THE BUTCHER OF TORTOSA
Upon the village of Sarria and upon its circling mountains night
descended with Oriental swiftness. The white houses grew blurred and
indistinct. Red roofs, green shutters, dark window squares, took on the
same shade of indistinguishable purple.
But in the west the rich orange lingered long, the typical Spanish
after-glow of day edging the black hills with dusky scarlet, and
extending upwards to the zenith sombre and mysterious, like her own
banner of gold and red strangely steeped in blood.
In the mill-house of Sarria they were not idle. Ramon Garcia and Rollo
had constructed a carrying couch for Dolores, where, on a light and
pliant framework of the great bulrush _canas_ that grew along the canal
edges, her mattress might be laid.
It was arranged that, after Dolores had been conveyed with Concha and La
Giralda in attendance to the Convent of the Holy Innocents, the three
young men and El Sarria should return in order to release and warn the
brothers Fernandez of the consequences of treachery. Thereafter they
were to ride out upon their mission.
Crisp and clear the night was. The air clean-tasting like spring water,
yet stimulating as a draught of wine long-cooled in cellar darkness.
Very gently, and as it were in one piece like a swaddled infant, Dolores
was lifted by El Sarria in his arms and laid upon the hastily-arranged
ambulance. The four bearers fell in. La Giralda locked the doors of the
mill-house, and by a circuitous route, which avoided the village and its
barking curs, they proceeded in the direction of the convent buildings.
As often as the foot of any of the bearers slipped upon a stone, Ramon
grew sick with apprehension, and in a whisper over his shoulder he would
inquire of Dolores if all was well.
"All is well, beloved," the voice, weak and feeble, would reply. "You
are here--you are not angry with me. Yes, all is well."
They moved slowly through the darkness, La Giralda, with many crooning
encouragements, waiting upon Dolores, now lifting up the corner of a
cover-lid and now anxiously adjusting a pillow.
It was done at last, and with no more adventure than that once when they
were resting the carrying couch under a wall, a muleteer passed, and
cried, "Good-night to you, folk of peace!" To which El Sarria grunted a
reply, and the man passed on, humming a gay Aragonese ditty, and puffing
his cigarette, the red point of which glowed like a fire-fly long after
both man and beast had been merged in the general darkness of the
valley.
They were soon passing under the eastern side of the convent.
"Ah, I can smell them," murmured John Mortimer, exstatically, "a hundred
tons, if not more. I wonder if I could not tackle the old lady to-night
about them?"
He spoke meditatively, but no one of the party took the least notice.
For Rollo was busy with the future conduct of the expedition. Etienne
was thinking of the girl behind the green lattices, while the others did
not understand a word of what he said.
John Mortimer sighed a deep and genuine sigh.
"Spain is very well," he muttered; "but give me Chorley for doing
business in!"
At last they were at the little white cowl of the porter's lodge, out of
which the black bars of the wicket grinned with a semblance of ghastly
mirth.
Rollo knocked gently. The panel slid back noiselessly, and there was the
face of Concha Cabezos dimly revealed. No longer mischievous or even
piquant, but drawn and pale with anxiety.
"There are bad people here," she whispered, "who have persuaded the Lady
Superior that you are impostors. She will not receive or keep Dolores
Garcia unless she is satisfied----"
"What?" came from the rear in a thunderous growl.
"Hush, I bid you!" commanded Rollo, sternly, "remember you have put this
in my hands." And the outlaw fell back silenced for the moment--his
heart, however, revolving death and burnings.
"Trust me with your papers--your credentials," said Concha, quickly.
"These will convince her. I will bring them to you at the mill-house
to-morrow morning!"
Rollo ran his knife round the stitching of his coat where he carried
these sacredest possessions.
"There," he said, "remember--do not let them out of your sight a moment.
I am putting far more than my own life into your hands."
"I will cherish them as the most precious thing in the world. And now,
I will go and show them to the Lady Superior."
"Not till you have taken in my Dolores as you promised," came the voice
of El Sarria, "or by Heaven I will burn your convent to the ground. She
shall not be left here in the damp dews of the night."
"No, no," whispered Concha, "she shall be laid in the lodge of the
portress, and La Giralda shall watch her till her own chamber is
prepared, and I have eased the mind of the Lady Superior."
