvonne de Kernogan…if I can.’

‘She has refused you up to now?’

‘Yes…up to now.’

‘You have threatened her—and her father?’

‘Yes—both. Not only with death but with shame.’

‘And still she refuses?’

‘Apparently,’ said Martin-Roget with every-growing irritation.

‘It is often difficult,’ rejoined Chauvelin meditatively, ‘to compel these aristos. They are obstinate…’

‘Oh! don’t forget that I am in a position now to bring additional pressure on the wench. That lout Carrier has splendid ideas—a brute, what? but clever and full of resource. That suggestion of his about the Rat Mort is splendid…’

‘You mean to try and act on it?’

‘Of course I do,’ said Martin-Roget roughly. ‘I am going over presently to my sister’s house to see the Kernogan wench again, and to have another talk with her. Then if she still refuses, if she still chooses to scorn the honourable position which I offer her, I shall act on Carrier’s suggestion. It will be at the Rat Mort to-night that she and I will have our final interview, and there when I dangle the prospect of Cayenne and the convict’s brand before her, she may not prove so obdurate as she has been up to now.’

‘H’m! That is as may be,’ was Chauvelin’s dry comment. ‘Personally I am inclined to agree with Carrier. Death, swift and sure—the Loire or the guillotine—is the best that has yet been invented for traitors and aristos. But we won’t discuss that again. I know your feelings in the matter and in a measure I respect them. But if you will allow me I would like to be present at your interview with the soi-disant Lady Anthony Dewhurst. I won’t disturb you and I won’t say a word…but there is something I would like to make sure of…’

‘What is that?’

‘Whether the wench has any hopes…’ said Chauvelin slowly, ‘whether she has received a message or has any premonition… whether in short she thinks that outside agencies are at work on her behalf.’

‘Tshaw!’ exclaimed Martin-Roget impatiently, ‘you are still harping on that Scarlet Pimpernel idea.’

‘I am,’ retorted the other drily.

‘As you please. But understand, citizen Chauvelin, that I will not allow you to interfere with my plans, whilst you go off on one of those wild-goose chases which have already twice brought you into disrepute.’

‘I will not interfere with your plans, citizen,’ rejoined Chauvelin with unwonted gentleness, ‘but let me in my turn impress one thing upon you, and that is that unless you are as wary as the serpent, as cunning as the fox, all your precious plans will be upset by that interfering Englishman whom you choose to disregard.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean that I know him—to my cost—and you do not. But you will, an I am not gravely mistaken, make acquaintance with him ere your great adventure with these Kernogan people is successfuly at an end. Believe me, citizen Martin-Roget,’ he added impressively, ‘you would have been far wiser to accept Carrier’s suggestion and let him fling that rabble into the Loire for you.’

‘Pshaw! you are not childish enough to imagine, citizen Chauvelin, that your Englishman can spirit away that wench from under my sister’s eyes? Do you know what my sister suffered at the hands of the Kernogans? Do you think that she is like to forget my father’s ignominious death any more than I am? And she mourns a lover as well as a father—she mourns her youth, her happiness, the mother whom she worshipped. Think you a better gaoler could be found anywhere? And there are friends of mine—lads of our own village, men who hate the Kernogans as bitterly as I do myself—who are only too ready to lend Louise a hand in case of violence. And after that—suppose your magnificent Scarlet Pimpernel succeeded in hoodwinking my sister and in evading the vigilance of a score of determined village lads, who would sooner die one by one than see the Kernogan escape—suppose all that, I say, there would still be the guard at every city gate to challenge. No! no! it couldn’t be done, citizen Chauvelin,’ he added with a complacent laugh. ‘Your Englishman would need the help of a legion of angels, what? to get the wench out of Nantes this time.’

Chauvelin made no comment on his colleague’s impassioned harangue. Memory had taken him back to that one day in September in Boulogne when he too had set one prisoner to guard a precious hostage: it brought back to his mind a vision of a strangely picturesque figure as it appeared to him in the window-embrasure of the old castle-hall: it brought back to his ears the echo of that quaint, irresponsible laughter, of that lazy, drawling speech, of all that had acted as an irritant on his nerves ere he found himself baffled, foiled, eating out his heart with vain reproach at his own folly.

