CHAPTER XII
THE NIGHT-RIDE
The sound of hoofs came nearer; Anthony's heart, as he crouched below thewindow, ready to spring up and over when the signal was given, beat insick thumpings at the base of his throat, but with a fierce excitementand no fear. His hands clenched and unclenched. Mr. Buxton stood back alittle, waiting; he must feign to be asleep at first.
Then came suddenly a sharp challenge from the sentry.
"It is Mistress Corbet," came Mary's cool high tones, "and I desire tospeak with Mr. Buxton."
The man hesitated.
"You cannot," he said.
"Cannot!" she cried; "why, fellow, do you know who I am? And I have justsupped with him."
There came a sudden sound from the other side of the summer-house, andboth men in the room knew that the guards in the garden were listening.
"I am sorry, madam, but I have no orders."
"Then do not presume, you hound," came Mary's voice again, with a ring ofanger. "Ho, there, Mr. Buxton, come to the window."
"Be ready," he whispered to Anthony.
"Stand back, madam," said the pursuivant, "or I shall call for help."
Then Mr. Buxton threw back the window.
"Who is there?" he asked coolly. ("Stand up Anthony.")
"It is I, Mr. Buxton, but this insolent dog----"
"Stand _back_, madam, I say," cried the voice of the guard. Then from thegarden behind came running footsteps and voices; and a red light shonethrough the windows behind.
"Now," whispered the voice over Anthony's head sharply.
There came a loud shout from the guard, "Help there, help!"
Anthony put his hands on to the sill and lifted himself easily. The groomhad slipped from his horse while Mary held the bridle, and was advancingat the guard, and there was something in his hand. The sentry, who wasstanding immediately under the window, now dropped his pike pointforward; and as a furious rattling began at the doors on the garden side,Anthony dropped, and came down astride of the man's neck, who crashed tothe ground. Then the groom was on him too.
"Leave him to me, sir. Mount."
The groom's hands were busy with something about the struggling man'sneck: the shouts choked and ceased.
"You will strangle the man," said Anthony sharply.
"Nonsense," said Mary; "mount, mount. They are coming."
Anthony ran to the horse, that was beginning to scurry and plunge; threwhimself across the saddle and caught the reins.
"Up?" said Mary.
"Up"; and he slung his right leg over the flank and sat up, as Maryreleased the bridle, and dashed off, scattering gravel.
From the direction of the church came cries and the quick rattle of agalloping horse. Anthony dashed his shoeless heels into the horse's sidesand leaned forward, and in a moment more was flying down the lane afterMary. From in front came a shout of warning, with one or two screams, andthen Anthony turned the corner, checking his horse slightly at the angle,saw a torch somewhere to his right, a group of scared faces, a groom andwoman clinging to him on a plunging horse, and the white road; and thenfound himself with loose reins, and flying stirrups, thundering down thevillage street, with Mary on her horse not two lengths in front. The roarof the hoofs behind, and of the little shouting crowd, with the screamingwoman on the horse, died behind him as the wind began to boom in hisears. Mary was looking round now, and slightly checking her horse as theyneared the bottom of the long village street. In half a dozen stridesAnthony came up on her right. Then the pool gleamed before them justbeyond the fork of the road.
"Left!" screamed Mary through the roar of the racing air, and turned herhorse off up the road that led round in a wide sweep of two miles to EastMaskells and the woods beyond, and Anthony followed. He had settled downin the saddle now, and had brought his maddened horse under control; hisfeet were in the stirrups, but there was no lessening of the speed. Theyhad left the last house now, and on either side the black bushes andheatherland streamed past, with the sudden gleam of water here and thereunder the starlight that showed the ditches and holes with which theground on either side of the road was honeycombed.
Then Mary turned her head again, and the words came detached and sharp.
"They are after us--could not help--horses saddled."
Anthony turned his head to release one ear from the roar of the air, andheard the thundering rattle of hoofs in the distance, but even as helistened it grew fainter.
"We are gaining!" he shouted.
Mary nodded, and her teeth gleamed white in a smile.
"Ours are fresh," she screamed.