The great bars were drawn. The bolts gave back with many creakings, and
through the black gap of the main gate they carried Dolores into the
warm flower-scented darkness of the portress's lodge.
She was laid on a bed, and the moment after Concha turned earnestly upon
the four men.
"Now go," she said, "this instant! I also have risked more than you
know. Go back!"
"Can I not stay with her to-night?" pleaded El Sarria, keeping the limp
hand wet with chill perspiration close in his.
"Go--go, I say!" said Concha. "Go, or it may be too late. See yonder."
And on a hill away to the west a red light burned for a long moment and
then vanished.
The three young men went out, but El Sarria lingered, kneeling by his
wife's bedside. Rollo went back and touched him on the shoulder.
"You must come with us--for _her_ sake!" he said. And he pointed with
his finger. And obediently at his word the giant arose and went out.
Rollo followed quickly, but as he went a little palm fell on his arm and
a low voice whispered in his ear--
"You trust me, do you not?"
Rollo lifted Concha's hand from his sleeve and kissed it.
"With my life--and more!" he said.
"What more?" queried Concha.
"With my friends' lives!" he answered.
And as he went out with no other word Concha breathed a sigh very softly
and turned towards Dolores. She felt somehow as if the tables were being
turned upon her.
* * * * *
Outside there was a kind of waiting hush in the air, an electric tension
of expectation, or so at least it seemed to Rollo.
As they marched along the road towards the mill-house, they saw a ruddy
glow towards the south.
"Something is on fire there!" said John Mortimer. "I mind when Graidly's
mills were burnt in Bowton, we saw a glimmer in the sky just like yon!
And we were at Chorley, mind you, miles and miles away!"
"They are more like camp-fires behind the hills," commented Etienne,
from his larger experience. "I think we had better clear out of Sarria
to-night."
"That," said Rollo, firmly, "is impossible so far as I am concerned. I
must wait at the mill-house for the papers. But do you three go on, and
I will rejoin you to-morrow."
"I will stay," said El Sarria, as soon as Rollo's words had been
interpreted to him.
"And I," cried Etienne. "Shall it be said that a Saint Pierre ever
forsook a friend?"
"And I," said John Mortimer, "to look after the onions!"
The mill-house was silent and dark as they had left it. They could hear
the drip-drip of the water from the motionless wheel. An owl called at
intervals down in the valley. Rollo, to whom La Giralda had given the
key, stooped to fit it into the keyhole. The door was opened and the
four stepped swiftly within. Then Rollo locked the door again inside.
They heard nothing through all the silent, empty house but the sound of
their own breathing. Yet here, also, there was the same sense of strain
lying vague and uneasy upon them.
"Let us go on and see that all is right," said Rollo, and led the way
into the large room where they had found Luis Fernandez. He walked up to
the window, a dim oblong of blackness, only less Egyptian than the
chamber itself. He stooped to strike his flint and steel together into
his tinder-box, and even as the small glittering point winked, Rollo
felt his throat grasped back and front by different pairs of hands,
while others clung to his knees and brought him to the ground.
"Treachery! Out with you, lads--into the open!" he cried to his
companions, as well as he could for the throttling fingers.
But behind him there arose the sound of a mighty combat. Furniture was
overset, or broke with a sharp crashing noise as it was trampled
underfoot.
"Show a light, there," cried a quick voice, in a tone of command.
A lantern was brought from an inner room, and there, on the floor, in
the grasp of their captors, were Ramon Garcia, still heaving with his
mighty exertions, and Rollo the Scot, who lay very quiet so soon as he
had assured himself that present resistance would do no good.
"Bring in the others," commanded the voice again, "and let us see what
the dogs look like."
Mortimer and Etienne, having been captured in the hall, while trying to
unlock the outer door, were roughly haled into the room. Rollo was
permitted to rise, but the giant was kept on his back while they
Fastened him up securely with ropes and halters.
Then Luis Fernandez came in, an evil smile on his dark handsome face,
and behind him a little thick-set active man in some military dress of
light material. The uniform was unfamiliar to Rollo, who, for a moment,
was in doubt whether he was in the hands of the Cristinos or in those of
the partisans of Don Carlos.
