"Spread a cloak," said he, and, in obedience, the four that were with him took a cloak among them, each holding one of its corners. It was thus that he meant to bear her with him.
He mounted now the bench, and I could imagine with what elation of mind he put out his hands to remove the coffin-lid. As well as if his soul had been transformed into a book conceived for my amus.e.m.e.nt did I surmise the exultant mood that then possessed him. He had tricked Filippo; he had out-witted us all--Madonna herself, included--and he was leaving no trace behind him that should warrant any so much as to dare to think that this vile deed was the work of Messer Ramiro del" Orca, Governor of Cessna.
But Fate, that arch-humourist, that jester of the G.o.ds, delights in mighty contrasts, and has a trick of exalting us by false hopes and hollow lures on the very eve of working our discomfiture. From the soul that but a moment back had been aglow with evil satisfaction there burst a sudden blasphemous cry of rage that disregarded utterly the sanct.i.ty of that consecrated place.
"By the Death of Christ! the coffin is empty!"
It was the roar of a beast enraged, and it was succeeded by a heavy crash as he let fall the coffin-lid; a second later a still louder sound awoke the night-echoes of that silent place. In a burst of maniacal frenzy he had caught the coffin itself a buffet of his mighty fist, and hurled it from its trestles.
Then he leapt down from the bench, and flung all caution to the winds in the excitement that possessed him.
"It is a trick of that smooth-faced knave Filippo," he cried. "They have laid a trap for us, animals, and you never informed yourselves."
I could imagine the foam about the corners of his mouth, the swelling veins in his brow, and the mad bulging of his hideous eyes, for terror spoke in his words, and the Governor of Cesena, overbearing bully though he was, could on occasion, too, become a coward.
"Out of this!" he growled at them. "See that your swords hang ready.
Away!"
One of them murmured something that I could not catch. Mother in Heaven! if it should be a suggestion of what actually had taken place, a suggestion that the church should be searched ere they abandoned it? But Ramiro"s answer speedily relieved my fears.
"I"ll take no risks," he barked. "Come! Let us go separately. I first, and do you follow me and get clear of Pesaro as best you can." His voice grew lower, and from what else he said I but caught the words, "Cesena"
and "to-morrow night," from which I gathered that he was appointing that as their next meeting-place.
Ramiro went, and scarce had the echoes of his footsteps died away ere the others followed in a rush, fearful of being caught in some trap that was here laid for them, and but restrained from flying on the instant by their still greater fear of that harsh master, Ramiro.
Thanking Heaven for this miraculous deliverance, and for the wit it had lent me so to prepare a scene that should thoroughly mislead those ravishers, I turned me now to Madonna Paola. Her breathing was grown more heavy and more regular, so that in all respects she was as one sleeping healthily. Soon I hoped that she might awaken, for to seek to bear her thence and to the Palace in my arms would have been a madness.
And now it occurred to me that I should have restoratives at hand against the time of her regaining consciousness. Inspiration suggested to me the wine that should be stored in the sacristy for altar purposes.
It was unconsecrated, and there could be no sacrilege in using it.
I crept round to the front of the altar. At the angle a candle-branch protruded, standing no higher than my head. It held some three or four tapers, and was so placed to enable the priest to read his missal at early Ma.s.s on dark winter mornings. I plucked one of the candles from its socket, and hastening down the church, I lighted it from one of the burning tapers of the bier. Screening it with my hand, I retraced my steps and regained the chancel. Then turning to the left, I made for a door that I knew should give access to the sacristy. It yielded to my touch, and I pa.s.sed down a short stone-flagged pa.s.sage, and entered the s.p.a.cious chamber beyond. An oak settle was placed against one wall, and above it hung an enormous, rudely-carved crucifix. Facing it against the other wall loomed a huge piece of furniture, half-cupboard, half-buffet.
On a bench in a corner stood a basin and ewer of metal, whilst a few vestments hanging beside these completed the furniture of this austere and white-washed chamber. Setting my candle on the buffet, I opened one of the drawers. It was full of garments of different kinds, among which I noticed several monks" habits. I rummaged to the bottom only to find some odd pairs of sandals.
Disappointed, I closed the drawer and tried another, with no better fortune. Here were under-vestments of fine linen, newly washed and fragrant with rosemary. I abandoned the drawer and gave my attention to the cupboard above. It was locked, but the key was there. It opened, and my candle reflected a blaze on gold and silver vessels, consecrated chalices; a dazzling monstra, and several richly-carved ciboria of solid gold, set with precious stones. But in a corner I espied a dark-brown, gourd-shaped object. It was a skin of wine, and, with a half-suppressed cry of joy, I seized it. In that instant a piercing scream rang through the stillness of the church, and startled me so that I stood there for some seconds, frozen in horror, a hundred wild conjectures leaping to my mind.
