THE MARQUIS INTERVENES
The evening of the same day, his Excellency, in the seclusion of a
small private chamber adjoining the _salle du gouvernement_, stood
looking down at his desk on which were strewn papers and messages
containing the latest news from Paris and received at the Mount but a
few hours before. That the character of this information, political
and social, was little to his liking, seemed manifest from his manner;
he stared at the missives resentfully; then frowned and threw down the
pen he had been using to mark, or make note of, their contents.
"Versailles--a mob! Sugar-plums to placate them! Sugar-plums!" he
repeated; and, impatiently turning away, walked to the window. There
for some time he stood peering out, when, the current of his thoughts
slowly changing, he took from his pocket a watch, and examined the
jeweled face. "Time they were back!" About to return to his table and
task, a loud knocking arrested the impulse, and testily the Governor
called out; glanced toward the threshold and surveyed the intruder.
"A message from the commandant, your Excellency!" said the man, a
trooper of the Mount, with a respectful, though nervous salute.
"Why," returned the Governor in a dry tone, "didn't he bring it
himself?"
"Because," the trooper shifted; looked away; "because Monsieur le
Commandant is engaged in scouring the country for miscreants, your
Excellency."
"Miscreants!" sharply. "What miscreants?"
"Monsieur le Commandant hopes to overtake those who have carried off
the Lady Elise," said the messenger hurriedly, in the tone of one
anxious to be done with his task.
"Carried off!" The thin figure wavered as if struck by a cold breath.
"Carried off!" he repeated, laying his hand on the back of the chair.
"By a band of the Black Seigneur's men! His lordship, the Marquis,
they left behind bound and secured, but the Lady Elise they took with
them."
For some time his Excellency said nothing; like a ghost of himself,
leaned hard against his support and looked at the trooper.
"But how could it have happened?" at length in a voice, low, intense,
he inquired. "Monsieur le Commandant! The guard--you--all are alive?"
Stumblingly, as best he could, the soldier explained, and when he had
done, his Excellency made no sign that he had heard.
"Monsieur le Commandant further ordered me to say he had no doubt he
would return with the Lady Elise," added the messenger hastily.
"Monsieur le Commandant!" The Governor's eyes suddenly blazed; swiftly
he put question after question, and, having probed to the core the
consistency of the tale, with a gesture, brusk and contemptuous,
dismissed the bearer.
But whatever feeling the lord of the Mount might entertain toward his
chief officer, no course at the moment seemed open save to await the
return of that person and the Marquis. So, curbing his impatience as
best he might, his Excellency kept vigil; and not alone! Tidings of
what had happened spread at the top of the rock; sifted through closed
gates and thick walls into the town. The late arrival at the Mount of
the lords and ladies, companions of the Governor's daughter for the
day, but added to the questionings of the multitude. All night life
and expectancy reigned; lights gleamed from high places; responded in
low ones.
"Is it true, my dear, what we hear about the Lady Elise?" the landlady
of the inn on the Mount near the strand called out to a stalwart, dark
young woman, hurrying down the narrow way shortly after the Paris
contingent had gone up.
"I've heard no more than you have," came the curt answer of this
person--none other than Nanette--who carried a small bundle and seemed
anxious to move on.
"Oh, I didn't know but you came from the palace!" observed the mistress
of the inn, and returned to her customers, drinking and nodding with
heads close together.
On the morrow, however, all doubts were removed and speculations put at
rest; for hardly had the sun set its seal in the sky than from the
forests the appearance of a body of troops rewarded the watchers. From
hovel to hut the word went, and men, women and children, unkempt and
curious, ran down to the beach to await the approach of the guard.
Proudly had it departed, with waving of plumes; slowly it returned, a
bedraggled procession of staggering horses and heavy-eyed men. Had it
come back a little earlier, the dark might have kept the truth from the
people; now the pitiless red glare revealed to the full the plight of
the troopers. It told, too, the disappointment of Monsieur le
Commandant, who looked neither to the right nor to the left; and the
despair of my lord, the Marquis, pale counterfeit of his debonair self.
"Her ladyship!" "They haven't brought her back!" Low murmurs arose;
grew louder; some one laughed. But sullenly, without answer, the
soldiers dragged by, into the town, and laboriously up to the top of
the Mount.
At the gate his Excellency waited; cast one glance at the
company--their leader--and silently turned. Later, however, was he
closeted with both the commandant and the Marquis--a brief period with
the former who departed, carrying a look eloquent of the unpleasantness
of the interview.
"And now," said the Governor in tones somewhat strained, as the
officer's dejected footfall died in the distance, "we've got rid of
that dolt, let us consider, my Lord, the purport of this outrage."
"Purport?" repeated the Marquis petulantly, stretching his stiff legs.
"Did they not tell me that if anything happened to the Black Seigneur,
they would hold her, Elise, answerable for it? You see they had
learned," bitterly, "of your intention to hang him after the wedding!"
"From which you infer?"
