Chapter 41
"'Nother ten minutes or quarter-hour, sir."
"Bah! Well, run round to the back, and tell them to keep a sharp look-out. See that the men are well awake at the end of the street, and keep two more ready back and front to stop every one who comes out of the houses in case he tries to escape by the roof."
"Yes, sir."
"If any one appears on the roof, and does not surrender, fire."
The sergeant's heavy paces were heard going along the pavement, every step seeming to crush down Lady Gowan's heart, as her head swam, and in imagination she saw the flash of the soldiers' muskets, and then heard the heavy fall of one for whom she would have gladly died.
Her hand went out to catch at the bottom pillar of the bal.u.s.trade, and she stood swaying to and fro in the darkness, struggling hard to master the terrible sensation of faintness which came over her.
It soon pa.s.sed off, for the thought came to her that she must be firm.
She was doing nothing to help her husband; but he had bidden her keep watch there over that door, and guard it against danger from within, and as a soldier's wife she would have died sooner than neglect the duty with which he had intrusted her. For how did she know what pressure might be brought to bear upon the weak woman below? The soldiery had been into the area, where there were only the gla.s.s windows between, and a broken pane would form an easy way for pa.s.sage of threats. If bidden to open in the King's name, what might they not do? Ah, she must guard against that, and with her nerves newly strung, she stood listening for a few moments to the buzz of voices outside, and then, feeling that it was impossible for danger to a.s.sail them without warning from the front door, she went to the head of the stairs which led down into the bas.e.m.e.nt.
"In the King's name!" she said softly. "Robert is my king, and I can obey none other."
She was herself again now--the quick, eager, brave woman, ready to do anything to save her husband's life; and gliding down the stairs she silently pa.s.sed the open door of the housekeeper's room, where she could hear the servant girl sobbing, and the old housekeeper trying to comfort her and then to comfort herself.
The next minute, quite unheard, she was at the end of the stone pa.s.sage where the big, heavy door opened into the area, and began pa.s.sing her hand over bolt, bar, and lock, to find all fast; and with a sigh of relief she was in the act of softly drawing out the big key, when a movement outside told her that a sentry had been placed at that door, and that the man must have heard the movement of the key.
This made her pause, with her heart throbbing wildly; but in a minute or so she recovered herself, and almost by hairbreadths drew the great key slowly out with scarcely another sound, and crept back along the pa.s.sage once more, past the open doorway through which the light streamed, and then up the stairs, and back to her former position in the dark hall, feeling confident now that no one could pa.s.s into the house from below unheard.
The voices of the soldiers came to her, and an angry inquiry or two from the officer, who was getting out of patience.
"Have they gone to the smith's to get the things made?" he cried angrily.
"Well, sir, you see, it aren't like muskets, or swords, or ammunition,"
said the sergeant. "We don't want pioneering tools every day."
"But they ought to be ready for use at a moment's notice."
"So they are," grumbled the sergeant to himself; "but you've got to get to 'em first."
And now it appeared to Lady Gowan that an hour pa.s.sed slowly away, without news of what was pa.s.sing upstairs, and her agony
She had not heard the officer speak for some time, and she divined that he must have gone round to the back of the house, where it faced the open Park; but he would, she was sure, return soon, to give directions to the men who arrived with the tools for breaking in the door; and when this was done, if Sir Robert had not found a way to escape, there would be bloodshed. Her husband would never surrender while he could grasp a sword, and Frank would be certain to draw in his father's defence, and then--
Then Lady Gowan felt, as it were, an icy stab, which pa.s.sed with a shock right through her; for the thought suggested itself how easy it would be for the soldiers to get a short ladder into the garden front of the house, rear it against the balcony outside the drawing-room window, and force their way in there. No bars would trouble them, and the shutters would give but little resistance. Why had she not thought of that before?
