Pursuit was afoot, and what should be done to avoid it no man among
us could guess. The foaming river ran in such volume that only madness
would have attempted to ford it. Flight was cut off, and of course
resistance was hopeless. The first place our pursuers would make for
would be the bridge and the ford, since they were the only roads by
which we could hope to reach the frontier. To take to the mountains
would have been a purposeless folly. We could look for nothing but
starvation and ultimate surrender there.
Happily for myself I was in my element again. We were forced into
inaction once more, but it was a form of inaction which differed
from that weary waiting which had so torn my nerves for the past
eight-and-forty hours.
“I suppose, gentlemen,” I said, “that, in any case, surrender is out of
the question.”
“I decline,” cried Brunow, “to be the victim of your folly. If you had
taken the road we should have been out of danger long ago. You choose
to be caught like a rat in a trap, and I wash my hands of the whole
business. I shall walk back to the inn.”
He was already in the act of dismounting, when Hinge spoke.
“I wonder,” he said, very dryly, “what them Austrians will think of the
gentleman as brought the letter from the general?”
Brunow settled back in his saddle with a muffled exclamation, and spoke
no more.
“Gentlemen,” said the count, “if there is any possible way of escape
without me I beseech you to take it.”
Nobody answered. We sat for a long time in silence, and the river roared
by. We strained our ears to listen, but not a sound reached us from the
direction of the fortress. The night, late so stormy, was quite light
and quiet. An intense silence reigned on the hills, and not a sound was
heard but the noise of the tumbling, hurrying water near at hand.
When I had gone to look at the ford I had taken keen note of everything,
for to have mistaken the spot might have been fatal to us, even if no
pursuit had been started. I had noticed a rock which stood in mid-stream
about a score of yards above the ford, rising some four feet above the
level of the stream. When we had reached the water-side this rock had
been invisible, and I could only guess how deeply it was covered. I
noticed on a sudden that its forehead was bare once more, and I stared
at it with my heart in my eyes until I was persuaded that it was growing
above water every instant. The river ran in this spot in a perfect
torrent, with an incline, I should say, of nearly three feet in a
hundred. The stream bore off the rainfall of a whole net-work of hills,
but at the pace at which it ran it could not take long before it
would become passable at some risk. I said nothing as yet, but the
conversation I had held with Lieutenant Breschia on the morning of
our first meeting filled my mind with hope. The torrent seemed no less
noisy, but measuring it by the projecting arms of the rock I could see
that it was falling with a greater rapidity than I had dared to hope
for. Within ten minutes it had dropped six iuches, but for the next ten
minutes it hung stationary; and sometimes to my fancy seemed to gain.
The thousand mountain rills and watercourses which helped to fill its
bed, and which had themselves been latest to receive the rainfall, were
charging down with new forces; and thinking of this I almost surrendered
myself to despair. But I had not even yet given way, when the volume of
water fell with an astonishing suddenness, and in little more than five
minutes by my watch I could see a foot of the rock clear.
At ordinary times the ford was about a foot deep, and even then the
rapid incline of the ground sent the shallow water swirling along at
such a pace that it made a horse's foothold on the sliding pebbles
precarious. Now it was four feet deep at least, and to cross at present
was as impossible as it had been half an hour before. But as I watched
it became more and more evident that the stream had received its last
impetus, and the very element of speed which made the passage dangerous
would diminish danger every moment.
The river seemed to grow noisier as it fell, chafing against obstacles
which it had hitherto overflowed, and listen as one might we could make
out nothing but its sullen roar. I told Hinge what I had noticed about
the stream, and with a few words to my companions I rode until the noise
of rushing water was no longer oppressive to the ear, and listened with
all my might. I heard a thousand distant-seeming noises, which had in
them no reality--shoutings and stealthy whispers, the thud and jingle
of cantering troops of horse, lonely far-away footfalls, all manner
of phantom sounds. Suddenly, in the midst of these illusions, my heart
stood still for a mere half-beat at a noise which I knew in an instant
to be real. A troop of cavalry at a gallop crossed the wooden bridge
which spanned the river a couple of miles away. It sounded like a peal
of thunder, but I knew what it meant well enough. The pursuers would be
ahead of us, and every pass and pathway would be threaded, and guards
would be everywhere.
