CHAPTER XVIII.
IN THE DEPTHS.
BEFORE that Jean del' Peyra ventured to cross the Dordogne and approachDomme, he fastened a white kerchief to his cap, as token that he came onpeaceful errand, as bearer of a message. As such he was received withinthe walls, and was conducted to the castle, and given admission to thevaulted hall in which lay Le Gros Guillem on his pallet with his feetup.
The long, lean, pale-faced man looked hard at him when admitted, andsaid--
"Who are you?"
"I am Jean del' Peyra," answered the lad, and cast his cap with itswhite appendage on the table.
"Jean del' Peyra! and you venture here!" roared the Captain. "You mustin verity be a fool!"
"I came--trusting to that," said the youth with composure, pointing tothe white token.
"Then you came trusting in vain. I regard it not."
"Perhaps you will regard this," said Jean, extending the ring, which heplucked from his little finger.
The Captain looked at the signet, started, and brayed forth--
"That belongs to Noemi! How came you by that? You have murdered her."
"I have not murdered her. If she dies it will be through you. She is mycaptive."
"I do not understand."
Le Gros Guillem slipped his feet from the pallet to the floor. He couldnot walk, he could not even stand, as his feet were swathed in rags.
"It is not difficult to enlighten your understanding," said Jean. "Yousent away your daughter with two men as her guard. They are all in mypower. They are at Le Peuch. Their fate--that is to say, _hers_--dependson you."
"So--you war against girls!"
"If we do violence to the young and feeble, from whom have we learnedthe lesson but from you and your ruffians?"
"You know what I have done to your father," said the freebooter,malignantly. "I will do the same to you."
"And the same fate will befall your daughter--at once," said Jean,decidedly.
The Captain was staggered. He was uneasy. He said sullenly: "For whatpurpose have you come here?"
"For this," answered Jean. "With your own hand you have let me knowwhere my father is. Unless he be released, and allowed to return with meto Le Peuch, your daughter will perish miserably."
Jean went to the window. The Captain looked suspiciously after him.
"The sun is setting," said the young man. "In an hour it will be gone.Unless before he reappears in the East, unless, to the moment of hisrising, my father and I are not returned to Le Peuch safe and sound, itwill be too late. Your daughter saw what was done to the old man--whatthink you of a like fate for her?"
"I do not believe she is in your hands. She is at La Roque."
"Send to La Roque, if you will, and inquire--only remember that willtake time, and time is precious. We must be back at Le Peuch before thefirst spark of the sun reappears, or the deed will be done. Yourdaughter will be dead."
Le Gros Guillem's face became ashy grey with alarm and rage, commingledwith embarrassment.
"Besides," said Jean with composure, "look at the ring. You know that itis taken from her finger."
The Captain turned the ring about in his hand. Then he struck the tablewith his clenched fist and screamed--
"Outwitted! outwitted again! The devil is fighting for you!"
"Rather is he deserting you to whom you sold yourself," retorted Jean.
The chief remained sullen, with knitted brow and clenched teeth,brooding.
"The sun is set," said Jean, and pointed through the window.
The yellow flame had disappeared that had flushed the hills on thefurther side of the Dordogne, the wooded slopes and the tall rock ofVitrac, itself a natural fortress.
The Captain moved uneasily on his pallet, and looked furtively at hisguards near the door.
Jean read his thought.
"Nothing you can do is of any avail, save the release of my father. Thefirst ray of sun that lights the sky sees the spark of life die out inyour Noemi's heart."
"What guarantee have I that you will not play me false, and refuse togive her up?"
"My word, my honour, and that of my father. Send men with me if youwill. Only remember now that time is winged and is flying."
With a horrible oath, Le Gros Guillem again struck the table and calledto the guards. They approached.
"Take him"--he indicated Jean--"take him to the _oubliette_ chamber,"said he; "let cords down, release the man, and let both go as theywill."
He flung Noemi's ring on the table, and cast his maimed feet on thepallet once more, and clenched his teeth and knitted his red brows.
Jean took up the ring and said: "I will return this to her."
The guards now conducted him to the keep. Lights were provided, alsocords; the door into the cell was opened; and with a shudder Jeanentered.
Snatching a torch from one of the men, he went to the breastwork of thewell, and leaning over it, let the torch flare down the abyss.
"Father!" he cried; "my father!"
Then he paused for an answer.
There was none.
With the link he endeavoured to illumine the depths below, but foundthat this was not possible. He could see nothing save an awfulblackness, in which the rays of the torch lost themselves, withoutillumining any object.
"Father!" again he cried.
This time he heard a sound--an inarticulate groan.
"Let me down. I must go to him," said Jean.
"You cannot take a light with you," said one of the men.
"You can carry one down unlighted, and kindle it when you are below,"said a second.
Jean saw that it was as the men said. The orifice and throat of the wellwere so narrow that he must descend without holding a burning light. Henodded, and slipped his arms through the loops in the cords.
"Give me a candle," said he, and one was immediately handed to him.
Then he seated himself on the well-breast, with his feet hanging downinside; and when the men were ready, thrust himself off.
