The Scarlet Pimpernel (32 page)

"Dear me! dear me!" he whispered, with affected gallantry, "this is
indeed a charming surprise," and Marguerite felt her resistless hand
raised to Chauvelin's thin, mocking lips.

The situation was indeed grotesque, had it not been at the same time
so fearfully tragic: the poor, weary woman, broken in spirit, and half
frantic with the bitterness of her disappointment, receiving on her
knees the BANAL gallantries of her deadly enemy.

Her senses were leaving her; half choked with the tight grip round her
mouth, she had no strength to move or to utter the faintest sound. The
excitement which all along had kept up her delicate body seemed at once
to have subsided, and the feeling of blank despair to have completely
paralyzed her brain and nerves.

Chauvelin must have given some directions, which she was too dazed to
hear, for she felt herself lifted from off her feet: the bandage round
her mouth was made more secure, and a pair of strong arms carried her
towards that tiny, red light, on ahead, which she had looked upon as a
beacon and the last faint glimmer of hope.

She did not know how long she was thus carried along, she had lost
all notion of time and space, and for a few seconds tired nature,
mercifully, deprived her of consciousness.

When she once more realised her state, she felt that she was placed with
some degree of comfort upon a man's coat, with her back resting against
a fragment of rock. The moon was hidden again behind some clouds, and
the darkness seemed in comparison more intense. The sea was roaring some
two hundred feet below her, and on looking all round she could no longer
see any vestige of the tiny glimmer of red light.

That the end of the journey had been reached, she gathered from the fact
that she heard rapid questions and answers spoken in a whisper quite
close to her.

"There are four men in there, citoyen; they are sitting by the fire, and
seem to be waiting quietly."

"The hour?"

"Nearly two o'clock."

"The tide?"

"Coming in quickly."

"The schooner?"

"Obviously an English one, lying some three kilometers out. But we
cannot see her boat."

"Have the men taken cover?"

"Yes, citoyen."

"They will not blunder?"

"They will not stir until the tall Englishman comes, then they will
surround and overpower the five men."

"Right. And the lady?"

"Still dazed, I fancy. She's close beside you, citoyen."

"And the Jew?"

"He's gagged, and his legs strapped together. He cannot move or scream."

"Good. Then have your gun ready, in case you want it. Get close to the
hut and leave me to look after the lady."

Desgas evidently obeyed, for Marguerite heard him creeping away along
the stony cliff, then she felt that a pair of warm, thin, talon-like
hands took hold of both her own, and held them in a grip of steel.

"Before that handkerchief is removed from your pretty mouth, fair lady,"
whispered Chauvelin close to her ear, "I think it right to give you one
small word of warning. What has procured me the honour of being followed
across the Channel by so charming a companion, I cannot, of course,
conceive, but, if I mistake it not, the purpose of this flattering
attention is not one that would commend itself to my vanity and I think
that I am right in surmising, moreover, that the first sound which your
pretty lips would utter, as soon as the cruel gag is removed, would be
one that would prove a warning to the cunning fox, which I have been at
such pains to track to his lair."

He paused a moment, while the steel-like grasp seemed to tighten round
her waist; then he resumed in the same hurried whisper:—

"Inside that hut, if again I am not mistaken, your brother, Armand St.
Just, waits with that traitor de Tournay, and two other men unknown to
you, for the arrival of the mysterious rescuer, whose identity has for
so long puzzled our Committee of Public Safety—the audacious Scarlet
Pimpernel. No doubt if you scream, if there is a scuffle here, if shots
are fired, it is more than likely that the same long legs that brought
this scarlet enigma here, will as quickly take him to some place of
safety. The purpose then, for which I have travelled all these miles,
will remain unaccomplished. On the other hand it only rests with
yourself that your brother—Armand—shall be free to go off with you
to-night if you like, to England, or any other place of safety."

Marguerite could not utter a sound, as the handkerchief was would very
tightly round her mouth, but Chauvelin was peering through the darkness
very closely into her face; no doubt too her hand gave a responsive
appeal to his last suggestion, for presently he continued:—

"What I want you to do to ensure Armand's safety is a very simple thing,
dear lady."

