"I am not a gaoler, and can be answerable for no one," was the reply, at which the captain shook his fist and rode off, exclaiming, "Take care, take care!"
Though very unwilling to receive the prisoners, the old gentleman treated them with a courtesy which seemed to arise rather from respect to himself than from any regard he entertained for them. The two midshipmen were shown into one small room, and the seamen, with their guards, into another. In the room occupied by O"Grady and Paul, there was a table and chairs and a sofa, while the view from the window consisted of a well-kept garden and vineyard, a green meadow and wooded hills beyond. As far as accommodation was concerned, they had little of which to complain; but they were very hungry, and O"Grady began to complain that the old Frenchman intended to starve them.
"I"ll go and shout and try to get something," he cried out, but he found that the door was locked outside.
The window was too high from the ground to allow them to jump out, and as they would probably be caught, and punished for attempting to run away, they agreed to stay where they were. At length the door opened, and a bright-eyed, nicely-dressed girl came in with a tray covered with edibles, and a bottle of wine in her hands. They stood up as she entered, and bowed. She smiled, and expressed her sympathy for their misfortunes. Paul had, hitherto, not let the Frenchmen know that he understood French.
"I think that I may venture to speak to her," he said to O"Grady. "She would not have said that if she didn"t wish to a.s.sist us."
O"Grady agreed that it would be perfectly safe, and so Paul addressed her in the choicest French he could command, and told her how they had been coming home in a merchantman, and had been captured, and robbed of all they possessed, instead of being, as they had hoped, in a few days in the bosom of their families, with their mothers and brothers and sisters.
"And you both have brothers and sisters, and they long to see you, doubtless," said the little girl.
"Oh yes, and we long to see them," exclaimed Paul, believing that he had moved her heart.
She sighed. "Ah, I once had many, but they are all now in the world of spirits; they cannot come to me, but for their sakes I will try to serve you," answered the girl.
"Oh, thank you, thank you!" said Paul. "If you could help us to get out of this house, and to hide away till the pursuit is over, we should be eternally grateful."
She smiled as she answered--
"You are too precipitate. If you were to escape from this house, my father would be punished. Means may be found, however. We have no love for these regicides, and owe them no allegiance; but you must have patience."
"It is a hard thing to exercise; however, we are very much obliged to you," said Paul.
"Just ask her her name," put in O"Grady. "Tell her we should wish to know what to call one who for ever after this must dwell like a bright star in our memories, especially one who is so lovely and amiable."
"That"s rather a long speech to translate, and perhaps she won"t like all those compliments," remarked Paul.
"Won"t she, though?" said O"Grady, who had seen rather more of the world than his companion; "try her, at all events."
Paul translated as well as he could what Paddy had said, and as the latter stood with his hand on his heart, and bowed at the same time, the young lady was not left in doubt as to who was the originator of the address. Paddy was remarkably good-looking and tall for his age, and the young lady was in no way displeased, and replied that her name was Rosalie, and that she was her father"s only daughter. She had had two brothers, both of whom had been carried away by the conscription. One had been killed in a battle with the Austrians, and the other was still serving in the ranks, though he ought long ago to have been promoted.
"Ah! the cruel fighting," she added; "our rulers take away those we love best, and care not what becomes of them, or of the hearts they break, and bring with sorrow to the grave."
Rosalie soon recovered herself, and, wiping her eyes, told the midshipmen that she would come back again when they had eaten their supper, and would in the meantime try and devise some means to enable them to make their escape while they were travelling.
"She"s a sweet, pretty little girl," observed O"Grady, after Rosalie had gone. "She"ll help us if she can, and do you know I think that she is a Protestant, for I don"t see any pictures of saints and such-like figures stuck about the walls as we do in most other French houses?"
"It is possible; but what difference can that make to you?" asked Paul.
"Why, you see, Gerrard, I have fallen in love with her, and I"m thinking that if she helps us to make our escape, when the war is over, I"ll come back and ask her to marry me."
Paul laughed at his friend"s resolve. It was not at all an uncommon one for midshipmen in those days to entertain, whatever may be the case at present. They enjoyed their meal, and agreed that they had not eaten anything half so good as the dishes they were discussing for many a long day. Rosalie came back in about an hour. She said that she had been thinking over the matter ever since, and talking it over with an old aunt--a very wise woman, fertile in resources of all sorts. She advised that the young Englishmen should pretend to be sick, and that if the captain consented to leave them behind, so much the better; but if not, and, as was most probable, he insisted on their walking on as before, they should lag behind, and limp on till they came to a certain spot which she described. They would rise for some time, till the road led along the side of a wooded height, with cliffs on one side, and a steep, sloping, brushwood--covered bank on the other, with a stream far down in the valley below. There was a peculiar white stone at the side of the road, on which they were to sit to pretend to rest themselves. If they could manage to slip behind the stone for an instant, they might roll and scramble down the bank to a considerable distance before they were discovered. They were then to make their way through the brushwood and to cross the stream, which was fordable, when they would find another road, invisible from the one above. They were to run along it to the right, till they came to an old hollow tree, in which they were to hide themselves, unless they were overtaken by a covered cart, driven by a man in white. He would slacken his speed, and they were to jump in immediately without a word, and be covered up, while the cart would drive on. They would be conveyed to the house of some friends to the English, with whom they would remain till the search for them had ceased, when they would be able to make their escape to the coast in disguise. After that, they must manage as best they could to get across the Channel.
