"Yet this _pauvre enfant_ escaped from Givet," replied O"Brien. "These Englishmen are devils from their birth." The last room showed to O"Brien suited him, and he chose it--the woman not presuming to contradict a gendarme. As soon as they came down again, O"Brien ordered me to bed, and went upstairs with me. He bolted the door, and pulling me to the large chimney, we put our heads up, and whispered, that our conversation should not be heard. "This man is not to be trusted," said O"Brien, "and we must give him the slip. I know my way out of the inn, and we must return the way we came, and then strike off in another direction."
"But will he permit us?"
"Not if he can help it; but I shall soon find out his manoeuvres."
O"Brien then went and stopped the key-hole, by hanging his handkerchief across it, and stripping himself of his gendarme uniform, put on his own clothes; then stuffed the blankets and pillows into the gendarme"s dress, and laid it down on the outside of the bed, as if it were a man sleeping in his clothes--indeed it was an admirable deception. He laid his musket by the side of the image, and then did the same to my bed, making it appear as if there was a person asleep in it of my size, and putting my cap on the pillow. "Now, Peter, we"ll see if he is watching us. He will wait till he thinks we are asleep." The light still remained in the room, and about an hour afterwards we heard a noise of one treading on the stairs, upon which, as agreed, we crept under the bed. The latch of our door was tried, and finding it open, which he did not expect, the gendarme entered, and looking at both beds, went away.
"Now," said I, after the gendarme had gone down stairs, "O"Brien, ought we not to escape?"
"I"ve been thinking of it, Peter, and I have come to a resolution that we can manage it better. He is certain to come again in an hour or two.
It is only eleven. Now, I"ll play him a trick." O"Brien then took one of the blankets, made it fast to the window, which he left wide open, and at the same time dissarranged the images he had made up, so as to let the gendarme perceive that they were counterfeit. We again crept under the bed; and as...o...b..ien foretold, in about an hour more the gendarme returned; our lamp was still burning, but he had a light of his own. He looked at the beds, perceived at once that he had been duped, went to the open window, and then exclaimed, "_Sacre Dieu! Ils m"ont eschappes et je ne ne suis plus corporal. Foutre! a la cha.s.se_!" He rushed out of the room, and in a few minutes afterwards we heard him open the street door, and go away.
"That will do, Peter," said O"Brien, laughing; "now we"ll be off also, although there"s no great hurry." O"Brien then resumed his dress of a gendarme; and about an hour afterwards we went down, and wishing the hostess all happiness, quitted the cabaret, returning the same road by which we had come. "Now, Peter," said O"Brien, "we"re in a bit of a puzzle. This dress won"t do any more, still there"s a respectability about it which will not allow me to put it off till the last moment."
We walked on till daylight, when we hid ourselves in a copse of trees.
Our money was not exhausted, as I had drawn upon my father for 60 pounds, which, with the disadvantageous exchange, had given me fifty Napoleons. On the fifth day, being then six days from the forest of Ardennes, we hid ourselves in a small wood, about a quarter of a mile from the road. I remained there, while O"Brien, as a gendarme, went to obtain provisions. As usual, I looked out for the best shelter during his absence, and what was my horror at falling in with a man and woman who lay dead in the snow, having evidently perished from the inclemency of the weather. Just as I discovered them, O"Brien returned, and I told him: he went with me to view the bodies. They were dressed in a strange attire, ribands pinned upon their clothes, and two pairs of very high stilts lying by their sides. O"Brien surveyed them, and then said, "Peter, this is the very best thing that could have happened to us. We may now walk through France without soiling our feet with the cursed country."
"How do you mean?"
"I mean," said he, "that these are the people that we met near Montpelier, who came from the landes, walking about on their stilts for the amus.e.m.e.nt of others, to obtain money. In their own country they are obliged to walk so. Now, Peter, it appears to me that the man"s clothes will fit me, and the girl"s (poor creature, how pretty she looks, cold in death!) will fit you. All we have to do is to practise a little, and then away we start."
