CHAPTER SEVEN.
SHUT UP IN A TOWER.
Jack and Bill marched along in the middle of the party of soldiers,endeavouring, as well as they could, to keep up their spirits, and toappear unconcerned. Where they were going they could not tell.
"Jack," whispered Bill, "don't let these fellows know that we understandFrench. We may learn something from what they say to each other; andthey are not likely to tell us the truth, if we were to ask themquestions."
"Trust me for that," answered Jack. "One might suppose, from the waythey treat us, that they take us for desperate fellows, who would makenothing of knocking them down right and left, if it were not for theirmuskets and bayonets."
"All right," responded Bill; "we'll keep our wits awake, and maybe weshall find an opportunity of getting away."
"I am ready for anything you propose," said Jack. "We might have foundit more easy to make our escape if Madame Turgot had brought us back ourFrench toggery; but still, for my part, I feel more comfortable-like inmy own clothes."
"So do I," said Bill. "Somehow I fancy that I am more up to workdressed as an English sailor than I should be as a French boy. I onlyhope our friends will not get into any scrape for having concealed us.They are wonderfully kind people, and I shall always be ready to do agood turn to a Frenchman for their sakes."
"So shall I after I've thrashed him," said Jack. "If the French will goto war with us, they must take the consequences."
The soldiers did not interfere with the lads, but allowed them to talkon to each other as much as they liked. The road they followed led themto the eastward, as far as they could judge, at no great distance fromthe shore.
After marching about a couple of miles, they reached a small town, orvillage rather, the houses being scattered along the shores of anotherbay much larger than the one they had left. A river of some size raninto the bay, and on a point of land near the mouth, on a height, stoodan old tower, which had been built, apparently, for the purpose ofguarding the entrance.
It was in a somewhat dilapidated condition, and seemed now very unfitfor its original object, for a few round shot would have speedilyknocked it to pieces. It might, however, afford shelter to a small bodyof infantry, who could fire from the loopholes in its walls down on anyboats, attempting to ascend the river.
"I wonder if they are going to shut us up there!" said Jack, as thesergeant led the party in the direction of the tower.
"No doubt about it," replied Bill; "but it doesn't seem to be a veryterrible place; and, by the look of the walls, I have a notion that Icould climb to the top, or make my way down them, without the slightestdifficulty."
They had time to make their observations before they reached theentrance gate.
A small guard of soldiers were stationed in the tower, to whose chargethe prisoners were handed over.
The officer commanding the party was a gruff old fellow, who seemed tohave no feeling of compassion for his young prisoners.
After putting various questions to the sergeant who had brought them, hemade signs to them to accompany him to the top of the building, and ledthe way, attended by two soldiers who followed close behind, up a flightof exceedingly rickety stairs, which creaked and groaned as theyascended.
On reaching the top the officer opened a door, which led into a smallroom, the highest apparently in the building; he then signed to the boysto go in, and without saying a word closed the door and locked it. Theysoon afterwards heard him and his men descending the stairs.
"Here we are," said Jack. "I wonder what's going to happen next!"
"Why, if they leave us here long enough, the next thing that will happenwill be that we'll make our way out again," replied Bill. "Look atthose windows! Though they are not very big, they are large enough forus to squeeze through, or it may be more convenient to make our way outby the roof. I can see daylight through one or two places, which showsthat the tiles are not very securely fastened on."
"And if we do get out, where shall we go?" asked Jack.
"It won't do to return to the Turgots; we might be getting them intotrouble. We must make our way down to the sea shore, and then travel ontill we can reach some port or other, and when there try to get on boarda smuggling lugger, as Captain Turgot at first proposed we should do,"replied Bill.
"It may be a hard job to do that," said Jack; "and I should say it wouldbe easier to run off with a boat or some small craft which we two couldhandle, and make our way in her across Channel. I know where to findthe polar star. I have often been out at night when father steered byit, and we should be sure, some time or other, to make the Englishcoast."
"I should not like to run away with a poor man's vessel. What would hesay in the morning when he found his craft gone?" observed Bill. "Itwould be taking what is not ours to take. I never did and never woulddo that."