And as she thoroughly grasped this weakness of their little fort in the rear she turned cold with horror, for there was a faint sound on the staircase behind her, and as at the same moment she heard the loud steps of approaching men on the pavement outside a hand made a quick clutch from the darkness behind at her arm.
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
FOR DEAR LIFE.
"Now, Frank, my boy," said Sir Robert, as the door closed on Lady Gowan, "they have us in front, and they have us in the rear. A fox, they say, always has two holes to the earth. A man is obliged to have a third way of escape if his enemies are too many for him, and I don't want to fight with the King's men for other reasons than that they belong to my old regiment."
"Shall I light the candle again, father?"
"No, it will take too long, and I can do what I want in the dark. I've a rope here."
Frank heard his father unlock a cabinet, and his heart beat hopefully, when the next minute his father bade him "take hold," and he felt a thin, soft coil of rope pa.s.sed into his hands.
He needed no telling what was to follow, for he grasped the idea at once, and followed his father out of the room without a word.
They paused on the staircase for a few moments, and heard the s.h.i.+vering of the gla.s.s and the stern summons for the door to be opened; and then Sir Robert laid his hand upon his son's shoulder.
"Seems cowardly, Frank, to try to escape, and leave a woman to bear the brunt of the encounter; but I must play the fugitive now. I can't afford to surrender; the risks are too great. Come on. Your mother must not be disappointed after what she has done, and have to see me marched off."
Frank was astounded at his father's coolness, but he said nothing, and followed him quickly to the top of the house to where there was a trap-door in the ceiling over the pa.s.sage leading to one of the attics.
Without telling, Frank bent down and raised the light steps which were on one side of the pa.s.sage, pa.s.sed his arm through the coil of rope, went up the steps, and pushed open the trap-door, which fell back, leaving an opening for him to pa.s.s through into the false roof.
Sir Robert followed, and a door formed like a dormer window in the slope of the roof was unbolted ready for him to step out on to the narrow leads.
"Now, Frank lad, give me the rope," said Sir Robert in a low voice.
"Then follow me along by the parapet. We need not crawl, for it will hide us from the soldiers if we lean inward and keep one hand on the sloping slates."
"Yes, I understand," said Frank; "you mean to go along the roofs right to the end."
"Yes: right."
"And fasten the rope round a chimney stack?"
"That's quite right too; and now listen. I shall not be able to talk to you out there. As soon as I am down, don't stop to untie the rope; it will be too tight from my weight. Cut it, and draw it up again quickly, then get back as you came, shut the door after you, and take down the steps before you join your mother. But you must do something with the rope."
"Hide it?" said Frank.
"It would be found, and I don't want you or your mother to have the credit of helping me to escape."
"Burn it in the kitchen fire?"
"There will not be time. They will search the house. I cannot propose a way, only do something with it. Now good-bye."
"Good-bye?" faltered Frank.
"Yes, while I can speak to you. Quick! a soldier's good-bye. That will do; now out after me."
Sir Robert's "good-bye" was a firm grip of his son's hand, and then he crept out on to the roof; Frank followed him, his heart throbbing with excitement; and as he stepped out he could hear voices down below in the garden beneath the drawing-room windows.
Frank s.h.i.+vered a little, for he felt sure that they would be seen against the sky, in spite of their precaution of leaning toward the sloping roof, and he fully expected to hear the report of muskets; but the s.h.i.+ver was more due to excitement than fear.
"They would not be able to hit us on a night like this, while we are moving," he said to himself; and with a strange feeling of wild exhilaration, he followed the dark figure before him, climbing across the low walls which separated house from house, and finding it easy enough to walk along in the narrow path-like s.p.a.ce of leaded roof, which extended from the bottom of the slate slope to the low parapet with its stone coping, beyond which nothing was visible but the tops of the trees in the Park.
They must have pa.s.sed over the roofs of twenty houses before Sir Robert stopped; and, as Frank crept up close to him, he put his lips to the boy's ear.
"It's a drop of ten feet to the next house," he said. "Must go down from here."