O"Brien then, with some difficulty, pulled off the man"s jacket and trowsers, and having so done, buried him in the snow. The poor girl was despoiled of her gown and upper petticoat with every decency, and also buried. We collected the clothes and stilts, and removed to another quarter, where we pitched upon a hovel and took our meal. "Peter," said O"Brien, "lie down and sleep, and I"ll keep the watch. Not a word, I will have it--down at once."
I did so, and in a very few minutes was fast asleep, for I was worn out with cold and fatigue. Just as the day broke, O"Brien roused me; he had stood sentry all night, and looked very haggard.
"O"Brien, you are ill," said I.
"Not a bit; but I"ve emptied the brandy-flask; and that"s a bad job.
However, it is to be remedied."
I did not go to sleep again for some time, I was so anxious to see O"Brien fast asleep. He went in and out several times, during which I pretended to be fast asleep; at last it rained in torrents, and then he laid down, and in a few minutes, overpowered by nature, he fell fast asleep, snoring so loudly that I was afraid some one would hear us. I then got up and watched, occasionally lying down and slumbering awhile, and then going down to the door.
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
EXALTED WITH OUR SUCCESS, WE MARCH THROUGH FRANCE WITHOUT TOUCHING THE GROUND--I BECOME FEMININE--WE ARE VOLUNTARY CONSCRIPTS.
At day-break I called O"Brien, who jumped up in a great hurry.
"Sure I"ve been asleep, Peter."
"Yes, you have," replied I, "and I thank Heaven that you have, for no one could stand such fatigue as you have much longer; and if you fall ill, what will become of me?" This was touching him on the right point.
"Well, Peter, since there"s no harm come of it, there"s no harm done.
I"ve had sleep enough for the next week, that"s certain."
We returned to the wood; the snow had disappeared, and the rain ceased; the sun shone out from between the clouds, and we felt warm.
"Don"t pa.s.s so near that way," said O"Brien, "we shall see the poor creatures, now that the sun is gone. Peter, we must shift our quarters to-night, for I have been to every cabaret in the village, and I cannot go there any more without suspicion, although I am a gendarme."
We remained there till the evening, and then set off, still returning toward Givet. About an hour before daylight we arrived at a copse of trees close to the road-side, and surrounded by a ditch, not above a quarter of a mile from a village "It appears to me," said O"Brien, "that this will do; I will now put you there, and then go boldly to the village and see what I can get, for here we must stay at least a week."
We walked to the copse, and the ditch being rather too wide for me to leap, O"Brien laid the four stilts together, so as to form a bridge, over which I contrived to walk. Tossing to me all the bundles, and desiring me to leave the stilts as a bridge for him on his return, he set off to the village with his musket on his shoulder. He was away two hours, when he returned with a large supply of provisions, the best we had ever had.
"There," said he, "we have enough for a good week; and look here, Peter, this is better than all." And he showed me two large horse-rugs.
"Excellent," replied I; "now we shall be comfortable."
"I paid honestly for all but these rugs," observed O"Brien; "I was afraid to buy them, so I stole them. However, we"ll leave them here for those they belong to--it"s only borrowing, after all."
We now prepared a very comfortable shelter with branches, which we wove together, and laying the leaves in the sun to dry, soon obtained a soft bed to put our horse-rug on, while we covered ourselves up with the other. Our bridge of stilts we had removed, so that we felt ourselves quite secure from surprise. At dark, to bed we went, and slept soundly; I never felt more refreshed during our wanderings. At daylight O"Brien got up.
"Now, Peter, a little practice before breakfast."
"What practice do you mean?"
"Mean why, on the stilts. I expect in a week that you"ll be able to dance a gavotte at least; for mind me, Peter, you travel out of France upon these stilts, depend upon it."
O"Brien then took the stilts belonging to the man, giving me those of the woman. We strapped them to our thighs, and by fixing our backs to a tree, contrived to get upright upon them; but at the first attempt to walk, O"Brien fell to the right, and I fell to the left. O"Brien fell against a tree, but I fell on my nose, and made it bleed very much; however, we laughed and got up again, and although we had several falls, at last we made a better hand of them.
