CHAPTER XII. THE AWAKENING
La Boulaye awakened betimes next morning. It may be that the matter onhis mind and the business that was toward aroused him; certainly itwas none of the sounds that are common to an inn at early morn, for theplace was as silent as a tomb.
Some seconds he remained on his back, staring at the whitewashed ceilingand listening to the patter of the rain against his window. Then, as hismind gathered up the threads of recollection, he leapt from his bed andmade haste to assume a garment or two.
He stood a moment at his casement, looking out into the empty courtyard.From a leaden sky the rain was descending in sheets, and the gargoyle atthe end of the eaves overhead was discharging a steady column of waterinto the yard. Caron shivered with the cold of that gloomy Februarymorning, and turned away from the window. A few moments later he was inTardivet's bedchamber, vigorously shaking the sleeping Captain.
"Up, Charlot! Awake!" he roared in the man's ear.
"What o'clock?" he asked with a yawn. Then a sudden groan escaped him,and he put his hand to his head. "Thousand devils!" he swore, "what aheadache!"
But La Boulaye was not there on any mission of sympathy, nor did hewaste words in conveying his news.
"The coach is gone," he announced emphatically.
"Coach? What coach?" asked the Captain, knitting his brows.
"What coach?" echoed La Boulaye testily. "How many coaches were there?Why, the Bellecour coach; the coach with the treasure."
At that Charlot grew very wide-awake. He forgot his headache and hisinterest in the time of day.
"Gone?" he bellowed. "How gone? Pardieu, it is not possible!"
"Look for yourself," was La Boulaye's answer as he waved his hand in thedirection of the window. "I don't know what manner of watch your men canhave kept that such a thing should have come about. Probably, knowingyou ill a-bed, they abused the occasion by getting drunk, and probablythey are still sleeping it off. The place is silent enough."
But Tardivet scarcely heard him. From his window he was staring into theyard below, too thunderstruck by its emptiness to even have recourseto profanity. Stable door and porte-cochere alike stood open. He turnedsuddenly and made for his coat. Seizing it, he thrust his hand in onepocket after another. At last:
"Treachery!" he cried, and letting the garment fall to the ground, heturned upon La Boulaye a face so transfigured by anger that it lookedlittle like the usually good-humoured countenance of Captain Tardivet"My keys have been stolen. By St. Guillotine, I'll have the thiefhanged."
"Did anybody know that the keys were in your pocket?" asked theingenuous Caron.
"I told you last night."
"Yes, yes; I remember that. But did anybody else know?"
"The ostler knew. He saw me lock the doors."
"Why, then, let us find the ostler," urged Caron. "Put on some clothesand we will go below."
Mechanically Charlot obeyed him, and as he did so he gave his feelingsvent at last. From between set teeth came now a flow of oaths andimprecations as steady as the flow of water from the gargoyle overhead.
At last they hastened down the stairs together, and in the common-roomthey found the sleeping company much as La Boulaye had left it the nightbefore. In an access of rage at what he saw, and at the ample evidencesof the debauch that had reduced them to this condition, Charlot began bykicking the chair from under Mother Capoulade. The noise of her fall andthe scream with which she awoke served to arouse one or two others, wholifted their heads to gaze stupidly about them.
But Charlot was busy stirring the other slumberers. He had found a whip,and with this he was now laying vigorously about him.
"Up, you swine!" he blazed at them. "Afoot, you drunken scum!"
His whip cracked, and his imprecations rang high and lurid. And LaBoulaye assisted him in his labours with kicks and cuffs and a tongue noless vituperative.
At last they were on their feet--a pale, bewildered, shamefacedcompany--receiving from the infuriated Charlot the news that whilst theyhad indulged themselves in their drunken slumbers their prisoners hadescaped and carried off the treasure with them. The news was receivedwith a groan of dismay, and several turned to the door to ascertainfor themselves whether it was indeed exact. The dreary emptiness of therain-washed yard afforded them more than ample confirmation.
"Where is your pig of an ostler, Mother Capoulade?" demanded the angryCaptain.
Quivering with terror, she answered him that the rascal should be in theshed by the stables, where it was his wont to sleep. Out into the rain,despite the scantiness of his attire, went Charlot, followed closely byLa Boulaye and one or two stragglers. The shed proved empty, as Caroncould have told him--and so, too, did the stables. Here, at the spotwhere Madame de Bellecour's coachman had been left bound, the Captainturned to La Boulaye and those others that had followed him.
