Chapter 23
CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
FRANK'S DREADFUL DAWN.
Frank Gowan lay awake for hours that night with his brain in a wild state of excitement. The scene at the dinner, the angry face of his father as he stood defying the baron's friends after striking the German down, the colonel's stern interference, and his orders for Sir Robert to go to his quarters--all troubled him in turn; then there was the idea of his father being under arrest, and the possibility of his receiving some punishment, all repeating themselves in a way which drove back every prospect of sleep, weary as the lad was; while worst of all, there was Andrew Forbes's remark about an encounter to come, and the possible results.
It was too horrible. Suppose Sir Robert should be killed by the fierce-looking baron! Frank turned cold, and the perspiration came in drops upon his temples as he thought of his mother. He sat up in bed, feeling that he ought to go to his father and beg of him to escape anywhere so as to avoid such a terrible fate. But the next minute his thoughts came in a less confusing way, and he knew that he could not at that late hour get to his father's side, and that even if he could his ideas were childish. His father would smile at him, and tell him that they were impossible--that no man of honour could fly so as to avoid facing his difficulties, for it would be a contemptible, cowardly act, impossible for him to commit.
"I know--I know," groaned the boy, as he flung himself down once more.
"I couldn't have run away to escape from a fight at school. It would have been impossible. Why didn't I learn German instead of idling about as I have! If I had I should have known what the baron said. What could it have been?"
The hours crept sluggishly by, and sleep still avoided him. Not that he wished to sleep, for he wanted to think; and he thought too much, lying gazing at his window till there was a very faint suggestion of the coming day; when, leaving his bed, he drew the curtain a little on one side, to see that the stars were growing paler, and low down in the east a soft, pearly greyness in the sky just over the black-looking trees of the Park.
It was cold at that early hour, and he s.h.i.+vered and crept back to bed, thinking that his mother in the apartments of the ladies of honour was no
"No wonder I can't sleep," he muttered; and the next moment he slept.
For nature is inexorable when the human frame needs rest, or men would not sleep peacefully in the full knowledge that it must be their last repose on earth.
Five minutes after, his door was softly opened, a figure glided through the gloom to his bedside, and bent over him, like a dimly seen shadow, to catch him by the shoulder.
"Frank! Frank! Here, quick! Wake up!"
The lad sprang back into wakefulness as suddenly as if a trigger had been touched, and all the drowsiness with which he was now charged had been let off.
"Yes; what's the matter? Who's there?"
"Hus.h.!.+ Don't make a noise. Jump up, and dress."
"Drew?"
"Yes. Be quick!"
"But what's the matter?"
"I couldn't sleep, so I got up and dressed, and opened my window to stand looking out at the stars, till just now I heard a door across the courtyard open, and three men in cloaks came out."
"Officers' patrol--going to visit the sentries."
"No; your father, Captain Murray, and some one else. I think it was the doctor; he is short and stout."
"Then father's going to escape," said Frank, in an excited whisper.
"Escape! Bah!" replied Andrew, in a tone full of disgust. "How could he as a gentleman? Can't you see what it means? They're going to a meeting."
"A meeting?" faltered Frank.
"Oh, how dull you are! Yes, a meeting; they're going to fight!"
Frank, who had leisurely obeyed his companion's command to get up and dress, now began to hurry his clothes on rapidly, while Andrew went on:
"I don't know how they've managed it, because your father was under arrest; but I suppose the officers felt that there must be a meeting, and they have quietly arranged it with the Germans. Of course it's all on the sly. Make haste."
"Yes. I shan't be a minute. You have warned the guard of course?"
"Done what?" said Andrew.
"Given the alarm," panted Frank.
"I say, are you mad, or are you still asleep? What do you mean?"
"Mad! asleep! Do you think I don't know what I'm saying?"
"I'm sure you don't."
"Do you think I want my father to be killed?"
"Do you think your father wants to be branded as a coward? Don't be such a foolish schoolboy. You are among men now. I wish I hadn't come and woke you. They'll be getting it over too before I'm there."
He made a movement toward the door, but Frank seized him by the arm.
"No, no; don't go without me," he whispered imploringly.
"Why not? You'd better go to bed again. You're just like a great girl."
"I must go with you, Drew. I'm afraid I didn't hardly know what I was saying; but it seems so cold-blooded to know that one's own father is going to a fight that may mean death, and not interfere to stop it."
"Interfere to stop it--may mean death! I hope it does to some one,"
whispered Andrew fiercely. "There, let go; I can't stop any longer."
"You're not going without me. There, I'm ready now."
"But I can't take you to try and interfere. I thought you'd like me to tell you."
"Yes, I do. I must come, and--and I won't say or do anything that isn't right."
"I can't trust you," said Andrew hastily. "It was a mistake to come and tell you. There, let go."
"You are not going without me!" cried Frank, fiercely now; and he grasped his companion's arm so firmly that the lad winced.
"Come on, then," he said; and, with his breath coming thick and short, Frank followed his companion downstairs and out of the door of the old house in the Palace precincts, into the long, low colonnade.
They closed the door softly, and ran together across the courtyard in the dim light, but were challenged directly after by a sentry.
"Hus.h.!.+ Don't stop us," whispered Andrew. "You know who we are--two of the royal pages."
"Can't pa.s.s," said the man sternly.