RAPTURE.
Down the screw-stair I went in utter darkness; and having reached
the stone floor, I discerned the door and groped out the
key-hole. With more caution, and less noise than upon the night
before, I opened the door, and stepped out into the thick
brushwood. It was almost as dark in this jungle.
Having secured the door, I slowly pushed my way through the
bushes, which soon became less dense. Then, with more ease, but
still under thick cover, I pursued in the track of the wood,
keeping near its edge.
At length, in the darkened air, about fifty yards away, the
shafts of the marble temple rose like phantoms before me, seen
through the trunks of the old trees. Everything favoured my
enterprise. I had effectually mystified my servant and the people
of the Dragon Volant, and so dark was the night, that even had I
alarmed the suspicions of all the tenants of the inn, I might
safely defy their united curiosity, though posted at every window
of the house.
Through the trunks, over the roots of the old trees, I reached
the appointed place of observation. I laid my treasure, in its
leathern case, in the embrasure, and leaning my arms upon it,
looked steadily in the direction of the château. The outline of
the building was scarcely discernible, blending dimly, as it did,
with the sky. No light in any window was visible. I was plainly
to wait; but for how long?
Leaning on my box of treasure, gazing toward the massive shadow
that represented the château, in the midst of my ardent and
elated longings, there came upon me an odd thought, which you
will think might well have struck me long before. It seemed on a
sudden, as it came, that the darkness deepened, and a chill stole
into the air around me.
Suppose I were to disappear finally, like those other men whose
stories I had listened to! Had I not been at all the pains that
mortal could, to obliterate every trace of my real proceedings,
and to mislead every one to whom I spoke as to the direction in
which I had gone?
This icy, snake-light thought stole through my mind, and was
gone.
It was with me the full-blooded season of youth, conscious
strength, rashness, passion, pursuit, the adventure! Here were a
pair of double-barrelled pistols, four lives in my hands? What
could possibly happen? The Count--except for the sake of my
dulcinea, what was it to me whether the old coward whom I had
seen, in an ague of terror before the brawling Colonel,
interposed or not? I was assuming the worst that could happen.
But with an ally so clever and courageous as my beautiful
Countess, could any such misadventure befall? Bah! I laughed at
all such fancies.
As I thus communed with myself, the signal light sprang up. The
rose-coloured light, _couleur de rose_, emblem of sanguine hope,
and the dawn of a happy day.
Clear, soft, and steady, glowed the light from the window. The
stone shafts showed black against it. Murmuring words of
passionate love as I gazed upon the signal, I grasped my strong
box under my arm, and with rapid strides approached the Château
de la Carque. No sign of light or life, no human voice, no tread
of foot, no bark of dog, indicated a chance of interruption. A
blind was down; and as I came close to the tall window, I found
that half-a-dozen steps led up to it, and that a large lattice,
answering for a door, lay open.
A shadow from within fell upon the blind; it was drawn aside, and
as I ascended the steps, a soft voice murmured--"Richard, dearest
Richard, come, oh! come! how I have longed for this moment?"
Never did she look so beautiful. My love rose to passionate
enthusiasm. I only wished there were some real danger in the
adventure worthy of such a creature. When the first tumultuous
greeting was over, she made me sit beside her on a sofa. There we
talked for a minute or two. She told me that the Count had gone,
and was by that time more than a mile on his way, with the
funeral, to Père la Chaise. Here were her diamonds. She
exhibited, hastily, an open casket containing a profusion of the
largest brilliants.
"What is this?" she asked.
"A box containing money to the amount of thirty thousand pounds,"
I answered.
"What! all that money?" she exclaimed.
"Every _sou_."
"Was it not unnecessary to bring so much, seeing all these," she
said, touching her diamonds. "It would have been kind of you, to
allow me to provide for both for a time, at least. It would have
made me happier even than I am."
"Dearest, generous angel!" Such was my extravagant declamation.
"You forget that it may be necessary, for a long time, to observe
silence as to where we are, and impossible to communicate safely
with any one."
"You have then here this great sum--are you certain; have you
counted it?"
"Yes, certainly; I received it to-day," I answered, perhaps
showing a little surprise in my face, "I counted it, of course,
on drawing it from my bankers."
"It makes me feel a little nervous, travelling with so much
money; but these jewels make as great a danger; _that_ can add
but little to it. Place them side by side; you shall take off
your great coat when we are ready to go, and with it manage to
conceal these boxes. I should not like the drivers to suspect
that we were conveying such a treasure. I must ask you now to
close the curtains of that window, and bar the shutters."
I had hardly done this when a knock was heard at the room-door.
"I know who this is," she said, in a whisper to me.
I saw that she was not alarmed. She went softly to the door, and
a whispered conversation for a minute followed.
"My trusty maid, who is coming with us. She says we cannot safely
go sooner than ten minutes. She is bringing some coffee to the
next room."
She opened the door and looked in.
"I must tell her not to take too much luggage. She is so odd!
Don't follow--stay where you are--it is better that she should
not see you."
She left the room with a gesture of caution.
A change had come over the manner of this beautiful woman. For
the last few minutes a shadow had been stealing over her, an air
of abstraction, a look bordering on suspicion. Why was she pale?
Why had there come that dark look in her eyes? Why had her very
voice become changed? Had anything gone suddenly wrong? Did some
danger threaten?
This doubt, however, speedily quieted itself. If there had been
anything of the kind, she would, of course, have told me. It was
only natural that, as the crisis approached, she should become
more and more nervous. She did not return quite so soon as I had
expected. To a man in my situation absolute quietude is next to
impossible. I moved restlessly about the room. It was a small
one. There was a door at the other end. I opened it, rashly
enough. I listened, it was perfectly silent. I was in an excited,
eager state, and every faculty engrossed about what was coming,
and in so far detached from the immediate present. I can't
account, in any other way, for my having done so many foolish
things that night, for I was, naturally, by no means deficient
in cunning. About the most stupid of those was, that instead of
immediately closing that door, which I never ought to have
opened, I actually took a candle and walked into the room.
There I made, quite unexpectedly, a rather startling discovery.