Had Ramiro remained hidden, and was he returned? Did the scream mean that Madonna Paola had been awakened by his rough hands?
A second time it came, and now it seemed to break the hideous spell that its first utterance had cast over me. Dropping the leather bottle, I sped back, down the stone pa.s.sage to the door that ab.u.t.ted on the chancel.
There, by the high-altar, I saw a form that seemed at first luminous and ghostly, but in which presently I recognised Madonna Paola, the dim rays of the distant tapers finding out the white robe with which her limbs were hung. She was alone, and I knew then that it was but the very natural fear consequent upon awakening in such a place that had provoked the cry I had heard.
"Madonna," I called, advancing swiftly towards her. "Madonna Paola!"
There was a gasp, a moment"s stillness, then--
"Lazzaro?" She cried, questioningly. "What has happened? Why am I here?"
I was beside her now, and found her trembling like an aspen.
"Something horrible has happened, Madonna," I answered. "But it is over now, and the evil is averted."
"But how came I here?"
"That you shall learn." I stooped to gather up the cloak which had slipped from her shoulders as she advanced. "Do you wrap this about you," I urged her, and with my own hands I a.s.sisted to enfold her in that mantle. "Are you faint, Madonna?" I asked.
"I scarce know," she answered in a frightened voice. "There is a black horror upon me. Tell me," she implored again, "what does it mean?"
I drew her away now, promising to satisfy her in the fullest manner once she were out of these forbidding surroundings. I led her to the sacristy and seating her upon the settle I produced that wine-skin once again.
At first she babbled like a child of not being thirsty; but I was insistent.
"It is no matter of quenching thirst, Madonna," I told her. "The wine will warm and revive you. Come Madonna mia, drink."
She obeyed me now, and having got the first gulp down her throat she drank a l.u.s.ty draught that was not long in bringing a healthier colour to replace the ashen pallor of her cheeks.
"I am so cold, Lazzaro," she complained.
I turned to the drawer in which I had espied the rough monks" habits, and pulling one out I held it for her to don. She sat there now, in that garment of coa.r.s.e black cloth, the cowl flung back upon her shoulder, the fairest postulate that ever entered upon a novitiate.
"You are good to me, Lazzaro," she murmured plaintively, "and I have used you very ill." She paused a second, pa.s.sing her hand across her brow. Then--"What is the hour?" she asked.
It was a question that I left unheeded. I bade her brace herself and have courage for the tale I was to tell. I a.s.sured her that the horror of it was all pa.s.sed and that she had naught to fear. So soon as her natural curiosity should be satisfied it should be hers to return to her brother at the Palace.
"But how came I thence?" she cried. "I must have lain in a swoon, for I remember nothing." And then her swift mind, leaping to a reasonable conclusion; and a.s.sisted, perhaps, by the memory of the shattered catafalque which she had seen--"Did they account me dead, Lazzaro?" she asked of a sudden, her eyes dilating with a curious affright as they were turned upon my own.
"Yes, Madonna," answered I, "you were accounted dead." And, with that, I told her the entire story of what had befallen, saving only that I left my own part unmentioned, nor sought to explain my opportune presence in the church. When I spoke of the coming of Ramiro and his knaves she shuddered and closed her eyes in very awe. At length, when I had done, she opened them again, and again she turned them full upon me. Their brightness seemed to increase a moment, and then I saw that she was quietly weeping.
"And you were there to save me, Lazzaro?" she murmured brokenly.
"Lazzaro mio, it seems that you are ever at hand when I have need of you. You are indeed my one true friend--the one true friend that never fails me."
"Are you feeling stronger, Madonna?" I asked abruptly, roughly almost.
"Yes, I am stronger." She stood up as if to test her strength. "Indeed little ails me saving the horror of this thing. The thought of it seems to turn me sick and dizzy."
"Sit then and rest," said I. "Presently, when you are more recovered, we will set out."
"Whither shall we go?" she asked.
"Why, to the Palace, to your brother."
"Why, yes," she answered, as though it were the last suggestion that she had been expecting, "And to-morrow--it will be to-morrow, will it not?--comes the Lord Ignacio to claim his bride. He will owe you no mean thanks, Lazzaro."
There was a pause. I paced the chamber, a hundred thoughts crowding my mind, but overriding them all the conjecture of how far it might be from matins, and how soon we might be discovered by the monks. Presently she spoke again.
"Lazzaro," she inquired very gently, "what was it brought you to the church?"
"I came with the others, Madonna, to the burial service," answered I, and fearing such questions as might follow--questions that I had been dreading ever since I had brought her to the sacristy--"If you are recovered we had best be going," I told her gruffly.
"Nay, I am not yet enough recovered," answered she. "And before we go, there are some points in this strange adventure that I would have you make clear to me. Meanwhile, we are very well here. If the good fathers come upon us, what shall it signify?"