O"Brien then dressed me in the poor girl"s clothes, and himself in the man"s; they fitted very well.
"Peter, you make a very pretty girl," said O"Brien.
"But, O"Brien," replied I, "as these petticoats are not very warm, I mean to cut off my trousers up to my knees, and wear them underneath."
"That"s all right," said O"Brien.
The next morning we made use of our stilts to cross the ditch, and carrying them in our hands we boldly set off on the high road to Malines. We met several people, gendarmes, and others, but with the exception of some remarks upon my good looks we pa.s.sed unnoticed.
Towards the evening we arrived at the village where we had slept in the outhouse, and as soon as we entered it, we put on our stilts, and commenced a march. When the crowd had gathered, we held out our caps, and receiving nine or ten sous, we entered a cabaret. Many questions were asked us, as to where we came from, and O"Brien answered, telling lies innumerable. I played the modest girl, and O"Brien, who stated I was his sister, appeared very careful and jealous of my attention. We slept well, and the next morning continued our route to Malines. As we entered the barriers we put on our stilts, and marched boldly on. The guard at the gate stopped us, not from suspicion, but to amuse themselves, and I was forced to submit to several kisses from their garlic lips before we were allowed to enter the town. We again mounted on our stilts, for the guard had forced us to dismount, or they could not have kissed me, every now and then imitating a dance, until we arrived at the _Grande Place_, where we stopped opposite the hotel, and commenced a sort of waltz, which we had practised. The people in the hotel looked out of the window to see our exhibition, and when we had finished I went up to the windows with O"Brien"s cap to collect money.
What was my surprise to perceive Colonel O"Brien looking full in my face, and staring very hard at me? what was my greater astonishment at seeing Celeste, who immediately recognised me, and ran back to the sofa in the room, putting her hands up to her eyes, and crying out, "_C"est lui, c"est lui_!" Fortunately O"Brien was close to me, or I should have fallen, but he supported me. "Peter, ask the crowd for money, or you are lost." I did so, and collecting some pence, then asked him what I should do. "Go back to the window--you can then judge of what will happen." I returned to the window:
Colonel O"Brien had disappeared, but Celeste was there, as if waiting for me. I held out the cap to her, and she thrust her hand into it.
The cap sunk with the weight. I took out a purse, which I kept closed in my hand, and put it into my bosom. Celeste then retired from the window, and when she had gone to the back of the room kissed her hand to me, and went out at the door. I remained stupefied for a moment, but O"Brien roused me, and we quitted the _Grande Place_, taking up our quarters at a little cabaret. On examining the purse, I found fifty Napoleons in it: they must have been obtained from her father.
At the cabaret where we stopped, we were informed that the officer who was at the hotel had been appointed to the command of the strong fort of Bergen-op-Zoom, and was proceeding thither.
We walked out of the town early in the morning, after O"Brien had made purchases of some of the clothes usually worn by the peasantry. When within a few miles of St. Nicholas, we threw away our stilts and the clothes which we had on, and dressed ourselves in those O"Brien had purchased. O"Brien had not forgot to provide us with two large brown-coloured blankets, which we strapped on to our shoulders, as the soldiers do their coats.
It was bitter cold weather, and the snow had fallen heavily during the whole day; but although nearly dusk, there was a bright moon ready for us. We walked very fast, and soon observed persons ahead of us. "Let us overtake them, we may obtain some information." As we came up with them, one of them (they were both lads of seventeen to eighteen) said to O"Brien, "I thought we were the last, but I was mistaken. How far is it now to St. Nicholas?"
"How should I know?" replied O"Brien, "I am a stranger in these parts as well as yourself."
"From what part of France do you come?" demanded the other, his teeth chattering with the cold, for he was badly clothed, and with little defence from the inclement weather.
"From Montpelier," replied O"Brien.
"And I from Toulouse. A sad change, comrades from olives and vines to such a climate as this. Curse the conscription: I intended to have taken a little wife next year."