CHAPTER XL. A FALSE SCENT
The jailer's daughter had not been mistaken; it was indeed Roland whomshe had seen in the jail speaking to the captain of the gendarmerie.Neither was Amelie wrong in her terror. Roland was really in pursuit ofMorgan.
Although he avoided going to the Chateau des Noires-Fontaines, it wasnot that he had the slightest suspicion of the interest his sister hadin the leader of the Companions of Jehu; but he feared the indiscretionof one of his servants. He had recognized Charlotte at the jail, but asthe girl showed no astonishment, he believed she had not recognized him,all the more because, after exchanging a few words with the captain,he went out to wait for the latter on the Place du Bastion, which wasalways deserted at that hour.
His duties over, the captain of gendarmerie joined him. He found Rolandimpatiently walking back and forth. Roland had merely made himselfknown at the jail, but here he proceeded to explain the matter, and toinitiate the captain into the object of his visit.
Roland had solicited the First Consul, as a favor to himself, that thepursuit of the Companions of Jehu be intrusted to him personally, afavor he had obtained without difficulty. An order from the ministerof war placed at his disposal not only the garrison of Bourg, but alsothose of the neighboring towns. An order from the minister of policeenjoined all the officers of the gendarmerie to render him everyassistance.
He naturally applied in the first instance to the captain of thegendarmerie at Bourg, whom he had long known personally as a man ofgreat courage and executive ability. He found what he wanted in him.The captain was furious against the Companions of Jehu, who had stoppeddiligences within a mile of his town, and on whom he was unable to layhis hand. He knew of the reports relating to the last three stoppagesthat had been sent to the minister of police, and he understood thelatter's anger. But Roland brought his amazement to a climax when hetold him of the night he had spent at the Chartreuse of Seillon, andof what had happened to Sir John at that same Chartreuse during thesucceeding night.
The captain had heard by common rumor that Madame de Montrevel's guesthad been stabbed; but as no one had lodged a complaint, he did not thinkhe had the right to investigate circumstances which it seemed tohim Roland wished to keep in the dark. In those troublous days moreindulgence was shown to officers of the army than they might havereceived at other times.
As for Roland, he had said nothing because he wished to reserve forhimself the satisfaction of pursuing the assassins and sham ghosts ofthe Chartreuse when the time came. He now arrived with full power to putthat design into execution, firmly resolved not to return to theFirst Consul until it was accomplished. Besides, it was one of thoseadventures he was always seeking, at once dangerous and picturesque, anopportunity of pitting his life against men who cared little for theirown, and probably less for his. Roland had no conception of Morgan'ssafe-guard which had twice protected him from danger--once on the nighthe had watched at the Chartreuse, and again when he had fought againstCadoudal. How could he know that a simple cross was drawn above hisname, and that this symbol of redemption guaranteed his safety from oneend of France to the other?
For the rest, the first thing to be done was to surround the Chartreuseof Seillon, and to search thoroughly into its most secret places--athing Roland believed himself perfectly competent to do.
The night was now too far advanced to undertake the expedition, and itwas postponed until the one following. In the meantime Roland remainedquietly in hiding in the captain's room at the barracks that no onemight suspect his presence at Bourg nor its cause. The following nighthe was to guide the expedition. In the course of the morrow, one of thegendarmes, who was a tailor, agreed to make him a sergeant's uniform. Hewas to pass as a member of the brigade at Sons-le-Saulnier, and, thanksto the uniform, could direct the search at the Chartreuse without beingrecognized.
Everything happened as planned. Roland entered the barracks with thecaptain about one o'clock, ascended to the latter's room, where he slepton a bed on the floor like a man who has just passed two days and twonights in a post-chaise. The next day he restrained his impatienceby drawing a plan of the Chartreuse of Seillon for the captain'sinstruction, with which, even without Roland's help, that worthy officercould have directed the expedition without going an inch astray.
As the captain had but eighteen men under him, and it was not possibleto surround the monastery completely with that number, or rather, toguard the two exits and make a thorough search through the interior,and, as it would have taken three or four days to bring in all the menof the brigade scattered throughout the neighborhood, the officer, byRoland's order, went to the colonel of dragoons, garrisoned at Bourg,told him of the matter in hand, and asked for twelve men, who, with hisown, made thirty in all.