‘I see you are unconvinced, citizen Martin-Roget,’ he said quietly, ‘and I know that it is the fashion nowadays among young politicians to sneer at Chauvelin—the living embodiment of failure. But let me just add this. When you and I talked matters over together at the Bottom Inn, in the wilds of Somersetshire, I warned you that not only was your identity known to the man who calls himself the Scarlet Pimpernel, but also that he knew every one of your plans with regard to the Kernogan wench and her father. You laughed at me them…do you remember?…you shrugged your shoulders and jeered at what you called my far-fetched ideas…just as you do now. Well! will you let me remind you of what happened within four-and-twenty hours of that warning which you chose to disregard?…Yvonne de Kernogan was married to Lord Anthony Dewhurst and…’

‘I know all that, man,’ broke in Martin-Roget impatiently. ‘It was all a mere coincidence…the marriage must have been planned long before that…your Scarlet Pimpernel could not possibly have had anything to do with it.’

‘Perhaps not,’ rejoined Chauvelin drily. ‘But mark what has happened since. Just now when we crossed the Place I saw in the distance a figure flitting past—the gorgeous figure of an exquisite who of a surety is a stranger in Nantes: and carried upon the wings of the north-westerly wind there came to me the sound of a voice which, of late, I have only heard in my dreams. On my soul, citizen Martin-Roget,’ he added with earnest emphasis, ‘I assure you that the Scarlet Pimpernel is in Nantes at the present moment, that he is scheming, plotting, planning to rescue the Kernogan wench, out of you clutches. He will not leave her in your power, on this I would stake my life; she is the wife of one of his dearest friends: he will not abandon her, not while he keeps that resourceful head of his on his shoulders. Unless you are desperately careful he will outwit you; of that I am as convinced as that I am alive.’

‘Bah! you have been dreaming, citizen Chauvelin,’ rejoined Martin-Roget with a laugh and shrugging his broad shoulders; ‘your mysterious Englishman in Nantes? Why man! the navigation of the Loire has been totally prohibited these last fourteen days—no carriage, van or vehicle of any kind is allowed to enter the city—no man, woman or child to pass the barriers without special permit signed either by the proconsul himself or by Fleury the captain of the Marats. Why! even I, when I brought the Kernogans in overland from Le Croisic, I was detained two hours outside Nantes while my papers were sent in to Carrier for inspection. You know that, you were with me.’

‘I know it,’ replied Chauvelin drily, ‘and yet…’

He paused, with one clawlike finger held erect to demand attention. The door of the small room in which they sat gave on the big hall where the half-dozen Marats were stationed, the single window at right angles to the door looked out upon the Place below. It was from there that suddenly there came the sound of a loud peal of laughter—quaint and merry—somewhat inane and affected, and at the sound Chauvelin’s pale face took on the hue of ashes and even Martin-Roget felt a strange sensation of cold creeping down his spine.

For a few seconds the two men remained quite still, as if a spell had been cast over them through that light-hearted peal of rippling laughter. Then equally suddenly the younger man shook himself free of the spell; with a few long strides he was already at the door and out in the vast hall: Chauvelin following closely on his heels.

IV

The clock in the tower of the edifice was even then striking five. The Marats in the hall looked up with lazy indifference at the two men who had come rushing out in such an abrupt and excited manner.

‘Any stranger been through here?’ queried Chauvelin peremptorily of the sergeant in command.

‘No,’ replied the latter curtly. ‘How could they, without a permit?’

He shrugged his shoulders and the men resumed their game and their argument. Martin-Roget would have parleyed with them but Chauvelin had already crossed the hall and was striding past the clerk’s office and the lodge of the concierge out toward the open. Martin-Roget, after a moment’s hestitation, followed him.

The Place was wrapped in gloom. From the platform of the guillotine an oil-lamp hoisted on a post threw a small circle of light around. Small pieces of tallow candle, set in pewter sconces, glimmered feebly under the awnings of the booths, and there was a street-lamp affixed to the wall of the old chβteau immediately below the parapet of the staircase, and others at the angles of the Rue de la Monnaye and the narrow Ruelle des Jacobins.