Jack argued the point.
"The French are enemies of the English," he said, "and thereforeEnglishmen have a perfect right to best them either afloat or on shore."
Bill said he would consider the subject, and in the meantime they made afurther survey of their prison. It could not be called luxuriantlyfurnished, considering that there was only a bench of no great widthrunning along the side of one of the walls, and the remains of a table.One of the legs had gone, and part of the top, and it was propped up bya couple of empty casks.
There were neither bedsteads nor bedding of any description, but thebench was of sufficient length to allow both the boys to lie down on it.
The sun was on the point of setting when they reached the tower, anddarkness soon stole on them.
"I wonder whether they intend to give us any supper," said Jack, "or dothey expect us to live on air?"
"I can hold out till to-morrow morning, but I should be thankful if theywould bring us up something to-night; and we should be the better ableto make our escape, if we have the opportunity," observed Bill.
"Then I propose that we make a tremendous row, and that will bring someone up to sea what's the matter. We can then point to our mouths toshow that we are hungry, and perhaps they will take compassion on us,"said Jack.
Bill agreeing to Jack's proposal, they began jumping and stamping aboutthe room, and singing at the top of their voices, in a way which couldscarcely fail to be heard by the men in the guard-room below.
They were in a short time convinced that their proceedings had producedthe desired effect; for when they ceased to make the noise, they heardthe heavy step of a man ascending the creaking stairs. It had notoccurred to them that he might possibly come with a thick stick in hishand, to thrash them for making a row. The idea, however, flashedacross Jack's mind by the time the man was half-way up.
"We may get more kicks than ha'pence for what we've been doing," heobserved; "however, it cannot be helped; we must put a good face on thematter, and let him fancy that it is the way English boys have ofshowing when they are hungry. If he does not make out what we mean,we'll say, `manger, manger,' and he'll then know what we want."
Bill laughed. He was not much afraid of a beating. He reminded Jackthat he must not say anything more than he proposed, or the Frenchmenmight find out that they understood their language.
The man came slowly up the steps, which creaked and groaned louder andlouder.
"I'll tell you what," said Bill. "If those steps are as rotten as theyappear to be, we might pull some of them up, and so prevent the guardfrom reaching this room, and finding out that we have made our escape."
"We should have to get the door open first," observed Jack, "and thatwould be no easy matter."
"More easy than you may suppose," said Bill. "I'll try and shovesomething into the catch of the lock while the Frenchman is in theroom."
Just then the door opened, and a soldier entered, with a lantern in onehand, and, as Jack expected, a stick in the other. It was not, however,a very thick one, and Jack thought, as he eyed it, that its blows,though they might hurt, would not break any bones; however,
neither henor Bill had any intention of being thrashed if they could help it.
The soldier began at once to inquire, in an angry tone, why they hadmade so much noise.
They pretended not to understand him; but as he lifted his stick tostrike at them, they ran round the room, Jack shouting "Manger! manger!"and pointing to his mouth.
He could easily manage to keep out of the Frenchman's reach, but at lasthe allowed himself to be caught for a minute at the farther end of theroom, thus giving Bill time to reach the door.
Bill made good use of the opportunity, while the Frenchman's back wasturned, to carry out his intention.
"All right," he cried out; and as soon as Jack heard him, he skipped outof the Frenchman's way, as he had no wish to receive more blows than hecould avoid. The soldier, on seeing Bill, attacked him next, but heeasily evaded most of the blows aimed at him, till the soldier grewweary of the chase.
"Manger! manger!" cried both the boys at once, in various tones,sometimes imploring, at others expostulating, and then as if they wereexcited by anger and indignation that they should be so treated.
The soldier understood them clearly enough, and probably thought tohimself that unless he could bring some food to keep the young prisonersquiet, he might have frequent trips to make to the top of the tower.
"Ma foi! I suppose that you have had nothing to eat for some hours," heobserved, in French. "I'll see what I can get for you; but remember,you must be quiet, or you will be left to starve."