But a glance about the chamber eased his mind. The white _boinas_ of the
Basque provinces, mingled with the red of Navarra, told him that he had
been captured by the Carlists.
"Well," said a little dark man with the curly hair, black and kinked
like a negro's, "give an account of yourselves and of your proceedings
in this village."
"We are soldiers in the service of His Excellency Don Carlos," said
Rollo, fearlessly; "we are on our way to the camp of General Cabrera on
a mission of importance."
Luis Fernandez looked across at his companion, who had seated himself
carelessly in a large chair by the window.
"Did I not tell you he would say that?" he said. The other nodded. "On a
mission to General Cabrera," repeated the chief of Rollo's captors;
"well, then, doubtless you can prove your statement by papers and
documents. Let me see your credentials."
"I must know, first, to whom I have the honour of speaking," said Rollo,
firmly.
"You shall," said the man in the chair. "I am General Cabrera, in the
service of His Absolute Majesty, Carlos, Fifth of Spain. I shall be glad
to receive your credentials, sir."
Then it flashed upon Rollo that all his papers were in the hands of
Concha Cabezos. He had given them to her that she might show them to the
Lady Superior, and so insure a welcome for poor little Dolores, whom
they had left lying on the bed in the portress's lodge at the Convent of
the Holy Innocents.
"I can indeed give you the message, and that instantly," said Rollo;
"but I am unfortunately prevented from showing you my credentials till
the morning. They are at present at the--in the hands of a friend----"
Here Rollo stammered and came to a full stop. Luis Fernandez laughed
scornfully.
"Of course," he said: "what did I tell you, General? He has no
credentials."
Cabrera struck his clenched fist on the table.
"Sir," he said, "you are a strange messenger. You pretend a mission to
me, and when asked for your credentials you tell us that they are in the
hands of a friend. Tell us your friend's name, and how you came to
permit documents of value to me and to the cause for which you say that
you are fighting, to fall into any hands but your own."
Rollo saw that to refer to the Convent of the Holy Innocents, or to
mention Concha's name, would infallibly betray the hiding-place of
Dolores to her enemies, so he could only reiterate his former answer.
"I am unfortunately prevented by my honour from revealing the name of my
friend, or why the documents were so entrusted. But if your excellency
will only wait till the morning, I promise that you shall be abundantly
satisfied."
"I am not accustomed to wait for the morning," said Cabrera. "There is
no slackening of rein on the King's service. But I have certain
information as to who you are, which may prove more pertinent to the
occasion, and may, perhaps, prevent any delay whatsoever."
Cabrera leisurely rolled and lighted a cigarette, giving great attention
to the closing of the paper in which it was enwrapped.
"I am informed," he said, when he had successfully achieved this, "that
you are three members of the English Foreign Legion which has been
fighting for the Cristino traitors. What have you to say to that?"
"That it is a lie," shouted Etienne, thrusting himself forward. "I a
Cristino! I would have you know that I am the Count of Saint Pierre, a
cousin in the second degree of Don Carlos himself, and that I came to
Spain to fight for the only true and constitutional King, Carlos the
Fifth."
Cabrera turned his head and scrutinised the little Frenchman.
"Ah, then," he said dryly, "if that be so, perhaps you have taken better
care of your papers than this tall gentleman, who has such trust in his
friends."
"A Saint Pierre does not need papers to prove his identity," said
Etienne, proudly.
"They are sometimes convenient, nevertheless, even to a Saint Pierre,"
said Cabrera, with irony: "they may prevent certain little mistakes
which are more easily made than remedied."
There was a long pause at this point.
"What is your business here, Monsieur de Saint Pierre?" continued the
Carlist General suavely, throwing away his cigarette end after inhaling
the "breast" to the last puff with infinite satisfaction.
"I was sent on a mission, along with these two gentlemen, at the
instance of my uncle, Don Baltasar Varela, the Abbot of Montblanch, and
one of the most trusted councillors of Don Carlos!"
"Doubtless--doubtless," said Cabrera; "but have you the papers to prove
it? Or any letter in your uncle's handwriting authorising you to commit
the lawless acts you have committed on the person and property of this
faithful servant of the King?"
