THE FOURTH TIME.
THE rock of Gageac somewhat overhung, so that as Le Gros Guillem
ascended he swung clear in space. Only occasionally was there a
projection against which he could apply his foot, but he avoided doing
this lest he should set the cord in oscillation.
The rope was so stout and the piece of wood on which he was seated so
strong, that the momentary qualm that had come over his heart left it,
and he felt naught save impatience to reach the castle and creep in at
the window. Then his comrades would be drawn up and all four would fall
on the sleeping garrison, kill every man, ring the tocsin, and the place
would be in his possession, the houses given up to pillage and the
inhabitants to outrage and murder. To win La Roque--a place that through
the Hundred Years' War had not been taken, that for three centuries had
defied the English--would indeed be an achievement, and one for which he
could obtain any terms he liked to ask from the Earl of Shrewsbury on
his arrival in Guyenne.
The clouds were dispersing, Guillem looked up, the floor of Heaven was
as it were spilt over with curds; he looked down, every platform, roof,
garden, was white with hail. On the horizon lightning was still
fluttering. He had heard no thunder when below--he heard none now.
The Dordogne flowed black through a white world. It did not reflect the
sky to one rising so high in the air above it; it was black as Acheron
and seemed to have lost all flow--to be stilled in its course.
The moon was still shining on the wall of rock, Guillem's shadow passed
with him, as substantial apparently as himself, undergoing strange,
monkey-like contortions against the rocky inequalities. A curse on that
cat! It was wailing in his ear. He turned his chin to endeavour to force
the brute from his shoulder. The cat clung with its thorn-like claws
that pierced his jerkin. He disengaged a hand, and laid hold of the cat,
but it bit and tore at his hand, it drove its claws into his neck, and
he could not shake it off without tearing away ribbons of his flesh as
well.
His efforts to rid himself of the cat set the cord spinning, and the
stick revolved, with him on it, and then spun back again; it began to
swing, and in swinging jammed him against the rock.
He must make up his mind to endure the cat. It was but for a minute or
two longer, and then he would be free, and would grasp the accursed
brute and fling it down on to the houses beneath. A cat has nine lives.
A cat will always fall on his feet. This puss must have more than nine
lives if it escaped being dashed to pieces by such a fall.
All was hushed below.
Guillem, looking down, could see the black spots that he knew
represented his three men who were to follow him.
Something brushed his face--it was a sprig of juniper--he knew it by the
scent; and now he saw that he had reached that point where rock and wall
were blended, the rock running up into ragged points, the gaps filled in
with masonry, and finally courses of ashlar lying evenly above the rock.
He was nearing the window. In another minute he would be inside. He
could hear the creak of the windlass. His progress upwards seemed to him
to be extraordinarily slow. One line of wallstone, then another, then a
third, then a halt.
He expected to be able to grasp the threshold of the window and to
assist those within in drawing him through. But the window sill was some
feet above his head; it was beyond his reach.
Why had those working the capstan ceased to turn the levers? Were they
exhausted? Had they galled their hands? Half a dozen turns and he would
be aloft.
At that moment, one of those inexplicable, unreasonable sensations that
do occasionally seize the imagination swept over the mind of Guillem.
Looking at the limestone before him, he all at once thought it resembled
the flesh of old Ogier del' Peyra's face as he was lowered into the
oubliette, with the light from the dungeon door sitting on it. There was
absolutely no similarity save that the rock was grey, and that it was
illumined by the new moon with some such a colourless cadaverous light
as that which had lighted the face of the man sentenced to a living
tomb.
Le Gros Guillem shook his head and closed his eyes to free himself from
the impression.
Immediately the cat, driving its claws into his neck under the right
ear, sprang on his head, ran up the rope and leaped in at the window
above.
It was perhaps due to the fact that those working the capstan were
frightened by the apparition of the beast; but suddenly the rope was run
out and Guillem dropped through space, to be brought up by a jerk as
those above mastered the spokes and arrested the flight of the rope.
As the falling man was stopped in his descent, the strands of the cord
were strained and some snapped. The jerk would have thrown him from his
seat had he not grappled the rope with desperation. He had not, however,
dropped very far, and now to his great satisfaction he felt that the men
above were again turning the levers, and that he was again being
steadily hauled upwards. When aloft he would chastise them sharply for
their scare about a cat, risking thereby his valuable life.
Again the juniper bush brushed his face, it was as an elfin hand which
was thrust forth out of the rock to lay hold of him, or at least to warn
him against further progress. Not a plant had been passed springing out
of the sheer cliff. This juniper grew at the summit of the rock, and at
its junction with the masonry of the castle.
Much time had elapsed, surely more than an hour, since he had passed
through the postern gate. His men, concealed in the vineyards, must be
impatient for the signal to enter the town and plunder it.
Then he heard a harsh, jarring sound like an angry growl, followed by
the strokes of a bell. One--two--three--he reckoned till twelve. It was
midnight.
Again he was ascending past the courses of ashlar, and again he was
brought to a halt at some distance below the window.
Then, from above, through the window a face protruded that looked down
on him. The moon was on the face; it was the colour of the grey rock; it
was blotched like the rock, it was furrowed with age like the rock.
Unlike the rock, two eyes gleamed out of it, with the moon glinting in
them.
"Gros Guillem!" said the man who peered on the freebooter from above.
"Draw me up!" gasped the Captain, "or by----"
"Do you threaten--you--situated as you are?"
"I pray you give the windlass another turn."
"Ah, you pray now, Gros Guillem!"
The Captain looked above his head at the face that overhung him. There
was in it something that sent the blood back to his heart. There was in
it that likeness to a someone, uncertain, recalled but unidentified,
that came out now with terrible distinctness, and insisted on his
straining his powers for recognition.
