"Hollo, my young friend, well met! This will be a night of trial to you.
Empty stomachs produce weak nerves. Come along! you must dine with me.
A good dinner and a bottle of old wine--come! nonsense, I say you shall come! Vive la joie!"
While speaking, he had linked his arm in Morton"s, and hurried him on several paces in spite of his struggles; but just as the words Vive la joie left his lips, he stood still and mute, as if a thunderbolt had fallen at his feet; and Morton felt that heavy arm shiver and tremble like a leaf. He looked up, and just at the entrance of that part of the Palais Royal in which are situated the restaurants of Verey and Vefour, he saw two men standing but a few paces before them, and gazing full on Gawtrey and himself.
"It is my evil genius," muttered Gawtrey, grinding his teeth.
"And mine!" said Morton.
The younger of the two men thus apostrophised made a step towards Philip, when his companion drew him back and whispered,--"What are you about--do you know that young man?"
"He is my cousin; Philip Beaufort"s natural son!"
"Is he? then discard him for ever. He is with the most dangerous knave in Europe!"
As Lord Lilburne--for it was he--thus whispered his nephew, Gawtrey strode up to him; and, glaring full in his face, said in a deep and hollow tone,--"There is a h.e.l.l, my lord,--I go to drink to our meeting!"
Thus saying, he took off his hat with a ceremonious mockery, and disappeared within the adjoining restaurant, kept by Vefour.
"A h.e.l.l!" said Lilburne, with his frigid smile; "the rogue"s head runs upon gambling-houses!"
"And I have suffered Philip again to escape me," said Arthur, in self-reproach: for while Gawtrey had addressed Lord Lilburne, Morton had plunged back amidst the labyrinth of alleys. "How have I kept my oath?"
"Come! your guests must have arrived by this time. As for that wretched young man, depend upon it that he is corrupted body and soul."
"But he is my own cousin."
"Pooh! there is no relationship in natural children: besides, he will find you out fast enough. Ragged claimants are not long too proud to beg."
"You speak in earnest?" said Arthur, irresolutely. "Ay! trust my experience of the world--Allons!"
And in a cabinet of the very restaurant, adjoining that in which the solitary Gawtrey gorged his conscience, Lilburne, Arthur, and their gay friends, soon forgetful of all but the roses of the moment, bathed their airy spirits in the dews of the mirthful wine. Oh, extremes of life! Oh, Night! Oh, Morning!
CHAPTER IX.
"Meantime a moving scene was open laid, That lazar house."--THOMSON"S Castle of Indolence.
It was near midnight. At the mouth of the lane in which Gawtrey resided there stood four men. Not far distant, in the broad street at angles with the lane, were heard the wheels of carriages and the sound of music. A lady, fair in form, tender of heart, stainless in repute, was receiving her friends!
"Monsieur Favart," said one of the men to the smallest of the four; "you understand the conditions--20,000 francs and a free pardon?"
"Nothing more reasonable--it is understood. Still I confess that I should like to have my men close at hand. I am not given to fear; but this is a dangerous experiment."
"You knew the danger beforehand and subscribed to it: you must enter alone with me, or not at all. Mark you, the men are sworn to murder him who betrays them. Not for twenty times 20,000 francs would I have them know me as the informer. My life were not worth a day"s purchase. Now, if you feel secure in your disguise, all is safe. You will have seen them at their work--you will recognise their persons--you can depose against them at the trial--I shall have time to quit France."
"Well, well! as you please."
"Mind, you must wait in the vault with them till they separate. We have so planted your men that whatever street each of the gang takes in going home, he can be seized quietly and at once. The bravest and craftiest of all, who, though he has but just joined, is already their captain;--him, the man I told you of, who lives in the house, you must take after his return, in his bed. It is the sixth story to the right, remember: here is the key to his door. He is a giant in strength; and will never be taken alive if up and armed."
"Ah, I comprehend!--Gilbert" (and Favart turned to one of his companions who had not yet spoken) "take three men besides yourself, according to the directions I gave you,--the porter will admit you, that"s arranged.
Make no noise. If I don"t return by four o"clock, don"t wait for me, but proceed at once. Look well to your primings. Take him alive, if possible--at the worst, dead. And now--anon ami--lead on!"