"They will keep her as hostage! Indeed, they said as much, when--"
"They bound you, my Lord?"
The color came to the young man's face. "It was a trap," he said, his
voice pitched higher; "and they came prepared, not for one man, but the
guard!"
"Still was it very ill-advised--a great mistake--to have taken the
shorter way through the forest alone."
"The proposal did not originate with me! Elise suggested it. She
seemed in a wild, headstrong mood; nothing would stop her. Now,"
moodily he rose, "_mon dieu_! What has she brought upon herself?
Where is she now?"
His Excellency did not stir; his face, like a pale mask, was turned
aside. "I do not think," he said slowly, as arguing to convince
himself, "she is in any immediate danger."
But my lord caught irritably at the word. "No danger! She is
surrounded by it. And we? what are we to do? Sit idly here? Give me
a ship, your Excellency, and I will follow the boat of this Black
Seigneur, and, when I find it, force them to--"
"What?" The Governor's eyes swerved dully. "Have you forgotten their
threat? Their last words to you that if we attempted to follow, to
rescue--that, rather than give her up--"
"They would not dare!" cried my lord with sparkling glance.
But his Excellency shook his head. "No; no; it won't do! And now,"
again looking away, "leave me, my Lord, to consider." With which, the
interview, as unsatisfactory to the one as the other, terminated.
Several days that passed were not calculated either to alleviate his
Excellency's anxiety, or the Marquis' impatience; for during that
period of waiting came no word of my lady, or news of her captors.
Mysteriously as a phantom ship had the boat that had carried the
Governor's daughter away appeared on the coast and vanished, and from
none of the Governor's vessels, or any of the fishing craft could be
gleaned information of its whereabouts. My lord, the Marquis, annoyed
at what seemed but fruitless delay, was still for setting forth and
inviting battle; but of this his Excellency would not hear, arguing, no
doubt, to himself that in temporizing lay greater assurance of safety
to his daughter than in precipitate action. So the situation grew
hourly more trying, until--as if it already were not intolerable
enough!--a new concern added ironical weight to present perplexities.
My young lord, between whom and the master of the Mount had been
growing a more strained relationship, sought the Governor one day, and,
in excited tones, announced he had just learned that the prisoner, the
Black Seigneur, was ill and probably would survive but a short time
longer in the dungeon where he was confined. As his Excellency knew,
the fellow had been wounded, and now with scanty nourishment, want of
air, and close quarters, was generally in a bad way.
His Excellency heard; moistened his lips and seemed about to speak, but
was silent, while more anxiously the young man went on. Of course
under different conditions, with care and attention--a well-lighted
room and excellent food--they might hope to restore their prisoner's
strength; at least, preserve for a time one so precious to themselves,
upon the thread of whose life hung my lady's!
His Excellency still answered no word; only looked down, and, knitting
his brows, the young nobleman restlessly waited. At length, with an
expression on his face the Marquis had never before seen there, his
Excellency rose, moved like an automaton to the bell, and called for
the jailer.
"Monsieur le Marquis has a few instructions to give you." The
Governor's voice, but a breath, told what the words cost him.
The man responded gravely, looking from one to the other.
"Use your own judgment in the matter, my Lord," went on his Excellency,
and left them together.
After that, a change, subtle but deep-rooted, came over the Governor; a
silent man always, now his taciturnity became most marked. Under
stress of untoward circumstances, all the guests at the Mount, save the
young noble, departed; but his Excellency appeared hardly to notice
their going; drawing his cloak of reserve closer about him, seemed only
to ask for that solitude, not difficult to find in his aerial kingdom.
Sometimes for a long while he would stand in the cloister, gazing
seaward; again wander in the church, look at the monuments, always to
pass one of them quickly. Only on a single occasion, when the Marquis,
who was daily becoming more nervous, sought him, with a favorable
report of his prisoner-patient, did the Governor give sign that beneath
this apparent apathy yet stirred malevolence and rancor.
"Yes, yes," he returned, a spark of ill-concealed venom in his glance;
"he is doing well, no doubt! I am sure he will do well. But well or
ill, I wish to hear no more of him! No more, Monsieur le Marquis!"
His voice vibrated; surprised, the kinsman of the King stared, then
stiffly turned away.
So matters stood, when one day, alone in the cloister, his Excellency
was disturbed by a rough-looking fellow who brought a letter and said
he would await the reply at the tavern in the town.
Deliberately the Governor took the missive, tore open the envelope, and
surveyed the small bit of paper it contained. Whatever the brief
message told him, his Excellency's face did not change, and he was
still coldly, carefully studying sentences and words, after his
fashion, when through the door my lord, the Marquis, stepped in some
haste. Lifting his eyes, the Governor had no difficulty in reading the
question on the young man's countenance. For a moment they looked at
each other, and then the long, white fingers of his Excellency again
sought the letter.
"They," his voice seemed to clip the words, "propose an exchange of
prisoners, and give me three days to consent to it!"