They were well pleased to hear this; but still pretending not tounderstand him, they continued crying out, "Manger! manger!"
At last the soldier took his departure, locking the door, as hesupposed, behind him.
As soon as they knew, by the sounds he made descending the steps, thathe had got some distance down, the boys ran to the door, and, to theirsatisfaction, found that they could easily open it, though it appearedto be securely locked.
From the remarks the Frenchman had made, they had some hopes that hewould bring them food; they therefore lay down on the bench to await hisreturn.
Greatly to their satisfaction, in a short time they again heard a stepon the stair, and the soldier who had before paid them a visit entered,carrying a basket with some bread and cheese, dried figs, and some winein a bottle. He also brought up a piece of candle, and a lump of woodwith a spike in it, which served as a candlestick.
He placed these on the table with the contents of the basket.
"There," he said, "eat away; you may have a long march to-morrow, and ifyou haven't strength we may have to carry you."
The boys pretended not to understand him; but both exclaimed, as theysaw the viands, "Merci! merci!" and put out their hands to shake that ofthe soldier, who seemed, while performing a kind action, to be in muchbetter humour than before.
"Mangez! mes braves garcons," he remarked. "What is over you can havefor breakfast to-morrow morning, as maybe you'll get nothing elsebrought you."
"Merci! merci!" answered Jack and Bill, as they escorted the soldier tothe door, letting him suppose that these were the only two words theyunderstood.
As soon as he had turned the key in the door, they hurried to the table,and eagerly devoured some of the bread and cheese.
"It's fortunate we've got so large a stock of food," said Bill; "there'senough here, if we are careful of it, for a couple of days."
There was in the bottle but a small allowance of wine, which wasexcessively sour; but it served to quench their thirst, though theyagreed that they would much rather have had fresh water.
Having finished their supper, they divided the remainder of the foodinto two portions, which they stowed away in their pockets. They thenwaited till they had reason to suppose, from hearing no noise ascendingthe stairs, that the soldiers in the guard-room had gone to sleep.
Having cautiously opened the door, they next examined the steps, andfound that they could wrench up those of the upper part of the flightwithout making much noise. They had to be quick about it, as theircandle would soon burn out.
First, having closed the door, they got up seven of the steps, beginningat the uppermost one, till they formed a gap which it would beimpossible for a man to spring over. The boards they carried down asthey descended, when they found themselves in another storey, the wholeof which was occupied by one large room without doors, the reason, ofcourse, why it had not been made their prison.
Their candle had now nearly burned out. Having hung their shoes roundtheir necks, they were able to step softly. Hunting about, theydiscovered an empty space under the stairs, in which they stowed thepieces of wood.
"Perhaps we might get down by the stairs," whispered Jack.
"The chances are that we should find a door to stop us at the bottom,"returned Bill. "We must try to get down the outside. The walls are sofull of holes that we might manage it, and I am ready to go first andtry."
The question was, on which side should they attempt to make theirdescent? On looking through the narrow windows, they observed a gleamof light coming out below them on one side; probably that was from theguard-room, and they accordingly fixed on the opposite side, where allwas dark. They ran no little chance of breaking their necks, but aboutthat they did not trouble themselves. If a cat could get up, theybelieved that they could get down, by clinging with toes and fingers,and teeth, if necessary, to the wall.
They, however, made the fullest examination in their power to ascertainthe best spot for their descent; they looked out of every window insuccession, but at last arrived at the conclusion that the attempt toscramble down a perpendicular wall was too hazardous to be made. Theynow began to fear that their enterprise must be abandoned, and that theyshould be compelled to make their way first to a lower storey, which,for what they could tell, might be inhabited; or else that they mustdescend the creaking stairs, and run a still greater chance of beingdiscovered.
"Here's another window," said Bill; "let's look through that."
He climbed up to it, and gazed out. Great was his satisfaction toperceive the top of a massive wall a few feet below him. The tower hadbeen a portion of an old castle, and the end of this wall was a mass ofruins, but quite thick enough to enable them to scramble along the topof it, and Bill had no doubt that they thence could easily descend to,the level ground.