CHAPTER IX. ROMEO AND JULIET
Under the possibility of immediate departure, Morgan's horse, afterbeing washed, rubbed down and dried, had been fed a double ration ofoats and been resaddled and bridled. The young man had only to ask forit and spring upon its back. He was no sooner in the saddle than thegate opened as if by magic; the horse neighed and darted out swiftly,having forgotten its first trip, and ready for another.
At the gate of the Chartreuse, Morgan paused an instant, undecidedwhether to turn to the right or left. He finally turned to the right,followed the road which leads from Bourg to Seillon for a few moments,wheeled rapidly a second time to the right, cut across country, plungedinto an angle of the forest which was on his way, reappeared before longon the other side, reached the main road to Pont-d'Ain, followed it forabout a mile and a half, and halted near a group of houses now calledthe Maison des Gardes. One of these houses bore for sign a cluster ofholly, which indicated one of those wayside halting places where thepedestrians quench their thirst, and rest for an instant to recoverstrength before continuing the long fatiguing voyage of life. Morganstopped at the door, drew a pistol from its holster and rapped with thebutt end as he had done at the Chartreuse. Only as, in all probability,the good folks at the humble tavern were far from being conspirators,the traveller was kept waiting longer than he had been at the monastery.At last he heard the echo of the stable boy's clumsy sabots. The gatecreaked, but the worthy man who opened it no sooner perceived thehorseman with his drawn pistol than he instinctively tried to, close itagain.
"It is I, Patout," said the young man; "don't be afraid."
"Ah! sure enough," said the peasant, "it is really you, MonsieurCharles. I'm not afraid now; but you know, as the cure used to tellus, in the days when there was a good God, 'Caution is the mother ofsafety.'"
"Yes, Patout, yes," said the young man, slipping a piece of silver intothe stable boy's hand, "but be easy; the good God will return, and M. leCure also."
"Oh, as for that," said the good man, "it is easy to see that there isno one left on high by the way things go. Will this last much longer, M.Charles?"
"Patout, I promise, in my honor, to do my best to be rid of all thatannoys you. I am no less impatient than you; so I'll ask you not to goto bed, my good Patout."
"Ah! You know well, monsieur, that when you come I don't often go tobed. As for the horse--Goodness! You change them every day? The timebefore last it was a chestnut, the last time a dapple-gray, now a blackone."
"Yes, I'm somewhat capricious by nature. As to the horse, as you say,my dear Patout, he wants nothing. You need only remove his bridle; leavehim saddled. Oh, wait; put this pistol back in the holsters and takecare of these other two for me." And the young man removed the two fromhis belt and handed them to the hostler.
"Well," exclaimed the latter, laughing, "any more barkers?"
"You know, Patout, they say the roads are unsafe."
"Ah! I should think they weren't safe! We're up to our necks in regularhighway robberies, M. Charles. Why, no later than last week they stoppedand robbed the diligence between Geneva and Bourg!"
"Indeed!" exclaimed Morgan; "and whom do they accuse of the robbery?"
"Oh, it's such a farce! Just fancy; they say it was the Companions ofJesus. I don't believe a word of it, of course. Who are the Companionsof Jesus if not the twelve apostles?"
"Of course," said Morgan, with his eternally joyous smile, "I don't knowof any others."
"Well!" continued Patout, "to accuse the twelve apostles of robbing adiligence, that's the limit. Oh! I tell you, M. Charles, we're living intimes when nobody respects anything."
And shaking his head like a misanthrope, disgusted, if not with life, atleast with men, Patout led the horse to the stable.
As for Morgan, he watched Patout till he saw him disappear down thecourtyard and enter the dark stable; then, skirting the hedge whichbordered the garden, he went toward a large clump of trees whose loftytops were silhouetted against the darkness of the night, with themajesty of things immovable, the while their shadows fell upon acharming little country house known in the neighborhood as the Chateaudes Noires-Fontaines. As Morgan reached the chateau wall, the hourchimed from the belfry of the village of Montagnac. The young mancounted the strokes vibrating in the calm silent atmosphere of theautumn night. It was eleven o'clock. Many things, as we have seen, hadhappened during the last two hours.
Morgan advanced a few steps farther, examined the wall, apparently insearch of a familiar spot, then, having found it, inserted the tip ofhis boot in a cleft between two stones. He sprang up like a man mountinga horse, seized the top of the wall with the left hand, and with asecond spring seated himself astride the wall, from which, with therapidity of lightning, he lowered himself on the other side. All thiswas done with such rapidity, such dexterity and agility, that any onechancing to pass at that instant would have thought himself the puppetof a vision. Morgan stopped, as on the other side of the wall, tolisten, while his eyes tried to pierce the darkness made deeper by thefoliage of poplars and aspens, and the heavy shadows of the littlewood. All was silent and solitary. Morgan ventured on his path. Wesay ventured, because the young man, since nearing the Chateau desNoires-Fontaines, revealed in all his movement a timidity and hesitationso foreign to his character that it was evident that if he feared it wasnot for himself alone.
He gained the edge of the wood, still moving cautiously. Coming to alawn, at the end of which was the little chateau, he paused. Then heexamined the front of the house. Only one of the twelve windows whichdotted the three floors was lighted. This was on the second floor at thecorner of the house. A little balcony, covered with virgin vines whichclimbed the walls, twining themselves around the iron railing andfalling thence in festoons from the window, overhung the garden. On bothsides of the windows, close to the balcony, large-leafed trees met andformed above the cornice a bower of verdure. A Venetian blind, which wasraised and lowered by cords, separated the balcony from the window, aseparation which disappeared at will. It was through the interstices ofthis blind that Morgan had seen the light.
The young man's first impulse was to cross the lawn in a straight line;but again, the fears of which we spoke restrained him. A path shadedby lindens skirted the wall and led to the house. He turned aside andentered its dark leafy covert. When he had reached the end of the path,he crossed, like a frightened doe, the open space which led to the housewall, and stood for a moment in the deep shadow of the house. Then, whenhe had reached the spot he had calculated upon, he clapped his handsthree times.
At this call a shadow darted from the end of the apartment and clung,lithe, graceful, almost transparent, to the window.
Morgan repeated the signal. The window was opened immediately, the blindwas raised, and a ravishing young girl, in a night dress, her fair hairrippling over her shoulders, appeared in the frame of verdure.
The young man stretched out his arms to her, whose arms were stretchedout to him, and two names, or rather two cries from the heart, crossedfrom one to the other.
"Charles!"
"Amelie!"
Then the young man sprang against the wall, caught at the vine shoots,the jagged edges of the rock, the jutting cornice, and in an instant wason the balcony.
What these two beautiful young beings said to each other was only amurmur of love lost in an endless kiss. Then, by gentle effort, theyoung man drew the girl with one hand to her chamber, while with theother he loosened the cords of the blind, which fell noisilybehind them. The window closed behind the blind. Then the lamp wasextinguished, and the front of the Chateau des Noires-Fontaines wasagain in darkness.
This darkness had lasted for about a quarter of an hour, when therolling of a carriage was heard along the road leading from the highwayof Pont-d'Ain to the entrance of the chateau. There the sound ceased; itwas evident that the carriage had stopped before the gates.