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In Honour's Cause: A Tale of the Days of George the First, a novel by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 20. Lady Gowan At Bay |
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_ CHAPTER TWENTY. LADY GOWAN AT BAY Obeying the impulse of the moment, Frank snatched the remaining pistol from the table, and drew his sword, seeing his father nod approval, as he stretched out his hand to extinguish the light; but before he had dashed it out, the knocking was repeated, and they heard a well-known voice. "Robert--Robert! Open quickly, dearest. It is I." "Ah!" cried Frank, with his heart giving a tremendous bound, while Sir Robert unlocked and flung open the door, and clasped his wife to his breast. Lady Gowan was half swooning and speechless from excitement; but, making a brave effort, she recovered herself, and panted out as she struggled to free herself from her husband's firm arms: "Quick! Not a moment to lose. Escape for your life." "What! They know?" "Yes. The Princess came to my room to warn me. The spies have traced you here; information has been given at the Palace. The King has been told, and the Princess bade me try to save your life before the guard came to arrest you." "Hah! Sharp work for us, Frank lad. Well, I have seen and kissed you, darling. Now I must try and save your husband's life." As he spoke he buckled on his sword belt, thrust his pistols in his pockets, Frank handing him the second, and took up his hat and the heavy cloak from where they lay. "Good-bye, darling. Frank knows how I can get a letter to you through him." "Yes, yes; but you are killing me, Robert; for pity's sake, fly!" "My own! Yes," he whispered, as he folded Lady Gowan in his arms again. "Ah!" cried Frank wildly, for a heavy series of blows from the front-door knocker resounded through the house. "Too late!" cried Lady Gowan wildly, as Frank dashed out of the door to the front room to peer through the window. He was back in a few moments, to find his mother clinging to his father, ghastly with the horrible dread which had attacked her. "Soldiers--a dozen at least in front!" panted Frank. There was another loud knocking at the street door. "Quick, father, out by that window. You can drop from the balcony." "Yes, my boy, easily." "Then get over the railing and cross the Park. Go straight through by the Palace. No one would think you likely to take that way." "Good advice, boy. Out with the candle. That's right." Lady Gowan blew out the light, and Frank quickly drew the heavy curtain aside, and uttered a groan, for the garden was full of armed men, dimly seen in the gloom amid the shrubs. "Trapped, Frank," said Sir Robert quietly, the danger having made the soldier cool. Lady Gowan uttered a faint, despairing cry. "Hush, dear!" said Sir Robert firmly. "Be a woman--my wife. I may escape yet. See Berry, and keep her from opening the door, no matter what they say or do." "Yes, yes," said Lady Gowan excitedly; "but, Robert, what will you do?" "Escape, if you help me. Now be calm. Let them break in, and when they do face them. You were alarmed, and did not know what evil was abroad. You need no excuse for refusing to have your house--and it is your house--opened to a riotous party of drunken soldiers for aught you know. Now go down. Do anything you can to gain time for me. Heaven bless you, darling, till we meet again!" Lady Gowan's answer was to hurry out on the staircase, where the place was echoing to the resounding knocks and orders to open in the King's name. She was just in time to seize the old housekeeper by the arm, while a hysterical crying came from the maid below. "Oh, my lady, my lady! They're going to break in. I was about to unfasten the door." "Silence! Touch it at your peril," cried Lady Gowan imperatively. "Let them break in if they dare. Go below to that foolish, sobbing girl, and stay there keeping her quiet." "But they'll break down the door, my lady." "Let them," said Lady Gowan coolly. But she started as one of the narrow side windows was shivered by the butt of a musket, and the fragments of glass fell inside with a tinkling sound. "That's right; now reach in and shoot back the bolts." A hand and arm were thrust in through the hammered iron scroll work which covered the glass in the place of iron bars across the narrow window for protection, rendering it impossible for a man to creep past. But the arm came freely right up to its owner's shoulder, and in the gloom could be seen feeling about, the hand strained here and there to reach bolt, bar, or lock. Vainly enough, for they were far out of reach; and at last, after several more angry orders, it was withdrawn. "Try the other window!" cried the voice of the officer in command. "Quick, men; don't shilly-shally. Use your butts." _Crash_, _crash_ and _tinkle_, _tinkle_ went the broken glass as it fell upon the marble floor beyond the mat; but the hole made was not in the best place, and there was another crash as the butt of a musket was driven through higher up, and simultaneously there was the loud report of the piece used as a battering-ram. "What are you doing?" roared the officer. "Went off, sir." "Went