"It is the ostler's work," he announced. "There was knavery andtreachery writ large upon his ugly face. I always felt it, and thisbusiness proves how correct were my instincts. The rogue was bribed whenhe discovered how things were with you, you greasy sots. But you, LaBoulaye," he cried suddenly, "were you drunk, too?"
"Not I," answered the Deputy.
"Then, name of a name, how came that lumbering coach to leave the yardwithout awakening you?"
"You ask me to explain too much," was La Boulaye's cool evasion. "I havealways accounted myself a light sleeper, and I could not have believedthat such a thing could really have taken place without disturbing me.But the fact remains that the coach has gone, and I think that insteadof standing here in idle speculation as to how it went, you might findmore profitable employment in considering how it is to brought backagain. It cannot have gone very far."
If any ray of suspicion had begun to glimmer in Charlot's brain, thatsuggestion of La Boulaye's was enough to utterly extinguish it.
They returned indoors, and without more ado Tardivet set himself to planthe pursuit. He knew, he announced, that Prussia was their destination.He had discovered it at the time of their capture from certain papersthat he had found in a portmanteau of the Marquise's. He discussedthe matter with La Boulaye, and it was now that Caron had occasion tocongratulate himself upon his wisdom in having elected to remain behind.
The Captain proposed to recall the fifty men that were watching theroads from France, and to spread them along the River Sambre, as far asLiege, to seek information of the way taken by the fugitives. As soonas any one of the parties struck the trail it was to send word to theothers, and start immediately in pursuit.
Now, had Charlot been permitted to spread such a net as this, theMarquise must inevitably fall into it, and Caron had pledged his wordthat she should have an open road to Prussia. With a map spread upon thetable he now expounded to the Captain how little necessity there wasfor so elaborate a scheme. The nearest way to Prussia was by Charleroi,Dinant, and Rochefort, into Luxembourg, and--he contended--it was notonly unlikely, but incredible, that the Marquise should choose any butthe shortest road to carry her out of Belgium, seeing the dangers thatmust beset her until the frontiers of Luxembourg were passed.
"And so," argued La Boulaye, "why waste time in recalling your men?Think of the captives you might miss by such an act! It wereinfinitely better advised to assume that the fugitives have taken theCharleroi-Dinant road, and to despatch, at once, say, half-a-dozen menin pursuit."
Tardivet pondered the matter for some moments.
"Yom are right," he agreed at last. "If they have resolved to continuetheir journey, a half-dozen men should suffice to recapture them. I willdespatch these at once..."
La Boulaye looked up at that.
"If they have resolved to continue their journey?" he echoed. "What elseshould they have resolved?"
Tardivet stroked his reddish hair and smiled astutely.
"In organising a pursuit," said he, "the wise pursuer will always puthimself in the place of the fugitives, and seek to reason as they wouldprobably reason. Now, what more likely than t
hat these ladies, or theircoachman, or that rascally ostler, should have thought of doubling backinto France? They might naturally argue that we; should never think ofpursuing them in that direction. Similarly placed, that is how I shouldreason, and that is the course I should adopt, making for Prussiathrough Lorraine. Perhaps I do their intelligences too much honour--yet,to me, it seems such an obvious course."'
La Boulaye grew cold with apprehension. Yet impassively he asked:
"But what of your men who are guarding the frontiers?"
"Pooh! A detour might circumvent them. The Marquise might go as farnorth as Roubaix or Comines, or as fair south as Rocroy, or evenCharlemont. Name of a name, but it is more than likely!" he exclaimed,with sudden conviction. "What do you say, Caron?"
"That you rave," answered La Boulaye coldly.
"Well, we shall see. I will despatch a message to my men, biddingthem spread themselves as far north as Comiines and as far south asCharlemont. Should the fugitives have made such a detour as I suggestedthere will be ample time to take them."
La Boulaye still contemned the notion with a fine show of indifference,but Tardivet held to his purpose, and presently despatched themessengers as he had proposed. At that Caron felt his pulses quickeningwith anxiety for Mademoiselle. These astute measures must inevitablyresult im her capture--for was it not at Roubaix that he had bidden herawait him? There was but one thing to be done, to ride out himself tomeet her along the road from Soignies to Oudenarde, and to escorther into France. She should go ostensibly as his prisoner, and he wasconfident that not all the brigands of Captain Tardivet would suffice totake her from him.
Accordingly, he announced his intention of resuming his interruptedjourney, and ordered his men to saddle and make ready. Meanwhile, havingtaken measures to recapture the Marquise should she have doubled backinto France, Charlot was now organising an expedition to scour theroad to Prussia, against the possibility of her having adhered to heroriginal intention of journeying that way. Thus he was determined totake no risks, and leave her no loophole of escape.