Half an hour passed away without bringing anything further, and I rode
back to the ford. All three of my companions were watching it with an
absorbed and gloomy interest, and the rock by which I marked the fall of
the stream stood a clear three feet above its surface.
“Let us try it now,” I counselled, and was heading my horse at the
water, when Hinge interposed.
“What's the depth, sir?” he called out to me.
“About two feet,” I answered.
“Then I shall wade,” said Hinge. “It 'll give the hoss more confidence,
and I'll back leather against iron for a foothold.”
I saw the force of his advice, and, dismounting, I stepped cautiously
down into the stream. At first the rush of water carried me off my legs,
and if it had not been that I had firm hold of the reins, and that my
horse still stood on dry land, my share in the enterprise would in all
probability have been then and there over. As it was I succeeded in
regaining a foothold; but though the stream reached only to mid-thigh,
it swept along with such violence that I had all my work cut out
to stand against it. My horse, encouraged by hand and voice, came
tremblingly after me, and the others followed. The stiffest bit of all
the crossing lay at the point where the rush of water diverted by the
rock caught us, and here we were at the deepest. This spot once passed
we were under partial shelter, and from the centre of the stream the
bank rose so rapidly that in half a dozen yards we were scarcely knee
deep. We gained the farther bank and remounted, and then I called a
council of war.
“I have already gone over the ground we shall have to travel,” I began,
“and we ought to be within three hours of safety. But the alarm has been
given, and we shall find every pass guarded. What is to be done?”
“Sir,” said the count, “I have no claim upon you or your companions.
I thank you from my heart for your brave attempt in my behalf. But the
fates are against us. For my own part, I counsel that we resign the
struggle, and that you do your best to cross the frontier singly. I
shall not be taken alive.”
“There is no going back,” I answered. “It is no safer now to abandon the
enterprise than to go on with it. We are not likely to be intercepted
until we reach the pass. My advice is that we ride as far as we dare,
and then take to the hills on foot, avoiding the passes. We shall have a
scramble for it, but life and liberty are worth that.”
“Neither life nor liberty should have been in danger,” said Brunow,
sullenly. “It is your fault if they are, and if I lose either through
your folly, on your head be it.”
I reminded him that we had laid our plans together, and that they had
had his full approval; but he was not in a mood to listen to reason, and
I got no answer from him but a grunt of anger and disdain. The council
of war had not served any very great purpose so far, and I turned
away with a touch of desperation in my mind. I rode on, and the others
followed. We skirted a wood which stretched from the river towards the
nearest range of hills, and our horses' footfall on the turf, sodden as
it was by the recent raiu, made hardly a sound. We kept well in shadow,
and had advanced perhaps a couple of miles, when I made out the highway
at a little distance looking like a broad ribbon in the moonlight.
Suddenly a bugle-call shrilled on the air, and while we shrank closer
into the shadow of the trees a tumult of hoof-beats filled the quiet
night, and a whole squadron of cavalry came in sight, riding full tilt
in the direction of the fortress. We could feel the reverberation caused
by the galloping mass beneath us, and in a minute they were out of sight
and almost out of hearing.
“That's a curious thing, sir,” said Hinge, speaking almost at my ear.
“What is a curious thing?” I asked.
“That is,” he replied, stretching out a hand in the direction of the
vanished body of horsemen. “They've left nobody to guard the roads.”
“How do you know that?” I asked, eagerly.
“I counted 'em as they went by,” he answered. “There's every mounted man
they've got in the place. They're all there down to the farriers. I'm a
born fool, I am,” he added, in an accent of the greatest delight.
“They've never been after us at all, sir. It's a bit of midnight drill.
That's what it is. I'll bet the road's as clear in front of us as ever
it was.”
