"Ah!"
"Whirling and leaping up and down in it as if they lived--G.o.d guard us from the evil one! Then she knelt----"
The Syndic uttered an involuntary cry.
"And prayed," Louis continued, confirming his astonishing statement by a nod. "But whether to it--"twas on the table before her--or to the devil, or otherwise, I know not. Only"--with d.a.m.natory candour--"it had a strange aspect. Certainly she knelt, and it was on the table in front of her, and her forehead rested on her hands, and----"
"What then? What then? By Heaven, the point!" gasped Blondel, writhing in torture. "What then? blind worm that you are, can you not see that you are killing me? What did she do with it? Tell me!"
"She poured it into a gla.s.s, and----"
"She drank it?"
"No, she carried it to her mother," Louis replied as slowly as he dared.
Fawning on the hand that had struck him, he would fain bite it if he could do so safely. "I did not see what followed," he went on, "they were behind the screen. But I heard her say that it was Madame"s medicine. And I made out enough----"
"Ah!"
"To be sure that her mother drank it."
Blondel stared at him a moment, wide-eyed; then, with a cry of despair, bitter, final, indescribable, the Syndic turned and hurried away. He did not hear the timid remonstrances which Louis, who followed a few paces behind, ventured to utter. He did not heed the wondering looks of those whom he jostled as he plunged into the current of pa.s.sers and thrust his way across the bridge in the direction whence he had come. The one impulse in his blind brain was to get home, that he might be alone, to think and moan and bewail himself unwatched; even as the first instinct of the wounded beast is to seek its lair and lie hidden, there to await with piteous eyes and the divine patience of animals the coming of death.
But this man had the instinct only, not the patience. In his case would come with thought wild rages, gnawings of regret, tears of blood. That he might have, and had not, that he had failed by so little, that he had been worsted by his own tools--these things and the bitter irony of life"s chances would madden and torment him. In an hour he would live a lifetime of remorse; yet find in his worst moments no thought more poignant than the reflection that had he played the game with courage, had he grasped the nettle boldly, had he seized Basterga while it was yet time, he might have lived! He might have lived! Ah, G.o.d!
Meanwhile Louis, though consumed with desire to see what would happen, remained on the bridge. He had tasted a fearful joy and would fain savour more of it if he could do so with a whole skin. But to follow seemed perilous; he held the Syndic"s mood in too great awe for that. He did the next best thing. He hastened to a projecting part of the bridge a few paces from the spot where they had conferred; there he raised himself on the parapet that he might see which way Blondel turned at the end of the bridge. If he entered the town no more could be made of it: but if he turned right-handed and by the rampart to the Corraterie, Louis" mind was made up to risk something. He would follow to the Royaumes" house. The magistrate could hardly blame him for going to his own lodging!
It was a busy hour, and, cold as it was, a fair number of people were pa.s.sing between the island and the upper town. For a moment, look as he might, he could not discern the Syndic"s spare figure; and he was beginning to think that he had missed him when he saw something that in a twinkling turned his thoughts. On the bank a little beside the end of the bridge stood Claude Mercier. He carried a heavy stick in his hand, and he was waiting: waiting, with his eyes fixed on our friend, and a look in those eyes that even at that distance raised a gentle sweat on Louis" brow.
It required little imagination to follow Claude"s past movements. He had gone to the Syndic"s house at nine, and finding himself tricked a second time had returned hot-foot to the Corraterie. Thence he had tracked the two to this place. But how long had he been waiting, Louis wondered; and how much had he seen? Something for certain. His face announced that; and Louis, hot all over, despite the keen wind and frosty air, augured the worst. Cowards however have always one course open. The way was clear behind him. He could cross the island to the St. Gervais bank, and if he were nimble he might give his pursuer the slip in the maze of small streets beside the water. It was odd if the lapse of a few hours did not cool young Mercier"s wrath, and restore him to a frame of mind in which he might be brought to hear reason.
No sooner planned than done. Or rather it would have been done if turning to see that the way was clear behind him, Louis had not discovered a second watcher, who from a spot on the edge of the island was marking his movements with grim attention. This watcher was Basterga. Moreover the glance which apprised Louis of this showed him that the scholar"s face was as black as thunder.
Then, if the G.o.ds looked down that day upon any mortal with pity, they must have looked down on this young man; who was a coward. At the one end of the bridge, Claude, with an ugly weapon and a face to match! At the other, Basterga, with a black brow and Heaven alone could say how much knowledge of his treachery! The scholar could not know of the loss of the phial, indeed, for it was clear that he had just returned to the city by the St. Gervais gate. But that he soon would know of it, that he knew something already, that he had been a witness to the colloquy with the Syndic--this was certain.
At any rate Louis thought so, and his knees trembled under him. He had no longer a way of retreat, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Claude beginning to advance. What was he to do? The perspiration burst out on him. He turned this way and that, now casting wild eyes at the whirling current below, now piteous eyes--the eyes of a calf on its way to the shambles, and as little regarded--on the thin stream of pa.s.sers.
How could they go on their way and leave him to the mercies of this madman?
