"Elise! I beg of you! It is dangerous; better go back, and around!"
But the girl set her red lips, raised her whip, and brought it down hard. The animal sprang into the foam; breasting the current, it slipped once or twice, recovered, and, after an effort, managed to reach the bank opposite. My lord--less blithely than he had first embarked on the adventure--followed; the cold waters surged around, and he almost expected to be swept away. At length, however, chilled by the icy touch of the torrent and somewhat more out of humor, he found himself on the other side. Near the top of the bank, where the Governor"s daughter had now the grace to await him, he rejoined her, disapproval on his face, reproach in his eyes. Yet still did the girl remain unconscious of her lover"s wounded sensibilities; her own eyes, like stars beneath the flurry of hair, were turned, not to the young man, but away, toward a gaunt-looking ruin that had suddenly uplifted itself, as if by magic, through a rift in the forest. But a few hundred yards distant, the black crumbling walls bristled with rough, jagged edges--big, broken teeth that snarled at the rim of the ever-young wood. The very brightness of the day seemed only to emphasize the ominous aspect of the place; to reveal more plainly the solitary character of its wildness.
"The monastery, I suppose?" following the direction of her gaze, the Marquis, after a pause, grudgingly vouchsafed.
"Yes," said the girl in a low tone; "yes!"
"Shall we go on?"
Her eyes, pa.s.sing over a tangle of shrubs, bushes and thick, natural screens, slowly settled on a spot, not far away, where a wild bird, about to alight, fled off with a scream.
"Shall we go on?"
With a start the girl turned; the clear-cut features were very grave; in her gaze shone sudden compunction. She raised her hand. "My veil!"
she said quickly. "I--dropped it. Do you mind? You--you will find it on this side of the stream--a little way down."
"Mind?" He regarded her doubtfully a moment; then moved by the irresistible appeal in her eyes, rather abruptly he wheeled, and as he did so, she gathered up the reins. Ere proceeding farther upon this errand of gallantry, my lord looked around.
"You seem to set great store on this veil," he, observed suspiciously.
"And I believe you were about to ride off!" he added, noting her expression, when, before she had time for pretext or answer, a heavy body stirred in the bushes, near at hand, and a gruff voice called out.
"Stand where you are!"
The n.o.bleman"s face changed; his gaze, as if fascinated, now rested on a score of rough figures who, following the order, so unexpected and startling, sprang simultaneously from neighboring thicket or covert, and advanced to surround them. Held by their grim aspect--the desperate determined visages; the black, threatening looks--in the surprise of the moment, too late my lord"s hand sought the sword at his side. Roughly plucked from his horse, he found himself flung to the sward; unceremoniously pinioned, and heard the voice of my lady raised in his behalf.
CHAPTER XXIX
THE MARQUIS INTERVENES
The evening of the same day, his Excellency, in the seclusion of a small private chamber adjoining the _salle du gouvernement_, stood looking down at his desk on which were strewn papers and messages containing the latest news from Paris and received at the Mount but a few hours before. That the character of this information, political and social, was little to his liking, seemed manifest from his manner; he stared at the missives resentfully; then frowned and threw down the pen he had been using to mark, or make note of, their contents.
"Versailles--a mob! Sugar-plums to placate them! Sugar-plums!" he repeated; and, impatiently turning away, walked to the window. There for some time he stood peering out, when, the current of his thoughts slowly changing, he took from his pocket a watch, and examined the jeweled face. "Time they were back!" About to return to his table and task, a loud knocking arrested the impulse, and testily the Governor called out; glanced toward the threshold and surveyed the intruder.
"A message from the commandant, your Excellency!" said the man, a trooper of the Mount, with a respectful, though nervous salute.
"Why," returned the Governor in a dry tone, "didn"t he bring it himself?"
"Because," the trooper shifted; looked away; "because Monsieur le Commandant is engaged in scouring the country for miscreants, your Excellency."
"Miscreants!" sharply. "What miscreants?"
"Monsieur le Commandant hopes to overtake those who have carried off the Lady Elise," said the messenger hurriedly, in the tone of one anxious to be done with his task.
"Carried off!" The thin figure wavered as if struck by a cold breath.
"Carried off!" he repeated, laying his hand on the back of the chair.
