That evening, at eight o'clock, Jean Labrouk was buried. A
shell had burst not a dozen paces from his own door, within the
consecrated ground of the cathedral, and in a hole it had made he
was laid, the only mourners his wife and his grandfather, and two
soldiers of his company sent by General Bougainville to bury him.
I watched the ceremony from my loft, which had one small dormer
window. It was dark, but burning buildings in the Lower Town made
all light about the place. I could hear the grandfather mumbling
and talking to the body as it was lowered into the ground. While
yet the priest was hastily reading prayers, a dusty horseman came
riding to the grave, and dismounted.
"Jean," he said, looking at the grave, "Jean Labrouk, a man dies
well that dies with his gaiters on, aho! ... What have you said
for Jean Labrouk, m'sieu'?" he added to the priest.
The priest stared at him, as though he had presumed.
"Well?" said Gabord. "Well?"
The priest answered nothing, but prepared to go, whispering a
word of comfort to the poor wife. Gabord looked at the soldiers,
looked at the wife, at the priest, then spread out his legs and
stuck his hands down into his pockets, while his horse rubbed its
nose against his shoulder. He fixed his eyes on the grave, and
nodded once or twice musingly.
"Well," he said at last, as if he had found a perfect virtue,
and the one or only thing that could be said, "well, he never
eat his words, that Jean."
A moment afterwards he came into the house with Babette, leaving
one of the soldiers holding his horse. After the old man had gone,
I heard him say, "Were you at mass to-day? And did you see all?"
And when she had answered yes, he continued: "It was a mating as
birds mate, but mating was it, and holy fathers and Master Devil
Doltaire can't change it till cock-pheasant Moray come rocketing to
's grave. They would have hanged me for my part in it, but I repent
not, for they have wickedly hunted this little lady."
"I weep with her," said Jean's wife.
"Ay, ay, weep on, Babette," he answered.
"Has she asked help of you?" said the wife.
"Truly; but I know not what says she, for I read not, but I know
her pecking. Here it is. But you must be secret."
Looking through a crack in the floor, I could plainly see them.
She took the letter from him and read aloud:
"If Gabord the soldier have a good heart still, as ever
he had in the past, he will again help a poor
friendless woman. She needs him, for all are against her. Will he
leave her alone among her enemies? Will he not aid her to fly? At
eight o'clock to-morrow night she will be taken to the Convent of
the Ursulines, to be there shut in. Will he not come to her
before that time?"
For a moment after the reading there was silence, and I could see
the woman looking at him curiously. "What will you do?" she asked.
"My faith, there's nut to crack, for I have little time. This
letter but reached me with the news of Jean, two hours ago, and I
know not what to do, but, scratching my head, here comes word from
General Montcalm that I must ride to Master Devil Doltaire with a
letter, and I must find him wherever he may be, and give it
straight. So forth I come; and I must be at my post again by morn,
said the General."
"It is now nine o'clock, and she will be in the convent," said
the woman tentatively.
"Aho!" he answered, "and none can enter there but Governor, if
holy Mother say no. So now goes Master Devil there? 'Gabord,' quoth
he, 'you shall come with me to the convent at ten o'clock, bringing
three stout soldiers of the garrison. Here's an order on Monsieur
Ramesay, the Commandant. Choose you the men, and fail me not, or
you shall swing aloft, dear Gabord.' Sweet lovers of hell, but
Master Devil shall have swinging too one day." He put his thumb to
his nose, and spread his fingers out.
Presently he seemed to note something in the woman's eyes, for
he spoke almost sharply to her: "Jean Labrouk was honest man, and
kept faith with comrades."
"And I keep faith too, comrade," was the answer.
"Gabord's a brute to doubt you," he rejoined quickly, and he
drew from his pocket a piece of gold, and made her take it,
though she much resisted.
Meanwhile my mind was made up. I saw, I thought, through "Master
Devil's" plan, and I felt, too, that Gabord would not betray me. In
any case, Gabord and I could fight it out. If he opposed me, it was
his life or mine, for too much was at stake, and all my plans were
now changed by his astounding news. At that moment Voban entered
the room without knocking. Here was my cue, and so, to prevent
explanations, I crept quickly down, opened the door, came in on
them.
