Chapter 43
She led the way to the staircase, and hurried on to the drawing-room, with the ma.s.sive front door being broken piecemeal by the heavy sledge-hammer; but each chain and bolt still held, and there was no way in yet but for light and noise, so that, before they gave way, Frank had time to get a light and ignite the candles in two sets of branches in the drawing-room which they had entered and then fastened the door.
This done, he turned in surprise to see that his mother had thrown back her hood, rearranged her hair, and was standing there before him flushed, but proud and perfectly calm.
"Oh, mother!" he cried, stepping up to her and kissing her. "I can't help it. Drew is right. I am so proud of you."
"Are you?" she said, smiling, as she returned his kiss, and her look said that the pride was reciprocal.
They gazed in each other's eyes for a few moments, as if deaf to the sounds below-stairs, which told that the soldiers had at last gained an entrance.
Then a change came over Lady Gowan's face, her upper lip curled, and a look of haughty scorn shone from her eyes.
"They are coming up, my boy," she cried. "Leave me to speak."
For answer Frank drew his sword, caught up the silver branch with its three candles from the table, and took a couple of strides in front of his mother toward the door, as it was dashed open, when, sword in hand, followed by half a dozen men with fixed bayonets, the officer in command rushed in.
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
SAVED!
"Here, how dare you!" shouted Frank angrily; and, in utter astonishment, the officer stopped short, and lowered the sword he had fully expected to use, while the men threw up their bayonets and stood fast. "I don't know you, but you belong to the Guards, I suppose, and--"
"Silence, Frank! Let me speak," said Lady Gowan, without a tremor in her voice. "Then you are not an armed mob of rioters. Pray, what does this outrage mean?"
"I ask your pardon, Lady Gowan," said the young officer, recovering himself; "it is a painful act of duty."
"To break into my house, sir!" said Lady Gowan haughtily, while her son felt more than ever that he was engaged in some madly exciting game.
"I was refused entrance, after repeatedly demanding it in the King's name."
"In the King's name!" cried Lady Gowan scornfully. "How were I, my son, or my servants to know that this was not the excuse made by one of the riotous Jacobite bands to obtain entrance and plunder my home?"
"I cannot help fulfilling my duty, Lady Gowan," said the young officer respectfully. "I must proceed to the arrest."
"Arrest?" cried Lady Gowan hurriedly. "Oh, Frank! But surely--ah, I will speak to the Princess. Such a trivial act--a thoughtless boy.
Arrest him for
"Your ladys.h.i.+p must be trifling with me," said the officer sternly, "and I cannot be played with. Information was brought to the Palace that Sir Robert Gowan is here, and at all costs my orders are to arrest him. I beg that you will tell him to surrender at once."
"Go back to those who sent you, sir, and tell them that Sir Robert Gowan is not here."
"Then where is he, madam?"
"You have no right to question me, sir," said Lady Gowan haughtily; "but, to end this interview, I will answer your question. I do not know."
"Your ladys.h.i.+p tells me that?" cried the officer quickly.
"I refuse to be questioned by you, sir," said Lady Gowan with dignity.
"You are in the King's Guards; you have a duty to perform. I am helpless at this moment. Pray do it, and go. But I insist, in the name of the lady whom I have the honour to serve, that you do not go without leaving a proper guard to protect this house from pillage by the mob outside."
The officer looked puzzled and confused for a moment or two, and then he spoke again sharply.
"I am bound to take your ladys.h.i.+p's word," he said; "but you know!" he cried, turning suddenly upon Frank, and so fiercely intended as to throw him off his guard. "Come, sir; it is of no use to prevaricate. Where is Sir Robert?"
But Frank was as firm as his mother, and he met the young officer's eyes without flinching.
"Where is my father?" he said quietly. "I don't know, and if I did I wouldn't tell you."
A flush of anger suffused the young Guardsman's face; but the boy's manner touched him home, and the anger pa.s.sed away in a laugh.
"Well," he said, "that's not a bad answer. Unfortunately, young gentleman, I can't be satisfied with it.--Lady Gowan, I regret having this duty placed in my hands to carry out, but I must perform it. I am compelled to disbelieve you and your son, and search the house."
"Do your duty then, sir," said Lady Gowan coldly; "but I cannot stay here to submit to the insult. I insist upon my house being protected."
"My men are at the door, madam, and no one will be allowed to pa.s.s. I answer for the place being safe."
"Thank you, sir," said Lady Gowan courteously. "I do not blame you for all this. I presume my son and I can pa.s.s your men?"
"Of course, madam," said the officer; and his manner changed, for these words impressed him more than any denial that Sir Robert was there. "I thank you for going, though," he said, recovering his composure. "You relieve me from the painful duty of arresting Sir Robert in your presence."
Lady Gowan smiled, and drew her hood over her head.
"Come, Frank," she said; "see me back to the Palace; you will not need your sword."
The officer took up the silver branch Frank had set down, and as the boy returned his sword to its sheath, and his mother took his arm, the officer preceded them, and lit them down the stairs, where Lady Gowan stopped in the splinter-strewn hall to speak to the housekeeper.
"See, Berry," she said quietly, "that this gentleman and his men have every opportunity for searching the house. A rumour has been carried to the Palace that Sir Robert is here. When they have done, men will be placed as sentries to guard the place. In the morning send for the workmen to see that a new door is placed there, and to do first what is necessary to board this one up."
"Yes, my lady," said the housekeeper quietly.
The next minute Lady Gowan and her son pa.s.sed out of the house with a corporal and four men to escort them back to the Palace, the crowd making way for the armed men, while the officer returned to the hall, and looked at the sergeant fixedly.
"Gone?" said the officer.
"Yes, sir. Bird's flown," replied the sergeant.
"Well, search from top to bottom, from cellar to leads. That's the way he must have gone."
"If it wasn't a false alarm, sir," said the man respectfully. "I never had much faith in any spies."
"Be on your guard; he may be here," said the officer. "Now search."
The sergeant went off promptly with his men, muttering to himself:
"And n.o.body's better pleased than me. Nicely we should have been groaned at if we had found him. That is, if we had taken him; but he'd have fought like the man he is. Well, I'm glad he's gone."
"I Saved, Frank, saved!" whispered Lady Gowan, as they parted on reaching the Palace.