"True. I was minded to go the other day," said Jacques, "for things have happened on this side of the river too. My horse was stolen in the night."
"Stolen!"
"Ay; saddle and all; and next day, toward evening, came trotting home again. What he"d done with the thief I know not."
"I"m glad he came back," said the dwarf thoughtfully.
"He"d been ridden hard, I could tell that," said the farmer.
"And not by a thief, perhaps," said Jean. "The young Duke, they say, is dead, Farmer Jacques."
"What, the Pa.s.sey scholar?"
"So they say yonder." And the dwarf nodded his head in the direction of the city. "It is said that some tried to rescue him and failed; and there are some who would arrest these men if they could. That"s news for you, farmer."
"Bad news, Jean."
"It"s good news to hear you call it so," said the dwarf, leaning toward his companion. "One of these rescuers was a priest, who will perchance come again to Vayenne. He might pa.s.s this way. If he does, Farmer Jacques, stop him, and say: "All priests entering Vayenne are to be arrested.""
"I"ll do it. I don"t hold with hangings over the castle gates. Would they hang a priest, think you?"
"This one they would; and for that matter all priests have necks as other men have," the dwarf returned.
"That"s ribald talk," said Jacques, who was a religious man and had no liking for jests concerning priests.
"Crooked as my limbs, but a fact for all that, just as they are. I meant no jest. I"ve said what I came to say, and I"ll get back. They watch the gate carefully to-night, and were I too late they might question me."
Jean"s friendship with the farmer was not one of full confidence.
Jacques knew nothing of the flat-bottomed boat and the dwarf"s private entrance into Vayenne. So Jean started briskly along the road, and not until he was well out of sight did he turn aside and make his way back to his hidden landing-place. There he waited until near the dawn, listening for footsteps, or the beating hoofs of a horse, in the silence of the night.
They came some hours afterward, but Jean had recrossed the river then.
Herrick drew up in the shelter of the trees by the landing-place, and looked across the river toward the city. He was bare-headed, and no longer wore the priest"s robe. He had thrown that aside before he emerged from the forest. It would mark him to those he had fought with there, some of whom had doubtless returned to Vayenne. How was he to enter the city? The sound of a heavy wagon crunching its way slowly along the road gave him inspiration. Dismounting quickly, he led his horse round to the back of the shed Jean had plundered the other night. There was no one about, and he fastened the bridle to a staple in the woodwork.
"You"re as good an animal as the one we stole, so that debt is paid,"
he said; and then he hastened after the wagon going in the direction of Vayenne.
CHAPTER XI
THE LAW OF THE LAND
The driver pulled up his horses when Herrick hailed him.
"Are you going into the city?"
"Ay."
"Care to take a pa.s.senger?"
"Ay."
"A paying pa.s.senger?" said Herrick.
"Ay; they"re the sort I care most about."
Herrick climbed up on to the wagon, which was loaded with straw.
"There"s for fare," he said, putting money into the driver"s hand as the horses moved slowly on again.
The man looked at it.
"I"ll take you in and bring you out for this, if you like, and you"ve a mind to wait while I unload the straw."
"I don"t want to come out again," said Herrick. "It"s the getting in that"s the difficulty. I"m for the new Duke, and there are some who plot against him. I might be stopped at the gate. I propose to lie buried in this straw, and once in the city, I will drop out of the wagon. Will you do me the service?"
The man looked at Herrick doubtfully and then at the money.
"But if there"s trouble at the gate and they find you?" he said.
"Then I have climbed up into the wagon as you came along, and you didn"t know it. I warrant you"ve often given an unconscious lift to a free pa.s.senger that way."
"Ay; that"s true. I"ll do it," the driver answered, putting the money in his pocket. "Get you down in the straw."
They lumbered presently over the bridge, and were pa.s.sing through the gate when the wagon stopped.
"Where from?" a voice asked.
"Farmer Jacques."
"That"s a road that goes toward Pa.s.sey, isn"t it?"
"Ay."
"Met any soldier on the road this morning?"
"No."
"Nor a priest?"
"No. If you want a priest there"s one up the street yonder."
"Only straw in your wagon?"
"Ay. Taking it to a man in the Place Beauvoisin. I go there with a load every month."