They wheeled at my footsteps; the woman gave a little cry, and
Gabord's hand went to his pistol. There was a wild sort of look in
his face, as though he could not trust his eyes. I took no notice of
the menacing pistol, but went straight to him and held out my hand.
"Gabord," said I, "you are not my jailer now."
"I'll be your guard to citadel," said he, after a moment's dumb
surprise, refusing my outstretched hand.
"Neither guard nor jailer any more, Gabord," said I seriously.
"We've had enough of that, my friend."
The soldier and the jailer had been working in him, and his
fingers trifled with the trigger. In all things he was the foeman
first. But now something else was working in him. I saw this, and
added pointedly, "No more cage, Gabord, not even for reward of
twenty thousand livres and at command of Holy Church."
He smiled grimly, too grimly, I thought, and turned inquiringly
to Babette. In a few words she told him all, tears dropping from
her eyes.
"If you take him, you betray me," she said; "and what would Jean
say, if he knew?"
"Gabord," said I, "I come not as a spy; I come to seek my wife,
and she counts you as her friend. Do harm to me, and you do harm to
her. Serve me, and you serve her. Gabord, you said to her once that
I was an honourable man."
He put up his pistol. "Aho, you've put your head in the trap.
Stir, and click goes the spring."
"I must have my wife," I continued. "Shall the nest you helped
to make go empty?"
I worked upon him to such purpose that, all bristling with war
at first, he was shortly won over to my scheme, which I disclosed
to him while the wife made us a cup of coffee. Through all our talk
Voban had sat eying us with a covert interest, yet showing no
excitement. He had been unable to reach Alixe. She had been taken
to the convent, and immediately afterwards her father and brother
had gone their ways--Juste to General Montcalm, and the Seigneur
to the French camp. Thus Alixe did not know that I was in Quebec.
An hour after this I was marching, with two other men and Gabord,
to the Convent of the Ursulines, dressed in the ordinary costume
of a French soldier, got from the wife of Jean Labrouk. In manner
and speech though I was somewhat dull, my fellows thought, I was
enough like a peasant soldier to deceive them, and my French was
more fluent than their own. I was playing a desperate game; yet
I liked it, for it had a fine spice of adventure apart from the
great matter at stake. If I could but carry it off, I should have
sufficient compensation for all my miseries, in spite of their
twenty thousand livres and Holy Church.
In a few minutes we came to the convent, and halted outside,
waiting for Doltaire. Presently he came, and, looking sharply at us
all, he ordered two to wait outside, and Gabord and myself to come
with him. Then he stood looking at the building curiously for a
moment. A shell had broken one wing of it, and this portion had
been abandoned; but the faithful Sisters clung still to their home,
though urged constantly by the Governor to retire to the Hotel Dieu,
which was outside the reach of shot and shell. This it was their
intention soon to do, for within the past day or so our batteries
had not sought to spare the convent. As Doltaire looked he laughed
to himself, and then said, "Too quiet for gay spirits, this hearse.
Come, Gabord, and fetch this slouching fellow," nodding towards me.
Then he knocked loudly. No one came, and he knocked again and
again. At last the door was opened by the Mother Superior, who was
attended by two others. She started at seeing Doltaire.
"What do you wish, monsieur?" she asked.
"I come on business of the King, good Mother," he replied
seriously, and stepped inside.
"It is a strange hour for business," she said severely.
"The King may come at all hours," he answered soothingly: "is it
not so? By the law he may enter when he wills."
"You are not the King, monsieur," she objected, with her head
held up sedately.
"Or the Governor may come, good Mother?"
"You are not the Governor, Monsieur Doltaire," she said, more
sharply still.
"But a Governor may demand admittance to this convent, and by
the order of his Most Christian Majesty he may not be refused:
is it not so?"
"Must I answer the catechism of Monsieur Doltaire?"
"But is it not so?" he asked again urbanely.
"It is so, yet how does that concern you, monsieur?"
"In every way," and he smiled.