off, idiot! You must have touched the trigger." "No, sir. Both hands hold of the barrel." "Silence, sir! How dare you!" roared the officer--"how dare you! Any one hurt, sergeant?" "No, sir; bullet went too high; but it's gone through a window opposite." Proof came of the truth of the man's word, for a window on the other side of the street was thrown open, and a voice shouted angrily: "Hallo there! What are you doing? Want to shoot people?" "Go in, and shut your window!" cried the officer, in an authoritative tone. "Yes, that's all very well," cried the voice; "but you've no right to--" "Silence, sir! in the King's name!" roared the officer. "Here, four rear rank face about, make ready, present!" There was a shuffling sound, and the ring of muskets being brought up to the shoulder; but before the command _Fire_! could be uttered, even if it had been intended, the window opposite was banged down, and a laugh arose. "Now then there," said the officer to the man who had thrust in his arm on the other side of the door, "can you reach?" There was no reply for a time, while the man strained and reached out up and down, his hand making a peculiar whispering sound as it passed over the panelled woodwork between the door and window. "Can't reach, sir." "Here, let me try." A faint light appeared at the window for a few moments, and then there was a chinking sound as it was darkened again, and Lady Gowan, as she stood panting there, dimly made out that a sword was thrust through, an arm followed, and she could hear the blade ring and scrape as it was used to feel for the fastenings, clicking loudly against the ironwork and the chain which hung at the side ready for hanging across the door, to pass over a spiral hook on the other side. This went on for a few minutes, when, as with an angry exclamation the officer who had thrust his arm through paused to rest, Lady Gowan stepped forward out of the darkness, went close to the door, bent down, and caught the ring at the end of the hanging chain, and raised it to hook it across and fasten it to secure the door. She hardly made a sound with foot or dress; but as she drew the chain tight it chinked against the hook, and the officer heard her. "Ha!" he shouted, with his face to the broken glass. "I see you there. Open this door, or--" _Click_, _click_ went the chain into its place, and, raising the blade of his sword, the officer made a sweeping blow at the brave woman, which struck her on the shoulder as she drew back. "Now," he roared, "will you open?" The answer was a faint rustling, as Lady Gowan drew back into the dark part of the hall, fortunately unhurt, for the arm which wielded the sword was the left, and thoroughly crippled by its owner's position. "Lucky for you I didn't give point," he muttered. Then aloud: "Once more, in the King's name, open this door!" "I'd die first," said Lady Gowan to herself; and she stood close to the foot of the great staircase listening, and hardly daring to breathe, as she strained her ears to catch some sound of what might be going on upstairs, her wildly dilated eyes fixed the while on the slips of windows on either side of the door. But from within the house all she could hear was a low sobbing from the housekeeper's room below, and the murmur of her old servant's voice as she tried to calm the hysterical girl who was nearly crazy with terror. But her attention was taken up directly by the voices outside, which came plainly to her through the broken windows. "Well?" said the officer sharply; and she knew by the reply that one of the men must have climbed the iron railings and been down into the area. "Both windows covered with big iron bars, sir, and the door seems a reg'lar thick 'un." "How long will they be getting back, sergeant, with the hammer and crowbars?" "'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 balustrade, 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 passed 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 glass windows between, and a broken pane would form an easy way for passage 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 assail them without warning from the front door, she went to the head of the stairs which led down into the basement. "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 passed 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 passage where the big, heavy door opened into the area, and began passing 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 passage 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 pass 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 passed slowly away, without news of what was passing upstairs, and her agony seemed to be more than she could bear. Every sense had been on the strain, as she stood in trembling expectancy of hearing a shot fired--a shot that she knew would be at the life of her boy's father; but the sluggish minutes crawled on, and still all was silent above, while outside she was constantly hearing little things which showed how thoroughly the soldiery were on the alert. 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 passed 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. _ |
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