Jean was lowered gradually down the bottle-throat, till all at once thesides fell away, and he was swinging in space.[7] The effect of beingsuddenly plunged in absolute blackness of darkness is not so startlingas some might suppose. The retina of the eye carries with it animpression of light; and as Jean was let down through void space ofabsolutely rayless gloom, it seemed to him as though a rosy haloattended him; he could, indeed, discern nothing--no object whatever--buthe could not suppose that he did not. All at once his feet touchedground. Then he released his arms, and struck a light with steel andflint. Some time elapsed before the tinder kindled, and from the tinderhe was able to ignite the candle. Jean's hand shook. He was nervous lesthe should see his father dead or dying. It seemed inexplicable to himthat he was not answered readily when he called. Finally, the yellowflame flickered. Then the lad raised the candle above his head andlooked about him. He was in a dungeon some thirteen feet square, builtof hewn stones in large blocks, laid together with the finest joints,that did not show mortar. The sides were perfectly smooth. The chamberwas arched overhead; there was in it no door, no window, no hole of anysort save that in the midst of the vault overhead, through which he haddescended.
[7] The description of the interior of the _oubliette_ is in accordance with that into which the author was lowered at Castelnau le Bretenoux. The ruin of the castle at Domme is so complete that the _oubliettes_ there, if they existed, are buried.
Against the wall, lying with his head raised, his eyes open, looking atthe light, not at Jean, was his father, his legs extended on the coldfloor, and about him were strewn the bones of dead men, skulls andskeletons, more or less disturbed by the blind groping of the lastvictim.
Jean at once went to the old man.
"Father! dear father!" he said.
"Eh?"
"It is I--Jean."
"Eh?"
"I have come to release you."
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"Eh?"
The old man's senses seemed lost.
Jean at once knelt, and drawing a phial from his breast, poured intoOgier's mouth a spirit distilled from the juniper berries that grow onthe Causse.
His father drew a deep inspiration.
"It is a long night, and a bad dream," he said. "Where are the tansy andthe butterfly?"
"Father, no time is to be lost. Can you rise?"
The old man scrambled to his feet. He was as one in a trance. Jean ledhim to the cords, and thrust his father's arms through the loops.
"Mind and hold your hands down," he said. "Father, you will see thelight of day! the light of day! Be quick! you will see it before it isgone."
"The light--the sun?" asked Ogier, eagerly.
"The sun is set, father; but you will see the evening sky and thestars."
"The light! O my God! the light, do you say?"
"Draw him up!" ordered Jean, and watched with great anxiety as the ropeswere strained and the old Seigneur's feet left the ground. Then Ogierwas carried up, and passed with head, then shoulders through the orificein the vault.
It seemed to Jean as though half an hour elapsed before the ropesdescended again. When he saw them fall, then he eagerly blew out thecandle, and committed himself to the cords. In three minutes he wasabove ground. He saw his father standing in the doorway, looking outover the terrace at the clear evening sky, drawing in long breaths ofthe sweet pure air of evening into his lungs.
Jean turned to the two men.
"I thank you," he said. "Here is gold. If I can do aught to repay you,in the many troubles and changes of affairs that occur, it shall bedone. Your name?"
"I am Peyrot le Fort."
"And I, Heliot Prebost."
"Enough! I shall not forget. We must away. Lead me once more to theCaptain."
Jean took his father under the arm. The old man walked along withtolerable steadiness, but said nothing. He was as one stupefied. He didnot seem to realise that he had been released, but to be labouring underuncertainty whether he were dreaming that he was at liberty or not, andwas oppressed with the dread of waking to find himself in the abyss.
Jean and his father were introduced into the hall where lay Le GrosGuillem. The Captain had not allowed lights to be introduced, as hiseyes were somewhat inflamed by the irritation which pervaded him.
"Captain," said Jean. "You must remember that this is not all. The dayis spent. We must travel all night, and I have a horse awaiting myfather. But you have despoiled him of his coat. He cannot leave in hisshirt."
"I have not his coat," said Guillem, roughly. "I restore the man, thatsuffices."
"It does not suffice. Give him back his jerkin."
"The executioner--the jailer has it. It is his perquisite."
"I cannot go after him. Send for it yourself. Consider what you are aptto forget, that time is all-important."
"Here!" ordered the Captain. "Bring the old fellow one of mine--any wornone will suffice."
A moment later a leather coat was given to Jean, brought by aserving-man. It was dark in the hall. Le Gros Guillem did not concernhimself to look at what was produced. Probably the serving-man himselfhad taken the garment in a hurry without regarding it.
As Jean threw the jerkin over his father's shoulders, he felt that itwas lined throughout with metal rings, and was impervious to asword-blow or a pike-thrust.
As Ogier, invested in this garment, prepared to depart, the Captain,with brutal insolence, shouted--
"Seigneur! was it cold and black below?"
The old man did not reply.
"We two have met thrice," pursued Le Gros Guillem. "Once I fell on youat Ste. Soure and made _you_ run," he laughed harshly; "secondly, youfell on me unawares, and _I_ came off the worst. The third time we meton the Beune. It might be esteemed a drawn battle, but as I had capturedyou, I had got what I wanted. However, I have been over-reached; I amoutwitted once more this time. Take care how we encounter for the fourthtime. Do you mark me, Ogier del' Peyra? The fourth time--that will bethe fatal meeting for one or other of us. The fourth time, Ogier."
"The fourth time. I shall remember," said the old man dreamily, andtouched his forehead.
"Lead him away. Peyrot and Heliot, you shall ride with the Sieur and hisson to Le Peuch. Stay a moment! a word before you go."
He waited till Del' Peyra and his son had left the hall and weredescending to the courtyard. Then he said--
"Attend them till you are at Le Peuch, get my daughter safely into yourhands, and then cut them down--these cursed Del' Peyras--and bring metheir heads at your saddle-bows. You shall be paid what you choose toask."