Tardivet would have set himself at the head of the six horsemen ofthis expedition, but that La Boulaye interfered, and this time to somepurpose. He assured the Captain that he was still far from recovered,and that to spend a day in the saddle might have the gravest ofconsequences for him.
"If the occasion demanded it," he concluded, "I should myself urge youto chance the matter of your health. But the occasion does not. Thebusiness is of the simplest, and your men can do as much without you asthey could with you."
Tardivet permitted himself to be persuaded, and Caron had again goodcause to congratulate himself that he had remained behind to influencehim. He opined that the men, failing to pick up the trail at Charleroi,would probably go on as far as Dinant before abandoning the chase; thenthey would return to Boisvert to announce their failure, and by thattime it would be too late to reorganise the pursuit. On the other hand,had Tardivet accompanied them, upon failing to find any trace of theMarquise at Charleroi, La Boulaye could imagine him pushing north alongthe Sambre, and pressing the peasantry into his service to form animpassable cordon.
And so, having won his way in this at least, and seen the six men setout under the command of Tardivet's trusted Guyot, Caron took his leaveof the Captain. He was on the very point of setting out when a courierdashed up to the door of the "Eagle," and called for a cup of wine. Asit was brought him he asked the hostess whether the Citizen-deputy LaBoulaye, Commissioner to the army of Dumouriez, had passed that way.Upon being informed that the Deputy was even then within the inn, thecourier got down from his horse and demanded to be taken to him.
The hostess led him into the common-room, and pointed out the Deputy.The courier heaved a sigh of relief, and removing his sodden cloak hebade the landlady get it dried and prepare him as stout a meal as herhostelry afforded.
"Name of a name!" he swore, as he pitched his dripping hat into acorner. "But it is good to find you at last, Citizen-deputy? I hadexpected to meet you at Valenciennes. But as you were not there, and asmy letters were urgent, I have been compelled to ride for the past sixhours through that infernal deluge. Enfin, here you are, and here is myletter--from the Citizen-deputy Maximilien Robespierre--and here I'llrest me for the next six hours."
Bidding the fellow by all means rest and refresh himself, La Boulayebroke the seal, and read the following:
Dear Caron,
My courier should deliver you this letter as you are on the Point of reentering France, on your return from the mission which you have discharged with so much glory to yourself and credit to me who recommended you for the task. I make you my compliments on the tact and adroitness you have employed to bring this stubborn Dumouriez into some semblance of sympathy with the Convention. And now, my friend, I have another task for you, which you can discharge on your homeward journey. You will make a slight detour, passing into Artois and riding to the Chateau d'Ombreval, which is situated some four miles south of Arras. Here I wish you not only to Possess yourself of the person of the ci-devant Vicomte d'Ombreval, bringing him to Paris as your Prisoner, but further, to make a very searching investigation of that aristocrat's papers, securing any documents that you may consider of a nature treasonable to the French Republic, One and Indivisible.
The letter ended with the usual greetings and Robespierre's signature.
La Boulaye swore softly to himself as he folded the epistle.
"It seems," he muttered to Charlot, "that I am to turn catch-poll in theservice of the Republic."
"To a true servant of the Nation," put in the courier, who had overheardhim, "all tasks that may tend to the advancement of the Republic shouldbe eagerly undertaken. Diable! Have not I ridden in the rain these sixhours past?"
La Boulaye paid no heed to him; he was too inured to this sort ofinsolence since the new rule had levelled all men. But Charlot turnedslowly to regard the fellow.
He was a tall man of rather slender stature, but indifferently dressedin garments that were splashed from head to foot with mud, and fromwhich a steam was beginning to rise as he stood now with his back to thefire. Charlot eyed him so narrowly that the fellow shifted his positionand dropped his glance in some discomfort. His speech, though rough ofpurport, had not been ungentle of delivery. But his face was dirty--thesure sign of an ardent patriot--his hair hung untidy about his face,and he wore that latest abomination of the ultra-revolutionist, a denseblack beard and moustache.
"My friend," said Charlot, "although we are ready to acknowledge you ourequal, we should like you to understand that we do not take lessons induty even from our equals. Bear you that in mind if you seek to have apeaceful time while you are here, for it so happens that I amquartered at this inn, and have a more important way with me than thisgood-natured Deputy here."
The fellow darted Charlot a malevolent glance.
"You talk of equality and you outrage equality in a breath," he growled."I half suspect you of being a turncoat aristocrat." And he spatostentatiously on the ground.