"The first part is easy enough, if Miss Rosalie would give us the loan of a little white paint or chalk," observed O"Grady; "but, faith, the rest of the business is rather ticklish, though there"s nothing like trying, and we shall have some fun for our money at all events."
"I wish that Reuben Cole could manage to run with us. He"d go fast enough if Miss Rosalie"s friends would take care of him," remarked Paul.
"You can but ask her," said O"Grady. "Tell her that he"s been with you ever since you came to sea, and that you can"t be separated from him."
Rosalie heard all Paul had to say, and promised that she would try to arrange matters as he wished. Paul then described Reuben, and gave Rosalie a slip of paper, on which he wrote: "Follow the bearer, and come to us." Though Reuben was no great scholar, he hoped that he might be able to read this.
"Tell her she"s an angel," exclaimed O"Grady, as Rosalie took the paper.
"I wish that I could speak French, to say it myself; but I"ll set to work and learn at once. Ask her if she"ll teach me."
Rosalie laughed, and replied that she thought the young Irishman would prove an apt scholar, though she could not understand how, under the circ.u.mstances, she could manage to do as he proposed.
"Och! but I"ve a mighty great mind to tell her at once all I intend to do, and just clinch the matter," cried Paddy; but Paul wouldn"t undertake to translate for him, and advised him to restrain his feelings for the present.
It was getting near midnight, when a gentle rap was heard at the door, and Reuben poked in his head. The arrangements which had been made were soon explained to him, and he undertook to feign lameness and to drop behind and roll down the bank as they were to do.
"You sees, young gentlemen, if they goes in chase of me, that"ll give you a better chance of getting off. If they catches me, there"ll be no great harm done; they won"t get me to fight for them, that I"ll tell them, and if I get off scot free, why there"s little doubt but that I"ll be able to lend you a hand in getting to the coast, and crossing the water afterwards."
The arrangements being made, Reuben stole down to rejoin the other seamen, and the midshipmen then coiling themselves up in their blankets in different corners of the room, resolved to remain there till summoned in the morning, were soon asleep.
When their guards appeared, they made signs that they could not move, O"Grady singing out, "Medecin, medecin," by which he wished to intimate that he wanted physic, and they thought that he asked for a doctor. In spite, however, of all their remonstrances, they were compelled to get up and dress by sundry applications of a scabbard.
They found a breakfast prepared for them in the hall, though they had but a few minutes allowed them to consume it before they were driven on through the town to join the rest of the prisoners, no time being allowed them to bid farewell to Rosalie and her father. She, indeed, had wisely kept out of their way to prevent any suspicion. They limped along, looking as woe-begone as they could, though their hearts were in no way sad. Their only regret was, that they must part from Devereux and their captain, but they consoled themselves by believing that they could report where they were, and thus manage to get them exchanged.
"We are nearing the spot," said Paul. "This is the scenery Rosalie described, and this must be the hill. I hope Reuben understands what he is to do. Ah! there is the stone. Come, let us sit down."
They made signs to the last guard that they would follow. Believing that they were ill he allowed them to remain. They saw that Reuben was watching them.
"We mustn"t stay long, though," said O"Grady.
"No; now"s the time. Over we go," cried Paul; and suiting the action to the word, over he rolled, followed by O"Grady, and both were speedily hid from sight in the brushwood.
CHAPTER NINE.
The two midshipmen rolled away down the hill at a very rapid rate, and then, getting on their feet, rushed on through the brushwood, not minding how much they tore their clothes, and running no little risk of scratching out their eyes. As yet no shouts had reached their ears, which they knew would have been the case had their flight been discovered. They had got so far that they did not mind speaking, and were congratulating each other on escaping so well, when they heard several voices cry out, and some shots fired in rapid succession.
"That must be Reuben," cried Paul. "Oh, I hope that they haven"t hit him."
"The first shot did not, or they wouldn"t have fired others, and they wouldn"t have fired at all had he not got to some distance before they shouted, on discovering that he had escaped," observed O"Grady.
"However, as we cannot help him, we must push on, or we shall be retaken ourselves."
Paul saw that his friend was right, though he did not like the idea, as he thought it, of deserting Reuben.
"If he does not join us, we must send or come and look for him. He is not likely to leave the shelter of the wood," he observed.
They spoke as they ran on, verging always to the right. They forded the shallow though rapid stream, found the road, and continued their flight, till they came to the remarkable old tree which had been described to them. There was an entrance on one side into the interior.
"Up, up, Gerrard!" said O"Grady. "If we are pursued, they are certain to look in here, but I see a cavity, some way up, into which we may get, and the soldiers might look in and still not find us."
They climbed up. There was not room for both in one hole. Fortunately Paul found another, and there they sat, as O"Grady said, like owls in their nests, waiting for the cart. They heard voices--men shouting to each other. They must be the soldiers still searching for them. They came nearer and nearer. There was a laugh and an oath. Paul heard a man say, "Ah! they must be in there--just the place for them to hide in."