"This is unseemly, monsieur. What is your business?"
"The Governor's business, good Mother."
"Then let the Governor's messenger give his message and depart
in peace," she answered, her hand upon the door.
"Not the Governor's messenger, but the Governor himself," he
rejoined gravely.
He turned and was about to shut the door, but she stopped him.
"This is no house for jesting, monsieur," she said. "I will arouse
the town if you persist.--Sister," she added to one standing near,
"the bell!"
"You fill your office with great dignity and merit, Mere St.
George," he said, as he put out his hand and stayed the Sister.
"I commend you for your discretion. Read this," he continued,
handing her a paper.
A Sister held a light, and the Mother read it. As she did so
Doltaire made a motion to Gabord, and he shut the door quickly
on us. Mere St. George looked up from the paper, startled and
frightened too.
"Your Excellency!" she exclaimed.
"You are the first to call me so," he replied. "I thought to
leave untouched this good gift of the King, and to let the Marquis
de Vaudreuil and the admirable Bigot untwist the coil they have
made. But no. After some too generous misgivings, I now claim my
own. I could not enter here, to speak with a certain lady, save
as the Governor, but as the Governor I now ask speech with
Mademoiselle Duvarney. Do you hesitate?" he added. "Do you doubt
that signature of his Majesty? Then see this. Here is a line from
the Marquis de Vaudreuil, the late Governor. It is not dignified,
one might say it is craven, but it is genuine."
Again the distressed lady read, and again she said, "Your
Excellency!" Then, "You wish to see her in my presence,
your Excellency?"
"Alone, good Mother," he softly answered.
"Your Excellency, will you, the first officer in the land, defy
our holy rules, and rob us of our privilege to protect and comfort
and save?"
"I defy nothing," he replied. "The lady is here against her will,
a prisoner. She desires not your governance and care. In any case,
I must speak with her; and be assured, I honour you the more for
your solicitude, and will ask your counsel when I have finished
talk with her."
Was ever man so crafty? After a moment's thought she turned,
dismissed the others, and led the way, and Gabord and I followed.
We were bidden to wait outside a room, well lighted but bare, as I
could see through the open door. Doltaire entered, smiling, and
then bowed the nun on her way to summon Alixe. Gabord and I stood
there, not speaking, for both were thinking of the dangerous game
now playing. In a few minutes the Mother returned, bringing Alixe.
The light from the open door shone upon her face. My heart leaped,
for there was in her look such a deep sorrow. She was calm, save
for those shining yet steady eyes; they were like furnaces, burning
up the colour of her cheeks. She wore a soft black gown, with no
sign of ornament, and her gold-brown hair was bound with a piece of
black velvet ribbon. Her beauty was deeper than I had ever seen it;
a peculiar gravity seemed to have added years to her life. As she
passed me her sleeve brushed my arm, as it did that day I was
arrested in her father's house. She started, as though I had
touched her fingers, but only half turned toward me, for her mind
was wholly occupied with the room where Doltaire was.
At that moment Gabord coughed slightly, and she turned quickly
to him. Her eyes flashed intelligence, and presently, as she passed
in, a sort of hope seemed to have come on her face to lighten its
painful pensiveness. The Mother Superior entered with her, the door
closed, and then, after a little, the Mother came out again. As
she did so I saw a look of immediate purpose in her face, and her
hurrying step persuaded me she was bent on some project of espial.
So I made a sign to Gabord and followed her. As she turned the
corner of the hallway just beyond, I stepped forward silently and
watched her enter a room that would, I knew, be next to this we
guarded.
Listening at the door for a moment, I suddenly and softly turned
the handle and entered, to see the good Mother with a panel drawn
in the wall before her, and her face set to it. She stepped back as
I shut the door and turned the key in the lock. I put my finger to
my lips, for she seemed about to cry out.
"Hush!" said I. "I watch for those who love her. I am here to
serve her--and you."
"You are a servant of the Seigneur's?" she said, the alarm
passing out of her face.
"I served the Seigneur, good Mother," I answered, "and I would
lay down my life for ma'm'selle."
"You would hear?" she asked, pointing to the panel.