"Suspect what you will, but voice no suspicions here, else you'll becomeacquainted with the mighty short methods of Charlot Tardivet. And as foraristocrats, my friend, there are none so rabid as the newly-converted.I wonder how long it is since you became a patriot?"
Before the fellow could make any answer the corporal in command ofLa Boulaye's escort entered to inform Caron that the men were in thesaddle.
At that the Deputy hurriedly took his leave of Tardivet, and wrappinghis heavy cloak tightly about him he marched out into the rain, andmounted.
A few moments later they clattered briskly out of Boisvert, the thickgrey mud flying from their horses' hoofs as they went, and took theroad to France. For a couple of miles they rode steadily along under theunceasing rain and in the teeth of that bleak February wind. Then at across-road La Boulaye unexpectedly called a halt.
"My friends," he said to his escort, "we have yet a little business todischarge in Belgium before we
cross the frontier."
With that he announced his intention of going North, and so briskly didhe cause them to ride, that by noon--a short three hours after quittingBoisvert--they had covered a distance of twenty-five miles, and broughtup their steaming horses before the Hotel de Flandres at Leuze.
At this, the only post-house in the place, La Boulaye made inquiriesas to whether any carriage had arrived from Soignies that morning, toreceive a negative answer. This nowise surprised him, for he hardlythought that Mademoiselle could have had time to come so far. She must,however, be drawing nearer, and he determined to ride on to meet her.From Leuze to Soignies is a distance of some eight or nine leagues by aroad which may roughly be said to be the basis of a triangle having itsapex at Boisvert.
After his men had hurriedly refreshed themselves, La Boulaye orderedthem to horse again, and they now cantered out, along this road, toSoignes. But as mile after mile was covered without their coming uponany sign of such a carriage as Mademoiselle should be travelling in, LaBoulaye almost unconsciously quickened the pace until in the end theyfound themselves careering along as fast as their jaded horses wouldbear them, and speculating mightily upon the Deputy's odd behaviour.
Soignies itself was reached towards four o'clock, and still they had notmet her whom La Boulaye expected. Here, in a state of some wonder andeven of some anxiety, Caron made straight for the Auberge des Postes.Bidding his men dismount and see to themselves and their beasts, hewent in quest of the host, and having found him, bombarded him withquestions.
In reply he elicited the information that at noon that day a carriagesuch as he described had reached Soignies in a very sorry condition. Oneof the wheels had come off on the road, and although the Marquise's menhad contrived to replace it and to rudely secure it by an improvisedpin, they had been compelled to proceed at a walk for some fifteen milesof the journey, which accounted for the lateness of their arrival atSoignies. They had remained at the Auberge des Postes until the wheelhad been properly mended, and it was not more than an hour since theyhad resumed their journey along the road to Liege.
"But did both the citoyennes depart?" cried La Boulaye, in amazement,and upon receiving an affirmative reply it at once entered his mind thatthe Marquise must have influenced her daughter to that end--perhapseven employed force.
"Did there appear to be any signs of disagreement between them?" was hisnext question.
"No, Citizen, I observed nothing. They seemed in perfect accord."
"The younger one did not by any chance inquire of you whether it wouldbe possible to hire a berline?" asked Caron desperately.
"No," the landlord answered him, with wondering eyes. "She appeared asanxious as her mother for the repairing of the coach in which they came,that they might again depart in it."
La Boulaye stood a moment in thought, his brows drawn together, hisbreathing seeming suspended, for into his soul a suspicion had of asudden been thrust--a hideous suspicion. Abruptly he drew himself upto the full of his active figure, and threw back his head, his resolvetaken.
"Can I have fresh horses at once?" he inquired. "I need eight."
The landlord thoughtfully scratched his head.
"You can have two at once, and the other six in a half-hour."
"Very well," he answered. "Saddle me one at once, and have the otherseven ready for my men as soon as possible."
And whilst the host sent the ostler to execute the order, Caron calledfor a cup of wine and a crust of bread. Munching his crust he enteredthe common-room where his men were at table with a steaming ragoutbefore them.
"Garin," he said to the corporal, "in a half-hour the landlord willbe able to provide you with fresh horses. You will set out at once tofollow me along the road to Liege. I am starting immediately."
Garin, with the easy familiarity of the Republican soldier, bade himtake some thought of his exhausted condition, and snatch at least thehalf-hour's rest that was to be theirs. But La Boulaye was out of theroom before he had finished. A couple of minutes later they heard aclatter of departing hoofs, and La Boulaye was gone along the road tooLiege in pursuit of the ladies of Bellecour.