A NIGHT MARCH.
"The beggar blusheth scarlet red,
And straight againe as pale as lead,
She was in such amaze."
With her terror almost forgotten in the memory of her mistress's caress,
Penelophon ran down into the garden, and kept on bravely till she came
to the little door which led out into the street. Here she paused; for
so great was the horror she felt for the world outside ever since the
terrible night on which the King had rescued her, that it was all she
could do to find courage enough to open it.
She could not persuade herself that the eyes were not waiting to glare
at her on the other side; but at last she hardened her poor fluttering
heart to lift the latch and look out. It was very dark. There was no
light but what the stars gave, and a dim old oil lamp that swung
groaning on a chain across the road. She could see nothing of what she
dreaded, and this gave her heart to step out into the street to find the
man who was to receive the note. In her anxiety to get her painful duty
over, she went as far as where the street turned round the corner of the
garden to see if he were coming. Not a trace of any one could she
detect; so, putting the note into her bosom, she flitted back, to wait a
little within the shelter of the door.
She had hardly reached it when she stopped, frozen with horror. The door
was shut, and out of the dark recess where it was the thing she dreaded
was looking at her. That was all she could see. If the glaring presence
had any form, it was hidden in the black shadow of the doorway. Only the
two eyes burned, with a dim and terrible glow which paralysed her. She
knew not what to do. She dared not approach the thing for fear it would
take hold of her, and her limbs refused to fly.
At last there was a low hoarse chuckle of satisfied greed, which made
the blood fly to her face, as it recalled a memory of her day of terror.
She found the light of the lamp was falling full on her, so that the
eyes could see her well, and that suddenly gave her strength to turn and
run.
The thing sprang out after her with another coarse chuckle; but she ran
on bravely. Soon she heard the deep-drawn breath of her pursuer sounding
hoarsely behind. Closer and closer it drew, and made her feet feel like
lead. She was like one in a fevered dream, when at the critical moment
the limbs refused their office. With the blank dread we only know in
distempered slumber, she fancied she was falling, when the hoarse breath
all at once was at her ear, and the thing seized her. She tried to
scream; but her despairing cry was choked by a hood that was drawn
tightly over her face. The monster's arms clasped her about roughly, and
she felt herself hurried along in spite of her frantic struggles to
escape.
Turbo had her safely at last. He laughed to himself, and cracked coarse
jokes to his burden as he limped hastily along. He was a strong man in
spite of his deformity, and Penelophon soon desisted from her hopeless
resistance, so that it was not long before he reached the street in
which his own house stood. His fiendish glee increased as he saw himself
so near his end; but suddenly he stopped, and a low curse hissed on his
snarling lips. For even as he entered the street the cheerful clatter of
horses' feet at the other end of it fell on his ear.
What could they be? There were many together, and that was a sound that
was never heard in the capital at night. Still they were coming towards
him, whatever they were; and he hurried on, hoping to reach his own door
before they would see him. There was plenty of time if he made haste;
but all at once it seemed that the same sounds had reached his burden's
ear, for she began struggling again desperately.
He could hold her no longer, and was obliged to put her down. Now he
could hear the clink of steel as well as the tramp of hoofs; and,
uttering furious threats beneath his breath, he tried to drag Penelophon
along; but his anger and frantic efforts were useless. All he could do
was to get with his charge against the wall of his garden, when he was
surrounded by some dozen horsemen.
Then he cursed himself again; for he knew he had encountered the first
detachment of the frontier gendarmerie, whom, by his own encouragement,
Kophetua had ordered to be concentrated on the capital. It had been
arranged that they were to enter the city by night as quietly as
possible, in order that the beggars might take no alarm. That had been
his own suggestion; and here was the end of it. Still he determined to
brave it through, and cried out to them to know what they did hustling
an honest man and his child at that time of night.
"Soho! my night-hawk," cried the officer of the party, in a round
laughing voice; "is that your note? 'Sblood! then we'll sing a chorus,
for 'tis ours too."
The troopers all laughed together at their leader's wit, and Turbo eyed
his man to see what stuff was in him. It was too dark to make out his
face under the high-plumed helmet which he seemed to wear so jauntily,
but the Chancellor could see he was a tall fellow, who sat his horse
with a defiant air. His toes were stretched out impudently in the
stirrups, and his right arm was well bowed, and rested knuckles down on
his thigh, with quite a splendid swagger. Altogether he looked
formidable enough as he sat laughing on his tall horse, with the
brilliant uniforms and glittering accoutrements of his men faintly
discernible in a semicircle at his back.
"My note is low enough," said the Chancellor, with affected humility,
when his inspection and the laughter were done. "I only ask to pass on
quietly with my daughter."
"So you shall, my bully, when we know why you tie up pretty faces in
hoods, and why pretty figures struggle in your arms. So come, my bully
night-hawk, unhood, unhood!"
"I tell you it is but my daughter!" cried Turbo angrily. "Let me pass,
or the King shall hear of it!"
"Ho-ho!" cried the officer, as merrily as ever. "Will a beggar out of
bounds try to frighten the King's own Gendarmerie of the Guard with the
King's own name. No, no, my joker; come, give her up."
Penelophon gave a start as she heard the officer's words, and tried to
tear the hood from her head. Turbo dragged her roughly behind him, and
stood confronting the officer, who spurred his horse forward.
"Stand back!" cried Turbo; "stand back, at your peril! I am the
Chancellor. Can you not see? Stand back! I command you."
"And I, sink me!" cried the officer, drawing his sabre, "am the king,
and the general, and the beggar emperor all in one; so let her go, and
take that for your insolent lie."