After the fright we had had the news seemed too good to be true, but a
brief consultation decided us to act on Hinge's hope, and to push boldly
forward. We made for the highway, and following it at a road trot found
ourselves breasting the first upward slope of the pass within a quarter
of an hour. By-and-by the hills began to enfold us round, but the moon
rode high and the road was clear and firm. For the first mile or so
we kept an anxious outlook, but as the minutes went on our fears of
interruption grew fainter, and our hopes rose to fever heat. We were all
well mounted, our horses were fresh and full of vigor, and to all but
one of us the ride itself was the merest bagatelle. But I noticed,
riding side by side with the count, that he was reeling in the saddle
like a drunken man, and at one moment he gave such a lurch towards me
that if I had not been at hand to support him he would have fallen to
the ground.
“I am weak,” he said, as I checked his horse and mine. “It is no wonder.
I am surprised that I have come as far.”
He spoke with a gasping voice as if in pain, and with one hand clasped
to his side.
“No hurry,” I answered. “Let us go at an easier pace.”
He soon recovered, and professed himself ready to push on again; but
half a mile at the old pace brought him once more to a standstill. I
gave him a little brandy from a flask with which I had been careful
to supply myself, and once more he managed to ride on. From this time
forward, however, he had to be watched with the utmost carefulness, and
his feebleness so delayed us that we were a good three hours later in
Teaching the end of the pass than we had expected. I had ascertained
that the downs, which showed the frontier line, might be skirted by
taking a lonely and difficult road to the right within a mile or so of
our exit from Austrian territory. I had ascertained also that a sentry
was on duty on this pathway night and day, his main duty being to
prevent the passage of contraband goods. That we should have to deal
with this fellow was an absolute certainty, and had been from the first,
but it was easier to reckon with one man than with the dozen posted at
the barrier.
We had come at so easy a pace that our horses showed no signs of
distress or travel, and by this time the daylight was shining broadly.
The dawn was two hours old, and there was on the face of things
suspicion in our being on the road at such a time. Already the land of
promise lay in sight, when the last obstacle to be encountered on our
journey presented itself. The sentry sat as if dozing, with his rifle
between his knees, but at the noise of our approach he sprang to his
feet and hailed us sharply. We had passed a quick bend in the road, and
had come upon him rather suddenly. We had already decided to ride up to
him without reply, but he cocked his piece and called on us to halt. I
waved my hand to him and we all rode on quickly. He seemed puzzled and
irresolute for a moment, but he ended by clapping the butt of his rifle
to his shoulder, and sang out “Halt!” once more.
“Good! good! my friend,” I answered. “We are Englishmen, and travellers.
There is no need to fire.”
My foreign accent was proof enough that we were strangers, and he
hesitated again. I was almost abreast of him by this time, and wishing
him a good-day I was in some hope of being able to push by without
further parley, but he set himself in the way with his rifle across his
breast.
“What brings you travelling this way?” I made him out to ask. “You have
no right to pass by here. Take the lower road,” he added, with a gesture
which helped me to his meaning.
“We have passports,” I told him, producing my own paper and holding it
towards him. “This is my friend, and this is my servant. The guide they
gave us at Itzia has fallen ill.”
“You cannot pass this way,” he answered, gruffly, disregarding the
passport. “You must go round by the lower road.”
“My good fellow,” Brunow broke in, airily, “you mustn't talk nonsense.
We are going by, and there is an end of it. This gentlemen and I are
personal friends of General Rodetzsky's. We have been on a visit to my
friend Lieutenant Breschia at the fortress at Itzia, and we are now on
our way to Pollia. That is the town below there I believe.”
I more than half made him out at the time, and he confirmed my guesses
later on. Suave and easy as he was, he made no impression on the sentry,
who stood there immovable, bent on duty.
“We don't want to be troublesome,” said Brunow, “and it's too absurd
to talk of one man stopping four. Look at our papers if you like, and
there's a little something for yourself.” He threw the man a gold coin.
The fellow stooped to pick it up, and we rode on like men whose business
was accomplished. He ran after us, shouting and gesticulating for a
minute or two, but we paid no heed to him, and in a while he left us to
ourselves.
