He cast a glance at La Tribe, but he got none in return, and he was preparing to do her bidding when a cry of dismay broke from those who still had their eyes bent downwards. The messenger, waving the letter in a last appeal, had held it too loosely; a light air, as treacherous, as unexpected, had s.n.a.t.c.hed it from his hand, and bore it--even as the Countess, drawn by the cry, sprang to the parapet--fifty paces from him.
A moment it floated in the air, eddying, rising, falling; then, light as thistledown, it touched the water and began to sink.
The messenger uttered frantic lamentations, and stamped the causeway in his rage. The Countess only looked, and looked, until the rippling crest of a baby wave broke over the tiny venture, and with its freight of tidings it sank from sight.
The man, silent now, stared a moment, then shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, "tis fortunate it was his," he cried brutally, "and not His Excellency"s, or my back had suffered! And now," he added impatiently, "by your leave, what answer?"
What answer? Ah, G.o.d, what answer? The men who leant on the parapet, rude and coa.r.s.e as they were, felt the tragedy of the question and the dilemma, guessed what they meant to her, and looked everywhere save at her.
What answer? Which of the two was to live? Which die--shamefully?
Which? Which?
"Tell him--to come back--an hour before sunset," she muttered.
They told him and he went; and one by one the men began to go too, and stole from the roof, leaving her standing alone, her face to the sh.o.r.e, her hands resting on the parapet. The light breeze which blew off the land stirred loose ringlets of her hair, and flattened the thin robe against her sunlit figure. So had she stood a thousand times in old days, in her youth, in her maidenhood. So in her father"s time had she stood to see her lover come riding along the sands to woo her! So had she stood to welcome him on the eve of that fatal journey to Paris!
Thence had others watched her go with him. The men remembered--remembered all; and one by one they stole shamefacedly away, fearing lest she should speak or turn tragic eyes on them.
True, in their pity for her was no doubt of the end, or thought of the victim who must suffer--of Tavannes. They, of Poitou, who had not been with him, knew nothing of him; they cared as little. He was a northern man, a stranger, a man of the sword, who had seized her--so they heard--by the sword. But they saw that the burden of choice was laid on her; there, in her sight and in theirs, rose the gibbet; and, clowns as they were, they discerned the tragedy of her _role_, play it as she might, and though her act gave life to her lover.
When all had retired save three or four, she turned and saw these gathered at the head of the stairs in a ring about Carlat, who was addressing them in a low eager voice. She could not catch a syllable, but a look hard and almost cruel flashed into her eyes as she gazed; and raising her voice she called the steward to her.
"The bridge is up," she said, her tone hard, "but the gates? Are they locked?"
"Yes, Madame."
"The wicket?"
"No, not the wicket." And Carlat looked another way.
"Then go, lock it, and bring the keys to me!" she replied. "Or stay!"
Her voice grew harder, her eyes spiteful as a cat"s. "Stay, and be warned that you play me no tricks! Do you hear? Do you understand? Or old as you are, and long as you have served us, I will have you thrown from this tower, with as little pity as Isabeau flung her gallants to the fishes. I am still mistress here, never more mistress than this day. Woe to you if you forget it."
He blenched and cringed before her, muttering incoherently.
"I know," she said, "I read you! And now the keys. Go, bring them to me! And if by chance I find the wicket unlocked when I come down, pray, Carlat, pray! For you will have need of prayers."
He slunk away, the men with him; and she fell to pacing the roof feverishly. Now and then she extended her arms, and low cries broke from her, as from a dumb creature in pain. Wherever she looked, old memories rose up to torment her and redouble her misery. A thing she could have borne in the outer world, a thing which might have seemed tolerable in the reeking air of Paris or in the gloomy streets of Angers wore here its most appalling aspect. Henceforth, whatever choice she made, this home, where even in those troublous times she had known naught but peace, must bear a d.a.m.ning stain! Henceforth this day and this hour must come between her and happiness, must brand her brow, and fix her with a deed of which men and women would tell while she lived! Oh, G.o.d--pray? Who said, pray?