Then there was silence between them again; they had reached a little hilland eased their horses up it; a heavy fringe of trees crowned it on theirright, black against the stars, and a gleam of light showed the presenceof a house among them. Farther and farther behind them sounded the hoofs;then they were swaying and rocking again down the slope that led to thelong flat piece of road that ended in the slope up to East Maskells. Itwas softer going now and darker too, as there were trees overhead;pollared willows streamed past them as they went; and twice there was asnort and a hollow thunder of hoofs as a young sleeping horse awoke andraced them a few yards in the meadows at the side. Once Anthony's horseshied at a white post, and drew in front a yard or two; and he heard fora moment under the rattle the cool gush of the stream that flowed beneaththe road and the scream of a water-fowl as she burst from the reeds.
A great exultation began to fill Anthony's heart. What a ride this was,in the glorious summer night--reckless and intoxicating! What a contrast,this sweet night air streaming past him, this dear world of livingthings, his throbbing horse beneath him, the birds and beasts round him,and this gallant girl swaying and rejoicing too beside him! What acontrast was all this to that terrible afternoon, only a few hoursaway--of suspense and skulking like a rat in a sewer; in a dark, closepassage underground breathing death and silence round him! An escape withthe fresh air in the face and the glorious galloping music of hoofs isanother matter to an escape contrived by holding the breath and fearingto move in a mean hiding-hole. And as all this flooded in upon him,incoherently but overpoweringly, he turned and laughed loud with joy.
They had nearly come to an end of the flat by now. In front of them rosethe high black mass of trees where safety lay; somewhere to the right,not a quarter of a mile in front, just off the road, lay East Maskells.They would draw rein, he reflected, when they reached the outer gates,and listen; and if all was quiet behind them, Mary at least should askfor shelter. For himself, perhaps it would be safer to ride on into thewoods for the present. He began to move his head as he rode to see ifthere were any light in the house before him; it seemed dark; but perhapshe could not see the house from here. Gradually his horse slackened alittle, as the rise in the ground began, and he tossed the reins once ortwice.
Then there was a sharp hiss and blow behind him; his horse snorted andleapt forward, almost unseating him, and then, still snorting with headraised and jerking, dashed at the slope. There was a cry and a loudreport; he tugged at the reins, but the horse was beside himself, and herode fifty yards before he could stop him. Even as he wrenched him intosubmission another horse with head up and flying stirrup and reinsthundered past him and disappeared into the woods beyond the house.
Then, trembling so that he could hardly hold the reins, he urged hishorse back again at a stumbling trot towards what he knew lay at the footof the slope, and to meet the tumult that grew in nearness and intensityup the road along which he had just galloped.
There was a dark group on the pale road in front of him, twenty yardsthis side of the field-path that led from Stanfield Place; he took hisfeet from the stirrups as he got near, and in a moment more threw hisright leg forward over the saddle and slipped to the ground.
He said no word but pushed away the two men, and knelt by Mary, takingher head on his knee. The men rose and stood looking down at them.
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"Mary," he said, "can you hear me?"
He bent close over the white face; her hand rose to her breast, and cameaway dark. She was shot through the body. Then she pushed him sharply.
"Go," she whispered, "go."
"Mary," he said again, "make your confession--quickly. Stand back, youmen."
They obeyed him; and he bent his ear towards the mouth he could so dimlysee. There was a sob or two--a long moaning breath--and then the murmurof words, very faint and broken by gulps for breath. He noticed nothingof the hoofs that dashed up the road and stopped abruptly, and of themurmur of voices that grew round him; he only heard the gasping whisper,the words that rose one by one, with pauses and sighs, into his ear....
"Is that all?" he said, and a silence fell on all who stood round, now acomplete circle about the priest and the penitent. The pale face movedslightly in assent; he could see the lips were open, and the breath wascoming short and agonised.
"... _In nomine Patris_--his hand rose above her and moved cross-ways inthe air--_et Filii et Spiritus Sancti_. _Amen._"
Then he bent low again and looked; the bosom was still rising andfalling, the shut eyes lifted once and looked at him. Then the lids fellagain.
"_Benedictio Dei omnipotentis, Patris et Filii et Spiritus sancti,descendat super te et maneat semper. Amen._"
Then there fell a silence. A horse blew out its nostrils somewhere behindand stamped; then a man's voice cried brutally:
"Now then, is that popish mummery done yet?"
There was a murmur and stir in the group. But Anthony had risen.
"That is all," he said.