"By a band of the Black Seigneur"s men! His lordship, the Marquis, they left behind bound and secured, but the Lady Elise they took with them."
For some time his Excellency said nothing; like a ghost of himself, leaned hard against his support and looked at the trooper.
"But how could it have happened?" at length in a voice, low, intense, he inquired. "Monsieur le Commandant! The guard--you--all are alive?"
Stumblingly, as best he could, the soldier explained, and when he had done, his Excellency made no sign that he had heard.
"Monsieur le Commandant further ordered me to say he had no doubt he would return with the Lady Elise," added the messenger hastily.
"Monsieur le Commandant!" The Governor"s eyes suddenly blazed; swiftly he put question after question, and, having probed to the core the consistency of the tale, with a gesture, brusk and contemptuous, dismissed the bearer.
But whatever feeling the lord of the Mount might entertain toward his chief officer, no course at the moment seemed open save to await the return of that person and the Marquis. So, curbing his impatience as best he might, his Excellency kept vigil; and not alone! Tidings of what had happened spread at the top of the rock; sifted through closed gates and thick walls into the town. The late arrival at the Mount of the lords and ladies, companions of the Governor"s daughter for the day, but added to the questionings of the mult.i.tude. All night life and expectancy reigned; lights gleamed from high places; responded in low ones.
"Is it true, my dear, what we hear about the Lady Elise?" the landlady of the inn on the Mount near the strand called out to a stalwart, dark young woman, hurrying down the narrow way shortly after the Paris contingent had gone up.
"I"ve heard no more than you have," came the curt answer of this person--none other than Nanette--who carried a small bundle and seemed anxious to move on.
"Oh, I didn"t know but you came from the palace!" observed the mistress of the inn, and returned to her customers, drinking and nodding with heads close together.
On the morrow, however, all doubts were removed and speculations put at rest; for hardly had the sun set its seal in the sky than from the forests the appearance of a body of troops rewarded the watchers. From hovel to hut the word went, and men, women and children, unkempt and curious, ran down to the beach to await the approach of the guard.
Proudly had it departed, with waving of plumes; slowly it returned, a bedraggled procession of staggering horses and heavy-eyed men. Had it come back a little earlier, the dark might have kept the truth from the people; now the pitiless red glare revealed to the full the plight of the troopers. It told, too, the disappointment of Monsieur le Commandant, who looked neither to the right nor to the left; and the despair of my lord, the Marquis, pale counterfeit of his debonair self.
"Her ladyship!" "They haven"t brought her back!" Low murmurs arose; grew louder; some one laughed. But sullenly, without answer, the soldiers dragged by, into the town, and laboriously up to the top of the Mount.
At the gate his Excellency waited; cast one glance at the company--their leader--and silently turned. Later, however, was he closeted with both the commandant and the Marquis--a brief period with the former who departed, carrying a look eloquent of the unpleasantness of the interview.
"And now," said the Governor in tones somewhat strained, as the officer"s dejected footfall died in the distance, "we"ve got rid of that dolt, let us consider, my Lord, the purport of this outrage."
"Purport?" repeated the Marquis petulantly, stretching his stiff legs.
"Did they not tell me that if anything happened to the Black Seigneur, they would hold her, Elise, answerable for it? You see they had learned," bitterly, "of your intention to hang him after the wedding!"
"From which you infer?"
"They will keep her as hostage! Indeed, they said as much, when--"
"They bound you, my Lord?"
The color came to the young man"s face. "It was a trap," he said, his voice pitched higher; "and they came prepared, not for one man, but the guard!"
"Still was it very ill-advised--a great mistake--to have taken the shorter way through the forest alone."
"The proposal did not originate with me! Elise suggested it. She seemed in a wild, headstrong mood; nothing would stop her. Now,"
moodily he rose, "_mon dieu_! What has she brought upon herself?
Where is she now?"
His Excellency did not stir; his face, like a pale mask, was turned aside. "I do not think," he said slowly, as arguing to convince himself, "she is in any immediate danger."
But my lord caught irritably at the word. "No danger! She is surrounded by it. And we? what are we to do? Sit idly here? Give me a ship, your Excellency, and I will follow the boat of this Black Seigneur, and, when I find it, force them to--"