The traitor nodded, and walked slowly down the street. Favart, pausing, whispered hastily to the man whom he had called Gilbert,--
"Follow me close--get to the door of the cellar-place eight men within hearing of my whistle--recollect the picklocks, the axes. If you hear the whistle, break in; if not, I"m safe, and the first orders to seize the captain in his room stand good."
So saying, Favart strode after his guide. The door of a large, but ill-favoured-looking house stood ajar--they entered-pa.s.sed unmolested through a court-yard--descended some stairs; the guide unlocked the door of a cellar, and took a dark lantern from under his cloak. As he drew up the slide, the dim light gleamed on barrels and wine-casks, which appeared to fill up the s.p.a.ce. Rolling aside one of these, the guide lifted a trap-door, and lowered his lantern. "Enter," said he; and the two men disappeared.
The coiners were at their work. A man, seated on a stool before a desk, was entering accounts in a large book. That man was William Gawtrey.
While, with the rapid precision of honest mechanics, the machinery of the Dark Trade went on in its several departments. Apart--alone--at the foot of a long table, sat Philip Morton. The truth had exceeded his darkest suspicions. He had consented to take the oath not to divulge what was to be given to his survey; and when, led into that vault, the bandage was taken from his eyes, it was some minutes before he could fully comprehend the desperate and criminal occupations of the wild forms amidst which towered the burly stature of his benefactor. As the truth slowly grew upon him, he shrank from the side of Gawtrey; but, deep compa.s.sion for his friend"s degradation swallowing up the horror of the trade, he flung himself on one of the rude seats, and felt that the bond between them was indeed broken, and that the next morning he should be again alone in the world. Still, as the obscene jests, the fearful oaths, that from time to time rang through the vault, came on his ear, he cast his haughty eye in such disdain over the groups, that Gawtrey, observing him, trembled for his safety; and nothing but Philip"s sense of his own impotence, and the brave, not timorous, desire not to perish by such hands, kept silent the fiery denunciations of a nature still proud and honest, that quivered on his lips. All present were armed with pistols and cutla.s.ses except Morton, who suffered the weapons presented to him to lie unheeded on the table.
"Courage, mes amis!" said Gawtrey, closing his book,--"Courage!--a few months more, and we shall have made enough to retire upon, and enjoy ourselves for the rest of the days. Where is Birnie?"
"Did he not tell you?" said one of the artisans, looking up. "He has found out the cleverest hand in France, the very fellow who helped Bouchard in all his five-franc pieces. He has promised to bring him to-night."
"Ay, I remember," returned Gawtrey, "he told me this morning,--he is a famous decoy!"
"I think so, indeed!" quoth a coiner; "for he caught you, the best head to our hands that ever les industriels were blessed with--sacre fichtre!"
"Flatterer!" said Gawtrey, coming from the desk to the table, and pouring out wine from one of the bottles into a huge flagon--"To your healths!"
Here the door slided back, and Birnie glided in.
"Where is your booty, mon brave?" said Gawtrey. "We only coin money; you coin men, stamp with your own seal, and send them current to the devil!"
The coiners, who liked Birnie"s ability (for the ci-devant engraver was of admirable skill in their craft), but who hated his joyless manners, laughed at this taunt, which Birnie did not seem to heed, except by a malignant gleam of his dead eye.
"If you mean the celebrated coiner, Jacques Giraumont, he waits without.
You know our rules. I cannot admit him without leave."
"Bon! we give it,--eh, messieurs?" said Gawtrey. "Ay-ay," cried several voices. "He knows the oath, and will hear the penalty."
"Yes, he knows the oath," replied Birnie, and glided back.
In a moment more he returned with a small man in a mechanic"s blouse.
The new comer wore the republican beard and moustache--of a sandy grey--his hair was the same colour; and a black patch over one eye increased the ill-favoured appearance of his features.
"Diable! Monsieur Giraumont! but you are more like Vulcan than Adonis!"
said Gawtrey.
"I don"t know anything about Vulcan, but I know how to make five-franc pieces," said Monsieur Giraumont, doggedly.
"Are you poor?"
"As a church mouse! The only thing belonging to a church, since the Bourbons came back, that is poor!"