"I!" And La Tribe with tears in his eyes held out the keys to her. "I, Madame," he continued solemnly, his voice broken with emotion. "For in man is no help. The strongest man, he who rode yesterday a master of men, a very man of war in his pride and his valour--see him, now, and--"
"Don"t!" she cried, sharp pain in her voice. "Don"t!" And she stopped him with her hand, her face averted. After an interval, "You come from him?" she muttered faintly.
"Yes."
"Is he--hurt to death, think you?" She spoke low, and kept her face hidden from him.
"Alas, no!" he answered, speaking the thought in his heart. "The men who are with him seem confident of his recovery."
"Do they know?"
"Badelon has had experience."
"No, no. Do they know of this?" she cried. "Of this!" And she pointed with a gesture of loathing to the black gibbet on the farther strand.
He shook his head. "I think not," he muttered. And after a moment, "G.o.d help you!" he added fervently. "G.o.d help and guide you, Madame!"
She turned on him suddenly, fiercely. "Is that all you can do?" she cried. "Is that all the help you can give? You are a man. Go down, lead them out; drive off these cowards who drain our life"s blood, who trade on a woman"s heart! On them! Do something, anything, rather than lie in safety here--here!"
The minister shook his head sadly. "Alas, Madame!" he said, "to sally were to waste life. They outnumber us three to one. If Count Hannibal could do no more than break through last night, with scarce a man unwounded--"
"He had the women!"
"And we have not him!"
"He would not have left us!" she cried hysterically.
"I believe it."
"Had they taken me, do you think he would have lain behind walls? Or skulked in safety here, while--while--" Her voice failed her.
He shook his head despondently.
"And that is all you can do?" she cried, and turned from him, and to him again, extending her arms, in bitter scorn. "All you will do? Do you forget that twice he spared your life? That in Paris once, and once in Angers, he held his hand? That always, whether he stood or whether he fled, he held himself between us and harm? Ay, always? And who will now raise a hand for him? Who?"
"Madame!"
"Who? Who? Had he died in the field," she continued, her voice shaking with grief, her hands beating the parapet--for she had turned from him--"had he fallen where he rode last night, in the front, with his face to the foe, I had viewed him tearless, I had deemed him happy! I had prayed dry-eyed for him who--who spared me all these days and weeks! Whom I robbed and he forgave me! Whom I tempted, and he forbore me! Ay, and who spared not once or twice him for whom he must now--he must now--" And unable to finish the sentence she beat her hands again and pa.s.sionately on the stones.
"Heaven knows, Madame," the minister cried vehemently, "Heaven knows, I would advise you if I could."
"Why did he wear his corselet?" she wailed, as if she had not heard him.
"Was there no spear could reach his breast, that he must come to this? No foe so gentle he would spare him this? Or why did _he_ not die with me in Paris when we waited? In another minute death might have come and saved us this."
With the tears running down his face he tried to comfort her.
"Man that is a shadow," he said, "pa.s.seth away--what matter how? A little while, a very little while, and we shall pa.s.s!"
"With his curse upon us!" she cried. And, shuddering, she pressed her hands to her eyes to shut out the sight her fancy pictured.
He left her for a while, hoping that in solitude she might regain control of herself. When he returned he found her seated, and outwardly more composed; her arms resting on the parapet-wall, her eyes bent steadily on the long stretch of hard sand which ran northward from the village. By that route her lover had many a time come to her; there she had ridden with him in the early days; and that way they had started for Paris on such a morning and at such an hour as this, with sunshine about them, and larks singing hope above the sand-dunes, and with wavelets creaming to the horses" hoofs!
Of all which La Tribe, a stranger, knew nothing. The rapt gaze, the unchanging att.i.tude only confirmed his opinion of the course she would adopt. He was thankful to find her more composed; and in fear of such a scene as had already pa.s.sed between them, he stole away again. He returned by-and-by, but with the greatest reluctance, and only because Carlat"s urgency would take no refusal.
He came this time to crave the key of the wicket, explaining that--rather to satisfy his own conscience and the men than with any hope of success--he proposed to go halfway along the causeway, and thence by signs invite a conference.
"It is just possible," he added, hesitating--he feared nothing so much as to raise hopes in her--"that by the offer of a money ransom, Madame--"
"Go," she said, without turning her head. "Offer what you please.