He smothered a shriek as Claude, now less than twenty paces away, sped a look at him. Claude, indeed, was thinking of Anne and her wrongs; and of a certain kiss. His face told this so plainly, and that pa.s.sion was his master, that Louis" cheek grew white. What if the ruffian threw him into the river? What if--and then like every coward, he chose the remoter danger. With Claude at hand, he turned and fled, dashed blindly through the pa.s.sers on the bridge, flung himself on Basterga, and, seizing the big scholar by the arm, strove to shelter himself behind him.
"He is mad!" he gasped. "Mad! Save me! He is going to throw me over!"
"Steady!" Basterga answered; and he opposed his huge form to Claude"s rush. "What is this, young man? Coming to blows in the street? For shame! For shame!" He moved again so as still to confront him.
"Give him up!" Claude panted, scarcely preventing himself from attacking both. "Give him up, I say, and----"
"Not till I have heard what he has done! Steady, young man, keep your distance!"
"I will tell you everything! Everything!" Louis whined, clinging to his arm.
"Do you hear what he says?" Basterga replied. "In the meantime, I tell you to keep your distance, young man. I am not used to be jostled!"
Claude hesitated a moment, scowling. Then, "Very well!" he said, drawing off with a gesture of menace. "It is only put off: I shall pay him another time. It is waiting for you, sneak, bear that in mind!" And shrugging his shoulders he turned with as much dignity as he could and moved off.
Basterga wheeled from him to the other. "So!" he said. "You have something to tell me, it seems?" And taking the trembling Louis by the arm, he drew him aside, a few paces from the approach of the bridge. In doing this he hung a moment searching the bridge and the farther bank with a keen gaze. He knew, and for some hours had known, on what a narrow edge of peril he stood, and that only Blondel"s influence protected him from arrest. Yet he had returned: he had not hesitated to put his head again into the lion"s mouth. Still if Louis" words meant that certain arrest awaited him, he was not too proud to save himself.
He could discern no officers on the bridge, and satisfied on the point of immediate danger, he turned to his shivering ally. "Well, what is it?" he said. "Speak!"
"I"ll tell you the truth," Louis gabbled.
"You had better!" Basterga replied, in a tone that meant much more than he said. "Or you will find me worse to deal with than yonder hot-head! I will answer for that."
"Messer Blondel has been at the house," Louis murmured glibly, his mind centred on the question how much he should tell. "Last night and again this morning. He has been closeted with Anne and Mercier. And there has been some talk--of a box or a bottle."
"Were they in my room?" Basterga asked, his brow contracting.
"No, downstairs."
"Did they get--the box or the bottle?" There was a dangerous note in Basterga"s voice; and a look in his eyes that scared the lad.
Louis, as his instinct was, lied again, fleeing the more pressing peril.
"Not to my knowledge," he said.
"And you?" The scholar eyed him with bland suavity. "You had nothing to do--with all this, I suppose?"
"I listened. I was in my room, but they thought I was out. When I went,"
the liar continued, "they discovered me; and Messer Blondel followed me and overtook me on the bridge and threatened--that he would have me arrested if I were not silent."
"You refused to be silent, of course?"
But Louis was too acute to be caught in a trap so patent. He knew that Basterga would not believe in his courage, if he swore to it. "No, I said I would be silent," he answered. "And I should have been," he continued with candour, "if I had not run into your arms."
"But if you a.s.sented to his wish," Basterga retorted, eyeing him keenly, "why did he depart after that fashion?"
"Something happened to him," Louis said. "I do not know what. He seemed to be in distress, or to be ill."
"I could see that," the scholar answered dryly. "But Master Claude? What of him? And why was he so enamoured of you that he could not be parted from you?"
"It was to punish me for listening. They followed me different ways."
"I see. And that is the truth, is it?"
"I swear it is!"
The scholar saw no reason why it should not be the truth. Louis, a facile tool, had always been of his, the stronger, party. If Blondel tampered with any one, he would naturally, if he knew aught of the house, suborn Claude or Anne. And Louis, spying and fleeing, and when overtaken, promising silence, was quite in the picture. The only thing, indeed, which stood out awkwardly, and refused to fall into place, was the fashion in which the Syndic had turned and gone off the bridge. And for that there might be reasons. He might have been seized with a sudden attack of his illness, or he might have perceived Basterga watching him from the farther bank.
On the whole, the scholar, forgetting that cowards are ever liars, saw no reason to doubt Louis" story. It did but add one more to the motives he had for action: immediate, decisive, striking action, if he would save his neck, if he would succeed in his plans. That the Syndic alone stood between him and arrest, that by the Syndic alone he lived, he had learned at a meeting at which he had been present the previous night at the Grand Duke"s country house four leagues distant. D"Albigny had been there, and Brunaulieu, Captain of the Grand Duke"s Guards, and Father Alexander, who dreamed of the Episcopate of Geneva, and others--the chiefs of the plot, his patrons. To his mortification they had been able to tell him things he had not learned, though he was within the city, and they without. Among others, that the Council had certain knowledge of him and his plans, and but for the urgency of Blondel would have arrested him a fortnight before.
His companions at the midnight supper had detected his dismay, and had derided him, thinking that with that there was an end of the mysterious scheme which he had refused to impart. They fancied that he would not return to the city, or venture his head a second time within the lion"s jaws. But they reckoned without their man, Basterga with all his faults was brave; and he had failed in too many schemes to resign this one lightly.