In five minutes we were breathing free air in a free land.
Half an hour later we rode into the main street of the town and hammered
at the gate of a hotel. When we had awakened everybody else in the
neighborhood our summons was answered by a sleepy hostler, who admitted
us to the yard and took in our horses. A sleepy waiter appeared and
led us to a room, the shutters of which were still closed against the
daylight. We asked for coffee; and the man having thrown open the
window to admit the light and air, and having gone away, I turned to our
rescued prisoner, who had fallen all in a heap on a couch in one corner
of the room.
Until now I had but little opportunity of observing him, for he had
ridden all the way wrapped up in his great common soldier's cloak with
its big collar turned up until it obscured every feature but his eyes
and the mere point of a beak-like nose. Now, as he lay in an attitude of
exhaustion, I went to assist him to a position of more comfort. I took
the hook-and-eye which fastened the collar of the cloak and drew them
apart; and such a countenance revealed itself as I never saw before, and
pray Heaven I may never see again. A huge sweeping beard descended to
the waist, and its whiteness was obscured by filth incredible. The long
locks that mingled with it and overlay it on either side were roped
together and tangled beyond hope of severance. The face was horribly
pinched and meagre, and was of the color or want of color which you
see in plants which have grown wholly in the dark. I will not describe
further what I saw--what loathsome evidences of foul neglect. I have no
heart for it, and I feel as if it insulted the memory of a gentleman to
recall the evidences of the long and miserable martyrdom he had
endured. They had kept him stabled like a wild beast--those accursed
Austrians--for twenty years, and during all that time the martyred
wretch had never known the use of the simplest appliance of cleanliness.
In all the years I have lived I have never met a man who was more
completely a gentleman by nature--more fastidious in his nicety of dress
and person. I had to learn that afterwards; but for the moment, whether
rage or pity or repulsion most filled my heart at this first clear sight
of him, I could not have told. I think he saw nothing but the horror in
my face, for he blushed crimson, and started to his feet with his coarse
cloak clutched about his neck, and stared at me half appealing and all
ashamed.
If I had had one of his jailers to account with at that moment it would
have gone ill with him, I fancy. I have lived to see the death of that
horrible tyranny, and I know now, that outside the borders of the one
blackguard power which still darkens in the East, no such a life as this
man had led is possible for any political prisoner in Europe; but even
now, when I am an old man, and ought to be able to take things quietly,
my blood surges in my veins when I think of that one minute of my life.
I was no milksop, and I had led a soldier's life, and had seen plenty of
things that were not pretty to look at. But I was horrified, and I can't
even write about it now without the old wrath and disgust and shame.
I got the poor gentleman a room to himself, and when, in the course of
a few hours, the town was alive, I wandered out into the streets and
bought a pair of scissors. Any old campaigner may be a tolerable barber,
and I was a pretty good one. I trimmed the late prisoner into decency,
and with my own hands carried up a pail of water, a piece of soap,
and towels. I had taken good stock of him, and carried his bodily
measurements in my mind when I went out again to an outfitter's, taking
Hinge with me to translate. I bought underclothing, and a suit of
clothes; and I took back a shoemaker with me, and when the-count had
dressed sent the man to him to try on a number of pairs of boots he had
brought with him in a basket.
When the Conte di Rossano, clothed like himself for the first time in
twenty years, came into the room in which breakfast was set for us, I
hardly recognized him, though I myself had taken part in bringing about
the transformation which had been worked in him. He came in alert and
erect, and for a mere second looked every inch a gentleman. But the
broad light to which he had been so long a stranger made him blink, and
sent his hand to his eyes. He came across to the table with a faltering
and uncertain tread, and with a curious crouch in his walk. It struck me
for the first time then, but I saw it so often afterwards that I almost
ceased to notice it at all. For an instant pride and liberty had buoyed
him so that he could present a passing semblance of what he had been,
but the change fell upon him as quick as lightning, and no flash of
lightning could have blighted him more dreadfully. He approached the
table shuffling, with bent head, and purblind eyes peering this way and
that. I placed a chair for him, but he seemed uncertain what to do
with it until I helped him to seat himself. The filthy floor of that
unspeakable dungeon had been his only seat and couch for a score of
years.