"What is it?" Marguerite's hand seemed to convey to his, in response.

"To remain—on this spot, without uttering a sound, until I give you
leave to speak. Ah! but I think you will obey," he added, with that
funny dry chuckle of his as Marguerite's whole figure seemed to stiffen,
in defiance of this order, "for let me tell you that if you scream, nay!
if you utter one sound, or attempt to move from here, my men—there are
thirty of them about—will seize St. Just, de Tournay, and their two
friends, and shoot them here—by my orders—before your eyes."

Marguerite had listened to her implacable enemy's speech with
ever-increasing terror. Numbed with physical pain, she yet had
sufficient mental vitality in her to realize the full horror of this
terrible "either—or" he was once more putting before her; "either—or"
ten thousand times more appalling and horrible, that the one he had
suggested to her that fatal night at the ball.

This time it meant that she should keep still, and allow the husband she
worshipped to walk unconsciously to his death, or that she should,
by trying to give him a word of warning, which perhaps might even be
unavailing, actually give the signal for her own brother's death, and
that of three other unsuspecting men.

She could not see Chauvelin, but she could almost feel those keen, pale
eyes of his fixed maliciously upon her helpless form, and his hurried,
whispered words reached her ear, as the death-knell of her last faint,
lingering hope.

"Nay, fair lady," he added urbanely, "you can have no interest in anyone
save in St. Just, and all you need do for his safety is to remain where
you are, and to keep silent. My men have strict orders to spare him in
every way. As for that enigmatic Scarlet Pimpernel, what is he to you?
Believe me, no warning from you could possibly save him. And now dear
lady, let me remove this unpleasant coercion, which has been placed
before your pretty mouth. You see I wish you to be perfectly free, in
the choice which you are about to make."

Her thoughts in a whirl, her temples aching, her nerves paralyzed,
her body numb with pain, Marguerite sat there, in the darkness which
surrounded her as with a pall. From where she sat she could not see the
sea, but she heard the incessant mournful murmur of the incoming tide,
which spoke of her dead hopes, her lost love, the husband she had with
her own hand betrayed, and sent to his death.

Chauvelin removed he handkerchief from her mouth. She certainly did not
scream: at that moment, she had no strength to do anything but barely to
hold herself upright, and to force herself to think.

Oh! think! think! think! of what she should do. The minutes flew on;
in this awful stillness she could not tell how fast or how slowly; she
heard nothing, she saw nothing: she did not feel the sweet-smelling
autumn air, scented with the briny odour of the sea, she no longer heard
the murmur of the waves, the occasional rattling of a pebble, as it
rolled down some steep incline. More and more unreal did the whole
situation seem. It was impossible that she, Marguerite Blakeney, the
queen of London society, should actually be sitting here on this bit
of lonely coast, in the middle of the night, side by side with a most
bitter enemy; and oh! it was not possible that somewhere, not many
hundred feet away perhaps, from where she stood, the being she had once
despised, but who now, in every moment of this weird, dreamlike
life, became more and more dear—it was not possible that HE was
unconsciously, even now walking to his doom, whilst she did nothing to
save him.

Why did she not with unearthly screams, that would re-echo from one end
of the lonely beach to the other, send out a warning to him to desist,
to retrace his steps, for death lurked here whilst he advanced? Once or
twice the screams rose to her throat—as if my instinct: then, before
her eyes there stood the awful alternative: her brother and those three
men shot before her eyes, practically by her orders: she their murderer.

Oh! that fiend in human shape, next to her, knew human—female—nature
well. He had played upon her feelings as a skilful musician plays upon
an instrument. He had gauged her very thoughts to a nicety.

She could not give that signal—for she was weak, and she was a woman.
How could she deliberately order Armand to be shot before her eyes, to
have his dear blood upon her head, he dying perhaps with a curse on her,
upon his lips. And little Suzanne's father, too! he, and old man; and
the others!—oh! it was all too, too horrible.

