"Really, I scarcely know. Sixty feet, at least, I should think."
"Ah, that is high, terribly high. The baron fortunately is still agile and vigorous." The duke began to be impatient.
"Now," said he to his son, "will you be so kind as to explain your plan?"
Martial had gradually resumed the careless tone which always exasperated his father.
"He is sure of success," thought Marie-Anne.
"My plan is simplicity itself," replied Martial. "Sixty and forty are one hundred. It is necessary to procure one hundred feet of strong rope.
It will make a very large bundle; but no matter. I will twist it around me, envelop myself in a large cloak, and accompany you to the citadel.
You will send for Corporal Bavois; you will leave me alone with him in a quiet place; I will explain our wishes."
M. de Sairmeuse shrugged his shoulders.
"And how will you procure a hundred feet of rope at this hour in Montaignac? Will you go about from shop to shop? You might as well trumpet your project at once."
"I shall attempt nothing of the kind. What I cannot do the friends of the Escorval family will do."
The duke was about to offer some new objection when his son interrupted him.
"Pray do not forget the danger that threatens us," he said, earnestly, "nor the little time that is left us. I have committed a fault, leave me to repair it."
And turning to Marie-Anne:
"You may consider the baron saved," he pursued; "but it is necessary for me to confer with one of his friends. Return at once to the Hotel de France and tell the cure to meet me on the Place d"Armes, where I go to await him."
CHAPTER x.x.x
Though among the first to be arrested at the time of the panic before Montaignac, the Baron d"Escorval had not for an instant deluded himself with false hopes.
"I am a lost man," he thought. And confronting death calmly, he now thought only of the danger that threatened his son.
His mistake before the judges was the result of his preoccupation.
He did not breathe freely until he saw Maurice led from the hall by Abbe Midon and the friendly officers, for he knew that his son would try to confess connection with the affair.
Then, calm and composed, with head erect, and steadfast eye, he listened to the death-sentence.
In the confusion that ensued in removing the prisoners from the hall, the baron found himself beside Chanlouineau, who had begun his noisy lamentations.
"Courage, my boy," he said, indignant at such apparent cowardice.
"Ah! it is easy to talk," whined the young farmer.
Then seeing that no one was observing them, he leaned toward the baron, and whispered:
"It is for you I am working. Save all your strength for to-night."
Chanlouineau"s words and burning glance surprised M. d"Escorval, but he attributed both to fear. When the guards took him back to his cell, he threw himself upon his pallet, and before him rose that vision of the last hour, which is at once the hope and despair of those who are about to die.
He knew the terrible laws that govern a court-martial. The next day--in a few hours--at dawn, perhaps, they would take him from his cell, place him in front of a squad of soldiers, an officer would lift his sword, and all would be over.
Then what was to become of his wife and his son?
His agony on thinking of these dear ones was terrible. He was alone; he wept.
But suddenly he started up, ashamed of his weakness. He must not allow these thoughts to unnerve him. He was determined to meet death unflinchingly. Resolved to shake off the profound melancholy that was creeping over him, he walked about his cell, forcing his mind to occupy itself with material objects.
The room which had been allotted to him was very large. It had once communicated with the apartment adjoining; but the door had been walled up for a long time. The cement which held the large blocks of stone together had crumbled away, leaving crevices through which one might look from one room into the other.
M. d"Escorval mechanically applied his eye to one of these interstices.
Perhaps he had a friend for a neighbor, some wretched man who was to share his fate. He saw no one. He called, first in a whisper, then louder. No voice responded to his.
"If _I_ could only tear down this thin part.i.tion," he thought.
He trembled, then shrugged his shoulders. And if he did, what then? He would only find himself in another apartment similar to his own, and opening like his upon a corridor full of guards, whose monotonous tramp he could plainly hear as they pa.s.sed to and fro.
What folly to think of escape! He knew that every possible precaution must have been taken to guard against it.
Yes, he knew this, and yet he could not refrain from examining his window. Two rows of iron bars protected it. These were placed in such a way that it was impossible for him to put out his head and see how far he was above the ground. The height, however, must be considerable, judging from the extent of the view.
The sun was setting; and through the violet haze the baron could discern an undulating line of hills, whose culminating point must be the land of the Reche.
The dark ma.s.ses of foliage that he saw on the right were probably the forests of Sairmeuse. On the left, he divined rather than saw, nestling between the hills, the valley of the Oiselle and Escorval.
Escorval, that lovely retreat where he had known such happiness, where he had hoped to die the calm and serene death of the just.
And remembering his past felicity, and thinking of his vanished dreams, his eyes once more filled with tears. But he quickly dried them on hearing the door of his cell open.
Two soldiers appeared.
One of the men bore a torch, the other, one of those long baskets divided into compartments which are used in carrying meals to the officers on guard.
These men were evidently deeply moved, and yet, obeying a sentiment of instinctive delicacy, they affected a sort of gayety.
"Here is your dinner, Monsieur," said one soldier; "it ought to be very good, for it comes from the cuisine of the commander of the citadel."
M. d"Escorval smiled sadly. Some attentions on the part of one"s jailer have a sinister significance. Still, when he seated himself before the little table which they prepared for him, he found that he was really hungry.
He ate with a relish, and chatted quite cheerfully with the soldiers.
"Always hope for the best, sir," said one of these worthy fellows. "Who knows? Stranger things have happened!"
When the baron finished his repast, he asked for pen, ink, and paper.
They brought what he desired.