The colonel not only granted the twelve men, but, learning thatthe expedition was to be commanded by Colonel Roland de Montrevel,aide-de-camp to the First Consul, he proposed that he himself shouldjoin the party at the head of his twelve men.
Roland accepted his co-operation, and it was agreed that the colonel (weemploy the words colonel and chief of brigade indifferently, both beinginterchangeable terms indicating the same rank) and his twelve dragoonsshould pick up Roland, the captain, and his eighteen men, the barracksbeing directly on their road to the Chartreuse. The time was set foreleven that night.
At eleven precisely, with military punctuality, the colonel of dragoonsand his twelve men joined the gendarmes, and the two companies, nowunited in one, began their march. Roland, in his sergeant's uniform,made himself known to his brother colonel; but to the dragoons andgendarmes he remained, as agreed upon, a sergeant detached from thebrigade at Sons-le-Saulnier. Only, as it might otherwise have seemedextraordinary that a sergeant, wholly unfamiliar with these localities,should be their guide, the men were told that Roland had been in hisyouth a novice at Seillon, and was therefore better acquainted than mostpersons with the mysterious nooks of the Chartreuse.
The first feeling of these brave soldiers had been a slight humiliationat being guided by an ex-monk; but, on the other hand, as that ex-monkwore the three-cornered hat jauntily, and as his whole manner andappearance was that of a man who has completely forgotten that heformerly wore a cowl, they ended by accepting the humiliation, andreserved their final judgment on the sergeant until they could see howhe handled the musket he carried on his arm, the pistols he wore in hisbelt, and the sword that hung at his side.
The party was supplied with torches, and started in perfect silence.They were divided into three squads; one of eight men, led by thecaptain of gendarmerie, another of ten, commanded by the colonel, andthe third of twelve men, with Roland at its head. On leaving the townthey separated.
The captain of the gendarmerie, who knew the localities better thanthe colonel of dragoons, took upon himself to guard the window of LaCorrerie, giving upon the forest of Seillon, with his eight men.The colonel of dragoons was commissioned by Roland to watch the mainentrance of the Chartreuse; with him were five gendarmes and fivedragoons. Roland was to search the interior, taking with him fivegendarmes and seven dragoons.
Half an hour was allowed each squad to reach its post; it was morethan was needed. Roland and his men were to scale the orchard wall whenhalf-past eleven was ringing from the belfry at Peronnaz. The captainof gendarmerie followed the main road from Pont d'Ain to the edge ofthe woods, which he skirted until he reached his appointed station. Thecolonel of dragoons took the crossroad which branches from the highwayof Pont d'Ain and leads to the great portal of the Chartreuse. Rolandcrossed the fields to the orchard wall which, as the reader willremember, he had already climbed on two occasions.
Punctually at half-past eleven he gave the signal to his men to scalethe wall. By the time they reached the other side the men, if theydid not yet know that Roland was brave, were at least sure that he wasactive.
Roland pointed in the dusk to a door--the one that led from the orchardinto the cloister. Then he sprang ahead through the rank grasses; first,he opened the
door; first, he entered the cloister.
All was dark, silent and solitary. Roland, still guiding his men,reached the refectory. Absolute solitude; utter silence.
They crossed the hall obliquely, and returned to the garden withoutalarming a living creature except the owls and the bats. There stillremained the cistern, the mortuary vault, and the pavilion, or rather,the chapel in the forest, to be searched. Roland crossed the open spacebetween the cistern and the monastery. After descending the steps, helighted three torches, kept one, and handed the other two, one toa dragoon, the other to a gendarme; then he raised the stone thatconcealed the stairway.
The gendarmes who followed Roland began to think him as brave as he wasactive.
They followed the subterranean passage to the first gate; it was closedbut not locked. They entered the funereal vault. Here was more thansolitude, more than silence; here was death. The bravest felt a shiverin the roots of their hair.