He sat crouching at the table as if hugging himself together for warmth,
though the day was balmy, and the sun was bright and hot outside. When
he drank he took his cup in both hands as an ape would have done, and as
he tasted the fragrant coffee he made an animal noise of satisfaction.
He caught himself at this, and a swift tide of crimson passed over his
face; but a minute later the old felon habit was upon him again, and
I saw him tearing his bread with his teeth in quite the jail-bird way.
Looking at his thin hands, I saw that he had clipped his nails; but the
skin had overgrown them, and had split into ragged fragments. I caught
him peering at them in a distasteful way, and when he detected me in the
act of watching him he hid them beneath the table.
We were still at table, when there came a sudden bang at the door, and
without waiting for any reply in walked a gentleman with every sign of
the public functionary about him, cocked hat, official stick, and all.
He bowed, closed the door, stepped forward, and bowed again.
“The gentlemen speak French?” he asked.
I answered in the affirmative, and our visitor announced himself as
the _huissier_ of the magistrates court. It was his duty to demand our
presence before the bench. On what ground, I asked. The functionary
responded fluently and with an evident sense of his own importance
that we had passed the frontier without showing our papers, and by an
unrecognized route; that one of us was an escaped political prisoner;
that the others were charged with assisting in his flight; that a
lieutenant of lancers had been sent to demand our return, and that we
were at once to appear at court. To all of which I answered flatly
that we would not go; whereupon the functionary retired, leaving, as we
discovered afterwards, a guard outside the house. A little later came a
gentleman in official robes, who turned out to be the chief-magistrate.
He explained his errand with some pomp.
“Sir,” I said, when he had come to a peremptory end, “I am an Englishman
and a soldier. Here are my credentials. This gentleman, the Honorable
George Brunow, is a son of Lord Balmeyle, and is also an Englishman.
This gentleman is the Conte di Rossano.”
And here, to my surprise, the Conte di Rossano arose from his seat at
the table, and, turning towards the official, with one hand on the back
of his chair, said, in a clear, loud voice:
“Also an English subject! I was naturalized before my marriage,” he
added in a changed tone, and so sank into his seat again.
“You hear, sir,” I said, respectfully. “I am about to order a carriage,
and in half an hour shall leave the town with these gentlemen and my
servant on my way to England. Any official person molesting us will be
held officially responsible for his conduct.”
The mayor wavered.
“I have the honor, sir, to wish you a good-day.”
I opened the door, and in walked Lieutenant Breschia.
“These are my birds,” he said, laughingly. “I haven't the pleasure of
being acquainted with this gentleman,” signalizing the count, “but I
dare say we shall learn to know each other.”
“My dear Breschia,” cried Brunow, “we are sorry to have defrauded you;
but you know us, and you know it will not pay to meddle with us. We
are on neutral soil. We are all three British subjects. You have no
authority here, and you know it.”
“Eh, bien!” said the lieutenant, laughing still. “Civis Romanus sum. His
excellency, the mayor, will bear out my statement that I came and saw
and strove to conquer. You do not find it in your competence, sir, to
arrest these gentlemen, who are all subjects of the British crown?”
“It is not my affair,” said the mayor.
“And I am not authorized to employ force,” said the lieutenant. “We are
nonplussed, Monsieur le Maire.”
“It would so appear,” said the puzzled functionary; and being bowed from
the room by the lieutenant, he retired.
“Civis Romanus sum,” repeated Breschia, when we were left alone. “It is
a great saying. And so you positively won't come back?”
“Positively we will not,” said Brunow.
“Then, positively,” returned the lieutenant, “I will go back and report
my failure.”
“Permit that I condole,” said Brunow.
“Permit that I felicitate,” answered Breschia; and so with a burlesque
friendly bow on either side they parted.