Chauvelin’s keen eyes tried to pierce the surrounding darkness. He leaned over the parapet and peered into the remote angles of the building and round the booths below him.

There were a few people on the Place, some walking rapidly across from one end to the other, intent on business, others pausing in order to make purchases at the booths. Up and down the steps of the guillotine a group of street urchins were playing hide-and-seek. Round the angles of the narrow streets the vague figures of passers-by flitted to and fro, now easily discernible in the light of the street lanthorns, anon swallowed up again in the darkness beyond. Whilst immediately below the parapet two or three men of the Company Marat were lounging against the walls. Their red bonnets showed up clearly in the flickering light of the street lamps, as did their bare shins and the polished points of their sabots. But of an elegant, picturesque figure such as Chauvelin had described awhile ago there was not a sign.

Martin-Roget leaned over the parapet and called peremptorily:

‘Hey there! citizens of the Company Marat!’

One of the red-capped men looked up leisurely.

‘Your desire, citizen?’ he queried with insolent deliberation, for they were mighty men, this bodyguard of the great proconsul, his spies and tools in the awesome work of frightfulness which he carried on so ruthlessly.

‘Is that you Paul Friche?’ queried Martin-Roget in response.

‘At your service, citizen,’ came the glib reply, delivered not without mock deference.

‘Then come up here. I wish to speak with you.’

‘I can’t leave my post, nor can my mates,’ retorted the man who had answered to the name of Paul Friche. ‘Come down, citizen, an you desire to speak with us.’

Martin-Roget swore lustily.

‘The insolence of that rabble…’ he murmured.

‘Hush! I’ll go,’ interposed Chauvelin quickly. ‘Do you know that man Friche? Is he trustworthy?’

‘Yes, I know him. As for being trustworthy…’ added Martin Roget with a shrug of the shoulders. ‘He is a corporal in the Marats and high in favour with commandant Fleury.’

Every second was of value, and Chauvelin was not the man to waste time in useless parleyings. He ran down the stairs at the foot of which one of the red-capped gentry deigned to speak with him.

‘Have you seen any strangers across the Place just now?’ he queried in a whisper.

‘Yes,’ replied the man Friche. ‘Two!’

Then he spat upon the ground and added spitefully: ‘Aristos, what? In fine clothes—like yourself citizen…’

‘Which way did they go?’

‘Down the Ruelle des Jacobins.’

‘When?’

‘Two minutes ago.’

‘Why did you not follow them?…Aristos and…’

‘I would have followed,’ retorted Paul Friche with studied insolence; ”twas you called me away from my duty.’

‘After them then!’ urged Chauvelin peremptorily. ‘They cannot have gone far. They are English spies, and remember, citizen, that there’s a reward for their apprehension.’

The man grunted an eager assent. The word ‘reward’ had fired his zeal. In a trice he had called to his mates and the three Marats soon sped across the Place and down the Ruelle des Jacobins where the surrounding gloom quickly swallowed them up.

Chauvelin watched them till they were out of sight, then he rejoined his colleagues on the landing at the top of the stairs. For a second or two longer the click of the men’s sabots upon the stones resounded on the adjoining streets and across the Place, and suddenly that same quaint, merry, somewhat inane laugh woke the echoes of the grim buildings around and caused many a head to turn inquiringly, marvelling who it could be that had the heart to laugh these days in the streets of Nantes.

V

Five minutes or so later the three Marats could vaguely be seen recrossing the Place and making their way back to Le Bouffay, where Martin-Roget and Chauvelin still stood on the top of the stairs excited and expectant. At sight of the men Chauvelin ran down the steps to meet them.

‘Well?’ he queried in an eager whisper.

‘We never saw them,’ replied Paul Friche gruffly, ‘though we could hear them clearly enough, talking, laughing and walking very rapidly toward the quay. Then suddenly the earth or the river swallowed them up. We saw and heard nothing more.’