Roland went from tomb to tomb, sounding each with the butt of the pistolhe held in his hand. Silence everywhere. They crossed the vault, reachedthe second gate, and entered the chapel. The same silence, the samesolitude; all was deserted, as it seemed, for years. Roland wentstraight to the choir; there lay the blood on the stones; no one hadtaken the trouble to efface it. Here was the end of his search, whichhad proved futile. Roland could not bring himself to retreat. He fanciedhe was not attacked because of his numerous escort; he therefore leftten men and a torch in the chapel, told them to put themselves incommunication, through the ruined window, with the captain of thegendarmerie, who was ambushed in the forest within a few feet of thewindow, while he himself, with two men, retraced his steps.
This time the two men who followed Roland thought him more than brave,they considered him foolhardy. But Roland, caring little whether theyfollowed or not, retraced his own steps in default of those of thebandits. The two men, ashamed, followed him.
Undoubtedly the Chartreuse was deserted. When Roland reached the greatportal, he called to the colonel of dragoons; he and his men wereat their post. Roland opened the door and joined them. They had seennothing, heard nothing. The whole party entered the monastery, closingand barricading the door behind them to cut off the bandits' retreat,if they were fortunate enough to meet any. Then they hastened to rejointheir comrades, who, on their side, had united with the captain and hiseight men, and were waiting for them in the choir.
There was nothing for it but to retire. Two o'clock had just struck;nearly three hours had been spent in fruitless search. Roland,rehabilitated in the estimation of the gendarmes and the dragoons, whosaw that the ex-novice did not shirk danger, regretfully gave the signalfor retreat by opening the door of the chapel which looked toward theforest.
This time Roland merely closed the door behind him, there being nolonger any hope of encountering the brigands. Then the little troopreturned to Bourg at a quick step. The captain of gendarmerie, with hiseighteen men and Roland, re-entered the barracks, while the colonel andhis twelve men continued on their way toward the town.
It was the sentinel's call, as he challenged the captain and his party,which had attracted the attention of Morgan and Valensolle; and it wasthe noise of their return to the barracks which interrupted thesupper, and caused Morgan to cry out at this unforeseen circumstance:"Attention!"
In fact, in the present situation of these young men, every circumstancemerited attention. So the meal was interrupted. Their jaws ceased towork to give the eyes and ears full scope. It soon became evident thatthe services of their eyes were alone needed.
Each gendarme regained his room without light. The numerous barrackwindows remained dark, so that the watchers were able to concentratetheir attention on a single point.
Among those dark windows, two were lighted. They stood relatively backfrom the rest of the building, and directly opposite to the one wherethe young men were supping. These windows were on the first floor, butin the position the watchers occupied at the top of bales of hay, Morganand Valensolle were not only on a level, but could even look down intothem. These windows were those of the room of the captain of gendarmes.
Whether from indifference on the worthy captain's part, or by reason ofState penury, the windows were bare of curtains, so that, thanks to thetwo candles which the captain had lighted in his guest's honor, Morganand Valensolle could see everything that took place in this room.
Suddenly Morgan grasped Valensolle's arm, and pressed it with all hismight.
"Hey" said Valensolle "what now?"
Roland had just thrown his three-cornered hat on a chair and Morgan hadrecognized him.
"Roland de Montrevel!" he exclaimed, "Roland in a sergeant's uniform!This time we are on his track while he is still seeking ours. Itbehooves us not to lose it."
"What are you going to do?" asked Valensolle, observing that his friendwas preparing to leave him.
"Inform our companions. You stay here and do not lose sight of him. Hehas taken off his sword, and laid his pistols aside, therefore it isprobable he intends to spend the night in the captain's room. To-morrowI defy him to take any road, no matter which, without one of us at hisheels."
And Morgan sliding down the declivity of the hay, disappeared fromsight, leaving his companion crouched like a sphinx, with his eyes fixedon Roland de Montrevel.
A quarter of an hour later Morgan returned. By this time the officer'swindows were dark like all the others of the barracks.
"Well?" asked Morgan.
"Well," replied Valensolle, "it ended most prosaically. They undressedthemselves, blew out the candles, and lay down, the captain on his bed,Roland on a mattress. They are probably trying to outsnore each other atthe present moment."
"In that case," said Morgan, "good-night to them, and to us also."
Ten minutes later the wish was granted, and the two young men weresleeping, as if they did not have danger for a bed-fellow.