The Countess took one pace forward, as if she would have followed him, as if she would have tried further persuasion. But as she moved a cry rooted her to the spot. A rush of feet and the babel of many voices filled the pa.s.sage with a tide of sound, which drew rapidly nearer. The escape was known! Would the fugitives have time to slip out below?
Some one knocked at the door, tried it, pushed and beat on it. But the Countess and all in the room had run to the windows and were looking out.
If the two had not yet made their escape they must be taken. Yet no; as the Countess leaned from the window, first one dusty figure and then a second darted from a door below, and made for the nearest turning, out of the Place Ste.-Croix. Before they gained it, four men, of whom, Badelon, his grey locks flying, was first, dashed out in pursuit, and the street rang with cries of "Stop him! Seize him! Seize him!" Some one--one of the pursuers or another--to add to the alarm let off a musket, and in a moment, as if the report had been a signal, the Place was in a hubbub, people flocked into it with mysterious quickness, and from a neighbouring roof--whence, precisely, it was impossible to say--the crackling fire of a dozen arquebuses alarmed the city far and wide.
Unfortunately, the fugitives had been baulked at the first turning.
Making for a second, they found it choked, and, swerving, darted across the Place towards St.-Maurice, seeking to lose themselves in the gathering crowd. But the pursuers clung desperately to their skirts, overturning here a man and there a child; and then in a twinkling, Tignonville, as he ran round a booth, tripped over a peg and fell, and La Tribe stumbled over him and fell also. The four riders flung themselves fiercely on their prey, secured them, and began to drag them with oaths and curses towards the door of the inn.
The Countess had seen all from her window; had held her breath while they ran, had drawn it sharply when they fell. Now, "They have them!" she muttered, a sob choking her, "they have them!" And she clasped her hands. If he had followed her advice! If he had only followed her advice!
But the issue proved less certain than she deemed it. The crowd, which grew each moment, knew nothing of pursuers or pursued. On the contrary, a cry went up that the riders were Huguenots, and that the Huguenots were rising and slaying the Catholics; and as no story was too improbable for those days, and this was one constantly set about, first one stone flew, and then another, and another. A man with a staff darted forward and struck Badelon on the shoulder, two or three others pressed in and jostled the riders; and if three of Tavannes" following had not run out on the instant and faced the mob with their pikes, and for a moment forced them to give back, the prisoners would have been rescued at the very door of the inn. As it was they were dragged in, and the gates were flung to and barred in the nick of time. Another moment, almost another second, and the mob had seized them. As it was, a hail of stones poured on the front of the inn, and amid the rising yells of the rabble there presently floated heavy and slow over the city the tolling of the great bell of St.-Maurice.
CHAPTER x.x.x. SACRILEGE!
M. de Montsoreau, Lieutenant-Governor of Saumur almost rose from his seat in his astonishment.
"What! No letters?" he cried, a hand on either arm of the chair.
The Magistrates stared, one and all. "No letters?" they muttered.
And "No letters?" the Provost chimed in more faintly.
Count Hannibal looked smiling round the Council table. He alone was unmoved.
"No," he said. "I bear none."
M. de Montsoreau, who, travel-stained and in his corselet, had the second place of honour at the foot of the table, frowned.
"But, M. le Comte," he said, "my instructions from Monsieur were to proceed to carry out his Majesty"s will in co-operation with you, who, I understood, would bring letters _de par le Roi_."
"I had letters," Count Hannibal answered negligently. "But on the way I mislaid them."
"Mislaid them?" Montsoreau cried, unable to believe his ears; while the smaller dignitaries of the city, the magistrates and churchmen who sat on either side of the table, gaped open-mouthed. It was incredible! It was unbelievable! Mislay the King"s letters! Who had ever heard of such a thing?
"Yes, I mislaid them. Lost them, if you like it better."
"But you jest!" the Lieutenant-Governor retorted, moving uneasily in his chair. He was a man more highly named for address than courage; and, like most men skilled in finesse, he was p.r.o.ne to suspect a trap. "You jest, surely, Monsieur! Men do not lose his Majesty"s letters, by the way."
"When they contain his Majesty"s will, no," Tavannes answered, with a peculiar smile.
"You imply, then?"
Count Hannibal shrugged his shoulders, but had not answered when Bigot entered and handed him his sweetmeat box; he paused to open it and select a prune. He was long in selecting; but no change of countenance led any of those at the table to suspect that inside the lid of the box was a message--a sc.r.a.p of paper informing him that Montsoreau had left fifty spears in the suburb without the Saumur gate, besides those whom he had brought openly into the town. Tavannes read the note slowly while he seemed to be choosing his fruit. And then--
"Imply?" he answered. "I imply nothing, M. de Montsoreau."