Wait! wait! wait! how long? The early morning hours sped on, and yet
it was not dawn: the sea continued its incessant mournful murmur, the
autumnal breeze sighed gently in the night: the lonely beach was silent,
even as the grave.

Suddenly from somewhere, not very far away, a cheerful, strong voice was
heard singing "God save the King!"

Marguerite's aching heart stood still. She felt, more than she heard,
the men on the watch preparing for the fight. Her senses told her that
each, with sword in hand, was crouching, ready for the spring.

The voice came nearer and nearer; in the vast immensity of these lonely
cliffs, with the loud murmur of the sea below, it was impossible to say
how near, or how far, nor yet from which direction came that cheerful
singer, who sang to God to save his King, whilst he himself was in such
deadly danger. Faint at first, the voice grew louder and louder; from
time to time a small pebble detached itself apparently from beneath the
firm tread of the singer, and went rolling down the rocky cliffs to the
beach below.

Marguerite as she heard, felt that her very life was slipping away, as
if when that voice drew nearer, when that singer became entrapped . . .

She distinctly heard the click of Desgas' gun close to her. . . .

No! no! no! no! Oh, God in heaven! this cannot be! let Armand's blood
then be on her own head! let her be branded as his murderer! let even
he, whom she loved, despise and loathe her for this, but God! oh God!
save him at any cost!

With a wild shriek, she sprang to her feet, and darted round the rock,
against which she had been cowering; she saw the little red gleam
through the chinks of the hut; she ran up to it and fell against its
wooden walls, which she began to hammer with clenched fists in an almost
maniacal frenzy, while she shouted,—

"Armand! Armand! for God's sake fire! your leader is near! he is coming!
he is betrayed! Armand! Armand! fire in Heaven's name!"

She was seized and thrown to the ground. She lay there moaning, bruised,
not caring, but still half-sobbing, half-shrieking,—

"Percy, my husband, for God's sake fly! Armand! Armand! why don't you
fire?"

"One of you stop that woman screaming," hissed Chauvelin, who hardly
could refrain from striking her.

Something was thrown over her face; she could not breathe, and perforce
she was silent.

The bold singer, too, had become silent, warned, no doubt, of his
impending danger by Marguerite's frantic shrieks. The men had sprung
to their feet, there was no need for further silence on their part; the
very cliffs echoed the poor, heart-broken woman's screams.

Chauvelin, with a muttered oath, which boded no good to her, who had
dared to upset his most cherished plans, had hastily shouted the word of
command,—

"Into it, my men, and let no one escape from that hut alive!"

The moon had once more emerged from between the clouds: the darkness on
the cliffs had gone, giving place once more to brilliant, silvery light.
Some of the soldiers had rushed to the rough, wooden door of the hut,
whilst one of them kept guard over Marguerite.

The door was partially open; on of the soldiers pushed it further, but
within all was darkness, the charcoal fire only lighting with a dim, red
light the furthest corner of the hut. The soldiers paused automatically
at the door, like machines waiting for further orders.

Chauvelin, who was prepared for a violent onslaught from within, and
for a vigorous resistance from the four fugitives, under cover of the
darkness, was for the moment paralyzed with astonishment when he saw the
soldiers standing there at attention, like sentries on guard, whilst not
a sound proceeded from the hut.

Filled with strange, anxious foreboding, he, too, went to the door of
the hut, and peering into the gloom, he asked quickly,—

"What is the meaning of this?"

"I think, citoyen, that there is no one there now," replied one of the
soldiers imperturbably.

"You have not let those four men go?" thundered Chauvelin, menacingly.
"I ordered you to let no man escape alive!—Quick, after them all of
you! Quick, in every direction!"

The men, obedient as machines, rushed down the rocky incline towards
the beach, some going off to right and left, as fast as their feet could
carry them.

"You and your men will pay with your lives for this blunder, citoyen
sergeant," said Chauvelin viciously to the sergeant who had been in
charge of the men; "and you, too, citoyen," he added turning with a
snarl to Desgas, "for disobeying my orders."