Marguerite watched him, leaning out of the window, following his small trim figure as he pushed his way past the groups of mounted men, catching at a horse's bit now and then, or at a bridle, ****** a way for himself amongst the restless, champing animals, without the slightest hesitation or fear.
Soon his retreating figure lost its sharp outline silhouetted against the evening sky. It was enfolded in the veil of vapour which was blown out of the horses' nostrils or rising from their damp cruppers; it became more vague, almost ghost-like, through the mist and the fast-gathering gloom.
Presently a group of troopers hid him entirely from her view, but she could hear his thin, smooth voice quite clearly as he called to citizen Heron.
"We are close to the end of our journey now, citizen," she heard him say. "If the prisoner has not played us false little Capet should be in our charge within the hour."
A growl not unlike those that came from out the mysterious depths of the forest answered him.
"If he is not," and Marguerite recognised the harsh tones of citizen Heron--"if he is not, then two corpses will be rotting in this wood tomorrow for the wolves to feed on, and the prisoner will be on his way back to Paris with me."
Some one laughed. It might have been one of the troopers, more callous than his comrades, but to Marguerite the laugh had a strange, familiar ring in it, the echo of something long since past and gone.
Then Chauvelin's voice once more came clearly to her ear:
"My suggestion, citizen," he was saying, "is that the prisoner shall now give me an order--couched in whatever terms he may think necessary--but a distinct order to his friends to give up Capet to me without any resistance. I could then take some of the men with me, and ride as quickly as the light will allow up to the chateau, and take possession of it, of Capet, and of those who are with him. We could get along faster thus. One man can give up his horse to me and continue the journey on the box of your coach.
The two carriages could then follow at foot pace. But I fear that if we stick together complete darkness will overtake us and we might find ourselves obliged to pass a very uncomfortable night in this wood."
"I won't spend another night in this suspense--it would kill me," growled Heron to the accompaniment of one of his choicest oaths.
"You must do as you think right--you planned the whole of this affair--see to it that it works out well in the end."
"How many men shall I take with me? Our advance guard is here, of course."
"I couldn't spare you more than four more men--I shall want the others to guard the prisoners."
"Four men will be quite sufficient, with the four of the advance guard. That will leave you twelve men for guarding your prisoners, and you really only need to guard the woman--her life will answer for the others."
He had raised his voice when he said this, obviously intending that Marguerite and Armand should hear.
"Then I'll ahead," he continued, apparently in answer to an assent from his colleague. "Sir Percy, will you be so kind as to scribble the necessary words on these tablets?"
There was a long pause, during which Marguerite heard plainly the long and dismal cry of a night bird that, mayhap, was seeking its mate. Then Chauvelin's voice was raised again.
"I thank you," he said; "this certainly should be quite effectual.
And now, citizen Heron, I do not think that under the circumstances we need fear an ambuscade or any kind of trickery--you hold the hostages. And if by any chance I and my men are attacked, or if we encounter armed resistance at the chateau, I will despatch a rider back straightway to you, and--well, you will know what to do."
His voice died away, merged in the soughing of the wind, drowned by the clang of metal, of horses snorting, of men living and breathing. Marguerite felt that beside her Armand had shuddered, and that in the darkness his trembling hand had sought and found hers.
She leaned well out of the window, trying to see. The gloom had gathered more closely in, and round her the veil of vapour from the horses' steaming cruppers hung heavily in the misty air. In front of her the straight lines of a few fir trees stood out dense and black against the greyness beyond, and between these lines purple tints of various tones and shades mingled one with the other, merging the horizon line with the sky. Here and there a more solid black patch indicated the tiny houses of the hamlet of Le Crocq far down in the valley below; from some of these houses small lights began to glimmer like blinking yellow eyes.
Marguerite's gaze, however, did not rest on the distant landscape--it tried to pierce the gloom that hid her immediate surroundings; the mounted men were all round the coach--more closely round her than the trees in the forest. But the horses were restless, moving all the time, and as they moved she caught glimpses of that other coach and of Chauvelin's ghostlike figure, walking rapidly through the mist. Just for one brief moment she saw the other coach, and Heron's head and shoulders leaning out of the window. If is sugar-loaf hat was on his head, and the bandage across his brow looked like a sharp, pale streak below it.
"Do not doubt it, citizen Chauvelin," he called out loudly in his harsh, raucous voice, "I shall know what to do; the wolves will have their meal to-night, and the guillotine will not be cheated either."
Armand put his arm round his sister's shoulders and gently drew her hack into the carriage.
"Little mother," he said, "if you can think of a way whereby my life would redeem Percy's and yours, show me that way now."
But she replied quietly and firmly:
"There is no way, Armand. If there is, it is in the hands of God."