"All the papers in connection with the mission were in the care of my
friend Monsieur Rollo Blair, of Blair Castle," said Etienne. "He was
appointed chief of the expedition by my uncle, Don Baltasar, and if he
has parted temporarily with them, it is doubtless for good and
sufficient reasons."
"Search them," commanded Cabrera, suddenly, in a sharp tone of anger, in
which for the first time the latent cruelty of his nature came out.
Their captors, with no great delicacy of handling, began to overhaul the
contents of the pockets of the four. They examined their boots, the
lining of their coats, and ripped up the seams of their waist-coats.
Upon Ramon, nothing at all was found, except the fragment of a handbill
issued by the Nationalist general offering a reward for his capture; at
which more than one of the men wearing the white _boinas_ began to look
upon him with more favour, though they did not offer to ease the
sharply-cutting ropes with which they had bound him.
Upon John Mortimer was found a pocket-book full of calculations, and a
little pocket Testament with an inscription in English, which made John
Mortimer blush.
"Tell them my mother gave me that, and made me promise to carry it. I
don't want them to take it away!"
Rollo translated, and Cabrera, after turning over the pages, handed it
back with a bow.
"A _gage d'amour_?" he said, smiling.
"Yes, from my mother!" said John Mortimer, blushing yet more.
The search through the pockets of Etienne produced nothing except a
number of brief notes, daintily folded but indifferently written, and
signed by various Lolas, Felesias, and Magdalenas. Most of these were
brief, and to the point. "Meet me at the gate by the rose-tree at seven.
My father has gone to the city!" or only "I am waiting for you! Come."
But in the outer pocket of Rollo Blair was found a far more compromising
document. When the searcher drew it forth from his coat, the eyes of
Luis Fernandez gleamed with triumph.
Cabrera took the paper and glanced it over carelessly, but as soon as
his eye fell upon the signature the fashion of his countenance changed.
He leaped to his feet.
"Nogueras!" he cried; "you are in correspondence with Nogueras, the
villain who, in cold blood, shot my poor old mother, for no crime but
that of having borne me. Have the fellow out instantly, and shoot him!"
Rollo stood a moment dumfounded, then he recovered himself and spoke.
"General Cabrera," he said, "this is a trick. I have had no
correspondence with Nogueras. I had not even heard his name. This has
been dropped into my pocket by some traitor. I hold a commission in the
service of Don Carlos, and have had no communication with his enemies."
"But in this place you gave yourselves out as Nationalists, is it not
so?" queried Cabrera.
"Certainly," answered Rollo; "we were on a secret mission, and we were
given to understand that this was a hostile village."
Cabrera took up the letter again and read aloud--
"_To the young Englishman of the Foreign Legion, pretending
service with Don Carlos._
"You are ordered to obtain any information as to the movements
of the brigand Cabrera and his men, by penetrating into their
district, and, if possible, joining their organisation. You
will report the same to me, and this pass will hold you safe
with all servants and well-wishers of the government of the
Queen-Regent.
"NOGUERAS."
The Carlist commander, whose voice had been rising as he read, shouted
rather than uttered the name of the murderer of his mother. He did not
again sit down, but strode up and down, his cavalry sword clanging and
battering against the furniture of the little room as if expressing the
angry perturbation of his mind.
"General," said Rollo, as calmly as if arguing a point in theology, "if
I had been guilty of this treachery, would I have kept a paper like that
loose in an outer pocket? Is it not evident that it has been placed
there by some enemy--probably by that archtraitor there, the miller
Fernandez?"
Luis Fernandez smiled benignly upon Rollo, but did not speak. He
believed that the poison had done its work.
Cabrera took not the slightest notice of Rollo's words, but continued to
pace the floor frowning and muttering.
More than one Carlist soldier glanced at his neighbour with a look which
said, plain as a printed proclamation, "It is all over with the
foreigners!"
At last Cabrera stopped his promenade. He folded his arms and stood
looking up at Rollo.
"The morning--I think you said. Well, I will give your friend till the
morning to be ready with the proofs of your innocence. But if not, so
soon as the sun rises over the hills out there, you four shall all be
shot for spies and traitors. Take them away!"