"But--"
"But that sometimes his Majesty finds it prudent to give orders which he does not mean to be carried out. There are things which start up before the eye," Tavannes continued, negligently tapping the box on the table, "and there are things which do not; sometimes the latter are the more important. You, better than I, M. de Montsoreau, know that the King in the Gallery at the Louvre is one, and in his closet is another."
"Yes."
"And that being so--"
"You do not mean to carry the letters into effect?"
"Had I the letters, certainly, my friend. I should be bound by them. But I took good care to lose them," Tavannes added naively. "I am no fool."
"Umph!"
"However," Count Hannibal continued, with an airy gesture, "that is my affair. If you, M. de Montsoreau, feel inclined, in spite of the absence of my letters, to carry yours into effect, by all means do so--after midnight of to-day."
M. de Montsoreau breathed hard. "And why," he asked, half sulkily and half ponderously, "after midnight only, M. le Comte?"
"Merely that I may be clear of all suspicion of having lot or part in the matter," Count Hannibal answered pleasantly. "After midnight of to-night by all means do as you please. Until midnight, by your leave, we will be quiet."
The Lieutenant-Governor moved doubtfully in his chair, the fear--which Tavannes had shrewdly instilled into his mind--that he might be disowned if he carried out his instructions, struggling with his avarice and his self-importance. He was rather crafty than bold; and such things had been, he knew. Little by little, and while he sat gloomily debating, the notion of dealing with one or two and holding the body of the Huguenots to ransom--a notion which, in spite of everything, was to bear good fruit for Angers--began to form in his mind. The plan suited him: it left him free to face either way, and it would fill his pockets more genteelly than would open robbery. On the other hand, he would offend his brother and the fanatical party, with whom he commonly acted. They were looking to see him a.s.sert himself. They were looking to hear him declare himself. And--
Harshly Count Hannibal"s voice broke in on his thoughts; harshly, a something sinister in its tone.
"Where is your brother?" he said. And it was evident that he had not noted his absence until then. "My lord"s Vicar of all people should be here!" he continued, leaning forward and looking round the table. His brow was stormy.
Lescot squirmed under his eye; Thuriot turned pale and trembled. It was one of the canons of St.-Maurice, who at length took on himself to answer.
"His lordship requested, M. le Comte," he ventured, "that you would excuse him. His duties--"
"Is he ill?"
"He--"
"Is he ill, sirrah?" Tavannes roared. And while all bowed before the lightning of his eye, no man at the table knew what had roused the sudden tempest. But Bigot knew, who stood by the door, and whose ear, keen as his master"s, had caught the distant report of a musket shot. "If he be not ill," Tavannes continued, rising and looking round the table in search of signs of guilt, "and there be foul play here, and he the player, the Bishop"s own hand shall not save him! By Heaven it shall not! Nor yours!" he continued, looking fiercely at Montsoreau. "Nor your master"s!"
The Lieutenant-Governor sprang to his feet. "M. le Comte," he stammered, "I do not understand this language! Nor this heat, which may be real or not! All I say is, if there be foul play here--"
"If!" Tavannes retorted. "At least, if there be, there be gibbets too!
And I see necks!" he added, leaning forward. "Necks!" And then, with a look of flame, "Let no man leave this table until I return," he cried, "or he will have to deal with me. Nay," he continued, changing his tone abruptly, as the prudence, which never entirely left him--and perhaps the remembrance of the other"s fifty spearmen--sobered him in the midst of his rage, "I am hasty. I mean not you, M. de Montsoreau! Ride where you will; ride with me, if you will, and I will thank you. Only remember, until midnight Angers is mine!"
He was still speaking when he moved from the table, and, leaving all staring after him, strode down the room. An instant he paused on the threshold and looked back; then he pa.s.sed out, and clattered down the stone stairs. His horse and riders were waiting, but, his foot in the stirrup, he stayed for a word with Bigot.
"Is it so?" he growled.
The Norman did not speak, but pointed towards the Place Ste.-Croix, whence an occasional shot made answer for him.
In those days the streets of the Black City were narrow and crooked, overhung by timber houses, and hampered by booths; nor could Tavannes from the old Town Hall--now abandoned--see the Place Ste.-Croix. But that he could cure. He struck spurs to his horse, and, followed by his ten hors.e.m.e.n, he clattered noisily down the paved street. A dozen groups hurrying the same way sprang panic-stricken to the walls, or saved themselves in doorways. He was up with them, he was beyond them! Another hundred yards, and he would see the Place.