"Why, Mahon! I never knew you were such a politician! much less such a Radical!"
"Nothing much of either, old fellow; only a man who hates tyranny in every shape and form--whether religious or political. Above all, that which owes its existence to the cheapest, the very shabbiest, chicanery the world was ever bamboozled with. I like open dealing in all things."
"But you are not recommending it now--in this little convent matter?"
"Ah! that"s quite a different affair! There are certain ends that justify certain means--when the devil must be fought with his own weapons. Ours is of that kind, and we must either use strategy, or give the thing up altogether. By open measures there wouldn"t be the slightest chance of our getting this girl out of the convent"s clutches.
Even then we may fail; but, if successful, it will only be by great craft, some luck, and possibly a good deal of time spent before we accomplish our purpose."
"Poor fellow!" rejoins Ryecroft, speaking of the Wye waterman, "he won"t like the idea of long waiting. He"s madly, terribly impatient. This afternoon, as we were pa.s.sing the convent, I had a difficulty to restrain him from rushing up to its door, ringing the bell, and demanding an interview with the "Soeur Marie"--having his Mary, as he calls her, restored to him on the instant."
"It"s well you succeeded in hindering that little bit of rashness. Had he done so, "twould have ended not only in the door being slammed in his face, but another door shut behind his back--that of a gaol, from which he would never have issued till embarking on a voyage to New Caledonia or Cayenne. Ay, both of you might have been so served. For would you believe it, Ryecroft, that you, an officer of the boasted H.B.R.A., rich, and with powerful friends--even you could be not only here imprisoned, but _deporte_, without any one who has interest in you being the wiser; or, if so, having no power to prevent it. France, under the _regime_ of Napoleon le Pet.i.t, is not so very different from what it was under the rule of Louis le Grand, and _lettres de cachet_ are now rife as then. Nay, more of them now written, consigning men to a hundred bastilles instead of one. Never was a people so enslaved as these Johnny c.r.a.pauds are at this present time; not only their speech fettered, but their very thoughts held in bondage, or so constrained, they may not impart them to one another. Even intimate friends forbear exchanging confidences, lest one prove false to the other! Nothing free but insincerity and sin; both fostered and encouraged from that knowledge intuitive among tyrants; that wickedness weakens a people, making them easier to rule and ride over. So, my boy, you perceive the necessity of our acting with caution in this business, whatever trouble or time it may take--don"t you?"
"I do."
"After all," pursues the Major, "it seems to me that time isn"t of so much consequence. As regards the girl, they"re not going to eat her up.
And for the other matters concerning yourself, they"ll keep, too. As you say, the scent"s become cold; and a few days more or less can"t make any difference. Beside, the trails we intend following may in the end all run into one. I shouldn"t be at all surprised if this captive damsel has come to the knowledge of something connected with the other affair.
Faith, that may be the very reason for their having her conveyed over here, to be cooped up for the rest of her life. In any case, the fact of her abduction, in such an odd, outrageous way, would of itself be d.a.m.ning collateral evidence against whoever has done it, showing him or them good for anything. So, the first work on our hands, as the surest, is to get the waterman"s sweetheart out of the convent, and safe back to her home in Herefordshire."
"That"s our course, clearly. But have you any thoughts as to how we should proceed?"
"I have; more than thoughts--hopes of success--and sanguine ones."
"Good! I"m glad to hear it. Upon what do you base them?"
"On that very near relative of mine--Sister Kate. As I"ve told you, she"s a pet of the Lady Superior; admitted into the very _arcana_ of the establishment. And with such privilege, if she can"t find a way to communicate with any one therein closeted, she must have lost the mother wit born to her, and brought thither from the "brightest gem of the say." I don"t think she has, or that it"s been a bit blunted in Boulogne. Instead, somewhat sharpened by communion with these Holy Sisters; and I"ve no fear but that "twill be sharp to serve us in the little scheme I"ve in part sketched out."