As he uttered the word, he gave the Chancellor a wringing blow across
the shoulders with the flat of his sabre. Turbo drew back; but the
officer spurred on to repeat the chastisement. "Let her go, you scurvy
hound! Let her go, I say! or, 'sblood! you shall have the edge."
Turbo saw but one way to escape the now infuriated soldier. In a frenzy
of passion to be so balked again, he brutally thrust the blinded girl
before the restive horse, so that to avoid trampling on her the officer
had to curb it on to its haunches. With ungainly activity the Chancellor
took advantage of the delay to spring along the wall towards the spot
where, as in all the houses in the city, a door gave him admission into
his own garden.
"Stop the cur! stop him!" cried the officer. "Cut him down, or anything.
Zounds! will you let him laugh at our noses like this?"
Two men wheeled like hawks at the hurrying Chancellor with uplifted
sabres. In another instant it seemed he must be slashed with the
gleaming blade that was nearest him, when suddenly he stopped and
turned. There was a flash, a sharp report, a cloud of smoke, and the
gendarme threw up his hands with a choking cry. The officer dashed to
his side to seize the assassin; but as he cleared the smoke he found the
man he sought had vanished.
At the door which he fancied he had heard shut he drew rein. It was
there he suspected the man had escaped him, and leaping from his saddle,
he applied his head to the keyhole and listened intently. The sound of
halting footsteps within fell faintly on his ear, and he shifted his
attitude to hear better. Presently he drew back into the middle of the
street, carefully surveyed the premises, and after giving a long low
whistle to himself, he returned to the wounded man with a very serious
air. Three or four saddles were empty, and a sergeant who was kneeling
by a motionless body looked up as his commander drew near.
"Is he hurt?" asked the officer.
The sergeant did not answer, but slowly removed his helmet. The officer
and all the men did the same, and stood round in silence, till the dying
man gave a shudder and then lay quite still.
"Right lung, sir," said the sergeant laconically.
"Well, get him across his saddle," said the officer, "while I look to
the girl."
She was still lying motionless where she had fallen, as though she had
been struck with the horse's feet, or else was stifled with the hood
that muffled her face. First he felt her pulse, and having ascertained
that she was still alive, uncovered her head to let her breathe freely.
She opened her eyes almost directly, and the officer gazed at her pale
face with great interest. As he examined her attentively by the light of
a lantern which the sergeant now brought, his eye fell upon the note
which still remained where Penelophon had placed it. He took it quietly,
and read the address by the lantern light.
"To his Excellency the High Chancellor." With no more show of interest
than another low whistle betokened, he put it deliberately into his
sabretache, and proceeded to revive his patient. She seemed to come
round very slowly; so he gave the word to fall in, mounted his horse,
and ordered Penelophon to be lifted up in front of him. He had excellent
reasons for taking charge of her himself.
As soon as they were started again, the motion of the horse seemed to
revive the fainting girl; but still she sat quite quiet, nestling with
complete confidence in the officer's arms, and leaning her head upon his
breast. Presently she gave a long sigh of contentment, and looked up in
his face with her big dark eyes.
"Did you not say you were Trecenito's soldier?" she asked.
"Yes, pretty one. What of that?" answered the soldier.
"Ah! I thought I remembered that," she replied dreamily. "I knew you
would come!"
"The devil you did, child!" exclaimed the soldier.
"Yes; I knew Trecenito would send you to take me away from that thing."
"He is always kind, and loves his people," said the officer vaguely, to
humour her.
"Is he? I don't know. But he is always kind to me, and loves me. So I
knew he would send you if he could not come himself, as he did before."
"Did he come himself before?" asked the officer, in incredulous
astonishment.
"Yes; and he will be so pleased with you when he knows you have saved
me."
The soldier could only give another long whistle, which seemed a habit
with him. He began to find himself the possessor of a very mysterious
case, which might turn out to his immense credit, or the reverse, and he
felt the necessity of care and his utmost detective ability.
"Are you taking me back to my mistress," asked Penelophon, after a
pause.
"Who is your mistress?"
"Mlle de Tricotrin. She who will be 'Trecenita.'"
"No; I cannot take you to her," answered the officer, for whom this new
complication was almost overwhelming; "but I will take you to a safe
place till Trecenito tells me what to do."
"Very well," said Penelophon contentedly, and she laid her head down on
his broad breast again. He was sorely tempted to kiss the delicate face
just once. It was so quiet and peaceful and childlike; but somehow she
was so trusting and mysterious that he took a better view and refrained.
Yet it must be said that he was not sorry when, after a half-hour's
ride, they reached an old hunting lodge in a remote part of the royal
park, which was to be their quarters. Here he put temptation out of his
way by locking her in a little room which had been prepared for his own
use, and giving the key to the sergeant to keep. Nor did he regret his
cautious action, when shortly afterwards he took an opportunity of
opening the note of which he had taken possession. It seemed entirely to
confirm the girl's words and his own impression--that somewhere there
was some foul play to the advantage of the Chancellor, whom he did not
like, and to the detriment of Kophetua, to whom he was devoted.
Then a serious crime had been committed, which must inevitably become
public. One of the gendarmes of the guard had been assassinated. He had
noticed windows opening after the pistol-shot. The whole affair was
almost sure to leak out. To hush the matter up until he could receive
personal instructions from the King was probably impossible. But then,
on the other hand, there were circumstances which told him that a
discreet secrecy was the line of conduct which would be most likely to
commend him to all the parties implicated, and to lead to promotion. At
a loss what course to take, he finally, like the sensible fellow he was,
determined to do his plain duty, and report the whole affair to the
commander-in-chief the first thing on the following morning.