"Gros Guillem! do you remember me? This is our final meeting--the fourth
and the last!"
At that moment the tocsin pealed forth its summons from the tower. This
tower, planted under a concave opening in the rock, sent out the ring of
the alarm-bell multiplied thirtyfold below; it flung it forth in
volumes, it sent it up and down the Dordogne valley--across it--over the
level land, far, far away, wave on wave of sound through the still
night.
At the first note it was as though a magic wand had touched every house
in La Roque. Each window was illumined. Every door was opened, and forth
burst men with torches, all fully armed.
In a moment the three companions of the Captain on the platform and the
two by the postern were surrounded, disarmed, bound or cut down. In a
moment, also, from orchards, vineyards, from out of barns, from behind
hedgerows, rose a multitude of men, peasants, fishermen, soldiers of the
Bishop, serving-men, all with what weapons they could most readily
handle, and closed in on the men of Guillem who had come forward at the
note of the bell with purpose to enter by the postern. Then ensued on
all sides a wild hubbub of cries, shrieks, shouts of triumph, curses,
prayers for mercy.
Le Gros Guillem, hanging in mid-air, heard the uproar, saw the upward
glow of light, and knew that he and his had been drawn into a cleverly
contrived trap, and that he was lost irretrievably. He writhed, he
turned, he looked above--there he saw but the face of Ogier remorseless
as fate. He looked below--there he saw his men, making desperate battle
for life, and falling one by one. He could not distinguish each
individual, but he saw knots of men forming whence issued cries and the
clash of steel, then the knot broke up and its members dispersed seeking
other clusters which they swelled, and whence issued the same cries and
din of strife.
Presently a great flare of fire rose from below and illumined the whole
rock of Gageac. A torch had been applied to a bonfire of faggots ready
stacked on the platform. By that glare those below saw the suspended
Captain, and uttered a roar of hate and savage delight. In Guillem's
ears was a singing, and the growl of voices came in throbs like waves
beating on his brain.
From those below rose cries of, "Cut the rope! Cast him down! We will
receive him on our pikes. He shall fall into the fire!"
Slowly the cable was let out, and Guillem felt himself descending. He
was glad that it was so. He desired to be in the midst of men, though
these were his enemies; for he had his sword at his side and he would
die fighting, wounding others, killing those who sought his life. So to
perish were a death befitting a soldier--this such a death as he would
hail. He put his hand to his sword and grasped the hilt. His blood that
had curdled in his arteries began to pulsate, the film that had formed
over his eyes was dissipated, and a flash of eager anticipation came
into them.
But again the rope ceased to be let out. He was suspended just half-way
between the castle and the platform below, in full view of the townsmen
who had gathered there, standing at a sufficient distance not to be
struck by his falling body; he was in view also of the little garrison
of the castle who had clambered to the battlements and were looking over
at him.
Then he heard a hammering, and saw below men employed driving the pegs
into the sockets in the rock, and fastening the wedges that held them
firm. No sooner was the full connection made than up the stair ran men
and even women, and boys who had scrambled out of bed, and these stood
in a line against the rock up the lengthy ladder-stair gazing at the
suspended man. Then also from above the draw-bridge was lowered, and the
men-at-arms who had been in the castle ran out of the gate and ran down
the stair to have a better sight thence of the swinging, helpless man
than they could from the battlements.
A terrible spectacle it was that they witnessed--such a one as could not
be looked on by Christian people unmoved save in such an evil age as
that, when men were rendered ferocious as wild Indians and callous to
the sufferings of their brethren; a spectacle such as could not be
looked on without pity save in such a place as that where all had
suffered in some degree from the exactions or the barbarities of this
wretched man. The flames danced and curled as if they also frolicked at
the sight of the agony of the man who had so often fed them with
hard-won harvests of the peasantry, and the humble goods of the cottager
too worthless to be carried away.
In the glare of the leaping bonfire Le Gros Guillem was distinctly
visible, looking like a monstrous yellow spider at the end of his line.
He thrust out now one long leg, then another, next he extended his
lengthy arms each armed with lean and bony fingers. He endeavoured to
scramble into a standing position upon his bar, but failed--one side
would descend before the other, and he nearly fell in attempting this
impossible feat. He gripped the rope with hands and knees and
endeavoured to swarm up it, but the cable was rendered slippery by its
passage over a roller in the window.
Rage was in his heart, rage at being there a sight to men, women, and
children, without power of spreading destruction about him before he
died.
Then he swung himself laterally, hoping to be able to reach a projection
of rock whence possibly he might creep up or down, or even laterally
from jutting point to point, holding by his fingers till he attained the
stair. As he came swinging like a pendulum he was carried close to the
stairway, and those upon it held their breath and drew back against the
rock, thinking he would make a leap in attempt to light on the steps.
Were he to do this, then to arrest himself from falling backwards, with
his long fingers he would inevitably clutch at them, and so precipitate
them along with himself below.
Those persons standing on that portion of the steps within range sidled
upwards or else downwards, to be out of the risk of such a danger. They
could see in the upward flash of the firelight the sparkle in his great
eyes as he glared at the steps, calculating his distance, making resolve
to leap, and his heart failing him or his judgment assuring him that to
do so were certainly fatal.
A tinkle of a little bell. The priest of S. Donat had hastily donned his
surplice, and run and taken the Holy Sacrament, and was coming--he alone
with a thought of mercy for the agonised, to obtain for him release, or
to administer consolation in death. Before him went a boy with a
lantern, ringing the bell.
Then a loud voice from below cried: "Cut the cable!" And then: "It is
I--Francis Bonaldi--I, the governor, say it. Enough! Cut the cable!"
A gasp from all that multitude.
The cord had been chopped through before the priest arrived.