"Let me hear it, Mahon."
"Kate must obtain an interview with the English girl; or, enough if she can slip a note into her hand. That would go some way towards getting her out--by giving her intimation that friends are near."
"I see what you mean," rejoins the Captain, pulling away at his cigar, the other left to finish giving details of the plan he has been mentally projecting.
"We"ll have to do a little bit of burglary, combined with abduction.
Serve them out in their own coin; as it were, hoisting the priest on his own petard!"
"It will be difficult, I fear."
"Of course it will, and dangerous. Likely more the last than the first.
But it"ll have to be done, else we may drop the thing entirely."
"Never, Mahon! No matter what the danger, I for one am willing to risk it. And we can reckon on Jack Wingate. He"ll be only too ready to rush into it."
"Ah! there might be more danger through his rashness. But it must be held in check. After all, I don"t apprehend so much difficulty if things be dexterously managed. Fortunately there"s a circ.u.mstance in our favour."
"What is it?"
"A window."
"Ah! Where?"
"In the convent, of course. That which gives light--not much of it either--to the cloister where the girl is confined. By a lucky chance my sister has learnt the particular one, and seen the window from the outside. It looks over the grounds where the nuns take recreation, now and then allowed intercourse with the school girls. She says it"s high up, but not higher than the top of the garden wall; so a ladder that will enable us to scale the one should be long enough to reach the other. I"m more dubious about the dimensions of the window itself. Kate describes it as only a small affair, with an upright bar in the middle--iron, she believes. Wood or iron, we may manage to remove that; but if the Herefordshire bacon has made your farmer"s daughter too big to screw herself through the aperture, then it"ll be all up a tree with us. However, we must find out before making the attempt to extract her.
From what sister has told me, I fancy we can see the window from the Ramparts above. If so, we may make a distant measurement of it by guess work. Now," continues the Major, coming to his programme of action, "what"s got to be done first is that your Wye boatman write a _billet doux_ to his old sweetheart--in the terms I shall dictate to him. Then my sister must contrive, in some way, to put it in the girl"s hands, or see that she gets it."
"And what after?"
"Well, nothing much after; only that we must make preparations for the appointment the waterman will make in his epistle."
"It may as well be written now--may it not?"
"Certainly; I was just thinking of that. The sooner, the better. Shall I call him in?"
"Do as you think proper, Mahon. I trust everything to you."
The Major, rising, rings a bell, which brings Murtagh to the dining-room door.
"Murt, tell your guest in the kitchen we wish a word with him."
The face of the Irish soldier vanishes from view, soon after replaced by that of the Welsh waterman.
"Step inside, Wingate!" says the Captain; which the other does, and remains standing to hear what the word was wanted.
"You can write, Jack, can"t you?"
It is Ryecroft who puts the inquiry.
"Well, Captain, I ain"t much o" a penman, but I can scribble a sort o"
rough hand after a fashion."
"A fair enough hand for Mary Morgan to read it, I dare say."
"Oh, sir, I only weesh there wor a chance o" her gettin" a letter from me!"
"There is a chance. I think we can promise that. If you"ll take this pen and put down what my friend Major Mahon dictates to you, it will in all probability be in her hands ere long."
Never was pen more eagerly laid hold of than that offered to Jack Wingate. Then, sitting down to the table as directed, he waits to be told what he is to write.
The Major, bent over him, seems cogitating what it should be. Not so, however. Instead, he is occupied with an astronomical problem which is puzzling him. For its solution he appeals to Ryecroft, asking,--
"How about the moon?"
"The moon?"
"Yes. Which quarter is she in? For the life of me, I can"t tell."
"Nor I," rejoins the Captain. "I never think of such a thing."
"She"s in her last," puts in the boatman, accustomed to take note of lunar changes. "It be an old moon now shining all the night, when the sky an"t clouded."
"You"re right, Jack!" says Ryecroft. "Now I remember; it is the old moon."